Fairphone 6 and PostmarketOS working main camera

8/17/2026 at 10:57:59 PM

The part about getting authorized to test the emergency calling capabilities is cool! I should've expected that would be a thing but I didn't ever consider it.

by varun_ch

8/18/2026 at 2:53:04 AM

Found the pixel modem engineer.

by NewJazz

8/18/2026 at 8:01:18 AM

Ouch.

by ThePowerOfFuet

8/18/2026 at 12:34:53 PM

I feel the votes and excitement in this thread aren't from people with a Fairphone 6 or PMOS.

From the PMOS wiki: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Fairphone_(Gen._6)_(fairp...:

> No internal speakers or microphones are currently working. Media sound (not calls) is working if connecting a Bluetooth or USB audio device.

I got a Fairphone 6 last year, after having a OnePlus 7 Pro which I bought in 2019 and still worked flawlessly, apart from not having received an update in several years.

The Fairphone 6 works. It's slower and more buggy than a 7 year old flagship though. I'll probably use it until it dies in however many years time, but my overall experience with Fairphone has been that I've paid a huge amount for a below standard, poorly supported, but apparently fair phone. The Fairphone forums are a trainwreck too.

I really, really wish Fairphone was better, but the entire company experience is so janky for how expensive the products are.

A prime example: I thought I lost a few eclipse pictures because they weren't showing in the gallery after I took them. I'm pretty certain it's this same bug from over a year ago: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-6-camera-pictures-mi...

Me and my partner both got our oneplus 7 pros at the same time, and hers also lasted. She upgraded at same time and just wanted/needed a phone that works for work, so she opted for the Pixel 9a instead. It's cheaper, faster, more reliable and better supported.

Sorry to rant - it distresses me a lot when good intentions take a lot of money and deliver a relatively subpar product and service. I guess this is the price of principled tech. It's really not great, unfortunately.

by 1dom

8/18/2026 at 3:48:03 PM

> I really, really wish Fairphone was better, but the entire company experience is so janky for how expensive the products are.

Fellow Fairphone user here & I don't really understand this comment. Why did you buy a Fairphone?

As far as I can understand, the main reason anyone would buy a Fairphone is because they want a fair(er) phone. That "fairness" involves reducing profit-driven exploitation - there's an implicit understanding there that that massively increases supply chain cost, right?

It just feels like you're trying to have your cake & eat it too here. Nobody should be comparing Fairphones to a flagship of any era.

by lucideer

8/18/2026 at 1:34:51 PM

There are definitely trade offs with Fairphone but it's unfair (no pun intended) to compare them with a company like Google without mentioning their strong points.

Fairphone does focus on having a better social and environmental impact, this comes as part of the price. It does also focus on repairability which also comes as part of the price. If those are things you do not specifically value (which is fine), that definitely makes their products too expensive in comparison with other manufacturers. The support side could definitely be better but as a small company, I personally thinks it's okay.

I have a Fairphone 4 and I'm happy with it, it's fast, takes good pictures, and just works. It has great support in communities as well. I was able to easily change a part of a Fairphone 3 (dead usb c port) and the experience there was just great, they really made repairs super easy.

by boudin

8/18/2026 at 12:43:45 PM

> No internal speakers or microphones are currently working. Media sound (not calls) is working if connecting a Bluetooth or USB audio device.

See the other blog posts by the same author in the story posted.[1] He's added support for these and other hardware parts for the FP6, currently being upstreamed directly to the Linux kernel.

[1] https://catcrafts.net/posts

by pizzaiolo

8/18/2026 at 1:09:01 PM

Thanks for this. My main hope is that as PMOS become daily-driverable, the nature and number of irritated Fairphone users will quickly make PMOS a better alternative to any of the Androids available on FP6.

If that happens, the resultant hardware/software/freedom combo could be well worth the cost. I hope Fairphone make some big donations to PMOS if this happens - it would not be very fair for the people responsible for a buggy phone get all the money whilst the PMOS people who make it great, fair and open get nothing.

by 1dom

8/18/2026 at 3:10:19 PM

It's a bleak situation. I don't have a Fairphone (after much agonising, I went instead with a used Pixel when I finally decided to retire my previous phone). I love Fairphone's mission and hope they succeed but indeed it is very difficult to justify spending that much on a phone with those specs, particularly when the company is young and so its promises of replacement parts, extended updates, etc, are difficult to assess.

I have played around a bit with pmOS, originally on an early Pinephone (the "Braveheart" model, which was plagued with hardware issues) and more recently on an ASUS MeMO Pad 7 (which at the time was in the "Community" support category but appears to have since been archived by pmOS). Even on devices where it "works", it tends to be slow, buggy, very heavy on battery and some peripherals like GPS and camera very rarely work.

This is absolutely not intended as criticism of the Fairphone, Pinephone or pmOS teams - on the contrary they are doing fantastic and important work. I think the problem is just really hard when you're working against the interests of some of the wealthiest corporations on earth (and governments seem to have zero interest in helping solve it).

by NoboruWataya

8/18/2026 at 1:34:59 PM

I share the same experience with My FP6. I want to love it. But the edges of experience are so rough it pains me damn near every day.

I'm flipping it as soon as Motorola releases their GrapheneOS compatible phone. I hate that I have no other decent options, and that phones are getting bigger and bigger, but I don't really have a choice.

If Apple would be so kind as to release an SE-sized phone again, I'd jump right back. iOS 26 is horrible, but they at least seem to be on the right track to improve things again.

by Telaneo

8/18/2026 at 2:55:35 PM

> but they at least seem to be on the right track to improve things again

Where did you get this impression? It seems to be the opposite:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43243075

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322556

by fsflover

8/18/2026 at 7:57:29 AM

This is awesome stuff. Fully mainstream Linux with a normal userland running on a modern handset with all features will unlock a tremendous amount of change once it's there.

Things like running a distributed database for a community on top of the devices they own, hopefully also running true mesh networking.

by ianso

8/18/2026 at 11:38:05 AM

It's already unlocked on other more open phones. Why do you think this time it will be different?

by megous

8/18/2026 at 12:32:30 PM

I didn't know about the FLX1S+, which looks about as close as to what I want as there is right now.

What I'm looking for is an 8GB phone that I can run Docker on, to host apps like DHIS2 & OpenMRS3 (so a JVM). I have the impression that this isn't easily possible with Halium-based kernels, but I'm not an expert.

Edit: oh and full access to the radio chips, so I can set up mesh networks (and a cherry on top :-))

by ianso

8/18/2026 at 4:28:21 AM

Awesome! There are so many cool things we could be doing with our phones if they weren't locked to a single OS

by iamkonstantin

8/18/2026 at 8:03:05 AM

Genuinely curious, like what cool things?

by squigz

8/18/2026 at 8:46:31 AM

Apologies for self-linking here, but it's not just cool things, in my opinion it could transform humanitarian aid work. I wrote a use-case/short-story about it here:

https://ianso.blogspot.com/2025/11/what-we-dont-have.html

by ianso

8/18/2026 at 5:48:46 PM

I love this. I see this vision, in many forms, yet have trouble articulating in a way that motivates and inspires others, including myself.

I don't think a lack of hardware and software technology is what is lacking, but rather a vision, a dream, a call to action and corresponding courage to act while facing down an invisible enemy that can only been seen by its effects on the world.

Thank you for articulating it clearly. It inspires me to take a step back from building, and consider what I'm building and why.

by manofmanysmiles

8/18/2026 at 11:30:06 AM

Like using your phone as a desktop computer, when it's connected to a screen and keyboard and runs a full desktop OS. Having a full access to all desktop apps, development environments. Also this, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49201496.

Also, choosing the OS means freedom to choose the interface you like or develop your own (or to pay somebody to do that for you). Freedom to not be in walled gardens.

by fsflover

8/18/2026 at 1:54:06 PM

I suppose it would be relatively slow and how too little memory to be usable for programming, for example.

by codedokode

8/18/2026 at 2:09:16 PM

You know, we used to develop on computers with less than a Gig of RAM. A phone with 6/8/12 GB should be plenty enough to to do some development on. Or even less if you don't need to compile.

Seriously, you can run the windows version of GTA V on a phone. It runs pretty ok as well.

by dminik

8/18/2026 at 9:35:28 PM

I have no troubles compiling most stuff on a phone with 3GB RAM. I even worked on Mesa on it once when I was too lazy to set up cross-compilation. I only struggled with OOMs on some Rust apps so far (and I haven't even had zram set up sensibly back when I tried them, so maybe these would work now).

by seba_dos1

8/18/2026 at 12:07:36 PM

We don't need multiple OSs for that. One unlocked and FOSS OS is enough.

by jhasse

8/18/2026 at 6:31:24 PM

Just of the top of my head:

Running Firefox with uBlock.

Installing any app I want, not just the ones Apple allows.

Faking GPS data to hide my location from spyware that "requires" location permissions

(To be fair, you can do these on Android "for now", but Google is actively working hards towards the more locked-down Apple "experience")

by mmh0000

8/18/2026 at 10:34:57 AM

like running K8s on your old phones?

by 9wQJs3wWewQk

8/18/2026 at 8:20:15 AM

Calling our friends, maybe? No idea; I've tried desktop Linux on phones years prior and besides maybe being a potential portable cyber security rig it was only a cool oddity.

by spaqin

8/18/2026 at 11:58:24 AM

I was recently working on porting PMOS to Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro, though switched to NixOS due to much faster update cycle. I got much further than I thought I would (though this was mostly possible due to LLMs without them it would waaaay longer), fixed everything including cameras except mic working in calls. Still bummered about that because I really wanted to try daily driving linux phone but alas not lucky.

I wish alternatives like Fairphone or other linux phones step up a game. They have too high a price and too low specs.

by omicronxt

8/18/2026 at 12:12:46 PM

> I wish alternatives like Fairphone or other linux phones step up a game. They have too high a price and too low specs.

Check out the FuriPhone FLX1S, Jolla C2 and the Volla Phone Quintus - they all have decent specs for the price (relatively; the reality is that Linux phones will never be cheaper than mainstream Android phones due to the way the market forces work).

by d3Xt3r

8/18/2026 at 5:36:44 PM

> working on porting PMOS to Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro, though switched to NixOS due to much faster update cycle

As in, Mobile NixOS? How was that?

by yjftsjthsd-h

8/18/2026 at 12:14:48 AM

I see AF algo has some trouble with defocussing a perfectly sharp scene for no reason. :)

Does this HW have access to PDAF pixel data?

by megous

8/18/2026 at 9:43:29 AM

Does ubuntu touch or postmarket os work reliably on the fairphone 6 now, or is this still just components working? Is it possible to use it as a daily driver?

by abc123abc123

8/18/2026 at 6:54:53 AM

What is that bit about Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering at the end? I've never heard of business liability insurance before. Does Germany not have an equivalent of an LLC?

by SkinTaco

8/18/2026 at 7:05:00 AM

He didn't create an LLC he's a 'stichting' which is basically a non profit with a specific goal to achieve.

He doesn't want to create an LLC because he doesn't want anyone to question his motives.

Also this is the Netherlands not Germany :)

by hvb2

8/18/2026 at 3:17:21 PM

A stichting isn't nonprofit without ANBI status. They can do whatever they want with the money afaik (technically: anything in accordance with the bylaws, but they wrote the bylaws)

by Aachen

8/18/2026 at 3:26:12 PM

Business liability insurance is standard practice for those operating a foundation (the post calls it nonprofit but afaik that's not the same thing unless they intend to apply for ANBI status, after which you can donate tax-deductably, at least per my understanding)

I don't know if it's standard for other business types as well, like in a BV (afaik that's what you call LLC). If you're not the only shareholder, it might help prevent legal issues when you make some mistake and it just gets paid from insurance. That's the purpose of it in a stichting anyway (negligence claims; getting into debts where you could allegedly have foreseen that the foundation can't afford it)

by Aachen

8/18/2026 at 7:05:46 AM

That‘s Dutch, and the same sentence mentions Netherlands. Equivalent of LLC exists everywhere, but business insurance still makes sense if you want to stay in business after paying damages.

by ivan_gammel

8/18/2026 at 3:22:33 PM

I’ve recently been demonstrated NixOS running on a Fairphone (in large part due to the PostmarketOS efforts) and was just blown away by how responsive everything was (legitimately the same as any Android phone, comparable to a low-end Android in Waydroid!). What a far cry from the old Pinephone demos!

by solarkraft

8/18/2026 at 1:14:33 AM

Awesome

by mistercheph

8/18/2026 at 4:24:40 AM

wow amazing

by asd000hh

8/18/2026 at 10:14:58 AM

[flagged]

by chinagenie_ai

8/18/2026 at 12:26:14 AM

[dead]

by huflungdung

8/18/2026 at 11:54:42 AM

[dead]

by hn5xz7plcj

8/17/2026 at 10:41:03 PM

[flagged]

by nekusar

8/17/2026 at 10:53:26 PM

I bought a OnePlus 6 for 50 euros from eBay and I can do a ton of things with it already. Plasma is great in mobile, and what did not work I got working pretty fast together with Kimi and DeepSeek.

For example here's patches to get NFC YubiKey working in Secrets app:

https://github.com/pimeys/oneplus6-yubikey-nfc

It is a work in progress but pretty easy to pick things up and fix in this age of agents...

by pimeys

8/17/2026 at 11:05:44 PM

[flagged]

by nekusar

8/17/2026 at 11:35:44 PM

I don't have any reasonable thing to add here, other than it really sucks going through forums and seeing people who go out of their way to put people down. Someone is posting about happily making contribution and getting things working on a device, literally the thing you are angry about not happening; someone is tinkering and getting stuff working and showing their tinkering, and the time is spent to put some nasty put-down so you can try and coerce them out of even trying, or make someone else feel bad if they'd use LLMs in their approach.

Genuinely, I am going to log off Hacker News and not come back here. Or any social media to be honest. The lot of social media is just doing nothing but raising my blood pressure, making me miserable, and making me more afraid to actually go talk about things with people in real life. And it sucks and I ought to know better at this point.

If someone ever sees me use this site again, and scrolls my profile, this is permission to bully me off of using this website :).

by wtp1saac

8/18/2026 at 1:49:06 AM

I didnt say "pimeys sucks".

I said "Using LLMs makes a unmaintainable climate-destroying bug ridden slopfest."

Does an LLM make unmaintainable code? Generally, yes. Its tremendously verbose, with structures strange for humans.

Climate destroying? Depends on the LLM, but if its a US corporate based one, then yes. Just go look at the methane burners and diesel burners needed before power grid hookups years later. Climate devastation for sure.

Bug ridden? #7 on HN is "AI-Generated GitHub Copilot “Autofix” Allowed Compromise of Snowflake's Jira" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331423

All of that defends the slur 'slopfest', which is well deserved.

by nekusar

8/18/2026 at 1:57:30 AM

A few datacenters breaking the law isn't the same as climate destroying, and "if its a US corporate based one"? They specifically said it wasn't.

Whether it's unmaintainable depends on how big it gets. That patch is 200 lines of comprehensible code, it passes. Plus what are we comparing against for maintainability and bugs? Novice code? No code at all? Treat it as a prototype for a valuable feature instead of implying it's worse than useless.

by Dylan16807

8/18/2026 at 3:59:37 AM

You have valid points. But context matters. Today with a 1100$ 32GB AMD GPU someone can run Qwen 3.6 as a model without problem. On the same machine they’re using, or a small server. Almost zero increase to the destruction of the environment. If their house has solar.. even better!

But the slopfest and verbose code is where you’re missing the bigger picture. Model written code can be understood by other models. That means future models could improve that code even more in the future.

But the biggest thing you’re missing? If that code compiles, works, and is secure? The value to people between now and a new model making it better is something gained, not lost.

Progress doesn’t happen over night. But just because it doesn’t, doesn’t mean we stop the presses and write all the books manually because we don’t have the internet yet. It means we work with what we have, derive value from it, to use that value to invest into the future.

by digi59404

8/18/2026 at 2:36:22 AM

Are you somehow against Linux phones? Or do you think your negativity will help make people want to work harder somehow? This is not a place for you to vent.

> I didnt say "pimeys sucks".

I heard "nekusar sucks".

by owebmaster

8/17/2026 at 11:40:01 PM

I agree with your sentiment ; very likely the Fairphone people are restricted by NDAs from the SoC vendor who are the ultimate cause for lack of proper mainline Linux support.

The SoC vendors get Android working, get the drivers going, help do ports or modifications for major customers and hide it all behind NDAs, blobs, sometimes a bunch of hacks and all of it is closed source work.

The postmarketOS guys to their credit are trying to do "proper" mainline work which is admirable but probably frustrating, non-trivial and requires a lot of reverse engineering.

by vrinsd

8/17/2026 at 11:18:08 PM

By "Linux phone", what are your expectations exactly? Because if you talk "only" about the userspace, I have been daily driving Ubuntu Touch since 2019 on a Fairphone 2 and then a Pixel 3a and it is working like a charm. But it is using halium so you still have an Android kernel. So if you also talk about the kernel then yeah Postmarket OS is the closest to this and quite good on Fairphone already, I think some people could daily drive it if they feel adventurous. Then if you talk about 100% free software then indeed, nothing with a working modem is available as far as I know. And if you talk about open hardware then we are clearly not here even if I dream about it...

by flaburgan

8/18/2026 at 7:52:45 AM

> Then if you talk about 100% free software then indeed, nothing with a working modem is available as far as I know

Librem 5 runs an FSF-endorsed operating system, i.e., it's 100% free software in the OS.

by fsflover

8/18/2026 at 7:31:08 PM

Now you're just being intentionally deceptive.

Please stop brigading here.

by handedness

8/18/2026 at 9:17:16 AM

[flagged]

by seba_dos1

8/18/2026 at 7:36:15 PM

You know that's not precisely what they meant.

Please stop brigading here.

by handedness

8/18/2026 at 3:27:51 AM

The problem isn't this developer being lazy or 15 years late, it's that this hardware wasn't built for Linux and only blessed groups (with a lot of money) get access to binary blobs. The FSF has a project to reverse engineer these blobs but it takes time. Same problem Linux used to have with laptops.

If you're looking for a daily driver the most reliable I've seen is the furi phone. Those guys are passionate and have put in a pathological amount of time to getting calls working world wide. They can only pull it off by supporting one phone that they sell.

by twiclo

8/18/2026 at 3:37:05 AM

> If you're looking for a daily driver the most reliable I've seen is the furi phone.

The Jolla C2 (SailfishOS) and Volla Phone Quintus (Ubuntu Touch) are also pretty good daily drivers, only issue is they they're only available in the EU.

Also worth keeping an eye out for the upcoming Comodore Callback (SailfishOS), which is being shipped worldwide.

by d3Xt3r

8/18/2026 at 6:27:57 AM

Android 1.0 was able to ship to the public with binary blobs. This problem of shipping a device and getting and using binary blobs has long been solved.

by charcircuit

8/18/2026 at 2:19:00 AM

Is there a general consensus why "AI" isn't helping out a lot for a free software phone?

  - AI code generation is way over-hyped and is only 1% capable of the feats that the advocates claim.
  - AI is too expensive to use, and even if it is 100 times less expensive than a human for the same task, there is still too much cost involved.
  - AI are secretly nerfed for free-software projects.
  - No one has bothered to try AI on free-software phone projects yet.
  - Other?

by Jblx2

8/17/2026 at 11:35:35 PM

You're not being negative enough when it comes to non-Android linux phones, and even when it comes to Android, there's just ONE serious project - GrapheneOS which has people working full-time and which will be officially supported on future Motorola flagships.

Unfortunately even that one is missing modern replacements of outdated unsupported AOSP sample apps (like Phone and Contacts, others can be replaced without extra privileges).

by zb3

8/18/2026 at 12:18:05 AM

AOSP is quickly becoming a dead end as Google tightens its grip on Android.

by pizzaiolo

8/18/2026 at 1:04:21 AM

Doesn't LineageOS have modern versions of those things?

I'm not sure it has to have money involved to be serious, and in fact the last time Lineage had money involved it didn't end very well.

by chaosharmonic

8/18/2026 at 1:31:18 AM

Device support is poor, no official GSI versions (with hacks, but still..) are available.

Of course money has to be involved.. try asking them whether device X will be supported or try reporting a bug. First you'll be verbally abused by "BadDaemon" (https://gitlab.com/BadDaemon), then you won't get the answer and your bug (and patch) will just sit in the tracker, because as this incredibly kind guy will explain to you, they're volunteers, they'll fix the bug when they want to, or they will never fix the bug. They might support the device in the future, or they might not and you're not supposed to ask about that unless you want to interact with BadDaemon - this interaction is the only thing guaranteed there.

Of course there are awesome people there, like npjohnson or mikeNG, but a pack of volunteers just can't compete with big tech giants..

by zb3

8/18/2026 at 3:10:02 AM

I mean I guess that's fair (about money I mean), but I more so mean in the sense of official sponsorships or full-on business ventures.

I also, more directly, mean that they do generally have separate versions of core apps.

Anyway I'm not sure that one of the oldest and most longstanding third-party ROMs anywhere in the Android scene would fail to meet the threshold for "serious."

by chaosharmonic

8/18/2026 at 1:01:18 AM

calyx os seems serious?

by dnautics

8/18/2026 at 10:16:08 AM

This aged well

by hnisjafx40

8/17/2026 at 10:43:00 PM

Great job.

My advice would be to not take the frustrating and useless road of a non-profit structure for some things that you do for pleasure.

The for-profit will be simpler and give you more liberties, and if, in the end, you have the good mindset that you want your creations to be shared freely, you can do it anyway. It is a state of mind.

by greatgib

8/18/2026 at 12:04:04 PM

GrapheneOS is a non-profit and they make the most usable, private AOSP operating system.

by Cider9986

8/18/2026 at 1:25:41 AM

Terrible advice

by cure_42

8/18/2026 at 5:47:19 AM

Why? Nonprofits involve a specific governance structure that may not be optimal, especially for small operations.

by NewJazz

8/18/2026 at 7:34:14 AM

That is very region specific, in the Netherlands it's quite easy to operate a non-profit

by duckerduck

8/18/2026 at 10:06:28 AM

I m quite sure that even in the Netherlands, you will have a lot of obligation and reporting that will be imposed on you because of that. To ensure that the non profit is not used as a for profit.

Even in the day to day, like for him to pay himself a salary or do expenses, things could be tricky as administration could easily consider as personal abuse of funds of a non profit.

by greatgib

8/17/2026 at 11:29:12 PM

PostmarketOS can't partner with any OEM/ODM and volunteers have to use hacks to unofficially implement basic Android 1.0 functionality years after a device was released? That's sad to see. This is just lame, drivers should be implemented by those who work on them..

We had Librem 5 which had real OS support that didn't have to rely on third-party volunteers, I wish they released something more modern..

by zb3

8/17/2026 at 11:35:26 PM

> PostmarketOS can't partner with any OEM/ODM

Is there any precedent to believe that such a thing is in fact possible?

> and volunteers have to use hacks

I have terrible news for you about how the official firmware works.

> to unofficially implement basic Android 1.0 functionality years after a device was released?

Conversely, in other places it's far better than Android 1.0. But yes, if you can only start developing against the device after it's released, then your software will be released after the hardware ships plus development time.

> That's sad to see. This is just lame, drivers should be implemented by those who work on them..

My general understanding of the Android ecosystem is that they do write drivers, and you don't want those drivers. I like to imagine that somewhere that out there somebody must be making phones with high quality software, but I've never heard of them.

by yjftsjthsd-h

8/17/2026 at 11:56:57 PM

Murena could, Jolla could, GrapheneOS could do that too (possibly Nexphone also did but we'll find out; only GrapheneOS will give us flagship experience though). Of course these (except Jolla?) are still based on the Android model, but this itself doesn't preclude creating a non-user-hostile OS (of course Google would never certify it), proprietary black-box OEM code only assumes some Android elements, not the end user experience..

> I have terrible news for you about how the official firmware works.

I've seen some e-waste ODM (Tinno) code and their freestyle philosophy on modifying the kernel code.. however they at least have to fix this so that basic functionality works as there's QA and serious bugs will affect certification and they'd not get paid. But here if you report a bug to PostmarketOS (but well, even LineageOS), nothing will happen unless you fix it (and if you submit a patch, it will sit there forever, welcome to FOSS).

> My general understanding of the Android ecosystem is that they do write drivers, and you don't want those drivers

What's wrong with pixel drivers for instance? I'm of course not talking about those written by e-waste ODMs like Tinno who can't even release GPL kernel sources properly.

by zb3

8/18/2026 at 6:11:43 AM

> What's wrong with pixel drivers for instance? I'm of course not talking about those written by e-waste ODMs like Tinno who can't even release GPL kernel sources properly

A couple of issues , back from my sailfish os porting days (haven't touched it in half a decade so things might have changed):

1. You would still need to run a lot of Android user space to make use of these drivers. We had a separate second init system that runs a stripped down version of Android init, starting enough services to make use of these drivers.

2. These binary drivers are tied to the kernel and Android versions that were released with the phone. So if you wanted some of the newer kernel features (back then it was like better container support), you're out of luck.

Usually, all this means you rely on a lot of hacks to fix some bugs... And porting takes a lot of time and effort.

by saidinesh5

8/18/2026 at 4:04:20 PM

One thing that has changed in around that time (maybe) is that GKIs[1] are now standard across (Google-branded) Android devices. Board/SoC support is handled via kernel modules now. The builds are directly from the Android Common Kernel, and an explicit goal is to be able to upgrade kernels on-device. (This has actually been demonstrated on Pixel devices, though I'm not sure how widespread it's been across others.) The Common Kernel also doesn't take contributions, and specifically encourages vendors to just upstream their drivers instead. Not that this fully solves the problems you're describing, but Android as a platform has become more intentional about dealing with kernel fragmentation and making itself more structurally friendly toward mainlining.

For the Pixel specifically, Google actually is working to upstream its hardware drivers and enable devices to boot off mainline. [2]

[1] https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/kernel/gen...

[2] https://lpc.events/event/17/contributions/1445/

by chaosharmonic

8/18/2026 at 7:17:34 AM

> PostmarketOS can't partner with any OEM/ODM

Where did you get this idea from?

by ZenoArrow