Phosh FAQ

Installation / Device support Link to heading

There’s no prominent download link. How do I install Phosh? Link to heading

Phosh is part of all major phone oriented Linux distributions, so pick your favorite one. Here’s some with links to their image downloads:

Also Purism’s Librem 5 phone and Librem 11 tablet come with Phosh preinstalled (and support) by default.

So what phones are supported? Link to heading

Phosh targets “Linux first” devices. That is hardware that is meant to run Linux from the start. Examples are Purism’s Librem 5 or PINE64’s Pinephone. These group of devices currently has the best hardware support like working sensors, camera, audio, modem, GPS positioning, etc.

It also works on some former Android devices that have mainline Linux support (like OnePlus 6/6T or Xiaomi Pocophone F1) but hardware support there varies depending on the actual model. If you want to use such a device check the postmarkeOS Wiki if the functionality you require is already supported.

Can Phosh run on other devices than phones? Link to heading

Absolutely. While phones are the main development target people also use it on small tablets and convertibles. Debian for example ships a phosh-tablet metapackage to make this easy once you have a Debian base installations.

I think my device isn’t supported. What to do? Link to heading

If your device isn’t well enough supported by Linux yet consider contributing to improving the situation. Alternatively have a look at Droidian which uses the Android kernel and some userspace bits underneath to run Phosh on top.

Alternatively get a well supported Linux first device like the Librem 5 or the original PinePhone. These devices are used by many people as their only smartphones, often referred to as “daily driver”.

If in doubt get in touch via the matrix channel (see below).

Project Link to heading

So are you just using GNOME and put another shell on top? Link to heading

Quite the opposite. The Phosh project aims to drive Mobile Linux forward by contributing to the relevant components, adding mobile specific bits where necessary. For that we have contributed / are contributing larger and smaller bits to e.g. iio-sensor-proxy, ModemManager, NetworkManager (and it’s mobile provider info database), glib, libhandy, feedbackd, wlroots, wlr-protocols, Wayland, mesa, the Linux kernel, pipewire, varnam and presage, GNOME and others. See about for on overview of the technology stack and used components.

What’s a good way to contribute? Link to heading

A good first step is to join the Matrix channel. It then depends what you’re interested in. If you want to code scratching tackling one of the things that you think need improvement usually works well (as the motivation to finish it is intrinsic). You can also have a look at the open issues. We also welcome testing of merge requests and documentation improvements.

Getting in touch Link to heading

Where can I ask questions? Link to heading

You can join the phosh development matrix room.

Is there an RSS feed to follow along? Link to heading

Yes. You get these by appending index.xml to the pages, e.g.

blog posts: https://phosh.mobi/posts/index.xml
releases: https://phosh.mobi/releases/index.xml

Where can I get notified about new merge requests? Link to heading

You can join the phosh changes matrix room .

Where can I get notified about new releases? Link to heading

They’re announced on social media (see below) but there’s also a phosh announce mailing list.

We’re on the fediverse at https://fosstodon.org/@phosh

Can I get commercial support or a specific feature developed? Link to heading

The Phosh project itself doesn’t offer commercial services. If you don’t want to ask via the public channels you can mail consultancy at phosh.mobi and we can get you in touch. We won’t forward any details to 3rd parties without your prior consent.

Merchandise Link to heading

I like Phosh and/or Phosh’s logo. Is there any Phosh merchandise like T-Shirts or Hoodies? Link to heading

Yes, head over here. We don’t make any money from this. The full amount goes to SpreadShirt.

Are there stickers too? Link to heading

Yes, you can usually grab them at conferences like FOSDEM and Debconf. If you want to distribute some yourself at your event, write to merch at phosh.mobi.

Website Link to heading

We don’t use any cookies on this site.

Where’s the impressum / site details? Link to heading

See the impressum