Hildon
![]() Hildon running in QEMU | |
Name | Hildon |
---|---|
Graphics stack | X11 |
Toolkit | GTK+2, WIP: GTK+3 |
In postmarketOS | |
Package | postmarketos-ui-hildon |
Status | Available |

This is the desktop from Maemo, which is a Debian-based distribution that originally ran on the N900 and earlier Nokia Internet Tablets.
Installation instructions
In pmbootstrap init
, select hildon
as user interface, then do the installation as usually. When running postmarketOS, it should boot automatically into Hildon now!
Running
hildon-desktop can be run in a horizontal view only. To run programs from the terminal you need to export DISPLAY=:0
. To set it by default edit sudo nano /etc/profile
.
Rotate screen using fbdev driver
In order to rotate the screen using the framebuffer, you need to create this file:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/1-fbdev.conf
Section "Device" Identifier "LCD" Driver "fbdev" Option "Rotate" "CW" EndSection
reference: https://www.x.org/archive//X11R6.8.0/doc/fbdev.4.html
Rotate screen using xrandr
In order to rotate the screen using xrandr, you need to edit a file and put xrandr -o right or xrandr -o left:
sudo apk add xrandr sudo nano /etc/postmarketos-ui/xinitrc_hildon.sh
xrandr -o right exec hildon-desktop
Calibrate the touchscreen
After rotating the screen change/add a value in this file:
sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/90-android-touch-dev.rules
ENV{ID_INPUT}="1", ENV{ID_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN}="1", \ # default ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="1 0 0 0 1 0" # Left - 90 degree clockwise ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="0 -1 1 1 0 0" # 180 degree clockwise ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="-1 0 1 0 -1 1" # Right - 270 degree clockwise ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="0 1 0 -1 0 1" # reflect along y axis ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="-1 0 1 1 0 0"
Performance issues
Software rendering is slow. A possible fix is in the Software OpenGL article with TinyGLES and similar software.
Relation to Maemo Leste
The Maemo Leste project runs Hildon on top of a recent Devuan (Debian fork) with OpenRC (the same init system that Alpine uses), and all the devices they are targeting run the mainline kernel (Droid 4, N900, N9, ...). postmarketOS has the Hildon packages as maintained by Leste packaged, and we're collaborating.
See also
- https://github.com/postmarketOS/pmbootstrap/pull/461 (initial PR by NotKit with a screenshot running in Qemu)
- https://github.com/fremantle-gtk3 (GTK+3 port, which we could package in the future)