Simple question really! Are any of you running a Custom ROM? Furthermore, are any of you running a De-Googled ROM?
Why do you run your custom ROM, and what are the drawbacks?
Yes, I bought a Pixel 6 specifically to run GrapheneOS. I can proudly say that every single app on my phone is open source, no GSM and no Google. I don’t really mind paying a company like Google for the phone, I just don’t want to hand them my data.
Sounds neat. But what all the services that require proprietary app? Like banking, Uber, reviews on Google Maps etc.?
you can use web apps for banking, uber
although uber and most banking apps work on grapheneos, check this community verified list https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/for reviews, you can use gmaps webview https://f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.maps/
for navigation maps, you can use openstreetmap like magic earth and organic maps
if you think osm doesn’t have enough data of your area, then you can use herewego maps, its another proprietary map, but is a bit better than google on privacy
I have a lineage phone I keep on dial and I was using graphene OS for a minute but
The thing is that I live by my phone. Passwords, banking, pretty much the entirety of my actual life daily. I think graphene OS is great! But I also don’t have time or a the ability to have an AI review the codebase to validate that what I’m putting on my phone is safe. The truth is that these are unpaid strangers making a great product who’s work Im not a subject matter expert in. Android is a large codebase. I’m friends with a guy who works on it full time and even he feels lost sometimes. So I reversed my phone back to stock Android for my daily driver.
If I’m doing better financially in a few months I’ll likely buy another pixel phone or try fair phone with graphene. I just can’t justify the purchase right now and my phone works fine.
Just a reminder if you like these projects, donate to them!. I dropped about $1000 on open source stuff over the last year to include joplin, EFF, vueJS, graphene, lineage, and quasarJS. Every one of them does great work.
Yes, running crDroid on my Redmi Note 10 Pro
Works for me without any issues and I even got the banking apps to work using magisk delta
Magisk Delta? Been away from the custom ROM scene for too long now, is Magisk Cloak no longer a thing?
It is an unofficial 3rd party Magisk fork.
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I am running Paranoid Android Topaz 4 on my OnePlus 7T. No fancy features, but very stable. Just like Roman Empire.
I don’t see enough DivestOS here. It’s basically LineageOS, but actually more private and secure. Though it explicitely doesn’t support any way of emulating Play Services, which can obviously be a dealbreaker for some.
Which device are you using with DivestOS?
I am using all of the DivestOS applications on my CrDroid. I am thinking to switch on my Poco F3 but I am skeptical due to removal of many blobs.
I’m running it on a Poco F3, and in general I’ve found DivestOS to be more stable than crDroid. Also, it makes it easier that it comes with a system webview replacement built in.
Edit: I haven’t tried locking the bootloader, mind you, but that doesn’t really interest me so much.
As I read on the documentation, relocking the bootloader seems broken on Poco F3.
Okay, thank you for the info, you tempt me more to install DivestOS on Poco F3 hahah. Have you tried any wireless earpods if they work flawless and with the same sound quality? i have read the code from the blobs that they have been removed and I noticed that they have remove many of them related on wireless soundspeakers.
Haven’t had any issues with any bluetooth devices. Headphones, speaker, car, all work as normal.
Okay thank you! Next week, I will flash DivestOS and I will text you back!! (i translated several DivestOS applications in Greek for now)
A OnePlus 5T, runs like a charm. Since I’m not dependent on Play Services or anything of the sort, it was my best bet short of replacing it with a Pixel.
I just recently joined the DivestOS clan! I do kind of miss a few of the customisation options I had in my last ROM, crDroid, but overall I’m finding it a little more stable and I’m generally very happy with it. In particular, I like the inclusion of Mull for the app browser and Mulch for the system webview browser.
Even Mike Kuketz likes it, which says something. He’s a german cybersecurity expert who’s been looking at several custom roms over the last months. This is his article on DivestOS:
https://www.kuketz-blog.de/divestos-datenschutzfreundlich-und-erhoehte-sicherheit-custom-roms-teil5/
Well, if you can read German
Lol, Google Translate doesn’t seem to want to load that site. I’d like to think that’s intentional on Mike’s part.
Could very well be, he has a very strict stance on what data traffic he considers okay
GrapheneOS on Pixel 6a
Yes, I’d rather fuck around with custom ROMs than endure the user-hostile crapware that most vendors bundle. I’d also rather try to make an app work despite safety net or whatever not passing out of the box than not have any defenses against the dumb bullshit software vendors put in their apps. I’d rather go back to a feature phone than live with a walled garden full of spyware and ads.
VoidUI (not de googled) because:
- the main reason is so I can keep using my phone beyond the official SW support period, I would be stuck on A10 if I stayed with stock
- The phone started to feel a little bit slow after 2 years
- Unlocked some of the performance that was left on the table with more to be unlocked!
- No bloatware
The drawbacks:
- The camera experience is orders of magnitude worse
- Goodbye iris scanner :'(
- Goodbye S-Pen features
- Goodbye Samsung notes
- Goodbye to the much better split screen and floating window implementation
Sadly not anymore because I need my banking apps to work reliably. Making them work isn’t the biggest problem, but I’ll never know when an update blindsides me and breaks something.
On a sidenote, I’d really like to know why banks think that an ancient phone that hasn’t seen a security update in years is somehow more secure than an up-to-date Lineage or GrapheneOS.
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I would love to run Graphene OS, but their stance on root (“REEEEeEEeeEeEeEeEEEE iTs nOt sEcUrE aNyMoRe wHy WoULd yOu dO tHaT” Jesus fucking christ I’m aware of the risks now stop being a little bitch about it) drives me up the fucking wall.
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Yeah, I use Lineage on a Pixel 5 since I switched back from an iPhone a few months ago. My intention was to run Graphene or Calyx, but I can’t get wifi calling working without gapps installed, even with Graphene’s sandboxed play services and the dialer. I think ATT Prepaid is using the new wifi calling negotiation that Google implemented in Android 12. I have zero coverage from any carrier for miles around me, so wifi calling is pretty critical. So I installed mindthegapps, enabled wifi calling, and then disabled all the Google stuff again. I didn’t want root, so I’m not too thrilled with this situation.
I’ll be switching to T-Mobile/Mint or Verizon/US Mobile in the next few months, so I’ll try again then. But I’m seriously considering getting a Light Phone. Then I’ll use a Pixel Tablet with Graphene/Calyx and a Garmin Fenix for handling music, calendar/email, hike mapping, browsing/media while lounging, maybe a work account, etc. I’m also considering just limiting the software footprint on the Pixel, but… that’s too easy to override on a whim.
Another option is a Unihertz Jelly Star, so the screen is too small to do much. I’d really like Spotify in the car, and mostly just my downloaded daily/weekly playlists since I have such limited cell coverage. I’m not entirely sure if the Fenix can play to the head unit over Bluetooth.
I suspect the decades of infinite scroll is destroying my attention span and already limited emotional response, which is combining with my autism to put me in a place of pretty much near constant burnout. That leaves me on the cusp of meltdown at all times, it’s not a good place to be. Luckily reddit gave me an excuse to do what I’d been leaning towards for over a year, and there isn’t such an overload of content over here yet.
you can install sandboxed google play services on grapheneos which so much better than microg on lineage
I tried that, and couldn’t get it working. There must be some other package I’m missing. I tried some stuff like carrier services, but no luck. Or maybe it’s the sandboxed nature of gsp, but I think there’s something else missing. There’s a dialog that launches in Lineage without gapps and Lineage with MicroG, but fails to register the feature still. But in Graphene and Calyx, that dialog never launches.
yes, grapheneos on pixel 7
I think custom Roms respects us a lot more than stock is which treats us like product
Been running CalyxOS for 3 years. Compile it myself from source with some extra tweaks and such. I’ve even got a nice build server going that automatically compiles builds monthly and pushes updates to my phone via OTAs. It was a little work to get set up, but now it doesn’t feel any different from the stock Android experience.
It started because I was tired of all the unchecked spying Google does, and I wanted to get away from that. But now I can never go back to “regular” Android, because the vendor bloat in “stock” ROMs is incessant, and I am maintaining patches for quite a few features Google has either removed, or never supported in the first place (2-button navigation, AM/PM clock, automatic call recording).
Honestly, there hasn’t been any drawbacks. The phone works perfectly, calls are fine, it runs great, and I haven’t needed Google Play Services for basically anything. My banking app still works. I don’t use Google Pay so I don’t really care that it doesn’t work. Android wearOS doesn’t work, but at this point Google has dropped the ball so severely, I don’t have the motivation to bother with a smartwatch.
Most of my paid apps continue to work without patches, and I get them from Aurora Store. For the ones that don’t work, I just patch them myself to remove the license checks. I paid for them, so I should be able to use them regardless of what ROM I use.
I run LineageOS on my Nexus 6, to get ongoing security updates. I also keep one other sacrificial phone running stock android with bootloader locked, so no more security updates, but I don’t run anything on it but my banking app, since it’s too insecure.
Yes, lineage OS without Google. Everytging still works fine, even playstore with Autor store frontend
