postmarketOS Wiki - Category_Interface
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1 List of Interfaces
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2 Which interfaces work where (and which interface should I use?)
3 Installing interfaces
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Category:Interface
From postmarketOS Wiki
postmarketOS running Plasma Mobile on top of mainline Linux on the Google Nexus 5.
An interface is the graphical environment that runs on a device. Traditionally, these are called "desktop environments"; however, we prefer to use the term "interfaces" as we ship multiple non-desktop user interfaces as well.
Interfaces are categorized based on what chassis type they are primarily recommended for (See machine-info for more information).
| Clicking on the images in the interface info boxes will take you to the wiki page for the respective interface. |
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List of Interfaces
Mobile phones
These are interfaces that adapt well to handsets (phones). This can also include tablets.
Phosh
A mobile interface originally developed by Purism. It uses the GNOME stack.
Wiki page
Plasma Mobile
The mobile version of KDE Plasma. It is based on the KDE stack.
Wiki page
Sxmo
Based on a tiling window manager and uses hardware buttons as controls. For advanced users.
Wiki page
GNOME Mobile
The GNOME stack adapted for handsets.
Wiki page
Lomiri
An elegant and convergent shell for both desktop and mobile.
Wiki page
Desktop
These interfaces are designed to fit on desktop devices, including laptops, convertibles, and servers. Some of these UIs have been adapted to fit on mobile screen-sizes, but the experience may be degraded.
GNOME
The GNOME stack for desktop.
Wiki page
Plasma Desktop
KDE Plasma 6 desktop environment.
Wiki page
COSMIC
COSMIC desktop environment from System76.
Wiki page
Sway
Wayland tiling window manager.
Wiki page
i3wm
X11 tiling window manager.
Wiki page
Xfce4
A lightweight desktop environment. One of the best choices for new ports (non-DRM).
Wiki page
MATE
A fork of GNOME 2. Not as configurable as Xfce4, thus the setup is less touch-friendly.
Wiki page
LXQt
Lightweight Qt desktop environment. The state of implementation is rather experimental.
Wiki page
TV
These interfaces are designed to fit on TVs and set-top boxes.
Plasma Bigscreen
10-foot interface for KDE Plasma
Wiki page
Kodi
10-foot UI useful on TVs.
Mediaberry
An open platform for streaming boxes and smart TVs (WIP).
Wiki page
Moonlight
Open source PC client for NVIDIA GameStream, as used by the NVIDIA Shield.
Miscellaneous
Cage
Kiosk WM (apps are launched in fullscreen).
Weston
The reference Wayland compositor. Can be used as a demo for DRM support.
Wiki page
Openbox
A highly configurable and lightweight X11 window manager.
Wiki page
WindowMaker
Fast and small X11 window manager inspired by NeXTSTEP, made originally for GNUstep.
Wiki page
OS Installer
UI for installing postmarketOS on desktops.
Wiki page
RetroArch
A frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.
Wiki page
Console
These display an interface using the Linux CLI or TUI. They are meant for power-users or people who want to configure their system from scratch.
console
Barebone postmarketOS installation. Not recommended for phones; mostly used for debugging or headless installations.
fbkeyboard
A keyboard that runs in the framebuffer. Useful when regular graphical interfaces don't work.
Wiki page
buffyboard
A modern keyboard that runs in the framebuffer. Useful when regular graphical interfaces don't work.
Wiki page
Shelli
Plain console with touchscreen gesture support (experimental).
Wiki page
Framebufferphone
[[|128px|alt=Screenshot of the Framebufferphone interface.|]]
Minimalist framebuffer menu/keyboard UI accessible via touch/volume keys & compatible scripts.
Which interfaces work where (and which interface should I use?)
For devices running a (close to) mainline kernel (they typically have working GPU acceleration), Phosh, Plasma Mobile and Sxmo are recommended.
For new ports, using a simple, light-weight X11 interface such as Xfce4, MATE, LXQt may provide a better experience. Sxmo and i3wm could also be used as options.
Phosh and Weston currently don't work on devices running downstream kernels due to lack of DRM support (only supported in mainline kernel). It also does not work on mainline devices without working hardware acceleration; however, some progress towards fixing this was made - see pmaports#948. Plasma Mobile can be launched in software rendering mode, but performs poorly.
Additionally, Phosh, Plasma Mobile and other 'modern' UIs may be too heavy for resource constrained devices (e.g. those with little RAM or less powerful CPU/GPU).
For minimal usage like an SBC or a Raspberry Pi, use console or none.
Installing interfaces
For devices in the main or community category, you can download official postmarketOS images with pre-installed interfaces.
If you'd like to install a different interface, you have multiple options:
- Install postmarketOS with pmbootstrap. During
pmbootstrap inityou will be asked to select an user interface. - If you'd like to install a different UI on a device running postmarketOS, install the UI package for it with
apk add postmarketos-ui-<UI name>. You can get a list of available UIs by using the commandapk search postmarketos-ui-.
For none/console UI, you can run these commands according to your demand:
# rc-service tinydm stop # Stop current DM. Replace tinydm with the DM that you are using
# rc-update del tinydm # Don't start DM by default
# apk del postmarketos-ui-* # Delete UI metapackages if you don't need them anymore
# apk add postmarketos-ui-console # Install console UI metapackage
| You can also install more than one interface on one device. |
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Subcategories
This category has only the following subcategory.
U
Pages in category "Interface"
The following 22 pages are in this category, out of 22 total.
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This page was last edited on 3 June 2026, at 10:52.
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