Currently, many smartphones and other electronic devices come with locked bootloaders, restricting users from fully utilizing their devices. This practice limits the ability to install custom software, enhance privacy, and prolong the lifespan of these devices. Typically, most carriers (Verizon, AT&T, StraightTalk), do not offer any options to unlock the bootloader that would allow the mobile phone to run an Operating System of their choice.

Carriers are not the only offenders. It turns out that OEMs themselves have started to remove the option to unlock the bootloader. Samsung, one of the most popular phone manufacturers out there, has abandoned bootloader unlocking in the U.S. for quite some time now. Nubia is another phone manufacturer that has slowly started to abandon bootloader unlocking by removing the adb (Android Debug Bridge) command that sends a request to the software that tells the phone to unlock itself at the request of the user.

Carriers and manufacturers often resist unlocking bootloaders because it threatens their control over the devices and the software ecosystem. However, they should be held accountable for restricting consumer rights and stifling innovation.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/61869260

https://commerce.jolla.com/

Source

Why this post ?

I've been using a Linux phone for fun for a few months now, and this is all the annoyance that prevent me from being daily-drivable (And some other small thing that I found here and there)

I am using a Redmi Note 9S, I've been mainly on GNOME Mobile because I love GNOME tech, and I am building apps for GNOME too (Which are mobile friendly 🥳)

I also tried Phosh and other DE but I always come back to GNOME. I am using PostmarketOS. There are some striked things, which are the things that got fixed when GNOME 48 was released on PMOS! I might edit this post in the future to say what have been fixed (or do another one, we'll see)

State of Mobile Linux and missing apps:

• no good Bitwarden client
  • GoldWarden just crash and seems abandonned
  • eventhe web app is not responsive...
• Finamp could work well but have no arm build
• No discord app:
  • we have Dissent, which is decent, but login in is aweful and no voice chat support (we can't even see the online status)
• no jellyfin player app:
  • Delfin is decent but seems.abandonned... 😟
• GS Connect works, but needs a tweak and UI is not good on small screen
• No lemmy apps
• waydroid don't have internet by default, we need to run a command everytime we launch it to add a route.
• No good Youtube client (newpipe is bad for the moment and Pipeline just doesn't work OOB
• no tutanota app (no arm build)

State of GNOME Shell

• Saving dialog in.text editor.is not good
• ~~Somewhat laggy compared to Phosh~~ (Not anymore since GNOME 48 🎉 )
• OSK is bad, it needs to be replaceable easily
  • we could have multiple keyboard installed and switch between them
  • No recent emoji view 😭️
  • Since GNOME 48 it doesn't even adapt to the locale now... (I have AZERTY set in the setting but the keyboard is now qwerty)
• Quick setting should be smaller, android style round icon instead, to fit more on small screen (same goes for Phosh)
• We need a OLED theme for GNOME shell mobile
• ~~Accent color doesn't work in the quick settings~~ (Gnome mobile shell use gome 46 as of 21 feb 2025) (Fixed since GNOME 48! 🎉 )
• we need a way to bring up the OSK like on Phosh (holding the botto bar for a sec for example, maybe itcould be customizable too?)
• no app icon in the overview of running app, and sometime its hard to know what app is running, especially when havng multiple instance of the same app
• would be cool to be able to uninstall app from the app grid (phosh got this in 0.45 iirc)
• The power menu when holding the power button just open the quick sretting menu, we need somethng like phosh with a real menu to reboot/turn off the phone
• ~~Some apps don't close correctly and just crash, i will add them here when.I encounter them:~~
  • ~~GNOME Solitaire, after clicking on the topbar menus~~ (Fixed in GNOME 48?)
• auto rotate doesn't work (but it does on Phosh)
• No pattern unlock

State of Phosh

• what is wrong with the emoji keyboard?? it's bad
• gestures are bad, they need to take the same.gesture as gnome shell mobile!!
• We NEED to press the unlock button after typing our code (would be neat to have the code automatically unlock the phone when we enter the same amount of characters as our passcode)
• Haven't used it intensively, especially because of the bad gesture

State of apps

• GNOME Mines needs to be ported to libadwaita and better support smallscreen
• timers in gnome clock are bad (it's just one beep and if the sound is off, it doesn't alert me)
  • alarms doesn't turn off when clicking or swiping the notification.. we need to unlock the phone.... and the buttons to turn off are way too small...
• gnome calculator bring up the keyboard, which is weird, ~~and it goes on top of the actual app keyboard~~ (Doesn't go on top anymore, but still shows up...)
• gnome software have bad UI when clicking on the size of an app to get the details

The obvious but we know this already

• Camera support is rudimental, needs works, and I can't wait.for it to become better!
• No fingerprint sensors support

Device specific : Redmi Note 9S

• camera support (same as above)
• charging indicator doesn't work and battery reporting is hit or miss (go up and down)
• No fingerprint sensors support
• top speaker don't work
• no vibrations

Questions

if you have question about x or y app or any feature that you'd want feel free to tell me in the comments ! :)

or even If I missed things feel free to correct me!

p.s. This list has been made on the linux phone and I'm sorry for the bad english or misspelling of words!

A Linux phone with actually decent specs! Hopefully it actually materializes....