The release of the postmarketOS 22.12 project has been published, developing a Linux distribution for smartphones based on the Alpine Linux package base, the standard C library Musl, and a set of BusyBox utilities. The project's goal is to provide a Linux distribution for smartphones independent of the support lifecycle of official firmware and not tied to the typical solutions of the major industry players that dictate the direction of development. Builds have been prepared for PINE64 PinePhone, Purism Librem 5, and 29 community-supported devices, including Samsung Galaxy A3/A5/S4, Xiaomi Mi Note 2/Redmi 2, OnePlus 6, Lenovo A6000, ASUS MeMo Pad 7, and even Nokia N900. Limited experimental support is provided for over 300 devices.
The postmarketOS environment is highly unified and extracts all device-specific components into separate packages; all other packages are identical for all devices and based on Alpine Linux packages. Vanilla Linux kernel is used in builds wherever possible, and if not, kernels from firmware prepared by device manufacturers are used. The main user interfaces offered are KDE Plasma Mobile, Phosh, and Sxmo, but it is also possible to install other environments, including GNOME, MATE, and Xfce.
In the new release:
- The package base has been synchronized with Alpine Linux 3.17.
- The number of officially supported community devices has increased from 27 to 31. Compared to version 22.06, support has been added for smartphones PINE64 PinePhone Pro, Fairphone 4, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, and Samsung Galaxy E7.
- An experimental set of changes has been provided to allow the use of a standard Linux kernel instead of the OEM-specific kernel for Android firmware for devices based on the Qualcomm SDM845 SoC (Snapdragon 845), such as OnePlus 6/6T, SHIFT6mq, and Xiaomi Pocophone F1 smartphones. Instead of proprietary drivers and components, an open background process called q6voiced, QDSP6 driver, and a stack based on ModemManager/oFono are being used for making calls.
- The Sxmo (Simple X Mobile) graphical interface, based on the Sway compositor and adhering to Unix philosophy, has been updated to version 1.12. The new version expands capabilities related to device profiles (different key layouts and features can be activated for each device). Adaptations have been made to work on OnePlus 6/6T, Pocophone F1, Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 (2015), and Xiaomi Redmi 2. Improved support for superd for service management has been implemented.
- The Phosh environment, based on GNOME technologies and developed by Purism for the Librem 5 smartphone, has been updated to version 0.22. This version features a refreshed visual style and revised button designs. The battery charge indicator now shows gradual status changes in 10% increments. Notifications on the system lock screen can now use buttons with actions. A phosh-mobile-settings configurator and debugging tools for the virtual keyboard phosh-osk-stub have been added. In new installations, the gnome-text-editor is used in the postmarketOS environment based on Phosh instead of gedit.
- The KDE Plasma Mobile shell has been updated to version 22.09. A detailed overview of changes since version 22.04 can be found in the release reviews for 22.06 and 22.09. Notable improvements include enhanced functionality and modernization of the Shell interface, home screen, and call interface. In the Plasma Mobile environment within postmarketOS, Firefox has been removed from the standard package in favor of the Angelfish browser based on QtWebEngine.
Source: opennet.ru
