Mobian

Developer| Mobian community,
Debian community
OS family| Linux
Source model| Open-source
Marketing target| Smartphones, tablets, mobile devices
Available in| Multilingual
Update method| graphical update manager, image-based updates, apt-get
Package manager| apt
Platforms| ARM
Kernel type| Linux kernel
Default user interface| Graphical (Native and Web applications)
License| Mainly the GPL and various other open source licenses
Official website| https://mobian.org, https://wiki.mobian.org/

Mobian is project to add support to standard Debian Linux distribution with mainline Linux kernel on smartphones and tablets.[2] The project was announced 2020.[3] It is maintained by two teams, Mobian, and DebianOnMobile. DebianOnMobile maintains upstreamed parts. Project is publishing install images for PinePhone, PineTab, Librem 5 and for Android devices, with mainline kernel support, OnePlus 6/6T and Pocophone F1.[4]

## Contents

* 1 Software stack
* 2 Supported hardware
* 3 Reception
* 4 See also
* 5 External links

## Software stack

As software stack Mobian uses the Phosh (Phone shell) graphical system developed by Purism, which is based on GTK.[5] It aims to integrate Phosh with Debian, to the extent that the need for Mobian's customizations will be minimized.[6] While all Debian apps can be installed on a mobile running Mobian, some will not work usably on the small-form-factor screen.[7][8] There is a set of apps that have been adapted to work on a small touch screen,[7] and which provide basic functionality. Many are GNOME-based.[9] The project maintains a list of apps that work well on its wiki.[8]

Initially Mobian based on Debian stable, in August 2021 Mobian switched to being based on the Debian testing distribution.[10]

## Supported hardware

Initially Mobian was developed for Librem 5 and Pinephone which were designed to support Linux[11]. In May 2020, Pine64 announced availability of Mobian for PinePhone.[12] On the 18th of January 2021, the Mobian "Community Edition" Pinephone was released, an edition selling with Mobian pre-installed, and donating $10 US of the phone purchase cost to the Mobian developers.[5][13] In September 2020, Mobian announced support for the PineTab, a tablet.[14] Pinephone Pro is an unsupported work-in-progress. [14]

Android devices OnePlus 6/6T and Pocophone F1, with working mainline kernel, are formally supported.[14] Project Droidian uses Mobian on top of Android kernel and Libhybris adaptation layer and works with devices which are supported by UBports.

Juno computer released a x86-based tablet with Mobian preinstalled to preorder in October 2022.[15]

## Reception

In June 2020, writing for Fossbytes, Sarvottam Kumar wrote about how Mobian aims to bring Debian 11 Bullseye to mobile ARM64 devices by creating custom images for installation.[2] Linuxnews said it had a broad variety of apps, but the battery life on a Pinephone, at 4-6 hours, was still too low.[7]

In July 2020, Jean-Luc Aufranc in CNX Software article called it "a work in progress" he said it was "interesting" that it uses Purism's Phosh interface, and while it includes many apps, several functions were broken or unreliable.[11] Marius Nestor of 9to5Linux wrote about availability of Mobian as an alternative to PostmarketOS on PinePhone. He said there were many apps available, but also many were not optimized for mobile devices.[8]

In October 2020, Linuxnews described Mobian as better than Ubuntu Touch but not as up-to-date as Arch on the Pinetab.[16]

In January 2021, Pine64 announced sales of PinePhones with "Mobian Community Edition" installed.[17] Niklas Dierking wrote in heise.de about Pine64's announcement of availability of PinePhones with Mobian in two different hardware configurations, based on Pine64's announcement.[5]

In September 2021, in a detailed review of PinePhone for Hackaday, Bryan Cockfield wrote about experimenting with, and switching to Mobian, or "mobile Debian". He called the ability to SSH into it like any other computer and install software with apt "excellent features" which "worked surprisingly well" for the Kodi media player.[18]

## See also

* Pure OS
* Ubuntu Touch
* Armbian

1. ↑ "Mobian Team / mobian-logo" (in en). https://salsa.debian.org/Mobian-team/mobian-logo.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Mobian OS For PinePhone Aims To Bring Debian Linux To Mobile Devices" (in en-US). 2020-06-20. https://fossbytes.com/mobian-os-for-pinephone-aims-to-bring-debian-linux-to-mobile-devices/.
3. ↑ "There was OS for smartphones based on Debian Linux". https://tadviser.com/index.php/Product:Mobian_(mobile_operating_system).
4. ↑ "devices [Mobian Wiki"]. https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=devices.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 online, heise. "Debian in der Hosentasche: PinePhone Community-Edition mit Mobian vorgestellt" (in de). https://www.heise.de/news/Debian-in-der-Hosentasche-PinePhone-Community-Edition-mit-Mobian-vorgestellt-5029104.html.
6. ↑ "intro [Mobian Wiki"]. https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=intro.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Mobian auf dem PinePhone" (in de-DE). LinuxNews. 21 June 2020. https://linuxnews.de/2020/06/mobian-auf-dem-pinephone/.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Nestor, Marius (2020-07-09). "Mobian Project Wants to Bring Debian GNU/Linux to Mobile Devices" (in en-US). https://9to5linux.com/mobian-project-wants-to-bring-debian-gnu-linux-to-mobile-devices.
9. ↑ Gatti, Matteo (21 June 2020). "Mobian OS sul PinePhone: Debian sbarca sugli smartphone" (in it-IT). Linux Freedom. https://www.lffl.org/2020/06/mobian-os-pinephone-debian-smartphone.html.
10. ↑ "To Bullseye and beyond! // Mobian's Blog". https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/08/11/bullseye-release/.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Aufranc (CNXSoft), Jean-Luc (2020-07-10). "Debian based Mobian Linux OS Brings Librem 5 Phosh Shell to Pinephone - CNX Software" (in en-US). https://www.cnx-software.com/2020/07/10/debian-based-mobian-linux-os-brings-librem-5-phosh-shell-to-pinephone/.
12. ↑ "May Update: PineTab pre-orders, PinePhone Qi charging & more!" (in en-US). https://www.pine64.org/2020/05/15/may-update-pinetab-pre-orders-pinephone-qi-charging-more/.
13. ↑ "What is Mobian? // Mobian's Blog". https://blog.mobian-project.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mobian/.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Kumar, Sarvottam (10 September 2020). "Mobian OS For PinePhone Now Available For Linux Tablet 'PineTab'". Fossbytes. https://fossbytes.com/mobian-os-for-pinephone-now-available-for-linux-tablet-pinetab/.
15. ↑ Wallen, Jack. "Juno Computers Announces New Tablet for Preorder » Linux Magazine" (in en-US). http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/Juno-Computers-Announces-New-Tablet-for-Preorder.
16. ↑ Thommes, Ferdinand (19 October 2020). "PineTab Linux-Tablet mit Mobian und Arch Linux ARM" (in de-DE). LinuxNews. https://linuxnews.de/2020/10/pinetab-linux-tablet-mit-mobian-und-arch-linux-arm/.
17. ↑ "Mobian Community Edition" (in en-US). https://www.pine64.org/2021/01/17/mobian-community-edition/.
18. ↑ By (2021-09-02). "Pining For A De-Googled Smartphone" (in en-US). https://hackaday.com/2021/09/02/pining-for-a-de-googled-smartphone/.

## External links

* Fosdem 2022, 2 Years of Mobian Birth and growth of a mobile Linux distribution

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