this post was submitted on 23 May 2024
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Linux Phones
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Community about running GNU/Linux on phones. Projects like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, PostmarketOS, Mobian etc. Either on former Android phones or hardware like the PinePhone.
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Pixel5 appears EOL with GrapheneOS though the 5a may be fine ?
Oh is it? It’s one of the cheapest second hand phones I’ve been investigating.
That’s something I don’t understand and would need someone to explain. How can it become end of life on an alternative OS? It’s as if someone was telling me my computer was too old (not not powerful enough) to run Linux.
https://grapheneos.org/releases
But why is it riskier to have an end of life phone? As far as I know, my girlfriend MacBook Pro from 2012 was end of life for macOS (not receiving updates) and I installed Linux on it and it doesn’t seem more at risk than my newer Surface Go with Linux too. Is it different for phones?
Yes it is (sadly) very different for phones.
When an the OS for an Android phone is created, the Linux kernel is forked, and the firmware/drivers for it's hardware components are laid on top (instead of being upstreamed to the kernel). When the manufacturer decides they no longer care about that phone, they stop updating firmware and that will no longer receive updates. You might use a rom that still updates everything else, but these critical parts won't get updated anymore.
The newer Pixel generations get 5-7 years of security updates (IIRC). I believe IOS devices get 5 years.
Android and arm has (/had? I might be partly out of date) a lot of out of tree (not included in the upstream Linux kernel) code which makes booting it on Linux a shit show.
This is also why so few devices are supported by the Linux-phone-OSs.
Thanks for the explanation. It’s a shame as it’s the perfect way to create mountains of e-waste.
I've been wondering this too, thanks!