Update for the Librem 5 Support in Mainline Linux

Miscellaneous

Martin Kepplinger

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Following up on the higher-level report on the state of  the mainline Linux in August 2021 where we announced a “usable” devkit in fully mainline Linux, let’s focus on the phone and see how things look like right now.

As you might know, the latest Linux kernel tree we ship to users contains lots of changes on top of Linus’ mainline release. Over time, we are working on integrating features in mainline Linux kernel while also adding (possibly more experimental) features to our downstream tree. This way our tree is in constant flux and becomes more and more “specialized” over time.

Is the Librem 5 phone now at least “usable” on mainline linux too? Not quite yet, but we’re actively working on exactly that and these changes roughly contain what’s currently missing. Finding solutions that apply to everybody and are beneficial to mainline Linux is not always easy, but that’s fine and ensures we won’t get bored 🙂 For example, said changes linked above, result in a working internal display, audio and phone calls, wifi (but only with the newer SparkLAN WiFi card) various sensors and the selfie camera.

There is not only the PureOS Linux distribution but also Mobian and others that support the Librem 5 phone. One good thing of having a usable mainline kernel for the phone will be that the general Debian arm64 kernel can easily be configured to support the phone and be used by Mobian.

Once these puzzle pieces are put together, probably Debian itself can be usable on the phone, which will make all our lives easier. We’re grateful for all the help from the Debian, Linux and wider development community and hope that many other mobile phone devices will become similarly universally supported.

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Librem MiniIn Stock10 days
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The current product and shipping chart of Purism Librem products, updated on September 2, 2022

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