Support for Linux smartphones

#1

Puri.sm is going to release a debian-based Linux smartphone called the Librem 5 in a few months, and users will probably be looking for a good note-taking app. Someone might be able to compile Turtl from source for ARM and use that, but would be stuck with a desktop app on a tiny phone screen.

I don’t think it would be very hard for Turtl developers to support the Linux phones. Just take the interface from the Android app, marry it to the existing Linux version, and recompile for ARM processors. (It might be simpler than that since Android is sort of running Linux, but my knowledge of that is limited.)

As a side note, Puri.sm is working on an App Store of Free Open-Source Software for their Debian-based PureOS. It would be amazing to see Turtl in the PureOS app store, but that might be a longer-term goal depending on what that entails.

#2

Thanks for mentioning this. I’ve been following the Librem 5 project for a while, and it’d be great to have Turtl running on it. We are already compiling the Turtl core to ARM64 (for the android app) so really what would be needed after that is a piece that packages the core with the interface. I’m not sure what kind of browser the Librem 5 ships with, but it might be possible to use it as a webview like we do with the Android app. I’ll look a bit more into this as I have time.

#3

If my information is correct, it should be using a Firefox install with custom defaults. I don’t know for sure.

#4

That’s so great to hear that there will be support for Linux based phones!

#5

Hello! I was updating the html5 app for Ubuntu Touch. Now on version 0.7 things get a bit more challenging :slight_smile:
I see here we could join forces. I know Librem 5 will support mainly gtk apps but it may add qt quick control 2 support.
I’m saying this because UT has support for qt quick control 2 at the moment and we are looking into implement qml apps that could work across the board (or at least with little changes).
We currently build against architecture armhf (will also support x64 for desktop but that’s the future). And we use a tool based on docker that helps us in the development of apps called clickable uses docker to crosscompile.
I’m doinf some tests: I managed to build the core on desktop (not the last version though :slight_smile: ) and the js frontend but I don’t know what’s the next step.

#6

I think I’m very soon going to be putting a lot of effort into this: https://github.com/turtl/tracker/issues/52

This would allow compiling the core into a component of the js project, and then you could essentially run Turtl directly in the browser without needing to embed the core.

That said, this is a pretty intricate project. I’ve started some of the work on it, but there is a lot to be done. I think enough people have had trouble compiling the core to various native platforms (me included) that this is a pretty desired goal for the project.

#7

It looks like Krakakanok (from the UBports community) has managed to make GitLab to build the core: https://gitlab.com/Krakakanok/turtl-ut/commits/turtl-compile

That would be a very nice first step towards the current version on Ubuntu Touch. If I’m correct next would be to connect a websocket (qml has an element for that) and show the html5 frontend in a webview…

#8

Pine64 is also working toward releasing an open-source Linux smartphone. It would be great if Turtl offered a mobile-friendly version that could run on any ARM64 Linux system. As I haven’t gotten my hands on a Linux phone just yet, I don’t know what the best option for that would be. Perhaps an Appimage, compiled for ARM and shipped with a mobile-friendly interface option.

#9

Hi!
I recover this post from few months ago. I am using Ubuntu Touch but turtl-ut app is not working for me in there, as it is build in an older version of Turtl (0.6). Is there any way it could be updated?
Thank you very much!