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Posts: 634 | Thanked: 3,266 times | Joined on May 2010 @ Colombia
#1
Some of you have already seen my recent rants [1] [2] [3] on how the Xperia X and the Gemini PDA use Linux kernels that originate from AOSP. It's a source of frustration for me that I still can't pick up a mobile phone and install whatever Linux distro I like, as I can with a PC. Whilst I think libhybris is a wonderful achievement, I can't help but think a solution that is tailored towards Android hardware adaptation does not help us in the long term as it embraces Android blobs and encourages the use of old Linux kernels from AOSP. I want to evolve my DebiaN900 project into something bigger but it's just not possible to build a secure OS for mobile devices by using EOL/unsupported Linux kernels from AOSP on Android devices with planned obsolescence.

Let's forget about which devices are supported by CyanogenMod/LineageOS for a moment and think about which devices are actually supported by Linux. I decided to do a bit of investigation to find out what mobile devices have at least some mainline kernel support. I've started by looking at the device trees included in mainline Linux. I've made a list, which may not be complete but at least it's a start.

Only a few of these devices have comprehensive public documentation on what hardware works and what doesn't. I'd like to start documenting the other devices.

I want to hear from anyone who has tried running a mainline kernel on any of these devices where documentation it lacking, even if it's with Android with mainline Linux. I plan to create a wiki page with a table similar to what Mer have done for their libhybris adaptations to provide a simple comparison of what is supported on each device. I'm more interested in documenting mobile phones over tablets and other devices but if anyone fancies helping with those, I won't stop them. :P I don't know if I've found every single mobile device with a device tree in mainline. If you find one I've missed, please let me know.

It should also be noted that mainline Linux also includes support for many SoCs for other popular mobile phones (Samsung Exynos, etc). These have device trees for development boards but are missing device trees for phones. It may not require much effort to get some of these phones working.


Mobile phones (battery powered devices with baseband processor)

TI OMAP

Siemens SX1 - OMAP310: Board
HTC Herald - OMAP850: Board
Nokia N900 (rover) - OMAP3430: Status, DT
Logic/TI Zoom OMAP34x MDK - OMAP3430: DT
Nokia N950 (dali) - OMAP3630: Status, DT
Nokia N9 (lankku) - OMAP3630: Status, DT
LG Optimus Black (sniper) - OMAP3630: DT
Goldelico GTA04A3 - DM3730: Status, DT
Goldelico GTA04A4 - DM3730: Status, DT
Goldelico GTA04A5 - DM3730: Status, DT
Goldelico GTA04A5 with OneNAND- DM3730: Status, DT
Motorola Droid Bionic XT875 (targa) - OMAP4430: DT
Motorola Droid 4 XT894 (maserati) - OMAP4430: Status, DT

Qualcomm Snapdragon

ARMv7

Sony Xperia Z (yuga) - APQ8064: DT
Sony Xperia Z1 (honami) - MSM8974: DT
Sony Xperia Z1 Compact (amami) - MSM8974: DT
LG Nexus 5 (hammerhead) - MSM8974: Status, old status, DT, video
Fairphone 2 - MSM8974: DT, Info
Samsung Galaxy S5 (klte) - MSM8974: DT
OnePlus One (bacon) - MSM8974: Out-of-tree patch

AArch64

Longcheer L8150 (Cherry Mobile One G1, i-mobile IQ II, General Mobile 4G, Wileyfox Swift) - MSM8916: DT
Samsung Galaxy A3 (SM-A300FU) - MSM8916: DT
Samsung Galaxy A5 (SM-A500FU) - MSM8916: DT
Sony Xperia X (suzu) - MSM8956: Coming soon
Sony Xperia X Compact (kugo) - MSM8956: Coming soon
LG Nexus 5X (bullhead) - MSM8992: DT, Info (video, slides)
Xiomi Mi 4c (libra) - MSM8992
Microsoft Lumia 950 (talkman) - MSM8992
Sony Xperia Z5 (sumire) - MSM8994
Huawei Nexus 6P (angler) - MSM8994: DT, Info (video, slides, comments)
Sony Xperia XA2 (pioneer) - SDM630
Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra (discovery) - SDM630
Sony Xperia XA2 Plus (voyager) - SDM630
Sony Xperia 10 (kirin) - SDM630
Sony Xperia 10 Plus (mermaid) - SDM636
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (lavender) - SDM660: Status, DT

Allwinner

Pine64 PinePhone 1.0 (Developer) - sun50i A64: DT
Pine64 PinePhone 1.1 (Braveheart) - sun50i A64: DT
Pine64 PinePhone 1.2 - sun50i A64

NXP/Freescale

Purism Librem 5 DevKit - i.MX8M: DT

Samsung Exynos

Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000) - S5PV210/Exynos3110: Status, DT
Samsung Fascinate 4G (SGH-T959) - S5PV210/Exynos3110: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100) - Exynos4410: DT
Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300) - Exynos4412: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9305) - Exynos4412: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (GT-N7100) - Exynos4412: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (GT-N7105) - Exynos4412: Status, DT

ST-Ericsson NovaThor

Samsung Galaxy S III mini (GT-I8190) - U8500: DT
Samsung Galaxy XCover 2 (GT-S7710) - U8500: DT

MediaTek

BQ Aquaris 5 - MT6589: DT

Samsung S3C24XX

Neo FreeRunner (GTA02) - S3C2442: Board

Intel/Marvell XScale

HTC Himalaya - PXA263: Board
Motorola E680 - PXA270: Board
Motorola A780 - PXA270: Board
Motorola A910 - PXA270: Board
Motorola Ming A1200 - PXA270: Board
Motorola ROKR E2 - PXA270: Board
Motorola ROKR E6 - PXA270: Board
Palm Treo 680 - PXA270: Board
Palm Centro 685 - PXA270: Board
HP iPaq hx4700 series Pocket PC - PXA270: Board
HTC Magician - PXA272: Board
__________________
DebiaN900 - Native Debian on the N900. Deprecated in favour of Maemo Leste.

Maemo Leste for N950 and N9 (currently broken).
Devuan for N950 and N9.

Mobile devices with mainline Linux support - Help needed with documentation.

"Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly." - Henry Spencer

Last edited by wicket; 2020-08-24 at 00:03. Reason: Linux 5.9: Added PinePhone 1.2, Lumia 950, Xiomi Mi 4c, Xperia (Z5, XA2, XA2 Ultra, XA2 Plus, 10, 10 Plus); Can't fit DT links as the post is too long, will migrate to Leste wiki soon
 

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