• erebion@news.erebion.eu
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    11 hours ago

    It uses the kernel from the SoC vendor, for example Qualcomm, for the Xperia 10 III.

    This requires libhybris to get the drivers working with a non-Android userland.

    This in turn means the phone can only be updated as long as Qualcomm continues patching the kernel.

    And this is why you run an outdated kernel once Qualcomm drops support, which will happen quickly. It’s the same for other SoC vendors. They are in the business of selling SoCs, not supporting them.

    Mainline support solves that. SailfishOS can also be built with a mainline kernel.

    I am in fact working on mainlining the Xperia 10 III. Once I’m done, you can flash an image with a mainline kernel and continue updating the kernel until the phone breaks, not until Qualcomm stops caring.

    • jdr8@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Very interesting. Yes I run Sailfish on a Xperia 10 III.

      But was not aware of the kernel being supported by the SoC.

      Seems like you’re involved in an interesting project.

      I’m quite curious about it.

      • erebion@news.erebion.eu
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        24 minutes ago

        Still early days, but hopefully I’ll at some point have it all working.

        This is my current progress: https://git.erebion.eu/forgejo/erebion/pdx213-temp

        Next step would be upstreaming some patches to the kernel, I just need to find the time.

        Someone more skilled and knowledgeable than me in mainlining could probably get most of the remaining things done in a couple days, but I need to read a lot of docs and try out a lot of things.