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Question about Linux mobile
(lemmy.ca)
I have several noob questions about Linux on mobile
- Why can you brick android phone by installing custom ROM. But such thing can't happen on x86? Or how likely is that. From what I read it is because it doesn't have bios and you can overwrite phone hardware drivers how true is that with recent devices? And I assume it is impossible to recower from software bricking?
- Is that true that on Halium kernel distribution you can't use universal packages (flatpak, nix, snap, appimage), only precompiled for its specyfic system only? Is there any bypass of that to use something like apk like on android? Or are there any disadvantages to use it apart from EOL security.
- Is there any good list how to start with Linux on phone? List of devices (probably oneplus 6, pixel 3a, fairphone 4), distros (probably Ubuntu touch, mobian, postmarketOS). The smoothest experience, preferably with dual boot.
- Is there some recomended tablets to test with Linux mobile? It seems preferred way for me considering calling, camera and other issues which are on Linux mobile. Is recomended devices from postmarketos tablet tab?
- Why battery life is worse on Linux than on android, I watched some reviews and they complained about short battery life.
- I watched someone run Linux distros by clicking on android quick settings tray and it opened Linux desktop, but it was not mobile. How it is called and is there a way to run it with plasma mobile?
- Is porting for newer devices getting easier with time or is getting harder?
- How is process of jailbreaking with locked bootloader done? Can it be automated?
- Is there megatread or some wiki with some basic question like these?
Thanks for answers. Sorry for long text.
I'd add to 3 , that most mobile distros have a list of supported devices - postmarketOS Wiki for example.
And about battery optimizations ( 5 ) - Android devices have quite a number of tricks for battery optimizations, such as few levels of sleep - depending on how long the phone wasn't touched - with deepest one being very low power consumption mode with only very basic functions active and occasional data refresh for push notifications of high importance. Mobile Linux isn't yet at that level of optimization, but it will get there eventually.
1 in comments he written that bricking by installing os incorrectly, can be repaired by reinstalling system? https://blorpblorp.xyz/home/posts/https%3A%2F%2Flemmy.ca%2Fpost%2F63446804/comments/https%3A%2F%2Flemmy.dbzer0.com%2Fcomment%2F25574555
2 so halium main disadvantage is only EOL kernel and proprietary drivers? And halium seems pretty similar to 6 point from this post or not?
6 can it be a good method to test waters with Linux on mobile?
8 Even for very old devices, 2 GB ram era tablet? Because it has android 5 or something there is probably plenty of wurneabilies in this version?
(1) sometimes, yes. It really depends 🤷
(2) And some stuff like the camera api is different from what mainline linux uses, so you need a special camera app etc. And the Android kernels lacks some features like virtualisation afaik.
(6) I haven't tried it, but it seems to be mainly for running desktop linux distributions.
(8) Again, device specific. There are basically no standards in the ARM space for that, especially for old Android devices.