Debian on mobile devices

This page is about tracking every initiative to fully or partially install the system on mobile platforms:

About

Debian is the universal operating system. Thus, it should run on mobile devices. This wiki page is a tool to help bring Debian to mobile platforms.

It would be great if Debian could run on many kinds of mobile devices: iPhones, Android capable HW, Windows Mobile HW, tablets, but this is very unlikely to happen anytime soon for the majority of devices.

Devices built to run FLOSS stacks are more promising alternatives, for example see the PinePhone and Librem 5 on which Mobian can be installed.

Debian on mobile devices should have GUI capabilities, appropriate to the hardware capabilities.

It would also be great if Debian could run applications written to be native to the original OS for the hardware. This will enable Debian to serve the many people in society who want to easily use those applications.

Debian might benefit from having its own User Interface, or UIs, based on progression from the desktop Debian UIs - ex, GNOME or KDE. It would be great if the GNOME, KDE and other GUI communities could come to agreement on a common UI for Debian, to save unnecessary duplication of development effort, both of the Debian UI, and application software for Debian.

Origin and Purpose

To get this wiki page started, see the original message that giovanni_re sent in 2011 suggesting this project. It includes some reference URLs, to help seed thinking on Debian on smartphones development.

Contributions

Many people made useful replies to that email, and it would be great if they would add their suggestions of software components, foundations, and URLs thereof to this page. If we all take a few minutes to make contributions to this page when we have something valuable to add, this page will grow to be a great resource for us all. So, please take a moment to add something valuable to this page right now, or when you have the opportunity. :)

This page could use contributions like: Links to component software (embeded debian, GRUB, UIs, etc).

Software developers can write software for the many parts of this system and put links on this page to those components.

Writers can produce articles about Debian on smartphones in emails to the relevant Debian mailing lists, blogs, web pages and for the general media.

Artists can create the graphics and multimedia for Debian on smartphones.

Packagers can put it all together so people can download and install it on their smartphones.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for thinking. Thanks for all contributions you make. Let's all work together to enable Debian to fulfil its promise as "The Universal Operating System".

Use of the Debian bug tracking system

Bugs related to Debian on mobile devices may have usertags with the user debian-mobile@lists.debian.org. These usertags are currently defined:

Contact

If you want to chat about Debian mobile user interfaces, please join the #debian-mobile IRC channel on irc.debian.org or subscribe to the debian-mobile mailing list. If you are interested in kernel, bootloader or middleware related issues you might want to join the #debian-arm IRC channel instead. Other discussions will be appropriate to have on these lists instead: debian-embedded debian-arm debian-kernel debian-cd debian-devel android-tools-devel

Meetings

People

Here are some people interested in running Debian on mobile devices.

Name

IRC nick

Hardware owned

Willing to

Wishlist

Paul Wise

pabs

dead Openmoko FreeRunner

Offer advice

Didier Raboud

OdyX

Openmoko FreeRunner

Get paid to work towards Debian on Mobile devices :-p

Sicelo Mhlongo

Sicelo

Nokia N900, Motorola Droid 4, Librem 5

Help with testing and basic software/kernel hacking

Improved support for Nokia N900, Droid 4, and Librem5

Alishams Hassam

Zeroedout

Openmoko FreeRunner, Google Nexus One

Help maintain wiki, file bugs, test new things

Mainline FR support, QtMoko in Debian, Debian on the Nexus One, SHR on a Debian base

Timo Jyrinki

Mirv

GTA04, Nokia N9, Nokia N950, LG Nexus 4, Jolla

Maintain some of the FR stuff, maybe do something to put Debian on N9, etc.

More productized stuff via FSO, oFono etc. packaging to support more phones

JonasSmedegaard

jo0nas

?PinePhone Pro, Purism Librem 1 rev. C, Openmoko FreeRunner, Nokia N900, misc. Samsung Galaxy S models

Improve ways to bootstrap, test

more stuff packaged in mainline Debian - with sensible defaults

Jonathan Michalon

johndescs

Samsung Galaxy Note 1

test, learn stuff, help

Have Debian in dualboot with Android and be able to do all basic tasks from it.

Philipp Hug

hug

Nokia N900, N9, various Android devices

Maintain mobile-related packages, test

Debian on Android

MichaelDorrington

-

N900, GTA04

Test

Debian being Pocket Computer (aka Smart Phone) friendly

Lukas Maerdian

slyon

GTA04, GTA02, Palm Pre

Develop FSO, bootstrap Debian for new devices

Nice UI based on FSO and Debian for GTA04.

Tomas Caram

Tomich

Moto A1200r, Samsung Galaxy S (I9000b)

test, learn stuff, help, compile, make scripts

...

Eva Ramon

eramon

Nokia N9, Nokia N900, Galaxy Note 10.1

Package mobile software, test, help with the installer

chroot Debian on Android, dual boot

David Derby

dderby (freenode)

N900, N950, Droid 4, Nexus 5, ?PinePhone prototype shipping soon

Continue to improve DebiaN900 scripts Contribute to Maemo Leste

Mainline Linux running well on a variety of phones

Martin

xmpp:debacle@debian.org

GPD Pocket,
?Librem5 dev board,
?PinePhone Mobian edition,
hopefully soon: Pyra

play with Debian on that devices

run unchanged Debian on that devices

?kgoetz

Kamping_Kaiser (rarely on irc.debian, usually free node)

N900, 2x Openmoko FreeRunner, various android devices

Test things

An N900 experience on newer devices and newer Debian

Ida Boustead (?HezuKame)

No IRC, but hezukame@gmail.com

Samsung Galaxy S8+ (SM-G955F) Exynos8895

Port Debian to my phone and maintain it.

To be able to fully replace Android with Debian as my main OS on my phone.

Danny Colin

sdk

Pinephone Ubports CE / Pinephone Mobian CE

Bug hunting

Using Debian on Pinephone as my daily driver

Guido Günther

agx_

?Librem5 / N900 / ?WeTab

Work towards using Debian daily on my mobile devices

Russell Coker

?Librem5 PinePhonePro

Work towards using Debian daily on my mobile devices

To have lots of Debian applications work well at lower resolution and lower screen size

PhilHands

fil

Librem5, 2x OnePlus 6 (and collecting dust: Openmoko, a few N900's)

Use Debian for the majority of my mobile needs

Have a working phone I can nala upgrade, and that can run for a full day

Groups

Howto

Learn software development. Port low-level stuff to a device. Package some middleware. Package a user experience. Package applications that can deal with small screens and touch input. Build images for users to flash onto the device. Get hardware to developers.

Articles

Learning

At various stages you will need to learn some of the following. This can be done at the same time as working on Debian for smartphones.

Porting

Pick a specific device. Get support for it into a bootloader (u-boot/etc), mainline Linux. Ask relevant teams to build linux/bootloader packages that work on your device. Port the debian installer to the device.

This is most of the work. It is important to get your changes into Linux/u-boot mainline otherwise Debian will not be able to support your device since the Linux kernel team for Debian will not add non-mainline drivers/patches to Debian kernels and therefore you won't be able to support Debian on the phone you care about. It will be made easier since the Android drivers probably already exist and can be ported to mainline Linux. Some hardware vendors will be violating the GPL and not releasing drivers/patches. You might be able to get the code by contacting them or getting the Software Freedom Conservancy or gpl-violations.org involved.

Middleware

Pick some middleware, join the packaging group for it or package it for Debian and look for some sponsors.

UI

Pick a UI or create a new one, create a team, start packaging it for Debian and look for sponsors.

There are numerous existing FLOSS user experiences for mobile devices. As the universal OS, Debian should aim to support several of these.

Applications

Package some touch-friendly applications.

Images

Talk to the Debian installer, live and CDs teams about building daily, weekly and release images that people can flash onto their phones. This could significantly change the way Debian images are built so it will require a fair bit of discussion first.

Other tips

If you can get hardware into the hands of kernel developers that would help a lot. You might find some hardware manufacturers who are willing to give out some free samples to developers.

Install howtos

Software

Jailbreaking, Rooting, Unlocking, Exploits

Installers

Flashers and USB booting

Firmware

Bootloader

Kernel

Drivers

Middleware

User interface

Discontinued:

Application Repositories

Applications Suitable for Mobile Use

Distributions

Android-based

Devices

General hardware support pages for various groups/distros: FSO oFono SHR Replicant (targets) OmniROM (unofficial ports) LineageOS Mer webOS Ubuntu Touch Firefox OS Gentoo postmarketOS (wishlist) AsteroidOS NixOS CalyxOS DivestOS Droidian

Porting guides for various groups/distros: oFono SHR (Android devices) Replicant (1, 2, 3) OmniROM LineageOS Mer webOS Tizen SailfishOS Ubuntu Touch FirefoxOS (2). postmarketOS AsteroidOS NixOS Halium Droidian

Name

Codename

Bootloaders

Linux

Operating systems

Other

Gemini

Gemini

LK

fork

Android, Debian

blobs in GSM,WiFi,BT, GPS; only BT not working; Android specific repo

Cosmo Communicator

Cosmo_communicator

LK

fork

Android, Debian, UBPorts

blobs in GSM,WiFi,BT, GPS; only BT not working; UBPorts lacks physical keyboard drivers; CoDI (front display) not supported under Linux; Android specific repo

Openmoko Neo 1973

gta01

Debian more

Openmoko Neo FreeRunner

gta02

qi or forked u-boot

Needs upstreaming

Debian QtMoko SHR Android-on-FreeRunner more

blobs in WiFi, GPS, GSM. GSM isolated, semi-supported by OsmocomBB. Emulated by forked qemu.

Golden Delicious Letux 2804

gta04

u-boot branch

being upstreamed

Debian SHR Replicant

blob sent to WiFi

Neo900

gta04b7

u-boot branch

Being upstreamed 1 2

Debian SHR Replicant Maemo

Neo900 project was discontinued

Samsung Galaxy S

galaxysmtd

proprietary, locked

Replicant

Debian Replicant

blobs sent to WiFi, BT. modem not isolated. XDA info

Samsung Nexus S

crespo

proprietary, locked

Android

Replicant Ubuntu

blobs sent to WiFi, BT. modem not isolated.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

n8000

OpenSGN

Debian Ubuntu

Samsung Galaxy S3 / Note II

midas ( SHV-E210K/L/S / GT-I9300 / GT-I9305 / GT-N7100 / GT-N7105 )

u-boot branch

Being mainlined

Samsung Galaxy S5

aboot (Samsung eMMC unlock

Samsung Galaxy S8+

SM-G955F (Exynos8895)

TBC

TBC

Debian

Work in progress

Nokia 770

SU-18
Sputnik

Mainline board file

Debian Inferno

Nokia N800/N810

gagarin/selene

Being upstreamed

Debian Mer

Nokia N900

RX-51
Rover

u-boot upstream

Being upstreamed

Debian Maemo 5 (Fremantle) Maemo Leste SHR NITDroid Mer DeforaOS (NetBSD) Devuan postmarketOS

Nokia N9

RM-696
Lankku

Ubiboot N9 Easy Boot

N9 Kernel update project Being upstreamed

Debian MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan Mer Sailfish OS Devuan Maemo Leste postmarketOS

Nokia N950

RM-680
Dali

Ubiboot N9 Easy Boot

Being upstreamed

Debian MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan Mer Sailfish OS Devuan Maemo Leste

HTC Nexus One

Debian

Motorola Droid

Debian

Motorola Droid 4 XT894

maserati

Safestrap utagboot kexecboot

Being upstreamed

Android, Linux, Debian Devuan Maemo Leste postmarketOS

Motorola Moto X (2nd generation)

aboot (unlock

Android kernel + GNU userland

Android

ASUS Nexus 7

Ubuntu Mer Replicant

LG Nexus 4

mako

Sailfish OS LineageOS Ubuntu

Geeksphone Peak

fork

Fedora

Jolla

?

Android kernel + GNU userland

Sailfish OS

Aakash

being upstreamed

Debian

Dragonbox Pyra

will run a custom Debian by default

Zero Phone

runs Raspbian by default

Librem5

Debian and derivatives like PureOS

Will be released at 2019

Necunos NC_1

Being upstreamed

Maemo Leste, LuneOS, Replicant, Plasma Mobile, postmarketOS, Nemo Mobile

Scheduled for release in 2019.

PinePhone

Mainline board file

(too many to list here)

PinePhone Pro

Mainline board file

(too many to list here)

Golden Delicious Pyra Phone

GTA15

Being upstreamed

Debian-based

Events

News

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2011

2010

References:

Obsolete / Unclassed

Android_%28operating_system%29

- Permanent root for the Samsung Intercept http://forum.sdx-developers.com/intercept-development-2-2/sprint-intercept-wfroyo-permanent-root-using-epic-expoit/

[HOWTO] Rooting your Samsung Intercept the Easy Way http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=890460 Samsung Intercept > Intercept Android Development http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?s=b6120fd362a554792ba666425dc5e102&f=901