The postmarketOS project has released postmarketOS 26.06, codenamed “Alpen Avocado,” the latest version of its Alpine Linux-based mobile operating system, now based on Alpine Linux 3.24.
This update includes GNOME 50 for desktop, replacing GNOME 49 from the previous release. The mobile variant remains on GNOME 48, with fixes for crashes and busy looping.
KDE Plasma Mobile is now at version 6.6.5, up from 6.5.6. Phosh, a graphical user interface designed specifically for Linux-based mobile devices built on GNOME technologies, has been updated from 0.51 to 0.55 and now uses greetd and phrog instead of the custom tinydm display manager.
Moreover, this release features a new boot animation. postmarketOS 26.06 replaces pbsplash with Plymouth, providing an updated splash screen with animated logo segments. Users can now press Esc or the power button on phones to view the boot log, and the splash screen can be rotated on devices with incorrect orientation.
Systemd has been updated as well from version 257 to 261. Keep in mind that new installations now use sudo-rs as the default, replacing doas.
For Plasma desktop users, postmarketOS now uses Plasma Login Manager instead of SDDM on the systemd variant. Additionally, postmarketOS 26.06 includes an upgraded ModemManager, adding features such as cell broadcast support.
Regarding device support, the community category includes Fairphone 4, Google Pixel 3A and 3A XL, OnePlus 6 and 6T, PinePhone, PinePhone Pro, Pinebook Pro, Purism Librem 5, Nokia N900, Samsung Galaxy S9, Xiaomi Poco F1, Lenovo ThinkPad X13S, and various Chromebook and Qualcomm-based device families.
On top of that, this release includes 254 devices in the testing category. Five devices were moved from the community to the testing category due to outdated or unmaintained kernels: ASUS MeMO Pad 7, Microsoft Surface RT, NVIDIA Tegra ARMv7, Samsung Chromebook, and Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 Pro.
Devs say, however, that several known issues remain unresolved. These include the pmOS_root partition appearing nearly full after reflashing, a Phosh startup prompt for /dev/loop1p2, brightness artifacts on the Fairphone 5, loud audio on the Fairphone 3, no splash screen on the Librem 5, and a PinePhone DTMF tones issue pending user confirmation.
For additional details, see the announcement.
New users ought to follow the official installation documentation and consult the wiki for device-specific guidance. Existing users should use the upgrade guide.
Image credits: postmarketOS
