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FOSDEM PWA

Bringing OpenHarmony to Phones: Lessons from the Oniro Porting Effort

UB4.132 | Day 1 | 14:35 - 14:45 | Speakers: Francesco Pham

Bringing OpenHarmony to Phones: Lessons from the Oniro Porting Effort
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Abstract

OpenHarmony offers a compelling FOSS alternative to the mobile OS duopoly, but porting it to real phones presents unique technical challenges. This talk shares practical insights from bringing Oniro, an Eclipse Foundation project focused on making this technology usable beyond its original ecosystem, to mobile devices. We'll cover the complete porting workflow: QEMU-based x86_64 emulation for rapid development cycles, kernel adaptation strategies for diverse chipsets, and our LibHybris integration to bridge OpenHarmony's musl libc with proprietary Android binary drivers, unlocking GPU, and peripheral support on existing hardware. Beyond the technical stack, we'll discuss developer experience improvements that lower contribution barriers: VS Code-based tooling, and early app ecosystem expansion through React Native and cross-platform framework support. Whether you're interested in AOSP alternatives, mainline device enablement, or building truly open mobile platforms, this talk demonstrates a practical approach to accelerating FOSS mobile adoption today.

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Speakers

Francesco Pham

Francesco is an experienced Open Source Software Engineer and the current PMC Lead of the Oniro project. He holds a master’s degree with honors in Computer Engineering and has a strong background in open-source platform development. His current work focuses on extending Eclipse Oniro, which is built upon OpenHarmony, by adding functionalities tailored to global markets, enhancing its applicability and competitiveness in the evolving mobile and IoT landscapes. His contributions have helped shape the open-source mobile platform ecosystem. Francesco’s expertise has been showcased at prominent conferences, including FOSDEM, Asplos/EuroSys, SFSCON, OpenHarmony Technical Conference, Volla Community Days, and OCX24 where he has delivered impactful technical presentations and live demonstrations.

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