# Mobian
**Mobian** is a Debian derivative (or "Blend") that brings the Debian GNU/Linux operating system to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, aiming to integrate mobile-friendly software into Debian while minimizing the amount of customization each device requires[1](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian). Its default graphical environment is Phosh, the Phone Shell originally developed by Purism for the Librem 5, and its images ship preconfigured with phone, messaging, e-mail, and web applications[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide). The project began in 2020 as one developer's effort to run "real" Debian on the PinePhone and has since grown into one of several mainline-kernel mobile Linux distributions, with its own stable release line based on Debian 13 "Trixie"[3](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/04/08/road-to-mobian-1/) • [4](https://archive.fosdem.org/2022/schedule/event/mobile_mobian/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it is | A Debian derivative targeting mobile devices, providing an overlay "as small as possible" on top of standard Debian[1](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian) • [2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide) |
| Founded | Initial git repository published February 4, 2020; project officially announced May 14, 2020[3](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/04/08/road-to-mobian-1/) |
| Founder | Arnaud Ferraris (a-wai), a Debian developer; all developers are unpaid volunteers[5](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mobian/) |
| Default environment | Phosh; Plasma Mobile available as an alternative in recent releases[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide) • [6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/) |
| Current stable | Mobian Trixie, released October 13, 2025, based on Debian 13, with Phosh 46.0, Plasma Mobile 6.3, and kernel 6.12 (6.6 on the Librem 5)[6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/) |
| Packaging | All software is distributed in Debian's `.deb` format; device kernels are packaged as `linux-x.y-` source packages[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide) |
| Community | Debian team infrastructure on Salsa, mailing list debian-mobile, IRC #mobian-dev on OFTC, Matrix and Telegram rooms; monthly meetings on the 1st Saturday at 12:00 UTC[1](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian) |
## History
**Origins.** The project traces to January 29, 2020, when Arnaud Ferraris, a Debian developer and embedded-systems engineer, received one of the first PinePhones, an ARM64 phone from PINE64 with a 5.95-inch touchscreen, removable battery, eMMC storage, and a 4G modem[3](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/04/08/road-to-mobian-1/). After finding that existing mobile systems did not give him what he wanted, he set out to run a "real" Debian on the phone, with full access to the whole Debian archive. Purism's PureOS, being Debian-based, had already packaged the Phosh ecosystem, so only minor adjustments were needed to rebuild those packages for Debian; Ferraris credits Purism for developing Phosh in the open and using a Debian base, which lowered the work substantially[3](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/04/08/road-to-mobian-1/). The first successful boot of a Debian-based image with Phosh happened during his flight to FOSDEM in Brussels, and the initial git repository was published on February 4, 2020[3](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/04/08/road-to-mobian-1/).
**Growth.** The project was officially announced on May 14, 2020[3](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/04/08/road-to-mobian-1/). It started as a collection of hacks and scripts, initially published as "Debian+Phosh" on the PINE64 forum, with all packages manually cross-compiled and uploaded to the developer's personal web server. Over its first two years it built development and deployment automation, added support for Purism's Librem 5, [Surface Pro](https://www.edgepedia.org/surface-pro) tablets, and Android phones such as the [OnePlus 6](https://www.edgepedia.org/oneplus-6) and [Pocophone F1](https://www.edgepedia.org/xiaomi-pocophone-f1), and partnered with PINE64 on a "Mobian Community Edition" PinePhone that carried the Debian swirl logo[4](https://archive.fosdem.org/2022/schedule/event/mobile_mobian/). PINE64 donated $10 to the project for each Community Edition phone sold[5](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mobian/).
## Philosophy and relationship to Debian
Mobian's stated goals are to bring Debian to mobile devices, provide a simple installation process, and deliver a modern user experience[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide). Because phones and tablets need significant hardware-specific customization that stock Debian cannot provide, Mobian positions itself as a small overlay on Debian rather than a separate distribution[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide).
**Upstreaming.** The developers' guide states the project's practice of upstreaming as much of its work as possible to Debian and maintaining official Debian packages when needed[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide). By early 2025 this had progressed far enough that many GNOME and KDE applications were made adaptive upstream and uploaded to the main Debian archive without downstream patches; the Mobian repository now contains mainly metapackages and hardware-support packages such as kernels and device-specific tweaks, plus a patched GTK 3 maintained until Phosh is ported to GTK 4[7](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/02/early-2025-news/). The team works as part of the DebianOnMobile team, and its stated long-term goal is to become irrelevant by making Debian itself a reference distribution on mobile devices[4](https://archive.fosdem.org/2022/schedule/event/mobile_mobian/) • [8](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Developing).
## Supported devices
Mobian primarily targets Linux-first devices, meaning hardware made with the intent of running Linux as the primary operating system, such as Pine64 devices and Purism's Librem 5. These rely on the u-boot bootloader and a lightly patched mainline [Linux kernel](https://www.edgepedia.org/linux-kernel), which keeps installation simple[9](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices). Devices are grouped into tiers, with first-tier devices generally more stable than lower tiers[9](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices).
- **First tier (Linux-first):** Pine64 PinePhone, PinePhone Pro, PineTab, PineTab2, and Purism Librem 5[9](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices).
- **Android devices, first tier:** OnePlus 6/6T, Pocophone F1, and Pixel 3a, which can run a mainline kernel and standard Linux userspace thanks to the Linux mobile community[9](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices).
- **Experimental:** [Fairphone](https://www.edgepedia.org/fairphone) 4 and Fairphone 5, described as demonstration-level support not suitable for daily driving[9](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices).
- **Others:** x86-based devices are also supported[9](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices).
The Trixie release notes list stable images for the PinePhone, PinePhone Pro, and PineTab, the Librem 5, Pixel 3a and 3a XL, OnePlus 6 and 6T, and Pocophone F1, with additional images for the Fairphone 4 and 5, PineTab 2, and SHIFT6mq on which important hardware features such as WiFi or audio do not yet work[6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/).
## Software stack
Mobian images boot directly into Phosh, a pure Wayland shell for mobile devices based on GTK and GNOME libraries[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide) • [10](https://salsa.debian.org/DebianOnMobile-team/phosh). The project has focused on the same software stack Purism uses for the Librem 5, described as "wayland-ish, gnome-ish, modem manager-ish", though Qt-based software can also run, and Plasma Mobile packages are available on Debian trixie and sid via metapackages[5](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mobian/) • [11](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Tweaks).
Because it is a full Debian system, users install software with `apt` from the Debian archive, and Flatpak is installed by default[12](https://blog.freetubeapp.io/pinephone-review-the-state-of-the-linux-smartphone). Device support is organized around per-device kernel packages, and several devices share a single kernel in Mobian[2](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide) • [13](https://archive.fosdem.org/2024/events/attachments/fosdem-2024-3290-towards-a-bright-future-with-mobian-/slides/22436/Mobian_FOSDEM24_uiJwzEa.pdf).
**Login greeter.** In 2022 the team decided mobile session management should use a conventional display manager rather than special treatment. Lacking a mobile-friendly greeter, they hacked Phosh itself into a greeter called `phog`, which worked but became a maintenance burden. This effort inspired a new greeter, Phrog, built by developer @samcday on an API extracted from unmodified Phosh code with Rust bindings; Phrog is now part of Debian and became Mobian's default greeter[7](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/02/early-2025-news/).
## Releases
Mobian's current stable release is **Mobian Trixie**, released October 13, 2025, a little more than two months after Debian 13 itself[6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/). The release offers images based on Phosh 46.0 and Plasma Mobile 6.3, running the 6.12 kernel on almost all supported devices, with the Librem 5 still on 6.6[6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/). The same release began rotating the PGP/GPG keys used to sign images and the package archive: four new keys were created, one each for the `forky`, `staging`, and `trixie` repositories and one dedicated to image signing, and signing moved to a passphrase-protected subkey rather than the main key[6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/).
The project recommends flashing a fresh image rather than upgrading in place, since major Mobian upgrades are, in the team's own words, trickier than hoped; a manual upgrade path is documented, including replacing `bookworm` with `trixie` in the apt sources and reinstalling removed `mobian-*` packages[6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/). Full-disk-encryption installs are possible by building an image from the `mobian-recipes` repository, with device targets including `sunxi` (PinePhone, PineTab), `rockchip` (PinePhone Pro, PineTab 2), and several Qualcomm SoC targets[6](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/).
## Community and development
The Mobian team operates within Debian's infrastructure: its packaging lives in a Salsa namespace, its website is mobian.org, and contributors coordinate through the debian-mobile mailing list, the #mobian-dev IRC channel on OFTC, a Matrix room, and a Telegram group. The team meets monthly on the first Saturday of each month at 12:00 UTC[1](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian). All developers are unpaid volunteers, and the project is not associated with a single nation, company, or timezone[5](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mobian/).
Funding comes from donations via Liberapay and the PINE64 per-device donation, and is spent on web hosting and development hardware[5](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mobian/). In 2025 Mobian participated in [Google Summer of Code](https://www.edgepedia.org/google-summer-of-code) through Debian, with a proposal on improving device-tweaks management, and several developers planned to attend DebConf 25 in [Brest, France](https://www.edgepedia.org/brest-france)[7](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/02/early-2025-news/).
## Position among mobile Linux distributions
Mobian is one of several mainline-kernel mobile Linux distributions, alongside postmarketOS, [Ubuntu Touch](https://www.edgepedia.org/ubuntu-touch), Sailfish OS, and Droidian[14](https://fosdem.org/2026/events/attachments/SW83YJ-state_of_foss_on_mobile/slides/265532/fosdem26-_6jjfukg.pdf). Like postmarketOS it uses the mainline kernel, which means it must be ported to each device individually; unlike postmarketOS, which is based on [Alpine Linux](https://www.edgepedia.org/alpine-linux) and supports hundreds of devices, Mobian supports fewer devices but inherits Debian's very large software archive[15](https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/10/21/mobian-brings-debian-13-trixie-to-phones-and-tablets/1345248?td=keepreading). As drivers for mobile hardware continue to enter the mainline kernel, the range of hardware Mobian can run on widens without new porting work[15](https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/10/21/mobian-brings-debian-13-trixie-to-phones-and-tablets/1345248?td=keepreading).
## References
1. [Teams/Mobian, Debian Wiki](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian)
2. [Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide, Debian Wiki](https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mobian/DevelopersGuide)
3. [The road to the Mobian Community Edition (part 1), Mobian's Blog](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/04/08/road-to-mobian-1/)
4. [2 Years of Mobian, FOSDEM 2022](https://archive.fosdem.org/2022/schedule/event/mobile_mobian/)
5. [What is Mobian?, Mobian's Blog](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2021/02/18/what_is_mobian/)
6. [A new Stable, and rotating keys, Mobian's Blog](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/10/new-stable-rotating-keys/)
7. [2025: off to a flying start!, Mobian's Blog](https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2025/02/early-2025-news/)
8. [Mobian/Developing, Debian Wiki](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Developing)
9. [Mobian/Devices, Debian Wiki](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Devices)
10. [Debian On Mobile / phosh, Salsa GitLab](https://salsa.debian.org/DebianOnMobile-team/phosh)
11. [Mobian/Tweaks, Debian Wiki](https://wiki.debian.org/Mobian/Tweaks)
12. [Pinephone Review: The State of the Linux Smartphone, FreeTube blog](https://blog.freetubeapp.io/pinephone-review-the-state-of-the-linux-smartphone)
13. [Unifying images, slowly, FOSDEM 2024 slides](https://archive.fosdem.org/2024/events/attachments/fosdem-2024-3290-towards-a-bright-future-with-mobian-/slides/22436/Mobian_FOSDEM24_uiJwzEa.pdf)
14. [State of FOSS on Mobile, FOSDEM 2026 slides](https://fosdem.org/2026/events/attachments/SW83YJ-state_of_foss_on_mobile/slides/265532/fosdem26-_6jjfukg.pdf)
15. [Mobian brings Debian 13 'Trixie' to phones and tablets, The Register](https://www.theregister.com/software/2025/10/21/mobian-brings-debian-13-trixie-to-phones-and-tablets/1345248?td=keepreading)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Computing and digital systems › Software and programming › Operating systems › Unix-like and Linux › Android and mobile variants*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license