MNT May 2025 Update
Here is what's been going on in May 2025 at the MNT headquarters.
Migration from Wayfire to GNOME Desktop
In the April update, we mentioned our ongoing work on the integration of the GNOME Desktop. We did it! We replaced the Wayfire desktop with GNOME on the MNT Reform series laptops as one of the two primary default environments (the other being Sway), and replaced greetd with GDM. The main motivation is our goal to make the Reform devices as accessible and discoverable as possible by default, and if you're more advanced, you can dismantle and customize anything.
We originally wanted to ship GNOME with the initial Pocket Reform, but the i.MX8MPlus' GPU turned out to be too slow to support it well enough to have a great time with the machine. So as a compromise, we tried to make Wayfire friendly enough to ship it in addition to Sway, which performed well but is more for advanced users. However, Wayfire fell short of our original goal of having a comfortable and approachable desktop. Now that we have a performant CPU module, the RK3588, this original goal can be met, and we can focus on other rough edges.
Our hope for Reform Next is that you can give it to someone who is not a computer expert, and they can turn it on and go to the web without any significant hurdles. This may sound easy, but it is very difficult to get it right if you still want the device to be as open source and DIY reproducible as possible and manufactured under the non-industrial constraints that we have.
Our thanks and appreciation go out to the GNOME team for all the hard work that was and is being put into this desktop environment and GTK4. And a big thank you to Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues for contributing to the integration.
Let's go more into detail on some technical details you can expect from GNOME on MNT devices.
Switch to GDM
GNOME is by default tied to the display manager GDM3 on Debian. One can switch to another display manager by disabling and masking gdm.service with systemctl, but we wanted to ship the best integrated default. The main benefits of GDM are:
- Auto populated user and session/desktop chooser
- Provides screen lock functionality for GNOME (Super+L)
- Built-in accessibility menu incl. Screen Reader support
- We can toggle the default noisy loglevel back on because kernel output doesn’t scribble over the login manager (like it did under tuigreet). In the end this is better for debugging your system.
We’re also including the MNT Reform logo as the vendor logo in the default GDM config. It’s sourced from the non-free package reform-branding (because it’s CC-BY-NC).
Screen Rotation for MNT Pocket Reform
GDM (and GNOME) were rotated 90 degrees because the system didn’t know about Pocket’s rotated display. We found a clean solution to put this information in our custom multi-panel driver, so the orientation is correct by default now in GDM and desktop environments without any further config. We shipped this with kernel 6.14.
Battery/Suspend
We masked suspend and hibernate targets system wide on the new system image and disabled all auto suspend functionality using gschema overrides until we have stable suspend.
Styling and Dock
We’re shipping the new CC-BY-SA “MNT Reform Next Y2K” wallpaper and setting it up via gschema overrides as the default. We’re installing and enabling the Dash to Dock extension by default to offer a more familiar starting point for app launching for most users.
Keyboard Layout and Shortcuts
All the planned keyboard shortcuts and the support for EURkey have been integrated via gschema overrides.
A full list of the customizations and keyboard shortcuts is in the overrides file: schemas/20_reform.gschema.override · main · Reform / MNT Reform Tools · GitLab
Check the Community Forum thread for the remaining issues and updates and do report bugs on out Git repository if you encounter any.
RCORE Revision 2 Development
RCORE is our adapter board for Firefly RK3588 modules for the MNT Reform series. The new RCORE R-2 revision is finally technically done. Aside from minor bugfixes, a bigger change is the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connector. Lukas exchanged SDIO/UART for PCIe and made that pinout largely compatible with the PCIe port of RPi 5, but with some extra pins for a USB 2 lane. The goal is to be able to support a third M.2 slot in Pocket Reform and a second slot in Reform Next for faster Wi-Fi/BT cards.
Lukas also implemented a mux to switch between DDC/AUX for the HDMI FPC connector so that it can switch to eDP. The reset signal for classic Reform DSI to eDP converter was connected to support DSI on older motherboards without change. And Lukas did some ethernet strap fixes.
If you already own an RCORE (especially for Pocket Reform) but would like to use PCIe+USB Wi-Fi/BT, there will be an as-cheap-as-possible upgrade option. You can reuse the main RK3588+RAM module and only need to swap out the adapter.
As for Pocket Reform, this means that the WWAN slot can be used again with an LTE/cellphone modem.
MNT Desktop Reform
MNT Desktop Reform is nearly shippable! Lukas has implemented the support of ten LEDs that can be controlled in Linux's reform2_lpc driver. This makes it possible to display CPU usage, network traffic, and other blinkenlights. The ten LEDs can be adjusted within ten brightness levels.
Desktop Reform comes in different fun colors and our signature black.
The top plate is made from aluminum while the other case parts are 3D printed. We will probably also produce a full aluminum version, although this will prove more costly.
Lukas is now in the process of polishing the port covers. Once this is done, MNT Desktop Reform will be shippable.
MNT Reform Next Update
As mentioned in the RCORE 2 section, a new Wi-Fi/BT module will be available for the Reform series. For MNT Reform Next, this means that there will be another M.2 type E slot with PCIe und USB connection which will enable the use of Wi-Fi 6E (and more) in the future.
An ongoing project is the improvement of trackpad features such as scrolling. This video shows a feature called "scrolling inertia" which provides a quick and minimum effort scrolling experience.
Classic Reform Shipment
30 Classic MNT Reforms with RK3588 are finally shipping as we speak! We apologize for the long wait. We had to make changes to the motherboard as some components became unobtainable. This took longer than expected, but thank you for bearing with us and we hope you enjoy your new laptop!
New Products From MNT
MNT Reform Operator Handbook 3rd Edition
To complete the aforementioned shipment of 30 Classic Reforms, our handbook needed a third edition, mainly because we replaced the barrel jack with a USB-C port on MNT Reform and didn't want the graphics and schematics to be inaccurate. We also updated the respective passages in the text. As always, you can access the handbook online for free or buy the copy from our shop.
Events
Gulasch Programmiernacht (GPN23)
Lukas and Greta will be present at the Gulasch Programmiernacht (GPN23) in Karlsruhe this year. This CCC event takes place from June 19 to June 22 and will feature four days of hacking, goulash (vegan and non-vegan) as well as workshops and, of course, open source hardware and software. Our team will bring gear and merch, so come over, try out the MNT devices, and ask questions.
That's it, that's what's been happening! Stay tuned and read us daily on the Fediverse or in the MNT Community Forum.