Hi, I bought an Apple mac with M1 chip and installed Ubuntu ARM64 in Parallel VM.
When I want to install Sailfish SDK, installation fails: exec format error.
Is there any plan or any way to get Sailfish SDK on ARM64?
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Not sure why you would run the SDK in a VM, when a mac-native version exists… (and presumably would work fine through rosetta)
But none the less, i second your request. It would be nice to be able to develop/build on my Pinebook Pro, or on the phone for that matter.
AFAIK the SDK installer is amd64 (not arm64) only.
The mac version of the SDK does not work on M1. This is simply because you can’t run x86 vms on arm. Rosetta does not help with that. Docker provides some sort of emulation on best effort basis, so if we supported docker on mac, which we don’t, there is a slight possibility that it could work. But we don’t support docker on mac and have no plans for adding the support either.
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An Arm64 running on Windows on Arm would also be great - Sailfish Development is currently the only thing I cannot do on my Surface Pro X.
@vige is this still the case?
One of my students have an M1 mac, and I was wondering what can we do now or alternatives to develop on M1 for SFOS.
Yes, unfortunately nothing has changed on this front.
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How about an ARM build for Linux that could be used with Docker on a Raspberry Pi?
I would also like to know if sfdk/sfossdk development is possible on ARM chips.
These seem to promise better power consumption, longer battery life and similar if not better performance with current amd64 chips.
Apart from apple silicon [1] chips laptops or ThinkPad X13s, available now, there is reason to believe that the next gen QCom chips will be popular (maybe even under Windows, who knows?). Sample news: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-Gen-6-with-Qualcomm-Snapdragon-X-Elite-leaks-prior-to-official-release.828891.0.html
So the question is: when these computers will be generally available and people will start purchasing them, will the SailfishOS SDK work?
Sorry for bumping an old thread, I am thinking that I didn’t need to create one more.
L.E.: Maybe just having Sailfish as a DE would suffice, to run on an arm-to-arm VM, something like Sailfish x86 Linux Distribution for x86_64
[1]: I am asking of linux only for now, both on apple and any other hardware.
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@vige are there any updates now?
Is there any way to build SFOS apps on Apple Silicon computers?
Unfortunately I have the same answer to both of your questions: I don’t know.
Would you say that ARM/apple silicon support could be available within let’s say a year, or is this difficult and/or not really considered?
It could be that we are many potential “vibe coders” which chose apple silicon, as it’s arguably one of the better consumer grade hardware for local AI.
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apple silicone would be a huge improvement over the vinegar silicone I am used to. I’d be all for it.
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Thanks, funny, slightly embarrassing but still appreciated.
Ok, I’ll bite:
Did you already start to vibe-code the ARM support for the Sailfish SDK?
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Definitively not, unfortunately I know veeery little about both coding and the framework/processes behind it.
My question stems from another thread where I asked about vibe-coding apps and was pointed to the SDK, API and other resources. However, I was also informed in that thread that the SDK does not run on apple silicon, referring to a post earlier in this thread.
The lack of support for Apple Silicon chips poses a major problem, especially as many developers, myself included, work on recent Macs. It’s worth remembering that the latest Intel models were launched six years ago, in 2020.
Given that the app ecosystem remains a decisive factor in choosing a smartphone, which explains the current dominance of Apple and Android, it is surprising that support for Apple Silicon is neither being considered nor seriously discussed.
While the integration of Android into Sailfish OS is a temporary solution, it is clear that it will never replace a native app. The adoption of Flutter could also be a relevant avenue to explore.
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I recently bought jolla phone 2026.
In jolla store I could barely find anything really useful for me (perhaps there is something). That I was expecting since sfos market is quite tiny. That is also ok since I am not expecting to use this phone as my primary phone as of today but as a portable linux device.
But anyway, since I am a backend c++ developer and also familiar with some gui development and a bit with qt, I thought - okay maybe I can write something. Just for fun or maybe some tools for myself.
Long story short - not actually.
At least not as easy.
I have a mac book on apple m chip and I could not use it.
Okay, it is not supported - maybe linux arm.
I have RPI - well - no.
Okay, sdk supports only x86 and builds through ssh on vm. At this point I thought - aha! that is nice - I have a home server running some legacy x86 cpu - I can compile there remotely!
Well - no.
So, I spent about 3 or 4 hours just trying to setup an SDK. Or rather say - I did not setup it.
I still would like to try but I wonder if there is some way to do it?
PS: I still can do nice cli utils for myself but I would prefer to also add some gui sometimes…
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Hi @ffilosoff ,
I have asked the same question somewhere here already. I got the tipp to compile directly on the phone. SSH into the phone and work there. I did not look into this in more detail because I kept my old Mac but I hope I can direct you in a good direction.
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Just a small side note.
For apps you should be looking mostly in chum and openrepos (recommended to search for source code as well for the latest), and not just Jolla store that has very few apps.
It’s not like this will replace AAS, but still more native apps.