# Mobian's Blog Recent content on Mobian's Blog This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Mobian Trixie Released as the New Stable Version with Rotating Signing Keys DevFeed: [Mobian Trixie Released as the New Stable Version with Rotating Signing Keys]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2025-10-13T12:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Debian](), [Mobile](), [Kernel](), [OpenSSH]() Tags: [kernel](), [mobile](), [openssh](), [release](), [stable](), [upgrade]() ### AI overview Mobian has released Trixie as its new stable version and is beginning to rotate the PGP/GPG keys used to sign its images and package archive. The release includes mobile images based on Phosh 46.0 and Plasma Mobile 6.3, with a 6.12 kernel for most supported devices. ### Source excerpt A little more than 2 months after Debian, we're finally releasing Mobian Trixie as our new stable release! We're also taking this opportunity to start rotating the PGP/GPG keys we're using for signing both our images and package archive. Trixie has landed! Over 2 years in the making, and with a small delay following the Debian release, we're proud to finally announce Mobian Trixie has just been released and is therefore our new stable! This release offers images based on Phosh 46.0 and Plasma Mobile 6.3, running a 6.12 kernel for almost all supported devices (the Librem 5 is still using a 6.6 kernel), the list of which is growing as we now provide stable images for the following phones and tablets: PINE64 PinePhone, PinePhone Pro and PineTab Purism Librem 5 Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL OnePlus 6 and 6T Xiaomi Pocophone F1 Trixie images are also available for the following devices, although important hardware features (such as e.g. WiFi or audio) are not working: Fairphone 4 and 5 PINE64 PineTab 2 SHIFT6mq Please check our installation instructions and download the image for your device. Upgrade procedure Although we do our best to provide a smooth upgrade path for each Mobian release, as a downstream Debian derivative, and the mobile software stack being a quickly moving target, major Mobian upgrades are usually trickier than we'd hoped for. This time is no exception, and therefore we highly recommend that you backup all your personal data, flash your device with a fresh Trixie image, then restore your files. If you feel brave enough to go the "manual upgrade" route, here are a few tricks you should know: keep your device plugged to a power source: such an upgrade can be a rather long process, you don't want to run out of battery half-way there! backup all your personal data really, we mean it: backup all your personal data! install openssh-server and execute the entire upgrade process over SSH (and preferrably using screen or a similar tool, so the upgrade can carry o ## A Summer with Mobian: The Story of Tweakster (GSoC '25) DevFeed: [A Summer with Mobian: The Story of Tweakster (GSoC '25)]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2025-08-23T08:34:47Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Refactoring](), [Debian](), [Kernel](), [systemd]() Tags: [2025](), [boot](), [debian](), [gsoc](), [kernel](), [linux](), [mobile](), [refactoring](), [systemd]() ### AI overview A Google Summer of Code 2025 contributor describes refactoring tweakster for the Mobian project. The revised system daemon identifies a device, reads device-specific configuration, builds and installs a Debian package containing the required tweaks, and runs as a systemd service on first boot. ### Source excerpt This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to work with the Mobian project for Google Summer of Code 2025. My goal was to continue the work on tweakster to a point where it could integrate smoothly with the Mobian ecosystem. This post is a summary of my work, the challenges I faced, and what's next for tweakster. The Root Problem Since the start of Mobian in 2020, the goal has always been clear: have one bootable image for all kinds of non-x86 devices. That's much harder than it sounds. There are subtle but crucial hardware differences across devices that require specific tweaks, making the mission of achieving a Universal Kernel on a system level very difficult. Another pain point is the significant number of new non-x86 Linux-capable devices that have hit the market in the past few years, especially ARM64 laptops, mobile phones, and tablets. Maintaining a device-specific package for each one is impractical. It would take us far away from the "universal system" dream and make Mobian devs' jobs even harder! How It All Started After a lot of thought from the team and my mentor, Arnaud (@a-wai), they came up with tweakster, the hero of our story. Simply put, tweakster is a system daemon that identifies the device it's running on by checking the device-tree compatible property. It then determines the necessary tweaks by reading a pre-prepared config file, processes tweaks files, then creates symlinks to the resulting files into the system. The first attempt in 2022, packaged for Debian, saw some improvements over the years, leading to its latest form in 2024. A Change in Plans It turned out the first attempt was a bit over-engineered. It needed a complete refactoring, following the philosophy of starting simple and growing methodically. This is where I came in. Working hand-in-hand with my mentors, Arnaud (@a-wai) and Jarrah (@Undef), we forged the new vision of tweakster, so it will eventually make it easier to ship Mobian to new devices. The new approach is simple ## Mobian's Early 2025 Developments: Debian Packages, Device Support, and a New Login Screen DevFeed: [Mobian's Early 2025 Developments: Debian Packages, Device Support, and a New Login Screen]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2025-02-19T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Mobile](), [Debian](), [GTK](), [kernels](), [Wayland]() Tags: [adaptive](), [debian](), [kernels](), [mobile](), [patches](), [wayland]() ### AI overview The article reviews recent Mobian developments, including new device support, improved Debian and Mobian packages, plans to reduce the Mobian package repository to mostly Mobian-specific and hardware-support packages, and progress toward a new default mobile login screen. ### Source excerpt Over the past few months, and especially since the last holiday season, many exciting things have happened in Mobian: new devices are (about to be) officially supported, many new and improved packages have made their way into both Debian and Mobian, and we're getting ready for our next stable release! Towards a "device-specific only" repository Thanks to the involvement of upstream developers (by either accepting or writing patches to ensure their applications can be used on mobile devices) and the work of the relevant Debian teams, many GNOME and KDE apps were made adaptive and could be uploaded to the main Debian archive without any additional downstream patch. This allowed us to drop (almost) all of the applications we were distributing through the Mobian package repository: Evince has been replaced with Papers, Loupe is now used instead of EOG and our main camera app is now Snapshot, all available directly from Debian! GNOME Text Editor now works well enough on mobile devices, as do Software and Settings We plan on getting rid of the remaining few ones before the Trixie release: Millipixels (Librem 5 camera app) will be replaced by Megapixels v2 once it hits the Debian archive wake-mobile will likely be dropped as it's no longer maintained, and upstream offers .deb packages for download anyway Except for a patched version of GTK 3 which we will keep maintaining until Phosh is ported to GTK 4, this means all packages in the Mobian archive will be either Mobian-specific (mainly metapackages) or hardware support packages (kernels and device-specific tweaks). A better tomorrow greeter Another major milestone we're about to reach is the move to a new default login screen: back in 2022, we decided that user session management on mobile devices shouldn't get any special treatment, and we should rely on a "display manager" similar to GDM/LightDM/SDDM, for instance. This would bring many benefits, the most prominent ones being multi-user setups for those who need it (e.g ## The European Union must keep funding free software DevFeed: [The European Union must keep funding free software]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2024-08-01T23:17:30Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [free software](), [Software](), [Internet](), [Programming]() Tags: [free-software](), [internet](), [open](), [software]() ### AI overview An open letter urges the European Commission to continue funding Next Generation Internet programmes, arguing that they effectively support free software, digital commons and European software infrastructure. It notes that NGI is absent from the 2025 Horizon Europe working draft and highlights its support for more than 500 projects. ### Source excerpt Multiple Linux mobile related projects (such as e.g. postmarketOS or phosh) have benefited from the NGI funding. The following is an open letter initially published in French by the Petites Singularités association. An english translation is provided by OW2. To co-sign it, please publish it on your website in your preferred language, then add yourself to this table. Open Letter to the European Commission Since 2020, Next Generation Internet (NGI) programmes, part of European Commission's Horizon programme, fund free software in Europe using a cascade funding mechanism (see for example NLnet's calls). This year, according to the Horizon Europe working draft detailing funding programmes for 2025, we notice that Next Generation Internet is not mentioned any more as part of Cluster 4. NGI programmes have shown their strength and importance to supporting the European software infrastructure, as a generic funding instrument to fund digital commons and ensure their long-term sustainability. We find this transformation incomprehensible, moreover when NGI has proven efficient and economical to support free software as a whole, from the smallest to the most established initiatives. This ecosystem diversity backs the strength of European technological innovation, and maintaining the NGI initiative to provide structural support to software projects at the heart of worldwide innovation is key to enforce the sovereignty of a European infrastructure. Contrary to common perception, technical innovations often originate from European rather than North American programming communities, and are mostly initiated by small-scaled organizations. Previous Cluster 4 allocated 27 million euros to: "Human centric Internet aligned with values and principles commonly shared in Europe" ; "A flourishing internet, based on common building blocks created within NGI, that enables better control of our digital life" ; "A structured ecosystem of talented contributors driving the creation of new intern ## Mobian's 2023 progress DevFeed: [Mobian's 2023 progress]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2024-01-14T00:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Debian](), [Mobile](), [Flatpak](), [foss](), [FOSDEM]() Tags: [debian](), [distribution](), [fosdem](), [foss](), [mobile]() ### AI overview A retrospective on Mobian's 2023 development, covering the Bookworm stable release, growth in mobile-friendly applications, efforts to reduce Mobian-specific packages and align more closely with Debian, and participation in FOSDEM and distro collaborations. ### Source excerpt Time flies when you are having fun. 2023 was no exception, and we find ourselves in 2024 already! Time to take stock what happened last year (and perhaps also what we attempt to achieve this year). Bookworm release It is safe to say that the bookworm release was a major milestone for Mobian. For the first time, we have a stable release that we find to actually be useful on a mobile screen and phone. Putting out stable images was quite some work but we are proud of it. We had decided to move on and focus on the next development cycle rather than starting to backporting features and releases. So bookworm continues to receive security updates, but no new features. Still, it might be a useful stable base for people who do not like to break their phone that often. By using flatpak and other means, one can even use actual releases of apps and not miss out on the latest hotness. App ecosystem The ecosystem of applications suitable for mobile screen continued to grow in 2023, filling many important functionality gaps. That includes core GNOME apps included in the distribution that became ported to work better on small screens, to an external ecosystem of applications that can be installed via flatpak or other means. Whether you want to track your jogging tracks, travel via public transportation, or toot on social media, many puzzle pieces start to fall into place. https://linuxphoneapps.org/ gives you a great overview of what exists within and outside of distributions. (and yes, there is active Debianization of some apps going on, such as the "railway" application which went into Debian just now. Shrinking Mobian Despite all that growth we managed to shrink the packages that are in the mobian repository even more over time. As you know, Mobian is nothing but a thin overlay over stock Debian (the regular Debian repository with its updates is a core pillar of Mobian), and it is declared goal of Mobian to abolish itself by upstreaming all deviations and changes to Debian prope ## Mobian's PinePhone Kernel Support and the Loss of Cross-Distribution Collaboration DevFeed: [Mobian's PinePhone Kernel Support and the Loss of Cross-Distribution Collaboration]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-10-10T00:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Linux Kernel](), [Mobile](), [patches](), [Hardware]() Tags: [community](), [hardware](), [linux-kernel](), [mobile](), [patches]() ### AI overview Mobian reflects on the difficulties of maintaining support for the original PinePhone. The article argues that separate kernel trees and reduced cross-distribution collaboration left the community dependent on a small number of maintainers and created a single point of failure. ### Source excerpt Mobian started as a hobby project, triggered by the excitement of finally being able to hack one's mobile phone at will. It is fair to say that the device that made it possible back then was the original PinePhone. However, after running once again into the same difficulties we experienced over and over, we're wondering whether maintaining support for this device is still worth the effort... Of kernels and men In the beginning, the mobile Linux world was full of happy people, hacking on many different aspects of the system in a very disorganized but fruitful way, one of those aspects being the Linux kernel. Back then there was a single reference source tree, maintained under the PINE64 umbrella (but still being a community effort, no one being funded in any way to work on this kernel). Things were obviously not ideal, however many talented people were talking to each other, trying to improve hardware support and fix the many bugs we were experiencing at this point. Until, I don't quite remember how, it all turned into a race, in which the goal was to have better (or at least identical) support than the neighbouring projects. In particular, one very skilled developer set to solve many of the problems we had back then, and published their work as a separate repo. Several mobile distributions quickly switched to this kernel, effectively abandoning the shared kernel source we were all using until then. This resulted in a loss of interest and, ultimately, collaboration on the kernel ceased: some ended up using megi's kernel directly, while Mobian forked the "Pine64" one and cherry-picked interesting patches from megi's tree, but it all happened without further cross-distro discussions. Our single reference tree was then left rotting (the last kernel compatible with the PinePhone being based on 5.9, which was released nearly 3 years ago!) and unmaintained since then. A single point of failure The end result can be summed up as follows: those relying on megi's kernel depend ## Mobian Security Update #1 DevFeed: [Mobian Security Update #1]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-08-31T02:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Security](), [vulnerability](), [apt](), [Package manager](), [upgrade]() Tags: [apt](), [packages](), [permissions](), [root](), [security](), [update](), [vulnerability]() ### AI overview The Mobian Team released a security update for a local vulnerability in Bookworm images. Some files had global write permissions, including files managing apt configuration, creating a possible privilege-escalation path to root for a local user with access to an unlocked or already compromised device. Mobian users should upgrade the specified mobian-tweaks-common package. ### Source excerpt The Mobian Team have recently released a security update fixing a local vulnerability caused by a bug in our Bookworm images. User Action Required Mobian users must install the following package in order to address the issues described in this post. A normal upgrade which can be done using sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade or via Gnome Software will take care of this. For Bookworm users: mobian-tweaks-common, version 0.5.6+deb12u1 For Trixie and Staging users: mobian-tweaks-common, version 0.5.9 These packages include an install script which fixes the permissions on the effected files. They are currently in the staging and bookworm-updates repositories and will migrate to trixie and bookworm in the coming week. Summary The Bookworm images released earlier this year had a small number of files with global write permissions. As two of these files manage the configuration of the apt package manager, they provide an attacker with a useful privilege escalation method. This issue seems to only affect the released Bookworm images, though a full audit of weekly images has not been undertaken. Users who installed on Trixie were likely never effected. Impact These files could allow a local user to gain root access to the device by modifying them and waiting for the user to install an attacker provided update. This attack would require access to an unlocked or otherwise already compromised device as a standard user. There is no way to carry this attack out remotely or on a locked device. Indicators of Compromise Users can verify the current configuration of their system by checking the relevant files. Changes to these files to not immediately mean the device has been compromised, but may warrant further investigation. /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mobian.list should contain (potentially with a different distribution): deb http://repo.mobian.org/ main non-free-firmware /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/mobian.gpg can be verified using the command shasum -c checksum.txt aganist ## Mobian releases its first stable Bookworm-based release DevFeed: [Mobian releases its first stable Bookworm-based release]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-06-10T12:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Debian](), [Mobile](), [upgrade](), [Testing](), [Security]() Tags: [debian](), [mobile](), [release](), [security](), [testing](), [upgrade](), [version]() ### AI overview Mobian announces its first stable release, based on Debian Bookworm, which it considers sufficiently mobile-friendly. The release provides a fixed set of tested software components and targeted updates for major bugs or security vulnerabilities, while new functionality remains in the testing repositories. ### Source excerpt Debian has released "Bookworm" and so has Mobian! According to schedule and on time Debian has managed to put out the Bookworm release. Congratulations! In step with that release, Mobian is herewith officially releasing its first stable release, codenamed ... tadaa ... "Bookworm"! What does this mean? A lot has happened since the release of the Mobian community edition PinePhone. But ever since its inception, Mobian has been tracking the testing repository of Debian. The previous release - Bullseye - was just not deemed suitable for mobile devices yet. Fortunately, a lot has happened since then, and we can proudly claim that Debian Bookworm is the first release that we deem to be mobile-friendly enough. It is used as the base for our stable Mobian release. This means that, from now on, you will have the choice between sticking with the first ever stable release or switching over to the next development "branch". Which release is the right one for me? If you stick with Bookworm you will be getting a stable system, not in the sense of bug-free, never-crashing software (does that even exist?), but as a fixed set of software components that are known to work well together and don't rely on undefined behavior. The only updates you will receive will be targeted ones, fixing either a major bug or a security vulnerability, and will be thoroughly tested to minimize the risk of regression. With Bookworm, you can depend on your device (to the extent permitted by the stability of the included software) without having to fear that an upgrade might alter its behavior in a negative way. This approach has one downside, though: version numbers for Bookworm packages will be mostly frozen (except for aforementioned targeted updates) and you will not receive any update bringing new functionality to your applications. New features will only be arriving in the testing repositories of both Debian and Mobian, as they convey the risk of introducing major bugs, and as such should be reserved to ## The non-free-firmware repository DevFeed: [The non-free-firmware repository]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-03-11T12:00:00Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Debian](), [apt]() Tags: [config](), [debian](), [devices](), [firmware](), [free-software](), [install](), [network](), [packages](), [upgrade](), [usb]() ### AI overview Mobian users of PinePhone and PinePhone Pro should update their Debian APT configuration to include the non-free-firmware repository section. Debian moved firmware packages there, including Wi-Fi firmware packages needed by these devices. The article also explains how to update the system and manually install firmware if network access is unavailable. ### Source excerpt PinePhone and PinePhonePro Owners (and others), please change your config PinePhonePro users might get nagging messages about packages being held back right now... TL;DR: Please add the non-free-firmware section to the Debian repository line in /etc/apt/sources.list. Introducing the non-free-firmware section UPDATE: slightly reworded first paragraph. Piggybacking on Debian is great, but it also means we need to track changes that occur in Debian. The Debian project has decided to include non-free-firmware in their installer images for hardware enablement reasons and a better out of the box user experience. Therefore firmware file have been moved out of the non-free section and into the new non-free-firmware section in the debian repository. Why does this matter to Mobian users? The Wifi firmware for the PinePhone and PinePhonePro has migrated to the upstream Debian repository and the firmware-realtek-rtl8723cs-bt (PinePhone) and firmware-brcm80211 (PinePhone Pro) packages are now in the new non-free-firmware section. This means at least PinePhonePro users need to add that section now, but it does not hurt for other devices too and we recommend everyone to make this change. So mobian users, head over to the file /etc/apt/sources.list and edit the line starting with deb http://deb.debian.org. It should end with (some of) the sections main non-free. Just change non-free to non-free-firmware, or add non-free-firmware (delimited by a space) at the end of that line if you still want access to non-free software which are not only firmware packages. Finally, apt update && apt upgrade and you should be on the latest firmware on the upstream Debian repository. If you've lost network access on your PinePhone Pro, you can download the package manually using the above link (or apt download firmware-brcm80211 on another Debian Bookworm machine), transfer the file to your phone over USB and install it manually with dpkg -i firmware-brcm80211_20230210-2_all.deb. ## These months in Mobian: February/March 2023 DevFeed: [These months in Mobian: February/March 2023]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-03-10T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [FOSDEM](), [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Debian](), [Website](), [foss](), [JavaScript](), [CSS](), [HTML](), [Kernel]() Tags: [collaboration](), [conference](), [css](), [debian](), [fosdem](), [foss](), [html](), [javascript](), [kernel](), [linux](), [mobile](), [website]() ### AI overview A February-March 2023 roundup from Mobian covers the physical FOSDEM mobile Linux devroom, related talks and community collaboration, a JavaScript-free website redesign that retains its animation, and Debian Bookworm's transition toward a freeze. ### Source excerpt March isn't even over yet and we are already summing up what has happened in both February and March. Dang, are we fast... FOSDEM February 2023 began with a bang: finally a physical FOSDEM conference in Brussels, and a few (or rather, plenty of) mobile Linux people organized a physical devroom on "FOSS on mobile Linux". Many submissions on various topics, from many distros and projects, of which 10 were selected. (Photo by spaetz under CC-0) Directly relevant were talks on "What's new in the world of phosh?" and "Mobian: to stable... and beyond!". But also others, such as the talk on ondev2, a new cross-distro installer, which Mobian will potentially use. Many other interesting talks on convergence, so if you have not already, check out the whole track. Another highlight was the cross-distro stand with an unusual high density of Linux phones being put on a single table, and a dense crowd of people being interested in Mobile on Linux. Some were well-know names and faces, that are already familiar with the state of things, while others were surprised that Linux on Mobile "is a thing". Most importantly though, it was one of those rare moments in life to physically meet your collaborators. And while we did not manage to do a live-podcast as the postmarketOS contributors did, we did have beer, dinner, talks, and fun together. Sometimes, these are the most important times in a collaboration! And yes, we will try to have Mobian stickers next time around! :-) Website Our Website does not contain a lot of content, but previously it still used some Javascript in order to provide a flying-in animation (and possibly other things). Thanks to community member Sven J. Grewe, we have now done away with the Javascript entirely (still keeping the animation) and our root page now consists of 1 html, 1 css and 7 icons/images, loading pretty fast. Thank you Sven, contributions are always welcome! Debian Bookworm Debian has started its soft freeze towards the Bookworm release. This implies: ## Porting Mobian to New Devices DevFeed: [Porting Mobian to New Devices]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-03-07T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Kernel](), [Android](), [Debian]() Tags: [android](), [boot](), [compatibility](), [debian](), [drivers](), [kernel](), [linux](), [maintenance](), [porting](), [security]() ### AI overview The article explains why porting Mobian to new phones is difficult. Android-based phone kernels often differ from Mobile Linux, may be old and device-specific, and can have security and maintenance problems. Mobian therefore prefers compatible kernels and devices with good mainline support instead of relying on compatibility layers such as libhybris. ### Source excerpt As Mobian (and Mobile Linux in general) has gotten more popular, many folks have started to ask if Mobian supports their particular phone. While we wish we lived in a world where installing Mobian to a new phone model was just as easy as installing Debian to a new laptop, things are (unfortunately) much more complicated than that. But my phone runs Android, and Android runs on Linux! It is true that Android is Linux-based, but Android Linux diverged from Mobile Linux a long time ago. Android Linux images are simply incompatible with Mobile Linux, unless several compatibilty layers are installed. In addition, the Android kernel shipped by manufacturers are based on LTS kernels, and consist of millions of lines of out of tree code. Much of this code cannot be upstreamed due to code quality, and sometimes the code is of dubious legal origin. The kernel that the phone is based off of is often ancient. In some cases, current devices might ship a version of Linux 3.19 which was released in 2015 and no longer gets updates from upstream. This poses two problems for us: 1) they are full of security flaws and 2) their API is oldish and different from what current Mobile Linux environments need (both because it is old API and because it provides Android-specific API). One would be stuck with a ancient and unmaintainable kernel that one could not improve and a kernel that provides an incompatible interface to Mobile Linux. Some distributions make that tradeoff and use these compatibility layers to bridge the interface between Android kernels and Mobile Linux. One such is libhybris. They basically choose to live with a kernel that one cannot modify and improve in a significant manner. In addition, many kernels are device specific1, which in turn creates a higher maintenance burden for every phone added. Adding the compatibility layer does provide an advantage in that the distribution can port to many more phones much quicker. Mobian's ultimate goal is to erase the differences be ## Building a Debian GitLab CI Runner on the StarFive VisionFive v2 DevFeed: [Building a Debian GitLab CI Runner on the StarFive VisionFive v2]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-01-25T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [RISC-V](), [Debian](), [Linux](), [GitLab](), [Tooling]() Tags: [debian](), [gigabit-ethernet](), [gitlab](), [linux](), [nvme](), [pcie](), [risc-v](), [soc](), [testing](), [usb]() ### AI overview This article describes using Mobian's build tools to create an almost-pure Debian image and GitLab CI runner for the RISC-V-based StarFive VisionFive v2 SBC. It covers Debian Ports packages, the board's hardware, boot requirements, and bootloader work. ### Source excerpt You're probably aware of the existence and hopes tied to the rise of the RISC-V architecture, which means we should prepare for future (yet hypothetical) RISC-V Linux-based mobile devices. The first step in this journey being the ability to build binary packages for this architecture, we purchased a StarFive VisionFive v2 SBC with the goal to turn it into a (Debian-powered, of course!) GitLab CI runner. And that's exactly where the tools developed to build Mobian came in really handy! Debian on RISC-V 64-bits RISC-V (or riscv64 in Debian terms) is not an architecture officially supported by upstream Debian. However, the vast majority of packages are built and available to riscv64 devices thanks to the Debian Ports initiative. As an unofficial port, the riscv64 packages live in a separate archive, providing only the unstable and experimental suites. Those details aside, all the usual Debian tools work in the exact same way they do on other architectures. With this in mind, why not use the tools we've been developing for Mobian and create an "almost-pure" Debian image for the VisionFive v2? The board The VisionFive 2 is a RISC-V SBC based on StarFive's JH7110 SoC. This chip includes 4x SiFive U74 cores, Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe and many other interfaces. The board itself includes a choice of 2, 4 or 8GB RAM, a now-standard 40-pin GPIO header, a microSD card slot, an eMMC socket as well as an M.2 slot for an NVMe SSD, and of course several USB ports and 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports. OK, but... can it run Debian? In order to run any kind of Linux system (including a Debian-based one), we need the following elements: a bootloader a kernel which includes support for this specific device a root filesystem containing userspace software, compiled for the device's CPU architecture Das U-boot Abenteuer The first item is already present on the board, in the form of a SPI NOR flash chip, factory-flashed with u-boot. However, the one present on our (early bird) board lacked support for s ## Mobian's 2022 review: migration to Debian, upstream contributions, and fewer device-specific tweaks DevFeed: [Mobian's 2022 review: migration to Debian, upstream contributions, and fewer device-specific tweaks]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2023-01-08T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Development](), [Mobile](), [Debian](), [GitLab](), [migration](), [systemd](), [Kernel]() Tags: [debian](), [developers](), [development](), [gitlab](), [kernel](), [migration](), [mobile](), [systemd]() ### AI overview Mobian's 2022 review describes its migration from GitLab.com to Debian's Salsa, contributions of packages to Debian, and efforts to replace custom scripts and device-specific tweaks with upstream solutions such as systemd services. ### Source excerpt 2022 has been an extremely busy year for Mobian developers, and a lot has happened throughout this period. As we're entering a new development cycle year, now is a good time to look back at what we achieved in 2022. Foundation work One of our goals has always been for Mobian to slowly dissolve into Debian. As such, we aim at moving packages from the downstream Mobian archive into the upstream Debian repositories. Summer migration As a consequence, we decided to move all the source code used in Mobian from gitlab.com to Salsa, Debian's own GitLab instance, during last summer. With the exception of non-free firmware blobs of unclear origins, Mobian is now fully maintained within Salsa's Mobian-team group. It should be noted that, thanks to GitLab's export/import features, this important migration has been mostly painless! Feeding the Debian package servers We also welcomed the contributions of Debian developers who helped us both for improving Mobian and for moving our downstream packages to Debian upstream. Together, we were able to push a great number of new packages to the Debian archive, including (but not limited to): calamares-extensions eg25-manager mobile-config-firefox numberstation passes phosh-antispam powersupply satellite sxmo-utils This past year also saw us upload calamares-settings-mobian and plymouth-theme-mobian to Debian, making those the first Mobian-specific packages to make it into the Debian archive! Less downstream tweaks Over the past year, one of our main areas of work was getting rid of as much custom scripts and tweaks as possible, and rely on existing upstream solutions instead. A good example of such improvements if the switch to systemd services for growing the root filesystem on initial boot: while previously relying on cloud-initramfs-tools and a downstream initramfs script, we now hand this task over to systemd-repart and systemd-growfs. We also got rid of device-specific kernel cmdline parameters, as we can now rely on the device tre ## Mobian development update: packaging, Salsa migration, and kernel status from July to October 2022 DevFeed: [Mobian development update: packaging, Salsa migration, and kernel status from July to October 2022]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2022-11-01T00:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Development](), [Linux](), [Debian](), [systemd](), [ci](), [migration](), [GitLab]() Tags: [ci](), [debian](), [dev](), [gitlab](), [linux](), [migration](), [patches](), [systemd]() ### AI overview Mobian's July-October 2022 development update covers progress on puremaps packaging, resolution of an image resizing bug, the move to Salsa for package maintenance and builds, and changes to issue tracking. It also reports kernel updates, including camera and USB-C improvements on supported devices, alongside a camera regression after the Linux 6.0 update. ### Source excerpt As we're reaching the end of the month we slightly overshot the month, it's time to look back at what happened since July. Monthly dev meeting Highlights: puremaps packaging is progressing. Some of the dependencies are now in Debian unstable, clearing the way for the main package. The image resizing bug has been solved by switching to systemd-repart and systemd-growfs. @undef was instrumental in this switch by contributing several fixes upstream to make things work smoothly. Currently working on the best way to support config fragments in u-boot-menu (#1012333) to support encrypted PinePhone Pro installs and PinePhones with the VCCQ mod. Everyone loves salsa! We completed the move to Salsa, though there were a few issues along the way: kernels couldn't be built through CI due to limits in artifacts size, forcing us to create a simpler, different pipeline for those packages the issue tracker remained on gitlab.com for a while, until we decided on the best way to handle this migration These problems have now been solved, meaning all packages are now maintained and built on Salsa. We also decided to get rid of the single issue tracker and instead ask users to open issues in the corresponding repo/project. Finally, we won't be migrating issues from gitlab.com as they would then lose all authorship information. We therefore ask users who had previously opened issues on gitlab.com to create new issues on Salsa, notifying them by leaving a comment on existing issues explaining the way forward (example). Kernel status Due to a desire to ship a kernel with a working camera the 5.18 release cycle was skipped for most devices. 5.19 on the other hand has been released shortly after upstream, and most device families can now even use 6.0-based kernels, although this is not the default yet. Those more recent kernels contains a number of improvements including: Working camera on the PinePhone Pro (using a script like https://salsa.debian.org/-/snippets/611, no Megapixels support y ## This month in Mobian: June 2022 DevFeed: [This month in Mobian: June 2022]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2022-06-30T15:00:00Z Content type: news Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Development](), [Mobile](), [Debian](), [Kernel](), [Matrix](), [IRC]() Tags: [debian](), [dev](), [developer](), [irc](), [kernel](), [matrix](), [mobile](), [patches](), [signing](), [ssh]() ### AI overview A June 2022 Mobian development recap covers repository migration planning, a Matrix room upgrade, the move from gedit to gnome-text-editor, the Debian update of the Calamares installer, new Debian Developer status, mobile-friendly patches, a PinePhone keyboard driver fix, and a repository PGP key expiry incident. ### Source excerpt The end is near! The end of June at least, and that means it is time for our monthly recap of what has happened. Monthly dev meeting Many mobian devs came together on the first Saturday of June. Topics of the meeting included: moving repositories to salsa: everything from mobian/packages, around 60 repos in total; planning continues, security considerations (access to ssh/signing keys etc needs to be considered); we still need to decide on a switch-over date. Matrix room upgrade: We need to upgrade our #mobian room to a newer version, as the old one is not compatible with the latest matrix servers anymore. The only problem are the bridges to our other channels. spaetz takes care of the IRC bridge, nobody knows who the telegram bridge admin is, it should not be a blocker though. Update: of course the update did not go as well as planned, and people had to migrate manually to the new room. Eventually we got everyone over though. We might replace gedit with gnome-text-editor, it is more enjoyable. And it would allow us to drop our custom gedit package. Update: This has now happened. Calamares Calamares is the installer that we use to install Mobian. It was finally updated in Debian proper (thanks!), and as a result we were able to drop our Mobian-specific package. In Mobian remaining: calamares-extensions 1.2.1-1 and calamares-settings-mobian 0.2.3 Mobian, now with even more DDs! No, DD is not shorthand for Donald Duck, it stands for "Debian Developer" which is a formal status, requiring sponsors and a (usually) lengthy process. We have quite a few DDs in our own (informal) ranks, but Mobian's founder @a-wai has now also become one. Congrats Arnaud, and way to go! gnome-text-exitor, now more mobile friendly We have added patches to make gnome-text-editor more mobile friendly, by wrapping labels on narrow screens in the top bar. Patches have been sent to upstream too. PinePhone Keyboard The PinePhone keyboard driver in the 5.15-sunxi64 kernel has been fixed, allowing bo ## This month in Mobian: May 2022 DevFeed: [This month in Mobian: May 2022]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2022-05-31T23:59:59Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Development](), [GitLab](), [ci](), [Debian](), [Kernel](), [systemd](), [Wiki]() Tags: [blog-posts](), [bugs](), [ci](), [configs](), [debian](), [gitlab](), [kernel](), [kernels](), [repositories](), [systemd](), [update](), [wiki]() ### AI overview A May 2022 Mobian development update covers monthly developer meetings, planned repository and developer-wiki moves toward Debian infrastructure, kernel and audio fixes, universal images for PinePhone devices, tow-boot limitations on PineTab, and a PinePhone Keyboard driver change. ### Source excerpt This is the first in a (hopefully) series of short blog posts summarizing what has happened in Mobianland. Given that Mobian integrates much of the ecosystem not developed by us, this report could reiterate many of the things being said somewhere else. Monthly dev meeting Despite being located all over the world (really!), we manage to meet in person once a month. Well, ok, "meet in person" means we conduct a jitsi video call. It is fun seeing all these sleepy faces where half of the people would like to go to bed already, while others wished they could have remained in bed longer. The TL;DR: we will attempt to move over more repositories from gitlab to salsa.debian.org (given gitlabs changes to the CI allowance we get, and in an attempt to align ourselves closer to Debian). In a similar move, the developer's wiki (NOT the user wiki) moves over to the Debian wiki. pondering if systemd-repart and systemd-growfs can maybe replace "growroot" We really should be opening a user-contrib section or something where contributed ports and kernels can live, e.g. for the Nexus 5. Planning stage. OnePlus 6 / Pocophone F1 Audio was broken due to a missing config option on 5.17 kernels, and was fixed by a subsequent update. Thanks to everyone who reported this issue and provided the information allowing us to fix it. Universal Images We have a universal mobian image that boots on the original Pinephone and the Pinephone Pro, however, there are still some bugs to iron out and kernel configs to be adapted. But overall, this looks promising. However, this will require some tool that can adapt configuration settings at runtime, based on the device it is currently running on. Tow-boot We were one of the earliest distributions to move over to tow-boot, and that worked out nearly well. However, there is a little catch: There is no tow-boot for the PineTab yet. So all images post-March 27, will not be able to install a U-boot if you have non installed yet. Help to port tow-boot to the Pin ## Moving to Tow-Boot: Towards Device-Independant Images DevFeed: [Moving to Tow-Boot: Towards Device-Independant Images]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2022-03-30T00:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Arm](), [boot]() Tags: [arm](), [boot](), [bootloader](), [deprecated](), [devices](), [firmware](), [install](), [linux](), [mobile](), [partitions](), [storage](), [update]() ### AI overview Mobian explains its move toward device-independent images by requiring PinePhone and PinePhone Pro users to install Tow-Boot before flashing Mobian images. The change stops Mobian from embedding device-specific bootloader copies; existing installations should continue booting, while distribution-installed u-boot is deprecated. ### Source excerpt Mobian (and most of the Arm Linux ecosystem) have been dealing with device-specific boot sequences since our inception. However, recent changes have made it possible to standardise these. This blog post will discuss how these changes affect Mobian and the long term goal of creating a universal image for Mobian devices. Every problem has a solution Each ARM-based SoC implements its own boot sequence, looking for a bootloader at different locations on different storage devices. For example, the OG PinePhone's Allwinner A64 looks for it at an 8KiB offset, first on the SD card, then on the eMMC. The PinePhone Pro's RK3399 expects it to be either on a SPI flash device, or at offset 32KiB on the eMMC or the SD card. Until now, we dealt with those differences by generating per-device images, each one embedding a copy of the bootloader (u-boot in our case) at the exact offset expected by the SoC. However, this isn't very practical, as it prevents us from generating device-independent images, and it can have annoying side effects: in some cases, the bootloader can remain untouched on an SD card even after reformatting. Fortunately, there is way to work around this problem: by letting users install the bootloader themselves, either on the SPI flash (for devices including one) or the eMMC's boot partitions (which are left untouched when flashing new images to the device), we can stop embedding our own copy of the bootloader. Following the trend across the Mobile Linux community, we therefore settled for Tow-Boot as the recommended bootloader and will now require PinePhone (OG and Pro versions) users to install it before flashing a Mobian image to their devices. Existing Installs The most important part of this change is that it will not break existing installs. Distribution-installed u-boot is however deprecated and will not receive updates. If you do nothing but update, you will see the u-boot-sunxi (PinePhone) or u-boot-rockchip (PinePhone Pro) package removed. Removing it w ## Analysis of Malware Distributed Through Matrix Rooms to Mobile Linux Users DevFeed: [Analysis of Malware Distributed Through Matrix Rooms to Mobile Linux Users]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2022-02-11T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Malware](), [Mobile](), [Security](), [vulnerability](), [Matrix](), [apt]() Tags: [apt](), [malware](), [matrix](), [mobile](), [security](), [vulnerability]() ### AI overview This article analyzes malware distributed through Matrix rooms as installable packages for postmarketOS, Mobian, and Arch/Manjaro. It examines the Debian package variant, its metadata and post-install script, and explains how execution with root privileges enables the malware to copy files and run its payload. ### Source excerpt As you may be aware, a malicious person tried to spread malware through many Matrix rooms used by mobile Linux users and developers, partly taking advantage of a known vulnerability in the stock modem firmware. Here's a quick analysis of how this malware was supposed to operate. Disclaimer: while being enthusiastic nerds, none of the Mobian developers is a security expert. We hope this post will provide interesting information to the community but it shouldn't be considered an exhaustive security report. Please also note this was by no means a Mobian-only effort: in this post, we're reporting the findings of the mobile Linux community as a whole, not claiming we did it all by ourselves. A bit of context The malware was uploaded to Matrix chat rooms in the form of an installable binary package: .apk for postmarketOS .deb for Mobian .pkg.tar.zst for Arch/Manjaro Multiple variants were posted such as coathanger or pp-tweaks but, a few cosmetic differences aside, they all work in the same way and embed the same malicious payload. In the rest of this post, we'll take a closer look at the .deb package (obviously) of the pp-tweaks variant. This file is an actual package suitable for installation using dpkg or apt. Its package metadata look valid and contain the following description: Description: Tweaks for PinePhone and PinePhone Pro as well as various other devices such as the Oneplus 6 and the Poco F1 Although it's obvious that the package has been handcrafted rather than generated using the usual Debian packaging tools (no checksums included in the package metadata, for example), and except for the contents of the Maintainer field (layla289, maybe an Eric Clapton fan?), the package doesn't look harmful at this point. The following files are installed from this package: /usr/bin/pp-tweaks-gtk /usr/lib/pp-tweaks-postinstall It also contains the following post-install script, automatically run by dpkg once the package files have been installed to the system: #!/bin/sh /us ## How the PinePhone helped advance the mobile Linux software ecosystem DevFeed: [How the PinePhone helped advance the mobile Linux software ecosystem]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2022-02-04T00:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Software](), [Development]() Tags: [developers](), [engineering](), [linux](), [mobile](), [software]() ### AI overview The article reflects on the PinePhone Pro's usability and the engineering choices behind it, then argues that the original PinePhone helped mature the mobile Linux software ecosystem by giving developers and users an affordable, usable device to improve. ### Source excerpt While mildly working on and playing with the PinePhone Pro, I recently got amazed at how pleasant to use this device was, and how little work it took us to get to this point! Clever choices Don't get me wrong, the fact that the PinePhone Pro is already quite usable (to the point where the bravest could probably daily-drive it - I actually did for a whole week!) is the result of countless hours of engineering, most of those having happened before the Developer Edition even shipped, in good part thanks to the combined efforts of @megi and @MartijnBraam. It's also the result of very clever choices made by Pine64: design the device around the RockChip RK3399, a very well-known and supported SoC in mainline Linux and u-boot use the modem we already know (and, at times, hate) from the OG PinePhone choose peripheral chips identical to those used on the OG PinePhone (flashlight, accelerometer...) or already well supported upstream (audio codec) This definitely eased the initial bringup process and allowed us to enable several useful features very quickly. However, the most amazing part of this whole process is the maturity of the whole software ecosystem when compared to what we experienced in the days of the BraveHeart Edition PinePhone! If you build it, they will come Two years ago, when first starting working on the OG PinePhone, the available software targeting mobile phones was a bit rough around the edges, to say the least: Phosh was barely past the proof-of-concept stage Plasma Mobile wasn't very usable, although things improved quickly mobile-friendly apps were few, and often needed a number of downstream patches to be usable on phones With the exception of UBPorts/Lomiri, the FLOSS ecosystem clearly wasn't ready for the PinePhone! However, give enough developers an itch to collectively scratch, and they'll each do their part. And that's precisely what made the PinePhone instrumental in improving the mobile Linux ecosystem: by providing a low-cost (yet usable) device ## PinePhone Pro support status in Mobian DevFeed: [PinePhone Pro support status in Mobian]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2021-12-28T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Linux Kernel](), [Hardware](), [4g lte](), [Bluetooth]() Tags: [4g-lte](), [bluetooth](), [boot](), [configuration](), [hardware](), [linux](), [linux-kernel](), [mobile](), [modem](), [patches]() ### AI overview This article reports early Mobian support for the PinePhone Pro. It describes hardware enablement, Linux kernel and boot patches, a Mobian image that boots into Phosh, working 4G connectivity with SMS/MMS and mobile data, and remaining challenges with phone-call audio routing. ### Source excerpt Pine64 recently announced the PinePhone Pro, a significantly upgraded version of their PinePhone. As developers started receiving their devices earlier this month, significant progress have been made already to get existing mobile distributions, including Mobian, to run on this new Linux phone. Keep reading for the latest status updates on the PinePhone Pro support. Initial hardware enablement The PinePhone Pro was designed in such a way that it is an easy device to work with: it is based on a Rockchip RK3399 SoC, for which mainline kernel support is really good, and switched to a Broadcom/Cypress WiFi/Bluetooth chipset, supported by the mailine bcrmfmac kernel driver. Moreover, the modem is the same model as the one used in the OG PinePhone: despite its numerous drawbacks, it is a well-known unit and we can already provide workarounds for its most significant issues. @megi and @MartijnBraam, which both had access to early prototypes of this device, did an awesome job at bringing up the device and providing patches for u-boot and the Linux kernel. This allowed distribution developers to boot the PinePhone Pro with very little effort and start improving on an already solid basis. As a matter of fact, only a few hours were necessary to craft a Mobian image able to boot into Phosh on the PinePhone Pro! Making the notification LEDs, flash light and orientation sensors to work as nicely as they do on the OG PinePhone was only a matter of few more hours (if not minutes) of additional hacking. Getting 4G/LTE connectivity As mentioned above, the PinePhone Pro uses the same exact modem as the OG PinePhone. As a consequence, only a limited amount of software changes were necessary to get it to work on Mobian. Using the latest versions of both ModemManager and eg25-manager, the modem is automatically powered on and able to connect to 4G networks, with both SMS/MMS and mobile data being fully functional. Giving and receiving phone calls Phone calls are another problem, as those ## Mobian recommends upgrading from Debian Bullseye to Bookworm DevFeed: [Mobian recommends upgrading from Debian Bullseye to Bookworm]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2021-12-24T00:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Debian](), [upgrade](), [apt](), [Software]() Tags: [apt](), [debian](), [good](), [updates](), [upgrade]() ### AI overview Mobian recommends that users upgrade from Debian Bullseye to Bookworm to access newer software, including GTK4, Megapixels 1.3, and GNOME 41. The article explains the apt configuration changes and cautions users to back up their home directory and review package changes during the upgrade. ### Source excerpt Now that the dust has settled on Debian's new testing repository we are focusing our efforts on Bookworm. This long overdue blog post is a summary of what to expect in the coming updates to Mobian. New Software As we outlined in To Bullseye and Beyond, Bookworm is where Mobian and Debian will be focusing their efforts for new software. To date, this has resulted in the introduction of GTK4 and, most importantly for PinePhone users, Megapixels 1.3 which brings a fully hardware-accelerated camera viewfinder. Additionally, Debian moved to GNOME 41 over the past few months, which provides newly adaptive versions of core software such as GNOME Software and GNOME Control Center. The latter reduces significantly the number of overflowing panels and starts significantly faster. All of these goodies either come directly from upstream Debian or rely on newer packages not available in Bullseye. The Mobian team will not be backporting these, so we recommend upgrading to Bookworm to get access to them. How do I get access to these new packages The good news is, if you have already switched to Bookworm, these updates are just an apt upgrade away. If you've been waiting for the dust to settle on the Bullseye release, now would be a good time to move forward. While the turnover of new packages in Debian Testing is always high, the major post-Bullseye transitions (such as GNOME and libc) have completed, mostly smoothly. If you would like to upgrade, simply replace bullseye with bookworm in both /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mobian.list. Then, the usual apt update and apt dist-upgrade combo will pull in all the latest packages and upgrade your device to Bookworm. We highly recommend you backup your home directory prior to performing the upgrade. In case you originally flashed your device with an image older than April 26th, 2021, you will have to edit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extrepo_mobian.sources instead of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mobian.list, replacing Suites: m ## Mobian will focus on Debian bookworm instead of supporting Bullseye DevFeed: [Mobian will focus on Debian bookworm instead of supporting Bullseye]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2021-08-11T00:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Debian](), [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Security]() Tags: [debian](), [linux](), [new-features](), [release](), [security](), [version]() ### AI overview Mobian will not support Debian Bullseye after its release and will focus development on Debian bookworm. Bullseye users will continue receiving Debian core security updates and minor system-package upgrades, but not Mobian-maintained package security updates, new features, or usability improvements. ### Source excerpt As you might be aware, the next Debian stable release (codename bullseye) is only a few days away. But what does it imply for Mobian? Bullseye on mobile Bullseye will be the first Debian release including a modern software stack aimed at mobile devices, which is an important milestone in itself. However, development in this area is progressing at a rapid pace, and most packages in bullseye are already outdated, missing important features such as improved modem handling during suspend/resume cycles, or recent packages like GTK4 and libadwaita. As Mobian is developed by a small team of already busy individuals, we have decided we wouldn't support bullseye after it's released and will focus our efforts on the next Debian version (codename bookworm). Current users will still get updates from Debian throughout the lifetime of bullseye but shouldn't expect new versions of user-facing applications or the mobile software stack. To put it short, here's what you'll get from sticking to bullseye: security updates for the core system minor upgrades to system packages Here's what you won't get should you decide to stick to bullseye: security updates for packages maintained by Mobian shiny new features usability improvements The way forward Within a few days, following the bullseye release, we'll create and populate a new Mobian repository targeting bookworm. Upgrading from bullseye to bookworm won't be automated and will require editing your sources.list files: simply replace bullseye with bookworm in both /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mobian.list. Notes: if you originally flashed your device with an image older than April 26th, 2021, will have to edit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extrepo_mobian.sources, replacing Suites: mobian with Suites: bookworm if you were using Mobian staging so far, you will only need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list: our current staging repo will keep being the entry point for all new and updated packages we upload Please keep in mind that w ## 2021-05-17 Status update DevFeed: [2021-05-17 Status update]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2021-05-17T00:00:00Z Content type: release Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Linux](), [Mobile](), [Debian](), [Development](), [kernels](), [maintenance](), [Tooling]() Tags: [debian](), [development](), [linux](), [maintenance](), [mobile](), [phones](), [porting](), [tooling](), [update](), [updated]() ### AI overview This Mobian status update reports progress on distribution stability and tooling, the positive reception of the Mobian Community Edition PinePhone, donations to Debian and investment in infrastructure, and official support for the Pocophone F1 and OnePlus 6 and 6T. The newly supported phones remain unsuitable as daily drivers because modem, audio, and camera functionality is not yet working. ### Source excerpt The past few months have been quieter than usual regarding Mobian development, but that's not to say we didn't make progress! Actually, even though user-visible changes are few, we kept working on improving both the stability of our distribution and our tooling, so that new developments can be better tested, and reach users faster than they used to. Mobian CE reception and outcomes The Mobian Community Edition PinePhone has been a great success for us, with of course a few hiccups, but the feedback we received so far has been extremely positive. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Pine64 once again for allowing us to be part of this amazing journey! As you probably know, Pine64 generously donated 10$ per device to the Mobian project, which we received early last month. Out of this amount, we chose to donate 5000EUR back to the Debian project (which provides the foundation for all of our work on Mobian), and invested about the same amount into our own infrastructure (workstation, build servers...). Finally, we purchased a few additional mobile devices we considered interesting targets and started porting Mobian to those. New supported devices Let's play with Android phones! Until recently, Mobian supported only Pine64's PinePhone, PineTab and Purism's Librem 5. This is partly related to our choice of only using mainline kernels, instead of vendor-provided Android kernels: those use a number of non-standard interfaces, and require additional software, such as Halium, in order to be used with a "standard" Linux userspace. In addition, vendor kernels are generally outdated and very rarely updated to newer kernel releases, which is obviously a concern for long-term maintenance. Fortunately, our friends at postmarketOS have committed to mainlining devices for quite some time now, and by encouraging such development have reached great results so far! Based on their initiative, and more specifically thanks to @calebccff's and @Joel's work on the SDM845 kernel, we have b ## The road to the Mobian Community Edition (part 1) DevFeed: [The road to the Mobian Community Edition (part 1)]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Mobian team Published: 2021-04-08T00:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Mobian's Blog]() Topics: [Development](), [Mobile](), [Linux](), [Operating system](), [touchscreen](), [Ubuntu](), [USB]() Tags: [android](), [canonical](), [community](), [development](), [hacking](), [kernel](), [linux](), [mobile](), [touchscreen](), [usb]() ### AI overview This article recounts the early development of the Mobian project, a Linux-based mobile operating system, and the path toward the Mobian Community Edition for PinePhone. It describes the author's initial PinePhone experimentation, the available mobile Linux ecosystem, and the project's early software limitations. ### Source excerpt The Mobian project was officially announced on May 14th, 2020. But those who witnessed its birth surely remember it all started a few months prior to this date, a bit more than one year ago, actually. One year hacking and building both a mobile operating system and a community. One year refining our system, getting rid of the early days' hacks in favor of more mature and robust solutions. One year ending with a major milestone for such a young project: getting the Mobian Community Edition PinePhone into the hands of thousands of users. One hell of a year, indeed! It all really started on January 29th, 2020, when I received a shiny new toy: an ARM64 development system packed with a number of interesting, if not unique, features: 5.95" touchscreen removable battery integrated eMMC µSD socket USB-C port 3.5" headset jack 4G modem The PinePhone was my first "real" Linux phone: I had owned a Nexus 5 running Ubuntu Touch, but it was basically an Android phone, running an Android kernel. While it was a very fine device, definitely usable as a daily driver, I got quickly frustrated by all the things I couldn't do on this system, mostly due to Canonical's design choices: it was not a hacker's device, just a different, yet mainstream, mobile phone. Let's be honest, back when PINE64 announced the PinePhone, I had already pre-ordered a Librem 5, and I only purchased this device so I could play with Phosh and the L5 software stack while waiting for my "real" phone. But still, there was literally a world to build with the PinePhone, so why not give it a try? Unboxing and early hacking While waiting on the PinePhone, I gathered as much documentation as possible about the device itself, but also the existing ecosystem: select developers had access to an even earlier version of this phone, and there were already a few systems available. Among those, postmarketOS looked the most promising, as it allowed the user to chose various environments, Plasma Mobile and Phosh being the ones I [Next page]()