Would anyone run Lineage OS on the Librem 5 if there was a solid port for it? I think I personally would have a 1TB micro SD card for Pure OS and have LineageOS installed to the 32GB microSD card. Obviously, I’d want this build on top of the Librem5’s kernel
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Well… but what’s the point then?
The apps that you can run on Lineage OS, you could also run via Anbox, without dualbooting (if that is what you intended).
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Without any passthrough for Bluetooth, and cameras, Anbox is mostly useless to me.
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If I could run Ubuntu touch apps natively on the Librem 5, then I’d be fine… As there is no client for AsteroidOS on PureOS
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I see. Admittedly, I don’t know much about these details. Is it a (likely) future possibility?
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Well a big advantage of a librem 5 even with android would be, that Purism promised to keep updating the librem 5. So especially the kernel would be up to date which most other android phones fail and get insecure over time. The kernel would also be free and together with an open source android, you could also inspect or build your complete phone software.
While I still prefer to have real Gnu/Linux on my phone I can see the advantages to regular android phones.
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I thought I could try qemu with the anbox image
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installed to the 32GB eMMC drive?
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Yes, I meant the eMMC
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https://github.com/LineageOS/android_external_qemu I found this as a possible answer
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Speaking from my own perspective and not on behalf of Purism here:
With the exception of improvements that also improve Purism’s software baseline, there’s no way that Purism would fund an official port of LineageOS for the Librem 5. However, I see the value in having an intermediate step for heavy Android users to take a step up the freedom ladder and use a Librem 5. Yes, the Librem 5 would be an extremely expensive way to go about using Android, but few people complain about expanding software compatibility on their hardware, right?
Ask yourself: “Do I want to provide continuous support?” - LineageOS is not a “submit it and forget it” home. You need to be willing to continue maintaining the device by fixing bugs, applying security updates and eventually improving performance.
I could probably get to the point of building a one-off LineageOS image for the Librem 5 (perhaps using this guide?) but I just don’t have the time, expertise, or determination to be a long-term maintainer.
Two limiting factors (as of October 2025):
- RIL: must confirm reliable emergency service functionality
- CVE: must confirm timely security patches (likely after Crimson/Dawn efforts)
Does anyone have OS porting experience that would be able to volunteer for this? @jonathon.hall @dos (asking without my Purism hat on - there’s no obligation to answer) are there any known hard blockers for getting LineageOS running on the Librem 5, assuming that there are people willing to help?
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I like it, as Lineage need to support L5 if so, not Purism naturally.
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Sigh
Despite all my best efforts to the contrary, I might be in a situation next weekend where my life would go much easier if I could dual boot to Lineage from my SD card for a period of about 3 hours, then boot back when I was done.
I am not making a promise, but if someone like me were to donate you a large sum of money to make such a one-off this weekend, what amount of money would be enough money? I am simply curious.
That being said, my phone has dual boot to a Crimson image with high amount of zram to burn out the chip on max performance, with a GNOME/Phosh fullscreen hotkey and GAPPS Waydroid with resolution set to always exactly match L5 screen when it is full screen. So then when it boots the Waydroid, and I press the fullscreen hotkey, it much pretends that it is… what they want us to have on our phones. It has Google play store and can “download the apps” in the manner they want us to do. Web browsing and typing with the AOSP keyboard already runs more smoothly (or something, like a mind virus) than the Phosh stuff.
So, that thing might be sufficient for my needs next weekend – but I have yet for them to send me “the app” to double check. But for whatever reason, incoming audio/mic usually doesn’t work (doesn’t matter to me in this case), camera probably doesn’t work (also maybe doesn’t matter) and the battery burns out like a fireball.
Do you think you could construct something much kinder to the battery but with a similar level of functionality, by not using Waydroid containerism but simply running native? Swapping through 5 batteries is a less valuable technique if they collectively only last the needed 3 hours, and if swapping on the go requires a restart that requires a 20 minute Waydroid boot time.
Can you make something better than the existing L5 Waydroid, or are you just wishing they would stop telling you to use a different device?
(I know that Google Play might be in attack mode burning the battery intentionally in my case, and maybe that’s something you can never overcome, but I was curious your opinion.)
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I don’t have much relevant experience to comment precisely. I’d doubt there are hard blockers since we have FOSS support for virtually all of the hardware, but it could be a huge effort - e.g. we do have good support for all of the BM818 modem functions, but you might be on the hook for writing an entire RIL integration to enable it in the Android telephony stack. (I have no idea if any part of this might exist already.)
Like you said, Purism would not invest in this as we wouldn’t want to divide focus unless someone specifically funds this work.
Speaking personally, it’s not something I’m interested in as I have been off of Android for a long time and don’t see any future where I’d want to go back.
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Hi @Dlonk - I worked on the LineageOS build over the weekend and am documenting the process as I go along (very on-brand for me) but have a couple outstanding questions regarding the device manifest file to make further progress.
I imagine that native Android apps in LineageOS would be noticeably kinder on battery life than via emulation.
How is your system configured where it takes 20 minutes to boot Waydroid? Maybe you’re exaggerating? Are you running apps off of a micro SD card? Waydroid typically launches within 8-12 cycles of the boot animation on my device.
Outside of the LineageOS topic, Purism is actively working (directly and in conjunction with a third party) on app enablement with the goal of feature parity and running as native as possible. Android Translation Layer is another option to reduce processing overhead for Android apps on the Librem 5, and is something we are evaluating on a per-app basis.
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I tried this after writing the post to double check. A large part of the issue might be that I was running Waydroid off of the SD card and not having it touch the encrypted eMMC, and so after 5 minutes or something it had technically booted to the LineageOS Waydroid desktop but it was slow to launch any app (while fast to animate the nothing when tapping the screen) until some time passed and the app was in the cache or something. I don’t know if that’s SD card+zram or what is caching. But by 10 minutes it was still lagging enough to not yet be usable.
Yes for me the PureOS and all apps and everything had booted from SD in this case.
So I’m in a situation for my job where I need to do an international trip and they said that the country I’m going to visit with the type of fast paperwork for me to get in needs an app thing to enter. It sounds like only days before I enter the country they’ll send info on how to get the app and what it requires.
I emailed the third party company asking what technical details are required by the app along with mention of how I use a Librem 5, and probably one of the most diplomatic positive spins on what a Librem 5 is that has ever been uttered, and the other person was really friendly about it. But the folks at my company chimed in and kind of pointed out that I should just have a phone that works.
I’ve been looking more into what the app probably is and probably requires and it sounds like it requires technological capabilities that the Librem 5 does not have. What I’m seeing suggests that in order to use this app and enter this foreign country, the device needs fully working rear Android camera support to take a picture of the passport, NFC scanning support to scan the passport, and then fully working front view camera support so that the app can take pictures of my face from many angles to ensure the government of this other nation can AI generate my likeness from any angle so that they can blackmail me with AI video, prior to my admittance into the other country.
So I went back to the years old faraday torture chamber where I stored the Android, pulled it out, factory reset it because I didn’t remember the unlock code, and I’m writing to you from spyware mcspywareface incarnate here on the couch which is probably the only way that I’m realistically going to travel this weekend no matter how hard you work porting Lineage… Unless I’m misremembering and the Librem 5 has got some NFC scanning system hidden in there along with the GPS device and other sensors that I usually forget to use.
Edit:
One idea that occurred to me though is that since Androids or whatever are probably cheaper than plane tickets at this point, maybe I could put “spyware mcspywareface” back in its faraday cage and then buy an Android before boarding the plane each way, to then crunch up and throw out the Android at the end of each flight. Obviously in a few years that might be illegal but in the present day we would still be pretending that the concept of ownership still exists or that I would be the legal owner of such Android, so using them as one-way burner tickets and destroying them after the flight might be something I still have a right to do – for now while on the books we still say that I own those devices and not the other way around.
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I’m glad you understand that. 
It may be possible to get a USB dongle that does what they want. I wouldn’t assume that or that it would work though. There could be any number of roadblocks. You probably don’t have enough days remaining to overcome all hurdles, this time around.
Given how dodgy this app might be, given how dodgy this country might be, … a dedicated Android device pulled from its chamber might be the safest solution i.e. the ultimate in compartmentalisation is a separate phone (that you factory reset once you finish your trip, and then put back into its chamber).
That too. More extreme, but if that’s the level of threat, yes. I would incinerate, just to be sure.
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In my case it would be the level of entertainment moreso than the level of threat, but perhaps in some cases the two end up equating to each other.
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