Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
Installing Graphene OS on a Pixel device is basically idiot proof and done in less than 20 minutes. All you need is a chromium based browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Ungoogled Chromium, etc.) and a USB cable. That's it.
No voodoo required, the tutorial is easier than following along a recepie for chicken pot pie. If you can read you can install Graphene OS, that's literally the sole prerequisite.
Agree, but do yourselve a favor and:
Both are also written in the instructions but I've seen so many people skipping those and struggling with interrupted installation processes :)
Idiot here. Can confirm. Posted from my pixel 9a with GrapheneOS which is my only phone and daily driver.
I clicked the buttons and followed the tutorial. All I needed was my PC, the phone and a USB-C cable.
Setup was easier than the android I was used to with all the bloat on it.
Your testimony is inspiring. Thanks 😊
ONE IMPORTANT THING!!!!
Make sure you do it on a chromium browser. I did it on FF a few years ago and was confused as to why it was failing, but when I switched to Chromium it worked. Idk if they fixed that by now, it's been two years. Not that it bricked my phone or anything, it just took more time.
But yeah the guide is awesome literally just read it.
There's nothing to fix, Firefox simply does not support the webusb standard required for this yet, unfortunately: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/WebUSB_API
Of course google has already enabled support even though the spec is not final. So now the standard will have to follow Chrome's implantation, because so many people already use it.
This is what people mean when they say google practically controls web standards.
Make sure you do it on a chromium browser. I did it on FF a few years ago and was confused as to why it was failing, but when I switched to Chromium it worked.
no worries nowadays as it is in the instructions, even in red clarifying "Unavailable, as your browser doesn't support WebUSB. Please read the prerequisites." after a grayed out button.
OMG, your answer is so cool ! I cook a lot, I know how to follow perfectly the recipes. That was such a good comparison. Thanks for your comment.
not even windows?
Nope. It's all browser-based. I run Linux and installed GrapheneOS on my various Pixels over the years.
You can even install from another android phone if it runs a recent version of chrome.
I was apprehensive about buying a used Pixel to install GrapheneOS on, so I put it off for a year or two. When I finally did it, it was so easy I wished I had done it sooner. It's a great OS and you'll probably be surprised how easy it is to set up. Things have really changed since the old days of finding half-baked custom Android images on dodgy file shares through forum sites.
Its really straight forward i just followed the instructions on the website ive been happy with it on my pixel 8a
Just make sure your Pixel 8 is unlocked. The rest is very simple.
basic rule for life (and messing with computer hardware / software) - it’s inevitable that you will have times that are challenging and difficult but if you work through the problems you’ll come out the other side with more experience under your belt.
You may have zero knowledge now but I can already tell that the desire to improve is there.
We all start somewhere.
Hi I work at Murena and we sell phones precisely for people who want to use something different than Big Tech yet don't really have a lot of technological expertise eg to flash devices. Check us out at https://murena.com/ ! Our phones come with /e/OS, you can read more about it on https://e.foundation/
The phones should have a ton more security improvements, though.
for example, do they support locking the bootloader? do they ship firmware updates?
are security updates at least supported for 5 years?
is hardware-accelerated virtualisation supported? are Linux GKI kernels supported?
Hi thanks for your questions. Indeed, all the phones we sell come with locked bootloaders and green bootloader status (except the pixels). Security updates are implemented monthly.
Can recommend indeed. I have used both, GrapheneOS and /e/OS and can confirm both are great. If you somehow do not feel or do not want or can not setup yourself, buying from Murena is a great alternative to stay away from BigTech.
GOS = Easy to super easy
Linage / other on Samsung = hard
In the past other roms on devices have caused issues for me (I'm happy to deal with them) and others (who would prefer to just use google).
I understand you want the best for your friend, but if there already immersed the best experience for them is just default samsung.
It would be better IMO to format, debloat, and then install some privacy friendly options.
That way they have some privacy apps to get started.
In 2027, Motorola will realease a phone with GrapheneOS preinstalled. So no Google phone.
Allegedly. Till Motorola announces it and it gets released, I well not hold my breath. Also price by the time it gets released who knows what it well cost.
I've just recently installed GrapheneOS on a new Pixel 8 (as in, refurbished, but for me it was new). It worked quite well. I've used to use the CLI installer before, but after looking at the current recommendations on their website, I followed through with the web-based one.
One point of local struggle for me was when I needed to "Flash factory images". It looked like it's not going well, I didn't understand (still don't) how to read the instruction unambiguously on when I should stop waiting, ended up restarting my phone once needlessly. However, doing the same step again afterwards somehow made the flashing successfully, and the button for the next stage got enabled ("locking the bootloader"). In total, it was inconsequential.
Everything is working super-smooth since. I've did a hardware attestation procedure to make sure that my refurbished phone is fine, and it shows up as fine. I'm quite content with how it went. Considering how you describe your phone usage, you would benefit from GOS or another open firmware a lot. You can give it a try, it's a good firmware! I wish there'd be projects that would be freedom-first, not privacy-first with the same quality level. I digress and it's subjective at this point. Just give it a try!
FYI, firmware is technically the wrong term here (apologies for being pedantic), the correct term would be operating system, or custom operating system. A lot of the firmware, even after installing GrapheneOS, is closed source and managed by Google. There's not much the project, or any project, can do about that, but their partnership with Motorola might help with the closed firmware problem.
Thanks for the correction, I appreciate it!
You're right. I got confused because I remember I was "flashing firmware from GOS". However, that is sadly non-free. (Not GrapheneOS's fault, it's always proprietary with how Google pushes Android to be.)
Partially related, I really want to give my PinePhone another try if/once google rolls out the nasty update of requiring developer's identity documents and making it harder to use F-Droid.
If you're using GrapheneOS, it will continue to be as easy as it's always been to use F-Droid.
That much is true, but the fact that google is throwing obstacles in F-Droid's way is undeniable. So while I'd be able to circumvent the bigger changes for a while, around me things will get a bit more deserted with "newbies" having a harder time to join than before.
So... it's as good time as any to give the PinePhone another go isn't it? ;-)
Personally, as much as I love the freedom of phones running desktop Linux on mobile (well most use Ubuntu as a starting point, so maybe "freedom"), I think freedom can only go so far with limited security.
Unfortunately so-called "Linux phones" (which is a horrible name imo, android is based on the Linux kernel, so really they should be called systemd phones) have very lackluster security on the device itself (app sandboxing is a joke on desktop Linux, which applies to mobile (non android) Linux too), not to mention physical security ("linux phones" are built with the goal of running Linux, not protecting their users from the combined hacking power of the US, Israel, China and other nation state actors). With the new terminal emulator allowing people to run desktop Linux apps on android, I really only see pinephone and other such devices as novelty phones, rather than a real daily driver smartphone. I don't really understand the obsession with putting desktop Linux on the phone anyways.
I'm personally hoping for the GrapheneOS team to grow enough to build their own microkernel instead of relying on the relatively insecure monolithic Linux kernel. That said, I'm definitely a minority, so as long as big tech is losing its monopoly on the smartphone market, more power to you I suppose.
My old Samsung phone died a month ago, and as much as I wanted to deGoogle, I made sacrificed that and bought a 2nd hand refurbished Pixel 8 for quite cheap. I would love to buy the Grapehene + Motorola phone but we have no idea when will they release it and at what price.
Even though they recommend using the web installer, I installed via CLI and it was easier than I expected, very little source of confusion: i think the only thing I was confused for a short moment is what other tools, beside android-tools, were necessary.
Before I started using it I had many doubts about profiles and sandboxing strategies (I still need to use WhatsApp and online banking unfortunately), but once I got started, 1 extra profile and a locked space was enough for what I needed and it was very easy to setup.
You'll be fine, use the USB that comes with it, and a chrome based browser like ungoogled-chromium, and then use the grapheneOS webflasher. You can do it from your current android phone if you wanted.
I've used both Graphene and e/OS (based on Lineage), ime they have one thing that they do better than the other. Graphene comes with more granular privacy controls, and e/OS comes with tor connectivity built into the OS itself ("hide my IP" option). Both are daily driver capable phones and I like them both.
Just make sure to set up a firewall as well if you want to keep unnecessary shit from connecting to the internet, as neither of them allows you to block all of the bloatware out of the box (but you can block more of it using Graphene).
GrapheneOS is super easy to install if you do the browser method. The explanation kn their site may look longish but it's always longer to explain something than to do it. Feel free to DM me of you get confused, but you won't.
Most Samsung won't allow you to unlock the bootloader so the Lineage angle is probably moot. If it is one of the few supported Samsungs, it does offer more privacy by not coming with Play Services. Assuming your friend doesn't just sign into Google anyway, or is willing to make the transition to apps that don't need Play Services for notifications. Also Lineage does not allow you to relock the bootloader, which is a substantial security security risk of someone gets ahold of your phone, which isn't unrealistic in today's world with rising fascism. So really, if he is not going to commit, it may be better to just leave stock Android on there.
GrapheneOS is both the pro enthusiast choice and the "set it up for your friend" choice because they can have sandboxed Play Services, sign into Google, and use the Play Store, and they're still significantly better off privacy AND security wise than even iPhone, and virtually no different for someone used to Android. Especially if they use a dedicated google Account just for the phone. Of course, it may not be relevant to you in this instance if you're giving him a Samsung.
I bought a /e/os phone from Murena last year, because GrapheneOS did not sell a phone that wasn't manufactured by Google. So far I'm pretty happy with my Murena phone.
Did you check if the Samsung device is officially supported by LineageOS?
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
Also, the accurate term is ”Android distribution” the term “Custom ROM” is outdated and technically inaccurate.
Regarding GrapheneOS I would advice you to read the information on the webpage of the installer on the official GOS website, it's very easy and tells you everything you need to know.
the term “Custom ROM” is outdated and technically inaccurate
Why do you say that?
ROM means read only memory, you are not modifying the phone's read only memory. The term originated back operating systems and games were intended to be written once to a chip at the factory and never modified again.
I did check some time ago and there is possibility for Samsung I have .I will try this weekend with pixel phone. Thank you for advices you gave.
If you have a pixel, I'd highly recommend avoiding custom OSs other than GrapheneOS unless you cannot use GrapheneOS for whatever reason. That said, in most cases running stock with modified settings can preserve the base android security while giving you more privacy.
If you can, you mention having a Samsung, avoid using Samsung with a 10 foot pole. Their security is laughably bad for a major OEM, and once you begin customizing anything with the phone, you'll encounter bug after bug after bug.
If you want a handful of reasons to avoid non GrapheneOS custom OSs, here are some of the biggest offenders (if you want more, you could ask in various GrapheneOS chatrooms (such as on matrix or discord) and they'll be happy to give you more reasons (be warned, some people will be very blunt)):
Most other custom OSs use privileged MicroG, as opposed to sandboxed Google Play which is mostly unique to GrapheneOS, as well as their own privileged serviced to provide things like parental controls or deeper app customization.
They're also very lacking in security, being no better than stock android when faced against Cellebrite or Graykey.
Their updates tend to take weeks, if not multiple months in some cases, while also not updating when new vulnerabilities are found unless it's patched upstream.
Most don't support locking the bootloader due to the way they support devices (this is part of the reason GrapheneOS is pixel exclusive) which means your phone is vulnerable to having parts of the boot process modified potentially maliciously to allow an attacker access to your data.
User privacy on custom OSs is often really theater, promising privacy because they've removed Google Play Services by replacing it with a less secure, more vulnerable, and less user friendly version called MicroG.
Finally the /e/OS devs, an operating system recommended to you by another reply, straight up said they're intentionally not making their OS any more secure, because only pedophiles need to worry about their privacy (the video is in French, and I don't have it saved, but I can find it if you want).
All said, if you just want to avoid Google but don't care about any other Tom, Dick, and Harry accessing your private information, custom OSs are great. If you care about other people, especially other companies, not having access to your private data, and you're already getting a new phone anyways, I strongly recommend buying a pixel and slapping GrapheneOS on it. Sideofburritos is a great source of information for GrapheneOS, he even made a video trying to brick GrapheneOS during the install process (spoiler: he couldn't) in case you're worried about damaging the pixel in the process.
Disclaimer: I'm not associated with the GrapheneOS project, I'm just a user who cares a lot about their digital security. If it sounds like GrapheneOS is too good to be true, I'd be happy to include some drawbacks of the OS. There really aren't many, as every news outlet that reviews the OS can agree, but there are a few.
Also check /e/OS and iodéOS, they support some Samsung phones.
Both are based on LineageOS and they only support devices that LineageOS doesn't support based on partnerships with the company of the phone.
Get at least Pixel 9 series phone. You'll have support from GrapheneOS until 2032. And you just open their installer in the browser and follow the instructions.