Headphones work for me and should as well on Mobian. Calls via Bluetooth do not work yet, not sure how to route the audio to the headsets. But I know there’s some stuff going on and people are working on improving the audio configs, should all be much better very soon.

It’s okay. I like that I can do whatever I want. There are some smaller issues still, but I’m fine with those, considering all the freedom I get.

I mean, I have to set the right SIM card slot and run a command to make Bluetooth work, after every boot, until that is solved. It’s not too bad. Takes me ~25 seconds.

Only annoying issue that is next on my to do list: Have the phone wake up when using an alarm clock. For now I just leave an Android phone next to my bed for that. Soon that will be solved as well. Apparently I just have to get some Systemd configuration right, but have not yet had a closer look.

Overall I am pretty happy with it. Yet I would not give it to my parents and expect them to use it like any other phone.

If you are a nerd who does need an alarm clock or a camera in their phone, or can at least work around that for now, it’s already a usable phone and messaging device.

No idea how that compares to postmarketOS. I have not tried daily driving it, as instead I intend to find issues on Mobian and solve those.

I’m sure you can find another device that can run Linux. :)

• That one uses an SDM845, while the Pixel 3a uses an SDM670. But there’s a Mobian port to that one anyway. Not sure in what state, anyway. You could flash it and find out.
• Camera is probably dead because not all the code has been written yet.
• My background is just playing with Linux since before I was a teen, but I did not know anything about porting to phones until early this year.
• I have some experience with postmarketOS, but more with Mobian as I am more of a Mobian person. I have more exprience with their docs and community than with postmarketOS itself. Many mobile Linux projects depend on the postmarketOS wiki, as they have the best source of information.
• Mobian installation is easy, just flash the images.
• Mobian documentation is somewhat lacking, but I want to improve on that once I’m less busy porting. Can’t do everything at once, of course.

It is to Android apps what WINE is to Windows programs, while Waydroid is to Android apps what something between Docker and a VM would be to server software.

Actually, Waydroid is not too dissimilar from running, for example, an Ubuntu Desktop system in a Docker container on a Debian desktop system, just so you can use snap packages… Instead of installing snapd on Debian. (Not that I want snapd.)

Waydroid is more like an Android container appliance that runs a full Android system, while ATL, as the name Android Translation Layer suggests, translates functions and API calls, used by Android apps, into the appropriate methods of doing things on a regular GNU/Linux system (in contrast to an Android Runtime/Linux system), thereby being much more efficient, more comfortable to use and having the potential of integrating into the system really well.

Let me know how it goes! You might notice an issue I have missed and can then fix. :)

Yup. It definitely is now ready for everyday use, though there are still a few smaller issues I’ve got to fix. But nothing that stops me from using it now.

The only thing special about the Pixel 3a is that I had it already. Maybe it is special in that it is now the smallest Linux phone that is supported by a mainline kernel AND which is actually usable as a phone (for some other phones audio does not work, for example). Some might call a headphone jack something special… or an eSIM, as there are not many Linux phones with an eSIM.

To get involved, I recommend joining the Moban Development Matrix room: #mobian-dev:matrix.debian.social

Pretty sure we can find something where skills in C would be helpful.

Thank you. :)

Have a nice day!

Definitely do! It’s a lot of fun and it feels great to have Mobian on the phone instead of having old Android on it or even a phone in the trash and no phone.

No idea, but you could of course install Waydroid on Mobian. I hope Android Translation Layer (https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer) will at some point get to a state where it is usable as the superior Waydroid alternative for many people.

No idea, but you could of course install Waydroid on Mobian. I hope Android Translation Layer (https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer) will at some point get to a state where it is usable as the superior Waydroid alternative for many people.

Also, I keep some notes up to date over on my Forgejo instance: https://git.erebion.eu/forgejo/erebion/sargo-temp

Yeah, I have. It does not solve the isse.

I’ve tried installing an icon theme. Still no icons. I installed breeze-icon-theme, still the same result.

Edit: I’ve also tried setting it in GNOME Tweaks, but that just made all of Phosh look weird and did not make icons appear in Kasts.

I’m on Debian, that’s the reason I asked whether anyone knows the right Debian packge. :)

For now I use the Flatpak version, but that one has other issues, it does not keep the phone awake and once it suspends Bluetooth gets disconnected as well, which is fiddly.

I really don’t want to break every other program if I can avoid it.

It is, but you still need the app running somewhere.

It does not support the app’s authentication yet, so there would be a noticeable difference with that implemented.

Cool! Well, it’s just a merge conflict. I don’t knoe how to combine the patches. Should be pretty easy for someone that does not need to google for every line of C.

I can give you notes* later on what to do to get to the conflict, then maybe you can resolve it and push the result to some repo? :)

*Just 3 or 4 commands, I think, including the Debian gbp command

Oh, I don’t mind questions. :)

Help: A lot via the Mobian Ports ( #mobian-ports:matrix.org ) Matrix room and the postmarketOS offtopic ( #offtopic:postmarketos.org ) Matrix room.

Sources: Not much there yet. As soon as there are official builds for the Pixel 3a, I will start writing docs. I already have a lot of notes on what I had to do. But first I need to have someone merge the Kernel patches, as I don’t know C, which makes resolving merge conflicts really hard, it turns out. Once that is done, there are just a few smaller merge requests left and builds will appear magically.

The whole process is not that difficult if there are already Kernel patches available. In the case of the Pixel 3a, I only had to clone the sdm670-mainline repo ( https://gitlab.com/sdm670-mainline/linux-patches ) , compile the kernel (two commands) and get a .deb, which I used with mobian-recipes ( https://salsa.debian.org/Mobian-team/mobian-recipes/ ) to build an image. I then wrote a config file for droid-juicer ( https://gitlab.com/mobian1/droid-juicer/-/merge_requests/4 ) which tells it what files on the vendor and modem partitions it should get, then those are copied to /usr/lib/firmware/updates/.

That was easy as dmesg will just tell you what files it cannot load because they are missing. Just find those, write the config, run droid-juicer, reboot… boom. Display, Wifi, LTE and so on working.

Then smaller stuff like udev rules for vibration and an initramfs hook ( https://salsa.debian.org/DebianOnMobile-team/qcom-phone-utils/-/blob/debian/latest/initramfs-tools/hooks/qcom-firmware?ref_type=heads ) so that firmware files get integrated into initramfs and components start to work early during boot.

The most difficult part would be merging the Kernel patches with other patches and resoving the merge conflicts… At least to me, as I don’t know C.

If there are no mainlining efforts for a phone yet, then I don’t know what to do, as that requires a Kernel dev.

For the Pixel 4a you mentioned, there is a postmarketOS port. So this should be doable. ( https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Google_Pixel_4a_(google-sunfish) )

That’s all not that hard, my main difficulty was finding out what to do. Everything I did so far would be an afternoon of work, if I had just found the necessary information much quicker. Instead I spent two weeks, of which 95 % was finding info, lol.

Just join the Mobian Matrix room, we should be able to help you, even though I know far less than the others there…so far. :p

I do hope that’s helpful and I’ll happily try to answer more questions. :)

Kernel mainlining effort for the SoC in thr Pixel 4a: https://github.com/sm7150-mainline/linux