- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
- cross-posted to:
- android@lemdro.id
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Honestly, Custom ROMs have been in decline of usage since few years. There are also Other ROMS like Pixel Experience, PixyOS, Havoc, evolutionX, PixelOS, Paranoid, Derpfest, CrDroid and lot more.
The reason for the drop is due to a combination of reasons like better OEM UI, unpublished Kernel code (Chinese OEMs, Mediatek), locked bootloaders and Safetynet issues.
I’m currently rocking CrDroid it has currently ~85K active devices (https://stats.crdroid.net/).
Safetynet issues
Fun part of this is that it relies entirelly on Googles tracking framework.
Do custom ROMs still have issues with some apps not allowing them? It’s been an eternity since I tried one and I don’t know if it’s a hard requirement, but at least when I did try it, I had (?) to root my device and my bank apps refused to work after that.
Some banking or payment apps can detect root and won’t let you use them.
When I used to run Custom ROMs I just used magisk to hide the root and these apps would work fine afterwards.
I haven’t encountered such a thing yet (been using for 5 months).
There are lot of methods to bypass those checks even now, and often many ROMs do this by default. (LineageOS doesn’t do that afaik)
better OEM UI
Very subjective.
Unpublished kernel code
Don’t use those phones.
Locked bootloaders
Plenty of OEMs allow bootloader unlocking, stop buying Samsung.
Safetynet issues
It’s Google Play Integrity checking now, and as someone who has been using LinageOS on unrooted phones for a while, I’ve never had these issues. Not to say people out there aren’t having them, but it’s not as bleak as people seem to believe it is.
I have one phone that’s rooted, and I have to use magisk to hide it, and that occasionally has issues, but not the non-rooted ones running custom roms.
I’m talking from a general user perspective who often can’t even differentiate between chipsets let alone look for such details.
People used to got to Custom ROMs because OEMs were really doing shit job, that’s not the case now given now.
People used to got to Custom ROMs because OEMs were really doing shit job, that’s not the case now given now.
Yep. I used to use custom (ROMs, kernels, etc) for the extra features and playing with my phone like a shiny new toy. Now I use GrapheneOS because OEMs and Google don’t do security and privacy anywhere near as good as GOS. And I can live with the minor inconvenience of apps that use Play Integrity API, though I do encourage the app devs to switch to hardware backed attestation because: “Android’s hardware attestation API provides a much stronger form of attestation than the Play Integrity API with the ability to whitelist the keys of alternate operating systems. It also avoids an unnecessary dependency on Google Play services and Google’s Play Integrity servers.” https://grapheneos.org/articles/attestation-compatibility-guide
Lineage OS is really great, I recommend the forked version with MicroG bundled to use google apps.
Depends on how pure you want to be. If you are a purest, that is a bad thing to do.
Well yes you are right, but being completely pure is borderline impossible IMO, and most people transition slowly.
True. I have been using Lineage with no gapps package for a bit over 4 years now. I no longer even have a google account as of almost 2 years ago.
I want to move away from GSF, how is MicroG working nowadays? I used it some years ago but it was buggy with any app related to mapping, and some other quirks.
It works perfectly in my case can’t say for others. You should check their issues page in github about your device.
Works perfectly fine for me. I’ve also used an app that used Google Maps in it and it worked perfectly fine. Instead of Google Maps it displayed the map on OpenStreetMap.
Is it equal to a regular android? Will the usual banking apps work on it, for example?
They work in the browser;)
For now
Nowadays with SafetyNet hardware checks it’s a dangerous game to rely on that.
The Sparkasse (german bank) app works perfectly fine. I use LineageOS with microG and I’m not logged in with a Google account or anything.
No. Banking won’t work and you can’t lock bootloader. As far as I know there’s no Recovery password so someone could just adb and pull data. If you want to use banking apps you could use magisk to pass safety net but that will make your phone less secure. Personally I have no banking app so I don’t give a shit
Banking apps work for me. And you cant pull data over adb without the password. The data is encrypted by default since a few Android versions
Or, just skip that step altogether
If you aren’t sure if you can fully degoogle then it a great offer. Unfortunately many apps depend on GSF so its understandable.
1hr 45mins?!
It’s a podcast. Most people listen to it while doing other things and don’t watch it in a single sitting.
If you don’t want to watch it, then don’t, but it really is a great podcast.
Damn, Sweet Brown. Ain’t seen her in forever!
Here you can take a look at popularity by device
And it could’ve even been useful, had they not chosen to show the code names instead of the make and model…
There are DOZENS OF US! DOZENS!!
Lineage os is great
It’s hard to find estimates of android devices, but most reports I found indicate around 3 billion, and this makes us around 0,05%. I expected it to be low, but not like that…
But how much of that is phones? There’s a lot of other devices running Android.
See the calculator some guy made run doom or a barcode scanner at my job.
Android is a fairly good target development platform, it’s still getting updates, apps built for older versions of android still work on newer versions, large active tallent pool both perfessionally and hobbyist, absolute metric fuck ton of tutorials. Yeah, if you’re making a new product it isn’t hard to just make it an android computer and throw am app on there that you make that does the thing.
I recently used a Holter monitor that was an Android phone.
I’ve seen many, many handheld devices in retail environments that are clearly Android based.
Good point. I found no data making that distinction, so we can’t really know.
I wish I could install lineage on my s10+ snapdragon. I just got this phone and now I just ordered a pixel to get grapheneos. I was willing to pay this guy on telegram to unlock my phone so I could try to get lineage to work or at least a custom rom, but my bootloader is one update off, I have v6 but he only supports up to v5. I hate ordering new devices when my current ones are still functional. I also am getting rid of my fitbit I also just got and replacing it with the amazon band 5 since it can connect to gadgetbridge. Degoogling is expensive, it shouldn’t be this bad just to get privacy. I’m not sure what to do with my devices I am replacing, but I hate that they had to be replaced in the first place. I also switched from google services to proton mail/drive/vpn.
Keep them forever like I do! Just start collecting smartphones because it’s better for the environment. I have like 10 of them never going into a landfill. Maybe find people who actually need phones idk.
I’m thinking about selling my old phones on eBay. It’s better if someone can get any use out of them instead of them just laying around in my room.
Yeah you should probably do that instead. Or be like me and switch phones everyday for some reason. Go insane use an iPhone and then an android phone than a phone from 2016 you have to custom rom to get working again because it’s last update was from 2018 and you have to replace the battery.
Will be +1 when have official support for the poco X5 pro. (If I can pay with mobile)
🤓
(If I can pay with mobile)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but so long as you root with Magisk and configure the denylist, installing the SafetyNet Fix and changing the Props if you need to spoof a device ID, then you’ll always be able to use Google Pay/contactless, regardless of whether on Lineage or another custom ROM.
do banking apps work on it again?
It’s a constant cat and mouse game with Google. You can use Magisk with Zygisk enabled, Shamiko, and Play Integrity Fix (there’s also a few other combos that work) to get baking apps to work. I have no issues on my rooted Pixel 8 Pro, but it’s always a gamble if Google updates their end and then you get locked out of Google Wallet for a day once you update your fixes (not banking apps).
You talking to me?
Unfortunately GPay / Google Wallet has been borked on most ROMs since the recent Google shenanigans about a week ago. Even those not rooted. I got hit by that, running ArrowOS and not being rooted.
My bank’s app works though so eh, lost some convenience but can get things done.
Depends on your bank. My bank’s app (Sparkasse) has always worked, even when I had Magisk installed.
How did they measure this?
I don’t know the exact modus operandi, but usually this is achieved by using some “phone home” mechanism which sends a device identifier (to ensure uniqueness) along with an OS version (and maybe some other fingerprints to ensure integrity of the data - like a hash of CPU hardware, etc).
I had LineageOS on my Nexus 4. Every damn phone I’ve had since hasn’t had any custom ROM available (and one couldn’t even be rooted; fuck Samsung). I want it back.
Does this include devices running unofficial ports of lineageOS?
Represent
Lineage is fucking Awesome. I fucking love android without google crap
I’ve changed thanks to not having any update on my Moto G7 Power since 2021.
