I want to buy a mobile phone that would be great for linux mobile (ubuntu touch or postmarket os), fairphone 4 would be almost ideal if it wasn’t so big (i’m currently using pixel 8 + GrapheneOS). What do you recommend for my desire to use a compact mobile for linux + a solid camera? Thanks for the answers.
There is almost no phones with camera that works on linux. Your best bet is phone that was specifically made for linux like pinephone or something.
I’ll correct by saying that it’s with mainline linux that those cameras don’t work. Ubuntu Touch uses libhybris to run Android drivers, meaning most supported phones’ cameras work there…
Interesting, I didn’t know that. Probably because PostmarketOS is based on Alpine (no glibc).
No, it’s just that when you use a mainline kernel, you’re just not reusing all the Android (often user-space) drivers that make cameras work on Android and due to that stuff, starting from drivers for the SoC camera interface to the camera sensor have to be re-implemented. Whether you are on glibc (e.g., on Debian/Mobian) or musl/Alpine does not really matter.
Also, Camera APIs and the whole “desktop Linux” camera stack (think of things like debayering, white-balance) is nowhere near as developed as what Android has (and that, IUC, Ubuntu Touch can reuse on Halium by plumbing things together).
Chevy thanx for your answer. Regards
A Pixel 3a may be a good choice. It’s older, but not huge—and it’s very well-supported in Ubuntu Touch (and Droidian, both use Halium/libhybris to re-use the Android kernel drivers), and also in postmarketOS (mainline Linux 6.9.3 as of this message).
On postmarketOS, camera support is not fully there—the front camera is somewhat supported. Also, Wi-Fi is still a bit annoying, calls only work with headset on postmarketOS, so I would say: Use Ubuntu Touch or Droidian for now, and maybe move on to postmarketOS once it’s a bit more solid.
linmob thanx for your answer.
I think this is the decisive list:
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
Maybe have a look at availability and how old the chipset is. These are mostly old and slow phones. It also doesn’t help if RAM/memory is scarce. I don’t have a good recommendation of a decent modern phone.
Hendrik thanx for your answer and time.
That’s a tough one.
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Not that many compact phones right now in general. Sub-6" is a dying breed and anything sub-5.5" is almost gone. Best bet would be some older phones but they’ll all struggle with the modern web and android apps.
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A solid camera narrows your choice down to Ubuntu Touch. Ubuntu Touch uses a compatibility layer for accessing Android drivers and firmware which PostmarketOS strongly discourages, so the absolute majority of pmOS ports have no working camera at all due to a lot of technical difficulties.
So for now look at what supported devices UBPorts has to offer.
Some Chinese guy thanx for answer.
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@markkdark also waiting for a decent phone size to use with Linux myself.
Currently, I use a Fairphone 5 only because size is its only negative aspect. Apart from size, it has upgradeable battery and storage, decent performance and very good camera. As soon as there is another option at around 6 inch ready for Linux, I will sell this tablet from Fairphone.
I own a Pinephone. But it’s just not a great device. So in my daily life I rely on a different Android phone. I wish there were a nice phone with proper Linux support.
Are you currently running Linux on it? If so, what kind and what is your experience so far? I am on a Fairphone 4 myself. Content with CalyxOS, but mobile Linux as daily driver is definitely where I want to go. My impression is that not all features work reliably yet. I would need regular phone functionality (incl 5G), GPS and camera to work at least.
@cyberwolfie I used postmarket with phosh interface on it for a month. I am impressed with its stability and overall experience. Most of drivers are already out. Is even better supported than Fairphone 4. However, it has no audio support. No microphones or speakers are working ATM. You can use sound via Bluetooth or USB for now.
Once it gets audio support I will get back on pmOS. Until that, I am also daily driving calyx on it.
Thanx for your answer Mario.
