LINux on MOBile

This past week: postmarketOS v25.12 released with Alpine 3.23, APK v3, GNOME 49, Plasma Mobile 6.5.3, Phosh 0.51, postmarketOS edge reworks USB stack (with MTP support), FuriLabs FLX1s in stock and shipping, MNT Reform Touch prototype debuts at 39c3, autofocus working on Jolla C2 with Unisoc chipset (with close-to-mainline), and Reflection local-first note-taking app hits Flathub Beta. Enjoy!

This is the last Weekly Update of the year, collected on the (early) train home from #39c3. I hope to manage to come up with a "Year in Review" post in the remaining days of 2025, but since that may not materialize, I wish you, dear reader, a really wonderful, Happy New Year 2026!

Commentary in italics.

Worth Reading

• postmarketOS Blog: v25.12: The One Where The Saga Continues
  • Lemmy - postmarketOS: v25.12: The One Where The Saga Continues
  • Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: postmarketOS 25.12 Brings GNOME 49, Plasma Mobile 6.5, and Phosh 0.51
• Breaking updates in pmOS edge: USB stack reworked for GNOME Mobile, Phosh, and Plasma Mobile
• David Heidelberg: A month of upstreaming phones based on Snapdragon 845
  • r/MobileLinux: A month of upstreaming phones based on Snapdragon 845
• alaraajavamma: Into the Wild with Librem 5 - Part 4 - FuriPhone FLX1s Linux Phone.

Worth Watching

• Kliment: Building hardware - easier than ever - harder than it should be - media.ccc.de
• Tony Wasserka: Breaking architecture barriers: Running x86 games and apps on ARM - media.ccc.de
• Purism: sound recorder. Innovative!
• Continuum Gaming: Continuum Gaming E501: Sailfish OS – The Snow Patch
• Linux Ort: Testing Ubuntu Touch—Linux on your smartphone! [Ubuntu Touch presentation]
• 0ddc0de, gannimo and Philipp: Not To Be Trusted - A Fiasco in Android TEEs - media.ccc.de

Worth Noting

• @linmob@linuxmobile.social: Do you have a #LinuxMobile project idea, but lack the necessary domain? After one of the recent FOSDEMs, I (Peter) completely... Please get in touch if you are interested. E-Mail in bio ;-)
• Lemmy.ca - linuxphones: MarathonOS - “it’s a phone that runs Linux and you’d never know unless you care”
• runefish: After all , why not? Why shouldn't I boot Secureblue on my phone?#mobilelinux #linuxmobile #fedora #pocketblue. How the heck did I not stumble upon Pocketblue until now? I am really feeling embarrassed right now.
• Sturmflut: Today I handed my @furilabs #FLX1 running #phosh and #GNOME to an assistant on a ferry to get the paid WiFi activated. I expected to have to explain the whole OS, but she required literally zero help. Navigating phosh, disabling/activating airplane mode and WiFi, opening and checking the WiFi settings, opening a browser, etc. - she just did it without questions. I doubt she had ever seen this OS before.I guess a Linux phone is not that hard for "normal people", then.#mobilelinux #linuxmobile
• danctnix: "New images for #PinePhone, #PinePhonePro and #PineTab2 (2025/12/24)Factory images for PineTab2 will come later.https://codeberg.org/DanctNIX/Pine64-Arch/releases/tag/20251224"

Hardware (enablement)

• FuriLabs: FLX1s is in stock and shipping - FuriPhone FLX1s Linux Phone
• opensourceopenmind: @dawndrums Thanks for creating the new federated #Matrix room and linking from your website :)https://matrix.to/#/#dawndrums-r2:matrix.org#DawnDrums #LinuxMobile #MobileLinux #linux_on_mobile #GNULinux #GNU_Linux #FreeSoftware
• mntmn: "mnt touch reform (placeholder name) prototype which @theawesomerandomness put all her craft into making a reality that actually feels much nicer than it is allowed to feel (mostly pocket reform internals, and she designed the case in freecad and 3d printed and hand sculpted here. i wired up the touch overlay and hand made a button board for the side buttons).". I used the prototype device briefly at 39c3, and while it is beyond the phone form-factor and chunky, it's really neat, and felt so incredibly solid. I've had a thing for small 7" to 8" tablets back when these were more common, and ... this device fits right into that niche.
• affe_null: Got autofocus working with @libcamera on the #Unisoc-powered Jolla C2:https://codeberg.org/ums9230-mainline/libcamera/src/tag/v0.6.0-ums9230-1/src/ipa/unisoc/algorithms/af.cpp. Awesome!

More Software News

Gnome Ecosystem

• Sophie Herold: GNOME in 2025: Some Numbers
• Asman Malika: Everybody Struggles. True. You're not alone!
• Marcus Lundblad: Xmas & New Year's Maps
• Aryan Kaushik: Introducing Open Forms. Not evaluated on mobile, but ... maybe helpful if you want to gather some feedback at FOSDEM stands. ;-)
• Phoronix: 44% Of GNOME Core Apps Are Written In C, 13% In JavaScript & 10% In Rust

Phosh

• Phosh.mobi Blog: The xdg-cutouts-v1 Wayland protocol Annual Report 2025
• Phosh (gotosocial): Which of these on screen keyboard features would you have expected to be enabled by default in #Phosh (see follow up posts for more details on each feature)
• phosh: "Happy holidays everyone 🎄, Here's some update on how we'd like to inform client apps about display cutouts https://phosh.mobi/posts/xdg-cutouts/ #Wayland #Phosh #LinuxMobile"
• #phosh: Well that's a big relief. Upgraded my OnePlus6 from #postmarketos 25.06 to 25.12 without a hitch in accordance with https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Upgrade_to_a_newer_postmarketOS_release #phosh #linuxonmobile #linuxphones
• #phosh: I love that #Phosh lets me choose the headset speaker as an output device on my #Librem5. That came in handy today so I could discretely listen to podcasts while walking home. And a genuine feature missing from #Android - I used to have to turn my phone upside down when I forgot my headphones!

Plasma Ecosystem

• Phoronix: KDE's "This Week In Plasma" Will Become Less Frequent Without New Volunteers
• toscalix: Community Analysis: AGL BI Journey
• #plasmamobile: I was exploring KDE Plasma Mobile and realized that they are going to be running Waydroid, like SailfishOS, so made me think is this how Steam is adapting their SteamOS on that frame specifically so that they can then run without Google Play. This I see even more to emphasize that 2026 could be the year of Linux not just on console systems but could lay the ground work for on mobile devices too... I know it is a long shot but one hell of a dream! #SteamOS #KDE #PlasmaMobile #Steam #Linux

Sxmo

• #sxmo: #39c3 anyone else streaming via terminal....? took me a while to figure out how to stream on my #sxmo #linuxmobile,the browser gets a blob blob:https://streaming.media.ccc.de/ address.... however, under Formats you get the direct links:mpv https://cdn.c3voc.de/hls/s1/native_hd.m3u8change s1 to get the desired room.should we get a userscript for this? how would i fetch the name of the actual talk name into wofi....🤔
• #sxmo: @qkall @merde thanks!i'd love to see a launcher like this on #sxmo #linuxmobile !sadly my approach to compile https://kando.menu failed due to missing glibc on alpine 😬edit:installed on android, already love it 💚https://github.com/Elnix90/Dragon-Launcher/releases/tag/v1.2.6

Sailfish OS

• filtoid: Does anyone know of any regularly updated blogs about apps and functionality on #jolla #sailfishos. I'm thinking of something in the same vein as This Week In Rust or similar. @jolla #linux #linuxphone #LinuxPhoneApps. If there is one, I'd like to know about it, too.
• @Linux: 🐧📲 Jolla Phone: technical specs 🔣 The up & coming freedom respecting premier Linux smartphone passed 6000 pre-orders.Goal of 10 000 (by the end of january '26) unlocks new The Other Half!◉ MediaTek Dimensity 7000-series chip ◉ 12 GB RAM ◉ 256 GB storage◉ 4G/5G support◉ Dual SIM + microSD◉ 50 MP main camera (Sony)Pre-order campaign 👉 https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorderFurther details 👉 https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/next-gen-jolla-phone-update-12-25/26509#Jolla #JollaPhone #specs #technical #SailfishOS #Linux #PrivacyFromFinland @jolla
• flypig: Version 0.9.0 of the "FOSDEM Org" app for #SailfishOS, for organising your time at #FOSDEM, is now available. With it you can:1. View devroom schedules, talk descriptions and speaker bios.2. Record the talks you're planning to see.3. Get notified about conflicts.4. Find where a talk will take place using the interactive map.This is forked from Fabio Comuni's fosdem-qml app to add new features.Install it from OpenRepos: https://openrepos.net/content/flypig/fosdem-org
• nomad99: Community Idea: Desktop Mode via USB-C Video OutWhat if your Jolla phone could transform into a full Linux desktop? By leveraging Phosh, KDE Plasma, or GNOME, we could make this a reality—no need to reinvent the wheel.Introducing the Jolla Sailors initiative:A community-driven program where contributors help fund and guide development. Think of it as a crew of supporters: developers, testers, and enthusiasts: working together to bring Desktop Mode of other new future OS updates to life. Jolla Sailors replaces the Sailfish Subscription, offering early access to new software, exclusive discounts, and a referral program; earning you savings on hardware and accessories. Want to help shape the future? Join the crew! (This is a concept idea)Vote for this idea (or share your own) on the forum:https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/next-gen-jolla-phone-update-12-25/26509/78#sailfishos #LinuxPhone #DesktopMode #USBC #OpenSource #CommunityDriven #JollaSailors #MobileLinux #Convergence #FutureOfComputing #Jolla
• #sailfishOS: Placed a deposit on the next Jolla phone running SailfishOS. I have several doubts if it will work for me, but it's not Apple or Google and projects like this will hopefully encourage more phone OS variety. https://commerce.jolla.com/products/jolla-phone-preorder#LinuxPhone #SailfishOS #Jolla
• #sailfishOS: Jolla today shared some awesome news on the hardware in the upcoming phone! The news update came just after 6.000 phones had been preordered.https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/next-gen-jolla-phone-update-12-25/26509/2 @jolla #SailfishOS #NextGenJollaPhone #LinuxMobile

Ubuntu Touch

• Ubuntu Touch Forums News: Ubuntu Touch Q&A 181
• fredldotme: Merry Christmas, everybody! To celebrate we have released a new Beta for Morph Browser based on Qt6 to the Open Store. Have fun!https://next.open-store.io/app/morph-browser-qt6.ubports/
• #UbuntuTouch: @txtechnician @bradlinder #postmarketos is a long-term strategy. I believe that eventually, it will be a viable alternative for devices that are not supported by their manufacturers anymore (just like Linux is now). If you want a Linux now that is ready to be your daily driver, you can look into #ubuntutouch (e.g. on the #fairphone5 )- Ubuntu Touch will eventually also benefit from the #postmarketos efforts, as they might then be able to use the mainline kernel on many devices.
• #UbuntuTouch: [Wafrn comes to Linux Mobile - a native client "Wafbuntu", is available on Ubuntu Touch in the Open Store at https://open-store.io/app/wafbuntu-client.jcm
• UBports / Development / Core / xdg-desktop-portal-lomiri · GitLab Cool!

Distributions

• postmarketOS Blog: v25.12: The One Where The Saga Continues
  • Lemmy - postmarketOS: v25.12: The One Where The Saga Continues
• Breaking updates in pmOS edge: USB stack reworked for GNOME Mobile, Phosh, and Plasma Mobile I have personally never missed MTP, but I've seen so many people ask "y u no mtp", so this is really good news in my book!
• postmarketOS (Mastodon): postmarketOS stickers at YOUR congress? More likely than you think!📍 Get them at the CCCAC assembly☎️ Call ACHL (@fossdd) for more information.https://39c3.c3nav.de/l/cccac/@2,213.79,173.17,6#39c3 #linuxmobile #postmarketos
• postmarketOS (Mastodon): The year is coming to a close and while you might be unwrapping other gifts shortly, we have just wrapped up the latest postmarketOS release for you. 🎁 https://postmarketos.org/blog/2025/12/23/v25.12-release/Big thanks to everybody who contributed to postmarketOS, to @alpinelinux or any of the numerous upstream components we use. Without you this would not be possible! ❤️We would also like to thank @nlnet and @NGIZero for funding most of the infrastructure and maintenance work that went into this release!#linuxmobile #phosh #plasmamobile #sxmo #gnome #postmarketos
• cas: "Thanks to @craftyguy my "iced" tool has seen some nice improvements, notably switching from mkosi-sandbox to bubblewrap.Iced lets you install and run any software from the Alpine package repos without root, it's designed for use on immutable systems like the new postmarketOS Duraniumhttps://gitlab.postmarketos.org/postmarketOS/iced"
• Mobian mobian-recipes Merge Requests: LUKS: fix bootonroot
• Pine64-Arch: Arch Linux ARM - 2025/12/24
• Jussi Pakkanen: An uncomfortable but necessary discussion about the Debian bug tracker

Apps

• delta: "Relax 😎! GPG is not OpenPGP!Yesterday, vulnerabilities were published https://gpg.fail but they don't affect #deltachat or other #chatmail clients becauseA) We never used #gnupg for anything; we use the modern #rustlang #openpgp implementation @rpgp, security audited multiple times.B) #openpgp is fine, as modernized in #RFC9580, which already warns against several #gpgfail issues (gpg didn't implement that spec)Please spread the word that #gpg is not #openpgp ... Thanks! #39c3"
• Flathub: 2025 Year in Review
  • Oleksii: The number of downloads for #linuxMobile has nearly doubled in last three years.Big thanks to everyone. https://flathub.org/en/year-in-review/2025#arm. To be fair, there's also ARM laptops that need to be factored in. E.g., the Asahi MacBooks, ARM Chromebooks, Snapdragon X Elite laptops, and various other Qualcomm, Mediatek or Rockchip powered devices, like the X13s this Weekly Update has been edited on... and let's not forget all those Raspberry Pi devices!
• LinuxPhoneApps.org: Apps: Reflection
• pi_crew: Gelly seems to be the first real usable #Jellyfin music client for #Linux and #MobileLinux 🤩 UI not yet optimized but the app is in active development and it should be really usable quite soon! https://github.com/Fingel/gelly#postmarketOS
• nekohayo: For years I have been hoping for a FLOSS alternative to "Adobe Scan", the Android app to scan receipts (essentially) with automatic cropping + deskewing + cleanups + OCR, and there was nothing similar I could find in F-Droid… until three months ago, where #FairScan just materialized out of the blue, and I discovered it today: https://www.fairscan.org Your turn, #LinuxMobile, time to make #GNOME's "Simple Scan" application "camera-ready" 😉 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/simple-scan/-/issues/344. Now who at Big Hashtag is going to take this on?
• pi_crew: The conference scheduling #GNOME app Confy works great on #LinuxMobile and is ready to go for #39C3 🥳#postmarketOS
• modal: "Happy holidays everyone! We have a special gift for you: A first preview release of Reflection, our local-first collaborative note taking app 🥳🎁It's on Flathub Beta for now because it's still early days, but if you're feeling adventurous you can grab it today and give it a spin :)flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub-beta https://flathub.org/beta-repo/flathub-beta.flatpakrepoflatpak install flathub-beta cx.modal.ReflectionMore details in the blog post: https://modal.cx/blog/reflection-winter-update#localfirst #p2panda #gnome"
• postmarketOS mobile-config-firefox tags: 5.1.0

Kernel

• phone-devel: ath10k-firmware: WCN3990 hw1.0: sdm845-lg-judyln board file
• phone-devel: [PATCH v6 0/2] Upstreaming Pinephone Pro Patches
• phone-devel: [PATCH v4] media: dt-bindings: Correct camss supply description
• Phoronix: Linux Kernel Highlights For 2025: Schedulers, Rust & Torvalds' Commentary

Stack

• Phoronix: Coreboot 25.12 Released With Qualcomm X1 Plus Platform Support, AMD Turin PoC
• Phoronix: HarfBuzz 12.3 Released - Nice Performance Improvements To This Text Shaping Engine
• Phoronix: Libreboot 26.01-rc1 Released To Support A Few More Systems
• Phoronix: QEMU 10.2 Released With IO_uring Support For Helping Allow For Greater Performance
• Phoronix: Phoenix: A New X Server Written From Scratch With Zig
• Phoronix: Linux 6.19 Lands Fix For ARM64 EFI Systems Crashing On Boot
• Phoronix: Google Looks To Upstream Its Propeller Tool To LLVM For More Performance

Matrix

• Matrix.org: The 2025 Matrix Holiday Special

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!