State: archived

Using Linux on smartphones becomes more and more realistic. An excellent place to get software, documentation and new contacts is the postmarketOS distribution. Mind especially the devices page where I found the OnePlus 6 from 2018 I am currently using.

Since using a desktop like Gnome or a window manager like Sway is not a lot of fun on a mobile device, you need a proper user interface. postmarketOS has a wiki page about suitable user interfaces. My personal preference is Sxmo based on the tiling window manager Sway and Wayland.

While Sxmo works great for me it has currently no screen locker. The default screen locker for Sway is swaylock which is developed for desktop environments with a keyboard only. This does not work well on a phone with a virtual keyboard.

Since I do not want to leave my primary phone without a screen locker it is time to write one! Furthermore this is an opportunity to learn about the Wayland protocol and the Cairo graphics library.