There is almost no phones with camera that works on linux. Your best bet is phone that was specifically made for linux like pinephone or something.
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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Linux Phones
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Community about running GNU/Linux on phones. Projects like Ubuntu Touch, Plasma Mobile, PostmarketOS, Mobian etc. Either on former Android phones or hardware like the PinePhone.
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I'll correct by saying that it's with mainline linux that those cameras don't work. Ubuntu Touch uses libhybris to run Android drivers, meaning most supported phones' cameras work there...
Interesting, I didn't know that. Probably because PostmarketOS is based on Alpine (no glibc).
No, it's just that when you use a mainline kernel, you're just not reusing all the Android (often user-space) drivers that make cameras work on Android and due to that stuff, starting from drivers for the SoC camera interface to the camera sensor have to be re-implemented. Whether you are on glibc (e.g., on Debian/Mobian) or musl/Alpine does not really matter.
Also, Camera APIs and the whole "desktop Linux" camera stack (think of things like debayering, white-balance) is nowhere near as developed as what Android has (and that, IUC, Ubuntu Touch can reuse on Halium by plumbing things together).
Chevy thanx for your answer. Regards
A Pixel 3a may be a good choice. It's older, but not huge—and it's very well-supported in Ubuntu Touch (and Droidian, both use Halium/libhybris to re-use the Android kernel drivers), and also in postmarketOS (mainline Linux 6.9.3 as of this message).
On postmarketOS, camera support is not fully there—the front camera is somewhat supported. Also, Wi-Fi is still a bit annoying, calls only work with headset on postmarketOS, so I would say: Use Ubuntu Touch or Droidian for now, and maybe move on to postmarketOS once it's a bit more solid.
linmob thanx for your answer.
That's a tough one.
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Not that many compact phones right now in general. Sub-6" is a dying breed and anything sub-5.5" is almost gone. Best bet would be some older phones but they'll all struggle with the modern web and android apps.
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A solid camera narrows your choice down to Ubuntu Touch. Ubuntu Touch uses a compatibility layer for accessing Android drivers and firmware which PostmarketOS strongly discourages, so the absolute majority of pmOS ports have no working camera at all due to a lot of technical difficulties.
So for now look at what supported devices UBPorts has to offer.
Some Chinese guy thanx for answer.
I think this is the decisive list:
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
Maybe have a look at availability and how old the chipset is. These are mostly old and slow phones. It also doesn't help if RAM/memory is scarce. I don't have a good recommendation of a decent modern phone.
Hendrik thanx for your answer and time.