PostmarketOS

Last updated
postmarketOS
PostmarketOS logo.svg
Phosh homescreen 2.png
postmarketOS running Phosh
Developer postmarketOS open-source community
OS family Linux (Unix-like)
Working stateActive
Source model Open source
Initial release26 May 2017;8 years ago (2017-05-26)
Latest release 25.06 (the one with systemd) [1] OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg / 22 June 2025;2 months ago (22 June 2025)
Repository
Marketing targetOperating system replacement for Android and other mobile devices
Available inEnglish, Czech, German, French, Italian, Spanish, etc.
Update methodapk-tools (package manager)
Package manager apk-tools (from Alpine Linux)
Supported platforms ARM, ARM64, x86, x86-64
Kernel type Monolithic (Linux)
Default
user interface 		GNOME, Phosh, Sway, Sxmo [2]
Official website postmarketos.org

postmarketOS (abbreviated as pmOS) is an operating system primarily for smartphones, based on the Alpine Linux distribution. [3] [4] [5] [6]

Contents

postmarketOS was launched on 26 May 2017 [4] [7] with the source code available on GitHub before migrating to GitLab in 2018. [8] It is capable of running different X and Wayland based user interfaces, such as Plasma Mobile, [9] [10] MATE, GNOME, and XFCE; [11] later updates added support for Unity8 and Phosh. [12] It is also capable of running Docker, if the device specific kernel has cgroups and relevant configs enabled. [13] The project aims to provide a ten-year lifecycle for smartphones. [14]

History

Oliver Smith started developing postmarketOS in 2016. [15]

Architecture

Unlike many other projects porting conventional Linux distributions to Android phones, postmarketOS does not use the Android build system or userspace. [16] Each phone has only one unique package, and flashable installation images are generated using the pmbootstrap tool. [4] The project intends to support the mainline Linux kernel on all phones in the future, instead of the often outdated Android-specific fork, to reduce the potential for security exploits. [4] A few devices can boot into the mainline kernel already. [17] [18] The project aims to support Android apps, originally through the use of Anbox, which was replaced by Waydroid since postmarketOS v21.12. [19] [20]

Alpine Linux was chosen as the base distribution due to its low storage requirements, making it more suitable for older devices. Excluding the kernel, a base installation takes up approximately 6 MB. [21] [4] [22] In March 2024, the maintainers announced that postmarketOS would migrate from OpenRC to systemd as its init system for select user interfaces. [23]

State of development

As of 2025, it is work-in-progress software intended for power users. [24]

Features

Different tools have been published by the project, including:

Device support

As of May 2020, over two hundred devices are able to boot the operating system, including 92 with WiFi support. [30] [31] This includes many smartphones and tablets that originally ran Android, [32] [33] as well as some Linux-based Nokia smartphones, such as the N900 [34] and N9. [35] [17] After Corellium's Project Sandcastle ported the Linux kernel to some iPhone versions, postmarketOS was also seen to boot on it, although no persistent flashing is supported at the moment. [36] As of May 2021, support for wearable devices (including Google Glass and smartwatches like the LG G Watch) has been improved through integration with the AsteroidOS user interface and work on mainline kernel for the LG G Watch R. [37]

In 2018, no devices were yet able to make phone calls with postmarketOS, [38] although significant efforts were being made in this regard. By 2020, a number of devices were fully or mostly supported, including for phone calls, SMS messages and mobile data. These included the BQ Aquaris X5, Librem 5, Nokia N900, Motorola Moto G4 Play, Samsung Galaxy A3 (2015), Samsung Galaxy A5 (2015), and Wileyfox Swift. [39]

Furthermore, the PinePhone launched in 2020, with postmarketOS Community Edition as a first-party operating system. [40]

Porting to a new device

The development process to make a new device compatible with the operating system consists of creating a phone-specific package using the pmbootstrap tool. For that, the use of the Linux kernel from the device's original manufacturer is often necessary. The source code of the original kernel is often made available by compliance with the requirements of the GPLv2 license, but some drivers necessary for the operation of the device may not be available, and must, therefore, be recreated. [41] [25] Examples include GPU drivers such as Lima, which has a proprietary equivalent in userspace on Android that is not subject to the GPLv2 requirements.

Camera support

Only the PinePhone [42] and few others devices seems to have the camera working. It's in WIP for the Fairphone.

Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over Wifi (Vowifi) support

OnePlus6 is WIP for Volte support. [43]

Supported device list

postmarketOS is supported by various devices. [44]

CodeMeaning
YYes, fully implemented
PPartially implemented
NNot working yet
Untested
-Not applicable -- device does not have feature
DeviceCodenameArchitectureRelease yearCategoryChipsetCPUGPUTypeUSB NetFlashingTouchScreenWiFiFDEBattery3DIMUAudioBluetoothCameraGPSMobile DataSMSCallsUSB-OTGNFC
QEMU amd64qemu-amd64 x86_64 2003MainQEMU Standard PCQEMU VirtualVirgil 3DEmulatorYesYes-Yes---------
QEMU aarch64qemu-aarch64 aarch64 2003MainQEMU ARM Virtual MachineQEMU ARM Cortex-A57Virgil 3DEmulatorYesYes-Yes---------
QEMU ppc64leqemu-ppc64leppc64le2003MainQEMU PPC64 Virtual MachineQEMU POWER10Virgil 3DEmulatorYesYes-Yes---------
QEMU riscv64qemu-riscv64riscv642003MainQEMU RISCV64 Virtual MachineQEMUVirgil 3DEmulatorYesYes-Yes---------
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 / 4Xxiaomi-mido aarch64 2017Community Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 (14 nm)Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 506SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialPartialPartialYesYesYes-
Xiaomi Redmi S2 / Redmi Y2xiaomi-ysl aarch64 2018Community Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 (14 nm)Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 506SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialPartialPartialYesYesYes-
Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plusxiaomi-vince aarch64 2017Community Qualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 (14 nm)Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 506SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesPartialPartialPartialYesPartialYes-
Xiaomi Redmi 4 Primexiaomi-markw aarch64 2016CommunityQualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 (14 nm)Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 506SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesPartialPartialPartialYesYesYes-
Xiaomi Redmi 2xiaomi-wt88047 aarch64 2015CommunityQualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 (28 nm)Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYesYes-
Xiaomi Pocophone F1 / POCO F1xiaomi-beryllium aarch64 2018CommunityQualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10 nm)Octa-core (4x2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)Adreno 630SmartphoneYesYesYesYesPartialYesPartialYesYesYesYesPartialPartialPartialPartialPartialNo-
Xiaomi POCO X3 NFCxiaomi-surya aarch64 2020CommunityQualcomm SM7150-AC Snapdragon 732G (8 nm)Octa-core (2x2.3 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver)Adreno 618SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesPartialYesNoNoYesYesYesYesYes
Xiaomi Mi Note 2xiaomi-scorpio aarch64 2016CommunityQualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 821 (14 nm)Quad-core (2x2.35 GHz Kryo & 2x1.6 GHz Kryo)Adreno 530SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesPartialPartialYesNoPartialYesPartialNoNoPartialNoYesYes
Xiaomi Mi A2 Litexiaomi-daisy aarch64 2018CommunityQualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 (14 nm)Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 506SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialPartialPartialYesPartialYes-
Xiaomi Mi A1xiaomi-tissot aarch64 2017CommunityQualcomm MSM8953 Snapdragon 625 (14 nm)Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 506SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoPartialPartialYesPartialYes-
Xiaomi Mi 9T / Redmi K20xiaomi-davinci aarch64 2019CommunityQualcomm SDM730 Snapdragon 730 (8 nm)Octa-core (2x2.2 GHz Kryo 470 Gold & 6x1.8 GHz Kryo 470 Silver)Adreno 618SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesPartialYesPartialPartialYesYesYesYesPartial
Wileyfox Swiftwileyfox-crackling aarch64 2015CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)Quad-core Cortex-A53 1.2 GHzAdreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYesPartial-
SHIFT SHIFT6mqshift-axolotl aarch64 2020CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 845 (SDM845)Octa-core (4x 2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold

4x 1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)

Adreno 630SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoNoYesYesYesNoNo
Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini Value Editionsamsung-serranove armv7 2015CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)4x 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartial-YesYesNoYesYesYesYes--
Samsung Galaxy S IIIsamsung-m0 armv7 2012CommunitySamsung Exynos 4412 QuadQuad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9Mali 400 MP4SmartphonePartialYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialPartialPartialNoNoNoNoYes-
Samsung Galaxy Grand Maxsamsung-grandmax armv7 2015CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)4x 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesNoYesYesYesYes-
Samsung Galaxy E7samsung-e7 armv7 2015CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)4x 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesNoYesYesYesYesYes
Samsung Galaxy Core Prime VE LTEsamsung-coreprimevelte aarch64 2014CommunityMarvell PXA19084x 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Vivante GC7000ULSmartphoneYesYesYesPartialPartialYesNoNoNoNoPartialNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
Samsung Galaxy A5samsung-a5 aarch64 2014CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)4x 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYesYesYes
Samsung Galaxy A3 (2015)samsung-a3 aarch64 2014CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)1.2 GHz Quad ARM Cortex-A53Adreno A306SmartphoneYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Purism Librem 5Purism-librem5 aarch64 2020CommunityNXP i.MX8MQ4x 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53Vivante GC7000LiteSmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesYes-
PINE64 PinePhone ProPine64-pinephonepro aarch64 2021CommunityRockchip RK3399S4x 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53

2x 2Ghz Cortex-A72

Mali-T860 MP4SmartphoneYes-YesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesPartialPartialNo-
PINE64 PinePhonePine64-pinephone aarch64 2020CommunityAllwinner A644x 1152 MHz Cortex-A53Mali-400 MP2SmartphoneYes-YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesYes-
OnePlus 6Toneplus-fajita aarch64 2018CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 845 (SDM845)Octa-core (4x 2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold

4x 1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)

Adreno 630SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesPartialPartialYesYesPartialPartialPartial
OnePlus 6oneplus-enchilada aarch64 2018CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 845 (SDM845)Octa-core (4x 2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold

4x 1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver)

Adreno 630SmartphoneYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialPartialPartialPartialPartialPartialPartial
Motorola Moto G4 Playmotorola-harpia aarch64 2016CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)Quad-core 1.21 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesNoYesYesYesYesPartial
LG Optimus Vulg-p895 armv7 2012CommunityNvidia Tegra 3 (AP33)Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A9Nvidia ULP GeForce GPU 12 coresSmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesPartialYes
Lenovo A6010lenovo-a6010 aarch64 2015CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesYesYesYesPartial-
Lenovo A6000lenovo-a6000 aarch64 2015CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916)Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes--
Google Pixel 3agoogle-sargo aarch64 2019CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 670 (SDM670)Octa-core (2x2.0 GHz 360 Gold

6x1.7 GHz Kryo 360 Silver)

Adreno 615SmartphoneYesYesYesYesPartialYesPartialYesYesPartialYesPartialPartialYesYesPartialNoPartial
Fairphone 4fairphone-fp4 aarch64 2021CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 750G (SM7225)Octa-core Kryo 570Adreno 619SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesNoYesYesNoYesNoNoYesYesPartialYesNo
BQ Aquaris X5bq-paella aarch64 2015CommunityQualcomm Snapdragon 412 (MSM8916v2)Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53Adreno 306SmartphoneYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes-
Xiaomi Redmi Note 8xiaomi-ginkgo aarch64 2019TestingQualcomm SDM665 Snapdragon 665 (11 nm)Octa-core (4x2.0 GHz Kryo 260 Gold & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo 260 Silver)Adreno 610SmartphonePartialYesNoYesNoYesNoNoNoNoYes-
Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5google-homestar aarch64 2021TestingQualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 (SC7180P)2x Kryo 468 Gold

6x Kryo 468 Silver

Adreno 618TabletYesYesYesYesNoPartialNoPartial

See also

References

  1. ↑ "v25.06: the one with systemd". 22 June 2025. Retrieved 23 June 2025.
  2. ↑ "edge/generic-x86_64 - postmarketOS // Official Images". images.postmarketos.org. Retrieved 2024-11-22.
  3. ↑ Staff, OSNews. "100 days of postmarketOS". www.osnews.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Aiming for a 10 year life-cycle for smartphones". postmarketos.org.
  5. ↑ "PostMarketOS Saves Old Smartphones". Hackaday. 2018-01-09. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  6. ↑ DistroWatch. "DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD". distrowatch.com.
  7. ↑ Ward, Craig (3 January 2018). "PostmarketOS team makes progress towards goal of 10 year smartphone lifecycle - NotebookCheck.net News". Notebookcheck.net. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  8. ↑ "postmarketOS is #movingtogitlab". postmarketos.org.
  9. ↑ "Get Plasma Mobile". plasma-mobile.org.
  10. ↑ Shah, Bhushan (20 November 2017). "14:00 Plasma Mobile". Akademy 2017.
  11. ↑ Verma, Adarsh (2 January 2018). "postmarketOS--A Linux Distro For Smartphones--Now runs Plasma/Lune UI/Xfce On Real Devices".
  12. ↑ "600 days of postmarketOS".
  13. ↑ "User talk:Docker - postmarketOS". wiki.postmarketos.org. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  14. ↑ "Linux-based postmarketOS project aims to give smartphones a 10-year lifecycle". Linux Today. 2017-08-17. Archived from the original on 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  15. ↑ Vervloesem, Koen (July 3, 2024). "PostmarketOS: Linux for phones and more". LWN.net . Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  16. ↑ "PostmarketOS: Linux for phones and more [LWN.net]". lwn.net. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
  17. 1 2 "219 days of postmarketOS". postmarketos.org.
  18. ↑ Brown, Eric (29 September 2017). "New mobile Linux contenders keep the dream alive".
  19. ↑ "postmarketOS // in 2020-02". postmarketos.org. Retrieved 2020-04-07.
  20. ↑ "Anbox - postmarketOS".
  21. ↑ "Librem 5 Leads New Wave of Open Source Mobile Linux Contenders | Linux.com | The source for Linux information". Linux.com. 2017-09-29. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  22. ↑ "postmarketOS is a Touch-Optimized Linux Distro for Portable Devices". Xda-developers.com. 2017-09-05. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  23. ↑ Proven, Liam (11 March 2024). "Linux for older phones postmarketOS changes its init system". The Register. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
  24. ↑ "postmarketOS // State of postmarketOS". postmarketOS. Archived from the original on 6 March 2025. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  25. 1 2 Chapman, Christian (2017-08-17). "Porting PostmarketOS to the Motorola Photon Q". Public.asu.edu. Archived from the original on 2017-10-28. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  26. ↑ "pmbootstrap: Sophisticated chroot/build/flash tool to develop and install postmarketOS". postmarketOS. 2018-01-27. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
  27. ↑ "Mobile - Debian Wiki". Wiki.debian.org. 2017-12-31. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  28. ↑ "SDL2 On-screen Keyboard". postmarketOS. 2017-12-31. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
  29. ↑ "SDL2 charging application for the initramfs". postmarketOS. 2017-12-23. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
  30. ↑ "Supported devices". 16 May 2020.
  31. ↑ "postmarketOS now boots on over 200 phones and tablets". 16 May 2020.
  32. ↑ "Why Mobile Linux Fails - Datamation". www.datamation.com. 11 September 2017.
  33. ↑ "Weekly Linux News – January 2, 2018 Lunduke.com". Archived from the original on April 20, 2018. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
  34. ↑ "Telefonni revoluce se blizi | OpenAlt 2017 - video zц║znamy a slajdy". Superlectures.com. 2017-11-05. Retrieved 2018-01-29.
  35. ↑ "Devices - postmarketOS". wiki.postmarketos.org.
  36. ↑ "Running postmarketOS on iPhone 7 – project-insanity.org". 16 April 2020. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
  37. ↑ "postmarketOS is finally coming to wearables". TuxPhones. 3 May 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  38. ↑ "PostmarketOS can run on older gadgets but with limited features". 5 January 2018.
  39. ↑ "Devices - postmarketOS".
  40. ↑ "Linux PinePhone 'Community Edition' with postmarketOS: All You Need to Know". 16 June 2020.
  41. ↑ "Porting to a new device - postmarketOS". wiki.postmarketos.org. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
  42. ↑ "PINE64 PinePhone (pine64-pinephone) - postmarketOS Wiki". wiki.postmarketos.org. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
  43. ↑ "VoLTE support for the OnePlus 6 (#1878) · Issues · postmarketOS / pmaports · GitLab". GitLab. Retrieved 2024-07-13.
  44. ↑ "Devices - postmarketOS Wiki". wiki.postmarketos.org. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
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