Some of you have already seen my recent rants [1] [2] [3] on how the Xperia X and the Gemini PDA use Linux kernels that originate from AOSP. It's a source of frustration for me that I still can't pick up a mobile phone and install whatever Linux distro I like, as I can with a PC. Whilst I think libhybris is a wonderful achievement, I can't help but think a solution that is tailored towards Android hardware adaptation does not help us in the long term as it embraces Android blobs and encourages the use of old Linux kernels from AOSP. I want to evolve my DebiaN900 project into something bigger but it's just not possible to build a secure OS for mobile devices by using EOL/unsupported Linux kernels from AOSP on Android devices with planned obsolescence.

Let's forget about which devices are supported by CyanogenMod/LineageOS for a moment and think about which devices are actually supported by Linux. I decided to do a bit of investigation to find out what mobile devices have at least some mainline kernel support. I've started by looking at the device trees included in mainline Linux. I've made a list, which may not be complete but at least it's a start.

Only a few of these devices have comprehensive public documentation on what hardware works and what doesn't. I'd like to start documenting the other devices.

I want to hear from anyone who has tried running a mainline kernel on any of these devices where documentation it lacking, even if it's with Android with mainline Linux. I plan to create a wiki page with a table similar to what Mer have done for their libhybris adaptations to provide a simple comparison of what is supported on each device. I'm more interested in documenting mobile phones over tablets and other devices but if anyone fancies helping with those, I won't stop them. :P I don't know if I've found every single mobile device with a device tree in mainline. If you find one I've missed, please let me know.

It should also be noted that mainline Linux also includes support for many SoCs for other popular mobile phones (Samsung Exynos, etc). These have device trees for development boards but are missing device trees for phones. It may not require much effort to get some of these phones working.


Mobile phones (battery powered devices with baseband processor)

TI OMAP

Siemens SX1 - OMAP310: Board
HTC Herald - OMAP850: Board
Nokia N900 (rover) - OMAP3430: Status, DT
Logic/TI Zoom OMAP34x MDK - OMAP3430: DT
Nokia N950 (dali) - OMAP3630: Status, DT
Nokia N9 (lankku) - OMAP3630: Status, DT
LG Optimus Black (sniper) - OMAP3630: DT
Goldelico GTA04A3 - DM3730: Status, DT
Goldelico GTA04A4 - DM3730: Status, DT
Goldelico GTA04A5 - DM3730: Status, DT
Goldelico GTA04A5 with OneNAND- DM3730: Status, DT
Motorola Droid Bionic XT875 (targa) - OMAP4430: DT
Motorola Droid 4 XT894 (maserati) - OMAP4430: Status, DT

Qualcomm Snapdragon

ARMv7

Sony Xperia Z (yuga) - APQ8064: DT
Sony Xperia Z1 (honami) - MSM8974: DT
Sony Xperia Z1 Compact (amami) - MSM8974: DT
LG Nexus 5 (hammerhead) - MSM8974: Status, old status, DT, video
Fairphone 2 - MSM8974: DT, Info
Samsung Galaxy S5 (klte) - MSM8974: DT
OnePlus One (bacon) - MSM8974: Out-of-tree patch

AArch64

Longcheer L8150 (Cherry Mobile One G1, i-mobile IQ II, General Mobile 4G, Wileyfox Swift) - MSM8916: DT
Samsung Galaxy A3 (SM-A300FU) - MSM8916: DT
Samsung Galaxy A5 (SM-A500FU) - MSM8916: DT
Sony Xperia X (suzu) - MSM8956: Coming soon
Sony Xperia X Compact (kugo) - MSM8956: Coming soon
LG Nexus 5X (bullhead) - MSM8992: DT, Info (video, slides)
Xiomi Mi 4c (libra) - MSM8992
Microsoft Lumia 950 (talkman) - MSM8992
Sony Xperia Z5 (sumire) - MSM8994
Huawei Nexus 6P (angler) - MSM8994: DT, Info (video, slides, comments)
Sony Xperia XA2 (pioneer) - SDM630
Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra (discovery) - SDM630
Sony Xperia XA2 Plus (voyager) - SDM630
Sony Xperia 10 (kirin) - SDM630
Sony Xperia 10 Plus (mermaid) - SDM636
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (lavender) - SDM660: Status, DT

Allwinner

Pine64 PinePhone 1.0 (Developer) - sun50i A64: DT
Pine64 PinePhone 1.1 (Braveheart) - sun50i A64: DT
Pine64 PinePhone 1.2 - sun50i A64

NXP/Freescale

Purism Librem 5 DevKit - i.MX8M: DT

Samsung Exynos

Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000) - S5PV210/Exynos3110: Status, DT
Samsung Fascinate 4G (SGH-T959) - S5PV210/Exynos3110: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100) - Exynos4410: DT
Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300) - Exynos4412: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9305) - Exynos4412: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (GT-N7100) - Exynos4412: Status, DT
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (GT-N7105) - Exynos4412: Status, DT

ST-Ericsson NovaThor

Samsung Galaxy S III mini (GT-I8190) - U8500: DT
Samsung Galaxy XCover 2 (GT-S7710) - U8500: DT

MediaTek

BQ Aquaris 5 - MT6589: DT

Samsung S3C24XX

Neo FreeRunner (GTA02) - S3C2442: Board

Intel/Marvell XScale

HTC Himalaya - PXA263: Board
Motorola E680 - PXA270: Board
Motorola A780 - PXA270: Board
Motorola A910 - PXA270: Board
Motorola Ming A1200 - PXA270: Board
Motorola ROKR E2 - PXA270: Board
Motorola ROKR E6 - PXA270: Board
Palm Treo 680 - PXA270: Board
Palm Centro 685 - PXA270: Board
HP iPaq hx4700 series Pocket PC - PXA270: Board
HTC Magician - PXA272: Board

Does it make sense to include Intel-based tablets? Generally, if they came with Windows 8 or 10 (there can be locked bootloader in case of Android), they have normal UEFI firmware and can boot mainline desktop kernel, but the level of hardware support and quirks needed to get it working will vary. The situation is getting better though, for example GPD Win is mostly supported now.

Yes, it does make sense. There are currently no x86 devices on my list as it was based on device trees found in the kernel and x86 does not use device trees. If anyone has tested a mainline kernel on x86 devices and can help document them, I'll add them to the list.

That's good news about the GPDWin. Hans de Goede has done a lot work on mainlining devices. His name can be found in the header of many of the device trees above.

Quite an impressive list you have compiled there. I have two old, el-cheapo Wondermedia tablets that can both run Debian and I was wondering (pun intended) if anybody still remembers them but you have impressed me

I reached the character limit in the original post so I'm moving "Other" devices to this new post to make room for new entries until I get around to moving it all to a wiki page...

Other (tablets, convertibles, handheld game consoles and portable keyboard devices)

TI OMAP

Nokia 770 (sputnik) - OMAP1710: Board
Nokia N800 (gagarin) - OMAP2420: Status, DT, Board
Nokia N810 (selene) - OMAP2420: Status, DT, Board
Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition - OMAP2420: DT, Board
Pandora - OMAP3530: DT
Logic/TI Zoom OMAP36x MDP - OMAP3630: DT
Pandora 1GHz - DM3730: DT
Amazon Kindle Fire (otter) - OMAP4430: DT

Qualcomm Snapdragon

Asus Nexus 7 (flo) - APQ8064: Status, DT
Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet (castor) - MSM8974: DT

NXP/Freescale i.MX

Kobo Aura (N514) - i.MX 50: DT
Kobo Clara HD - i.MX 6SLL: DT
Tolino Shine 3 - i.MX 6SoloLite: DT

Nvidia Tegra

NVIDIA Tegra Note 7 - T114: DT
Google Pixel C - T210 (AArch64): DT

Rockchip

BQ Curie 2 - rk3066a: DT
BQ Edison 2 - rk3188: DT
Acer Chromebook Tab 10 (Innolux display)- rk3399 (AArch64): DT
Acer Chromebook Tab 10 (K&D Technology display)- rk3399 (AArch64): DT
Asus Chromebook Flip C101PA - rk3399 (AArch64): DT
Samsung Chromebook Plus - rk3399 (AArch64): DT

Allwinner

Chuwi V7 CW0825 - sun4i A10: DT
Gemei G9 - sun4i A10: Status, DT
Hyundai A7HD - sun4i A10: Status, DT
iNet-1 - sun4i A10: Status, DT
iNet-97F Rev 02 - sun4i A10: Status, DT
iNet-9F Rev 03 - sun4i A10: DT
Point of View Protab2-IPS9 - sun4i A10: DT
DIFRNCE DIT4350 - sun5i A13: DT
Empire ElectroniX D709 - sun5i A13: DT
Empire ElectroniX M712 - sun5i A13: DT
PocketBook Touch Lux 3 - sun5i A13: DT
HSG H702 - sun5i A13: Status, DT
iNet-98V Rev 02 - sun5i A13: DT
Q8 - sun5i A13: Status, DT
UTOO P66 - sun5i A13: DT
NextThing C.H.I.P. - sun5i R8 (A13): Status, DT
Colorfly E708 Q1 - sun6i A31s: Status, DT
iNet Q972 - sun6i A31s: DT
MSI Primo81 - sun6i A31s: Status, DT
Yones Toptech BS1078 v2 - sun6i A31s: Status, DT
Wexler TAB 7200 - sun7i A20: Status, DT
GT90H (v4) - sun8i A23: DT
iNet-86DZ Rev 01 - sun8i A23: Status?, DT
Polaroid MID2407PXE03 - sun8i A23: DT
Polaroid MID2809PXE04 - sun8i A23: DT
Q8 / Ippo Q8H - sun8i A23: Status, DT
GA10H (v1.1) - sun8i A33: DT
iNet-D978 Rev 02 - sun8i A33: DT
Q8 / Ippo Q8H / ET Q8 - sun8i A33: Status, DT
TBS A711 - sun8i A83T: Status, DT
Pine64 PineTab - sun50i A64: DT

Wondermedia

Wondermedia WM8650-MID - WM8650: DT
Wondermedia WM8850-W70v2 - WM8850: DT

Ingenic XBurst (MIPS)

Ben NanoNote - JZ4740: DT
GCW Zero - JZ4770: DT
GCW Zero Prototype - JZ4770: DT

Some information about the Kobo Clara HD:
Mainline misses several drivers, I am working on upstreaming things. The battery driver is accepted for v5.10.
For more information:
https://misc.andi.de1.cc/kobo
Patched mainline kernels:
https://github.com/akemnade/linux
branches kobo/merged-5.X (currently v5.8). There is a kobo_defconfig.

The Tolino Shine 3 is the same board as the Kobo Clara HD, just the SoC is different. Unfortunately, the EPDC is different enough so that it causes trouble with above-mentioned kernel. Graphics is not working well.