Weekly GNU-like Mobile Linux Update (49/2025): Modal boats
Table of Contents
This past week: Jolla Phone pre-orders open for €499 with MediaTek 5G, 12GB RAM, replaceable battery, and physical privacy switch—hitting the 2,000-unit goal in under a week, (some) audio finally works on Fairphone 5 with postmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.1 and 20.04 OTA-11 expand VoLTE to Fairphone 4 and remaining Volla Phone 22 variants, Divine D reveals Rev 1.1 hardware architecture, Phosh contributors meeting dates confirmed for May 2026, and Alpine Linux 3.23.0 arrives. Enjoy!
Commentary in italics.
Worth Reading
- Modal Collective: What is Modal
- Jolla Phone Pre-order campaign has started - Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum Looks like it's going to happen! Personally, I may join in once I know what Mediatek 5G SoC model is actually being used.
- Jolla Shop: Jolla Phone Pre-order Voucher – Jolla Shop
- Liliputing: Next-gen Jolla Phone is a Sailfish OS smartphone with modern specs & design (kinda crowdfunding)
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Jolla Phone Pre-order Voucher
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Jolla announces the new Jolla Phone with Sailfish OS 5 and a physical privacy switch
- r/linux: Jolla is Crowdfunding a Brand New Sailfish OS Phone : linux
- dawndrums Blog: Divine D. Rev. 1.1 Hardware Architecture
Worth Watching
- Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E498: SFOS – The new Jolla Phone (2026)
- Anino Ni Kugi: What's on my (Ubuntu Touch) Phone 2026!
- nmariusp: "postmarketOS how to install in QEMU VM with KDE Plasma desktop, xrdp - December 2025 - 1dfdbb3f"
- DanOpcode: Jolla's NEW Linux Phone - Sailfish OS Device NOW Available for Pre-Order!
- Schweem: Pinephone: Setting up Custom Keymaps!
- Mental Outlaw: This European Linux Phone Is a BEAST (Jolla Phone)
- Technology Updates: Jolla announces the new Jolla Phone with Sailfish OS 5 and a physical privacy switch
- DistroTester: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.1 and 20.04 OTA-11 Bring VoLTE Expansion. Real Distro Testing happens on Windows 11, of course.
- Universal Stories: "Jolla Phone Unveiled: Sailfish OS 5, Physical Privacy Switch & De-Googled Android Apps!"
- dnnr | Dev & Tech: #01 CyberDeck - Construindo Meu Primeiro CYBERDECK! 💻🔥 (Apresentação + Protótipo)
Worth Noting
- craftyguy: I started working on a patch to replace the boot/shutdown splash app in #postmarketOS with plymouth (which is the same thing everyone else uses)I have it mostly working in our initramfs and was making good progress... until I got seriously sidetracked trying to make a pmOS theme 🤣This is based on some splash images/ideas that @justsoup submitted a while back.
- fun: "I'm curious, what @postmarketOS UIs are you using? (daily driving or not)This is a multiple-choice poll"
- Linux: "What's also important: all earlier co-op and funding from AuroraOS many years back (of Russia) has been cut off by Jolla.Sailfish OS is NOT 100% closed source, as some still claim it to be. Jolla has also promised that the REMAINING blobs will be opened. There are good reasons for this situation.95% of Sailfish OS bases on free / open source software. The OS itself utilize Linux kernel (which is open source). Mer that was used is open-source. Qt Framework API's base on open-source Qt API's."
Hardware enablement
Events
- z3ntu: Next week I'll have a talk at Open Source Summit Japan 🇯🇵:"We need an open source phone OS - postmarketOS!"If you are there in-person, say hello, and otherwise a live stream (December 10th, 11:40 UTC+9) should be available, and the recording will appear also at some point!https://ossjapan2025.sched.com/event/29Fpa/#OSSummit #postmarketOS #MobileLinux #LinuxMobile #DigitalIndependence
- tbernard: "This past weekend we had #BoilingTheOcean 8 at Cultivation Space in Berlin! Topics included Reflection, a local-first system sync service, Flatpak, the GNOME governance proposal, focus stealing prevention, TeamType, Dino on Android, GNOME Circle, and much more!Some notes from the event here: https://pad.gnome.org/SkiIvfFxTUiTW-ppZNR3Tw#Thanks to Cultivation Space for hosting us, and everyone for joining. See you at the next edition in the new year 🎇"
- ev: Dates for the #Phosh contributors meeting 2026 is now confirmed: 2026-05-22 to 2026-05-24.Please help us reach our funding goal for the event with a donation: https://ev.phosh.mobi/blog/pcm-funding-25-11/ #pcm2026
More Software News
Gnome Ecosystem
- gnome: "This year we delivered new Digital Wellbeing features for GNOME including Screen Time history and limits, break reminders for movement and eye health, and improved parental controls with Screen Time integration. This work was coordinated by the GNOME Foundation thanks to a grant from Endless, and implemented by valued community developers @pwithnall and @ignapk with support from design team member @snwh.#GNOME #Linux #OpenSource #DigitalWellbeing #FOSS #friendsOfGNOME"
- gnome: "We’re 50% of the way to our goal for the end of the year! 🎉Have you joined #FriendsOfGNOME yet? If not, this is your sign to join 750 other amazing supporters:https://donate.gnome.orgIf so, help us keep up the momentum by sharing with your friends, especially those outside of the typical contributor community. Let’s end the year strong!#FriendsOfGNOME #GNOME #GNOMEFoundation #OpenSource #FOSS #Linux"
- Cassidy James Blaede: Looking back on GNOME in 2025—and looking forward to 2026
- Federico Mena-Quintero: Mutation testing for librsvg
- Sophie Herold: Weekly report #75
Phosh
- Phosh (gotosocial): A first glimpse of @CollaboraOffice@mastodon.social running on #Phosh
- agx: My #FreeSoftware Activities for November 2025:Includes the #Phosh 0.51.0 release See https://honk.sigxcpu.org/con/Free_Software_Activities_November_2025.html for details🙏 to everyone supporting this!
- agx: Some progress on #Cutout handling in #phoc (using our xdg-cutout-v1 protocol propsal) . The mobile settings app starts app normally (for demo purposes) but when maximized it uses the received cutout information to shift its UI element downward enough to not overlap with the display notches (rendered in transparent purple by the compositor).#phosh's panel becomes transparent so things look more uniform (which is mostly a hack atm and there to make the demo look more interesting 🤓 )#LinuxMobile
- ev: Dates for the #Phosh contributors meeting 2026 is now confirmed: 2026-05-22 to 2026-05-24.Please help us reach our funding goal for the event with a donation: https://ev.phosh.mobi/blog/pcm-funding-25-11/ #pcm2026
- phosh: What lockscreen plugins are you using with #Phosh ?Boosts appreciated.#phosh #LinuxMobile #gtk
Plasma Ecosystem
- Nate Graham: This Week in Plasma: Better hardware support
- Carl Schwan et al.: Last Two Weeks in KDE Apps
- Plasma Mobile: December Software Releases: Plasma Camera & Plasma Settings
- Phoronix: KDE Plasma 6.6 Supporting Per-DRM-Plane Color Pipelines, More Hardware Quirks/Fixes
Sailfish OS
- Jolla Phone Pre-order campaign has started - Announcements - Sailfish OS Forum Looks like it's going to happen! Personally, I may join in once I know what Mediatek 5G SoC model is actually being used.
- Jolla Shop: Jolla Phone Pre-order Voucher – Jolla Shop
- #sailfishOS: Jolla: a fresh next-gen phone 🐧📱Contemplating options for e.g. Your current Google Android device? Here's yet another true Linux answer for a functional daily driver (after Jolla C2).These devices come with preinstalled SailfishOS; also use Android (APK) apps WITHOUT Google. Your terms✌️◉ Pre-Order via 99€ (advance voucher)◉ Full price that case 499€◉ Jolla C2 is 299€👉 https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder#Jolla #Phone #smartphone #SailfishOS #deGoogle #APK #Linux #PrivacyFromFinland #Suomi @jolla
- piggz: User flashable download of #SailfishOS 5.0 for the @volla Tablet is now available. See here https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/the-single-volla-thread/22553
- #sailfishOS: I finally got the #SailfishOS SDK up and running on my computer so I can finally try build some software for them, or to update an apparently abandoned project
- Phoronix: Jolla Trying Again To Develop A New Sailfish OS Linux Smartphone
Ubuntu Touch
- UBports News: Ubuntu Touch 24.04 1.1 and 20.04 OTA-11 release
- Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.1 and 20.04 OTA-11 Bring VoLTE Expansion
- Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch OTA11 and 24.04-1.1 are released.
- fredldotme: Next slap in my face...I was scammed while selling my MacBook Pro a few months ago, went to the police of legal proceedings, and now have been told the case has been discontinued. I don't know why yet but I will find out.Needless to say, I am lacking €1950,- that I would need disparately. If you are willing to donate to my causes, whether it being Ubuntu Touch of for other reasons, then please go here:https://liberapay.com/fredldotmehttps://paypal.me/beidl
- fredldotme: In the first video you can see two things:- My own Tide IDE compiling a Snap package, in this case PRBoom, a Doom engine.- Clickable building and running a Click app using
clickable desktop.In the second you see how Avahi can be turned on to automatically find services in the network. Pretty simple, huh? - fredldotme: While users are enjoying Ubuntu Touch 24.04-1.1 on their devices, we're working hard to bring 24.04-2.0 into an interesting spot.Not only do we have a Polkit agent integrated neatly into the system, it also allows us to do more privileged operations, like preventing the newly integrated Avahi from starting.Also, the obligatory support for confined Docker via Snap, which allows us to build and package Ubuntu Touch apps directly on the device.Here a screen recording off of the Fairphone 5.
Distributions
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): WDYT?fernbokehswardverdigris
- postmarketOS (Mastodon): The postmarketOS v25.12 release is coming closer, which means that once again we need your help with selecting a wallpaper! Poll is in the comments.All of them were made by the talented @dikasetyaprayogi, thank you so much!
- postmarketOS pmaports issues: Consider switching back from doas to sudo
- postmarketOS pmaports Merge Requests: Draft: Switch to plymouth
- postmarketOS Wiki New Pages: AYN Thor (ayn-thor)
- postmarketOS mobile-config-firefox tags: 5.0.0_rc1
- Mobian mobian-recipes Issues: No audio when starting and accepting a phone call
- Mobian Wiki: Mobian
- alpinelinux: "Alpine Linux 3.23.0 Released 🎉We are pleased to announce the release of Alpine Linux 3.23.0, the first release in the v3.23 stable series.Which includes- apk-tools version 3- linux-stable replacing linux-edge- Any many other changesThanks to all the contributors helping to get this released!We also want to thank the new sponsors that stepped in after Equinix Metal sunsetted:- Cherry Servers- Netmountains- Osso B.V.- CloudOn- HorizonIQhttps://alpinelinux.org/posts/Alpine-3.23.0-released.html#AlpineLinux"
- lwn: Alpine Linux 3.23.0 released https://lwn.net/Articles/1049299/ #LWN
Apps
- LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Riff
- gnumdk: "More than a year has passed since my last update on Lollypop. I’ve finally updated the code so it now builds with the latest gtk-rs, but I’m still uncertain about the current UI direction.I’d really appreciate your feedback:- Should I keep the navigation stack as it is in the current version of Lollypop?- Is the new sidebar layout working for you?- What do you currently dislike in Lollypop’s interface or behavior?- What do you enjoy and think should stay?https://www.patreon.com/posts/144958652"
- mlundblad: "Finally got momentum on the redesigned I planned for Maps for GNOME 50, redesigning the sidebar a bit (taking a bit inspiration from Nucleus) with the aim of ultimatly it use an AdwMultiLayoutView using a bottom sheet in narrow/mobile mode. And showing place info in there as well…Right now in a state of a bit "first break it, then fix it"… 😄#Gnome #gnomemaps #libadwaita #redesign #responsivedesign #mapstodon"
- mlundblad: "And first stab of fitting the route planner in a bottom sheet in narrow mode. It still is not connected to the "show routeplanner" button, so for have to open it using the GTK inspector. And it should probably use some more space…"
- bhyoram: "If you have a Linux phone, or other device with libcamera and USB gadget support, I welcome you to try my newly uploaded application https://gitlab.com/bhyoram/libregagdet. it will let you use your linux device as UVC camera that serves to host (via UVC). you can compile (from rust source) and run with or without UI. Feedbacks are very welcome.@tuxdevices"
- @pocketvj@fosstodon.org: we just got this amazing #decentralized #reticulum #messenger application called #Columba.If someone could port this to #pmos #linuxmobile we could communicate together without internet... this is freaking awesome...https://github.com/torlando-tech/columba
Kernel
- CNX Software: Linux 6.18 LTS release - Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
- CNX Software: Tyr - A Rust GPU driver for Arm Mali GPUs
- phone-devel: [PATCH 0/2] Introduce framebuffer for Oneplus 6 and 6T
- phone-devel: [PATCH v5 0/8] Add support for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL
- Phoronix: Tenstorrent Blackhole Support & Other New RISC-V + ARM64 Hardware In Linux 6.19
- Phoronix: Linux 6.19 Brings Many Driver Core Changes For Rust, Housekeeping CPUs Exposed
- Phoronix: Linux Still Dealing With Quirky Firewire Devices As We Enter 2026
- Phoronix: Linux 6.19 Brings Temperature Monitoring For The Steam Deck APU, Apple Silicon SMC
Matrix
- Matrix.org: This Week in Matrix 2025-12-05
- Matrix.org: Find us at FOSDEM
Releases
- Phoronix: FEX 2512 Released With More Improvements For Gaming On ARM64 Linux
- Phoronix: Solaris 11.4 SRU 87 Released With New Security Features, GCC 15
Stack
- Phoronix: Venus Vulkan Driver Lands Mesh Shader Support In Mesa 26.0
- XMPP: The XMPP Newsletter November 2025 | XMPP - The universal messaging standard
Thanks
Huge thanks to Plata for the nifty set of Python scripts that speed up collecting links from feeds by a lot.
Something missing? Want to contribute?
If your project's cool story (or your awesome video or nifty blog post or ...) is missing and you don't want that to happen again, please just put it into this pad for the next one! Since I am collecting many things there, this get's you early access if you will ;-) If you just stumble on a thing, please put it in there too - all help is appreciated!