I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G with 512 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM, but I'm not enjoying the stock software. After installing Linux distributions such as Zorin and Ultramarine on several computers, I'm wondering whether this phone could run a mobile Linux operating system instead. How practical is Linux on this model, what kind of experience should I expect, and what would the installation process involve?
4 Answers
If your goal is mainly to remove Google or Samsung software, replacing the entire operating system may be unnecessary. Look into a compatible Android-based system such as LineageOS, if your exact model has a trustworthy build, or use a different launcher and disable unwanted applications. These options usually preserve much more phone functionality than an experimental Linux port.
Modern Samsung phones are generally a poor starting point for a full Linux installation. You would usually need an unlockable bootloader, root or recovery access, a compatible kernel, and a device-specific port. Some carrier or regional models cannot be bootloader-unlocked at all, and unlocking can erase the phone and affect security features. Check the device lists for postmarketOS and Ubuntu Touch before attempting anything.
Even if you get Linux to boot, it may not be suitable as your primary phone. Calls, messaging, cameras, battery life, graphics acceleration, and banking applications can be unreliable or unavailable.
A phone is much less standardized than a PC, so you generally can’t install a normal desktop distribution and expect everything to work. Linux on ARM phones requires device-specific support for the display, modem, cameras, audio, sensors, GPU, and other hardware. Projects such as Ubuntu Touch, Mobian, Fedora ARM, and postmarketOS support only particular models, so you would need to check whether your exact Note 20 Ultra variant is supported.
The exact model and processor matter a lot. Samsung sold different regional versions, and an unofficial port may boot while still lacking important features such as cellular data, cameras, or fingerprint support.
You can also run a Linux environment inside Android using tools such as Andronix or a proot/container setup. That gives you a shell and often a desktop session without replacing the phone’s firmware. It won’t provide the same hardware access or performance as native Linux, but it’s much safer for experimenting.
Android already uses the Linux kernel, but that doesn’t mean it works like a regular Linux desktop. The Android framework, drivers, and vendor components are what make the phone hardware usable.