Plasma/Mobile/FAQ

Why is Plasma Mobile not using Mer/Nemomobile?

Plasma Mobile is a software platform for mobile devices. It is not an operating system in of itself, it consists of Qt5, the KDE Frameworks, Plasma and various software that's part of the application set. Plasma Mobile can work on top of the Mer distribution, but due to a lack of time and resources, we're currently focusing on Halium as a base for testing and development.

Can Android apps work on Plasma Mobile?

In the future, potentially, but currently no. There are projects like Anbox which are seeking to have Android apps run on the Linux desktop without any performance loss, and with full integration. This could be leveraged in the future to have Android apps running on top of a GNU/Linux system with the Plasma Mobile platform, but it's a complicated task, and it's not a priority right now.

Can I run Plasma Mobile on my mobile device?

Currently, Plasma Mobile runs on the following device types:

• (Recommended) Nexus 5 and Nexus 5X: We offer official installation scripts for the Nexus 5 and Nexus 5X. The images are built on top of Halium and KDE Neon (16.04 in the latest stable rootfs, 18.04 in the latest "edge" rootfs). You can find more information here

• x86-based: If you want to try out Plasma Mobile on an Intel tablet, desktop/laptop, or virtual machine, the x86_64 Neon-based Plasma Mobile image is for you. Keep in mind that it has not been updated since March 2018, and is still based on Ubuntu 16.04, meaning that newer hardware may have issues due to the older drivers. Information on how to permanently install it can be found on the Plasma Mobile developer guide. This image is not representative of the current state of Plasma Mobile, and has many issues due to its age.

• Devices ported to postmarketOS: if your device has been ported to postmarketOS, follow the instructions to install postmarketOS on your device. Plasma Mobile is available as an interface, but your mileage may vary due to the early state of postmarketOS.

• Other: If your device is not listed here, you can manually install the Plasma Mobile rootfs onto your device if it's supported by Halium. You can check here to see if your device is listed, and if so, you can see the status and the functional device features. Assuming your device is listed and well-supported, you can follow the Halium Porting Guide to install it on your own device, and reuse the manifest linked in the device-specific page on the Github. If there are no reports for your device, you can still install Halium on it similarly, but you'll have to follow the instructions in the porting guide to create the manifest yourself.

What are requirements of device for porting Plasma Mobile?

• For Android based devices (ARM and x86) a Halium port is required:
  • Device tree & Kernel source
  • Kernel version must be 3.1.0 or later
  • Devices with MediaTek chipsets are not recommended
  • 16 GiB of storage is recommended, but 8 GiB could also work
  • 1 GiB of RAM is needed
• Intel or AMD based devices (with open source firmware) just can use the x86 ISO

I've installed Plasma Mobile, what is the login password?

If you've installed it onto your Nexus 5/5X via the installation script, the password should be "1234", and you can then change it afterwards by running "passwd" in Konsole.

If you're using the (much older) x86 image, no password is set by default, and you'll have to set it by running "passwd" in Konsole before you can authenticate for anything.

What's the state of the project?

Plasma Mobile is currently under heavy development, but for more information, check out this page on the wiki which is kept up-to-date with the current project status