If you’re on a Linux phone, but you’re not tooting, then you should register with a Mastodon instance now! If you’re tooting but not yet on your Linux phone, then you should install Tooth now! Tooth is a fork of the now-defunct GTK mastodon client Tootle. Tooth is still in development but already stable with plenty of quality of life improvements over the original.
As it is still in active development, Tooth is not yet available as a Flatpak or a package in either the PureOS (Librem 5) or Alpine (postmarketOS) repositories. With a little work and some help from friend on Matrix, I was able to build Tooth on the OnePlus 6 running postmarketOS from the source on github.
Step 0. Important Links
Step 1. Clone Repository
sudo apk add git #Install git
git clone https://github.com/GeopJr/Tooth.git
Step 2. Install Dependencies
The instructions on the Tooth github page are for a Debian-based Linux distribution. You can build on Alpine (pmOS) after installing the following equivalent packages.
| Alpine Package | Debian Package |
|---|---|
| meson | meson |
| vala | valac |
| libglibutil-dev | libglib-2.0-dev |
| json-glib-dev | libjson-glib-dev |
| libxml2-dev | libxml2-dev |
| libgee-dev | libgee-0.8-dev |
| libsoup-dev | libsoup2.4-dev |
| gtk4.0-dev | libgtk-4-dev |
| libadwaita-dev | libadwaita-1.0-dev |
| libsecret-dev | libsecret-1-de |
| gcc | |
| musl-dev | |
| desktop-file-utils | |
| appstream-glib |
I prefer to install dependencies one at a time to make sure they install properly, but if you’re feeling lucky run this:
sudo apk add meson vala libglibutil-dev json-glib-dev libxml2-dev libgee-dev libsoup-dev gtk4.0-dev libadwaita-dev libsecret-dev gcc musl-dev desktop-file-utils appstream-glib
Step 3. Build Tooth
Tooth developers have been kind enough to prepare an install script to build Tooth once you’ve installed the proper dependencies.
cd Tooth #Enter cloned directory
chmod u+x install.sh #Make the script executable
sudo ./install.sh #Run the build script
Step 4. Run Tooth
This should boot Tooth and create a Tooth icon on your phone. Interestingly, Tooth will not load your profile until you have unlocked your keyring. I get prompted to unlock my keyring when I open Geary email client. After I’ve unlocked my keyring, Tooth will load into my Mastodon account. Go and toot already!
