Sailfish x86 Documentation

Welcome to the documentation of Sailfish x86. Sailfish x86 is a port of Jolla’s Sailfish OS for x86_64 computers with a standard UEFI BIOS, with kernels, modules, and firmware from Ubuntu 20.04. Therefore, many devices will be supported. However, slight configuration changes may be needed for some devices.

Sailfish x86 is maintained by Heng Ye, with help of the SailfishOS Porters community, on freenode and Telegram. Special thanks go to TheKit and Elros34. The port is based on the Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 port, by Adam Pigg.

It is possible to run Sailfish x86 on any standard x86_64 PC with a UEFI BIOS that supports the GRUB bootloader and Ubuntu 20.04. However, it may need slight tweaks for the best experience.

Issue tracking

GitHub is used for issue tracking. You will need a GitHub account to report issues.

Best practices when reporting issues

  • State your issue clearly.

  • State how one can reproduce the issue, including what device you are using.

  • Include the Sailfish OS version you are running.

Devices

Sailfish x86 shold be able to run on any x86_64 PC that can run Ubuntu 20.04. However, tweaks might be needed for specific device functionality, such as the touchscreen.

Known working devices

  • Asus Transformer Mini T103

  • Librebooted Thinkpad X200T

  • Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 9575

Prerequisites

Make sure you satisfy all below requirements. If a requirement is not met, your device may not work well on Sailfish x86.

  • x86_64 device that can run Ubuntu 20.04 and graphics card supported by Mesa (intel recommended)

    • A multitouch screen supported by Ubuntu 20.04 is strongly recommended for usability.

  • Linux computer with internet connection

  • Bootable media

  • Knowledge of Linux

Preparing the device

  • It is recommended that a keyboard be attached if there is a detachable keyboard to type GRUB commands (first boot only)

  • Secure Boot must be turned OFF in the BIOS. There are no plans to support Secure Boot at this time, as it requires signing which is paid.

Installation on external media

Here we will install Sailfish x86 on an external bootable media, without writing to the internal disk of the computer.

Prepare the installation media

Get your bootable media you will use to run Sailfish x86. Here we will install Sailfish x86 on the media. This should have at least 4GB capacity.

This media must be bootable by your target device. Most devices accept USB drives, and some accept SD cards. Check your BIOS for details.

All data on the media you select will be destroyed. Needless to say, make sure you back it up.

Flash the image

Use a tool such as Gnome-Disks or Balena Etcher to flash the disk image. If it does not support .img.bz2, decompress it and flash the .img file.

The releases are here: https://github.com/sailfish-x86/rootfs/releases/

Make sure to verify checksums.

Once you boot from the external medium it should boot to the SFOS UI.

Note: Release 0.1 should not be used.

Setting up

Currently the setup wizard is disabled and it will boot right to the UI because it makes debugging easier. The default password is 123456. Make sure to change the password if you are not sure of the physical security of your device.