Sxmo (Simple X Mobile) is a relatively unknown, minimalist user interface that was created for the PinePhone and is based on Alpine and postmarketOS . It is a collection of applications from the suckless environment, which are welded together with a few scripts to form a surface. According to the developers, Sxmo was conceived to bring the full potential of Linux to mobile devices. So if you think the PinePhone with surfaces like Phosh or Plasma Mobile is too slow, you should take a look at Sxmo.

Create a WiFi hotspot

Now with Sxmo 1.5.0 a further development of the surface has been released. The list of improvements is long; among other things, the new version offers the option of creating a WLAN hotspot from the network menu. The modem monitor resets the modem in situations where it is sometimes “lost”, such as after a long idle period. Unfortunately there are still problems with the modem manager and the suspend mode, such as SMS, that are not picked up. In such cases, the modem has to be reset via the menu, which means that the SMS then arrive.

WayDroid: Android Apps on Linux Phones

Call behavior improved

The behavior for incoming calls and when answering calls has been revised to simplify operation. It works more effectively with the new revised Screenlock system. The handling of missed and dropped calls has also been significantly improved. WLAN can be deactivated by unloading the kernel module from the menu if it is not needed, thus saving battery power. The Sxmo menus are now SSH compatible so you can access them from an SSH session.

Support for further devices planned

Sxmo can already be tried out under postmarketOS 21.06 »edge«. Updates for the stable postmarketOS 06/21/1 are expected this week. New packages are also expected for Arch Linux. If you already use Sxmo, you can update it with the following command:

apk update && apk upgrade -a

The developers of Sxmo have made initial preparations to prepare the surface for other smartphones such as the Librem 5, the Wileyfox Swift or the Google Nexus 5.