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Hey everyone, I care a lot about privacy and security , and I have been thinking of switching to GrapheneOS for my phone (currently using an iphone xr). The main thing holding me back is that I would need to buy a Google Pixel (thinking of going for the 7a) just to use it. I don't want to drop money on hardware if the OS ends up not being worth it or not that much better than other privacy-focused setups. So for those of you who've used GrapheneOS - was it worth the switch? Would love to hear honest opinions before I commit to a new phone just for this. Thanks!

Yeah it was worth it. Also got a pixel 7a. What I miss from my iPhone is the macro camera, but the 90hz screen is nice. Lots of nice features like duress password. Things sometimes break, but most of the time is user error. For example I was reading about an exploit where any person with your phone number could call it and exploit VoLTE to get your location, so I turned that off. A few months later I wanted to call a support hotline and it didn't work and took me a few moments to figure out that that was required.

>phone >Hey everyone, I care a lot about privacy and security lol

Graphene is probably as good as phone OSes get, it's just Android without Google's bullshit and with a lot of cool security stuff working in the background Consider looking into postmarketOS too, it's pretty much Alpine with a touchscreen GUI, WWAN/dialing utils and other stuff you'd expect to be on a phone preinstalled, wouldn't recommend it for daily use but it's fun to play around with

>>87828 lainon, privacy is not black and white, especially not in the current age where basic social participation is becoming increasingly difficult without smartphones. op, i haven't personally used grapheneOS, but i am considering it for when i replace my current phone. i've heard from people with degoogled phones that their battery life practically doubles which i think speaks for itself though lmao

>>87842 >lainon, privacy is not black and white, I must say privacy more of sauxe and pan

Still haven't gone to prison/10

Hi, I care a lot about using secure software on my mobile device, as I am forced by modern circumstances, such as work, to use a smartphone. I've been running Graphene OS for a while now, and I gotta say, IT IS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!!! The Google sandboxing is top-notch, and you can actually use Play applications. I understand that data is not leaked to outside servers, and there are Android options to disable microphone, camera, precise location, etc. I thoroughly have gotten a lot out of my Graphene-enabled Pixel device.

>>87842 >phoneuser opinion lol It's become mandatory because you've accepted it. Stop accepting it and it goes away.

>>87826 It's a matter of tradeoffs. the question is always "how do i do what i want to do while minimizing the privacy breaches?" I need a phone to interact with people in my uni. "b-bb-but muhh!! you can just not interact" yes, but in life you need social connections if you want to get somewhere, and uni happens to be one of the few good places to form those. also you need a phone to be reachable and reach others while on the move "b-b-but muh!!! you can just not leave your mother's basement!!!" yeah.

>>87845 The sad news is they are trying to make it harder to replace their stock orbs. Samsung is one of them...

>>87822 Desktop security, especially desktop Linux security, is piss poor. The loons in this thread are clueless Going for an 8 series pixel or more recent is recommended for the longer update window and MTE support

>>87822 I've used it for a several months. The installer is nearly idiot-proof. It's genuinely very pleasant to have a mobile device that isn't total botnet. However, there are a few annoyances, the security additions sometimes break an app's ability to download in the background, & termux doesn't work for me at all. Finaly, keep in mind that this is only a private device if you don't connect to a mobile network (IE not use it as a cellphone). There are also some long-term concerns with the project's continued ability to the same level of device security due to Google changing the amount of access they offer third parties. Overall, it mostly just-werks and is probably the best android ROM available. Whether or not it's worth it depends on what you personally want from a mobile device.

>>87868 Not OP - would you be willing to elaborate on Termux not working? I was considering getting a Google Pixel tablet just for GrapheneOS, but no Termux AND the lack of a microSD card slot would be a deal breaker for me. (I did find a discussion on the forums: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/23750-how-to-get-termux-to-work-in-non-owner-profiles/5)

>carrying a tracking device ("phone") Never going to make it

I think it was worth it. However, Google will be implementing some changes next year that are concerning. >>87868 Termux works for me on a 7a

I like graphene but its made by literal retards, they keep promoting use of the worst government and corporate spyware and mindless consumerism like latest pixels and iphones where google and governments track your every move over actually free devices like PCs just because technically you can exploit the fuarrrking smartcard reader on a thinkpad with physical access that no one ever uses anyways. By having a graphene pixel you're objectively more supportive of modern surveillance than having even a spydows machine (10/11, anything older might as well be considered FOSS tier on the modern botnet scale) GrapheneOS can run your governments spyware, and when you pull out your brand new Pixel you're getting pushed until you install, while if the only internet connected device you own is a decade old Dell Precision and no smartphone you'll just get treated like a 90yo grandma and be given the soykaf on paper or whatever the case may be. This is the biggest reason I refuse to buy into any smartphone including grapheneOS, now if they made it for a blackberry or someshit id be all over that.

>>87822 I daily drive a Pixel running GrapheneOS. I use essentially all FOSS apps from F-Droid (or from the source, via Obtanium), with the exception of some for university and work. Those apps run in a separate profile, using sandboxed Google Play. I like it a lot. Very easy install process, all of my apps work fine, notifications and the like go through. It feels like a normal phone most of the time. As for banking apps, they have a section on their website for troubleshooting, but it generally comes down to disabling hardening for those apps. I'm cautious about Google's more recent changes to the Android ecosystem. Hopefully enough people push back so that Google doesn't ruin Android. I'm curious to see what the GrapheneOS dev team and privacy community gravitates to as a solution in the future. For now, ignore the FUD surrounding "don't use a phone, they track you with it". Try and par down your phone usage gradually, until you (maybe, possibly) arrive at a point that you don't need it anymore. A Pixel running GrapheneOS is a step in the right direction in that regard, imo. >>88605 What do you use instead, if at all, anon?

>>88608 >Hopefully enough people push back When have people meaningfully pushed back on anything recently? We're already there, we're in Orwellville, we've been there for decades and everybody goes about their business like they aren't being manipulated, subverted and worse by a foreign nation. Truly a clown world rivaling fiction. >What do you use instead, if at all, anon? Dumb phone turned off most of the time and I use FOSS on a laptop instead. GrapheneOS and the apps that will find their way to it are not FOSS. Fun fact, graphene people ban you from their matrix room if you merely ask about proprietary binary blobs and google's allegedly "required" ""security chip"", which is "required" for GraphmemeOS "security" for whatever reason... Just stop asking questions.

Wow, the law-enforcement/intelligence-community FUD spreaders are really hitting Lainchan en masse the last day or two. The number of posts "warning" everyone not to use VPNs. secure email providers, secure OS, etc etc suddenly bloomed from the occasional schizo message to the LEIC team flooding every thread with moronic paranoid bullshit. The ironic thing about their crap is they always claim the security providers are the glowies, instead of themselves, lol.

>>88622 I agree. Threat modeling is important. You can't defend against state funded groups, intelligence agencies or nation states (and why would you anyway?) but defeating most corporate surveillance, skids, and more talented hacker groups is pretty straightforward. Simply follow best practices, adopt a zero trust mindset, install Common Sense 2025™ and you are good to go. >88615 Again, you are bike shedding cybersecurity. No digital system is completely secure, but you can meaningfully decrease the probability that you will be compromised. GrapheneOS is rock solid for most security threats you will ever encounter on a smartphone. Spooks can always hack into all of your electronics any time they want, but it doesn't mean that they will.

>>88625 One more thing, LLMs (especially commercially available state of the art models) can automate cyber attacks at scale, very soon we may need to defend against sophisticated cyber attacks orchestrated by people with no programming skills at all. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.01637 (2024) https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/b2a76c6f6992465c09a6f2fce282f6c0cea8c200.pdf (2025)

>>88622 the services >>24012 >>24026 >>25643 >not to use VPNs did anybody say not to use VPNs? there are warnings they might not be as private as you think and it's probably true. truth is we're playing a game of golf blindfolded and they aren't telling us the score or progress. if you skim some wiki pages on surveillance and then blindly trust proton because their marketing says it's private, you're a moron >>88627 >sophisticated cyber attacks these "sophisticated" attacks that glowies do are most often simple spear phishing or browser zero days they buy

>>88638 >>>/sec/24012 >>>/sec/24026 >>>/sec/25643

>>87822 I tried it once but it was constantly getting bootlooped after the battery had been completely drained. Once it locked my phone for a whole day so I returned to the stock OS. You need to make a compromise between comfort and real privacy and security. I think if you're really want it just stick to a dumb phone. Though I would like to know how to use TOTP authentication without a smartphone nowadays (ofc, PC is still an option but I want it to be somewhat mobile solution and not a laptop-based)

.>>88638 >did anybody say not to use VPNs? there are warnings they might not be as private as you think and it's probably true. truth is we're playing a game of golf blindfolded and they aren't telling us the score or progress. No, Agent FUD, you can just use a VPN that allows account creation via a burner email, provides an account number, asks for no identifying information whatsoever, allows payment via cash and account number in an envelope, and allows connection via Tor. Like Mullvad. That leaves them with exactly nothing to tell enyone even if they wanted to. >if you skim some wiki pages on surveillance and then blindly trust proton because their marketing says it's private, you're a moron Wrong again, Agent FUD. All you have to do is read the Proton Mail source code and see that it's doing exactly what they says it's doing. The morons are the people who won't or can't do that. Like you, Agent FUD.

You might want to avoid all A-series Pixels. There seems to be an emerging pattern of serious battery issues. The main Pixel 9 line should be getting large discounts soon since the Pixel 10 has been released. >>87868 >>87871 >termux Android 16 is getting a full Debian VM, so there's that.

>>88660 Can confirm A series battery issues. I got the 6A at first just to try out GrapheneOS, it was new in box when I got it and about 11 months in it suddenly couldn't hold a charge anymore. They go for cheap because they're soykafty kek

>>87858 >desktop Linux security, is piss poor Really? So what is better? Windows? Mac?

bc i tried to use mouse output on qemu and it absolutely is like kicking dead whales down the beach. Delayed mouse output, everything. Not a issue with internet or pc. fuarrrk qemu

>>88615 > When have people meaningfully pushed back on anything recently? We're already there, we're in Orwellville, we've been there for decades and everybody goes about their business like they aren't being manipulated, subverted and worse by a foreign nation. Truly a clown world rivaling fiction. Defeatist rhetoric will get you nowhere. Louis Rossmann, Cory Doctorow, and other prominent figures push back against this sort of thing every day. Contrary to popular belief, most normal people don't like being surveilled, and can be convinced to resist these sort of changes. Accepting the situation as-is, or quietly going about deploying privacy measures, is exactly what the powers that be want you to do, as it makes you easier to isolate and brand as a dangerous radical ("Why is that person hiding XYZ? What do they have to hide?" and so on.). Normalizing privacy practices is the way to go. If that means recommending GrapheneOS in the short term and switching to a better alternative in the future, then so be it. Flawed though it may be (in your opinion or otherwise), it's still better than the standard options from the likes of Google or Apple. In short - complaining on an anonymous image board does nothing. If you want to do something, write to/call your representatives, donate to causes you care about (the EFF still does fantastic work), go to a protest, get involved in your local government - just don't stay inside, do nothing, then complain when everything goes to hell. More to the point, because I'm curious. > Dumb phone turned off most of the time and I use FOSS on a laptop instead. Do you just carry around a laptop often enough that you can do without a smartphone? How do you get around the need to install an app for certain things? Again, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm genuinely curious. Also - to anyone lambasting secure email provides as "not private". Email was never meant to be private in the first place, any solutions that claim to make it so are duct taped onto the original protocol and are slipshod solutions at best. You use email for setting up more secure means of communication on a different platform, or for boring empl*yed people activity. Use a dedicated secure messenger for private matters - I'd recommend Signal but I'll probably be called a glowie by, well, the glowies, so use whatever the voices in your head tell you is secure enough.

>>88713 I'm not the guy you are asking, I don't use a mobile phone on a daily basis. I have one in a drawer switches off, which doesn't have a sim card in it and was in airplane mode when I switched it off. I also don't have wifi at home. So it's rather unlikely that phone is used to spy on me, although not impossible, as it has a non removable battery, so it could theoretically be activated remotely and adversaries might somehow make it connect to an enemy wifi/hotspot/skylink network. So you may wonder, why have a phone in the first place, and you'd be right for asking that question. I need it occasionally for google authenticator, as there are still many services that don't support hardware security key authentication for MFA. I also don't carry a personal laptop everywhere, I just go outside and enjoy being not reachable. I memorize important phone numbers, so that in case I need to reach someone unexpectedly, I can use someone elses phone to call them. Can't wait for not needing google authenticator anymore,if hopefully soon everyone will support hardware key mfa only

>>88816 also damn microsoft authenticator, it's even more complicated to use without a smart phone, although you can use an android emulator on laptop, but I don't want to risk compromising my computer with suspect software, just for using microsoft authenticator once every few weeks...

>>87822 >>88605 >>88615 Never tried it, but as these posters mentioned, the main issues with it are: 1. Sand-boxing is imperfect isolation. There are open issues detailing unique identifiers that are known to persist across different profiles/app sandboxes. They acknowledge this in their FAQ and say they are not attempting to prevent fingerprinting. They also say in their future plans that they want to move to full virtualization. The hardening and sandboxing is probably better than stock Android for preventing some malware and tracking, but I wouldn't trust it to be fool-proof. 2. They are blindly trusting Google's blackbox firmware which runs at the lowest privilege level, similar to Intel ME/AMD PSP, and can have full control over the device. I do not buy the argument that allowing Google, Apple or Microsoft to automatically install closed source software updates on my device on a daily or weekly basis makes my computing more "secure". After 5-7 years Google stops releasing firmware updates for Pixel phones, so perfectly functional devices end up trashed. You are giving Google money by buying their device and playing into their planned obsolescence consumer upgrade cycle. Microsoft is doing the same thing with Windows 11 by refusing to release security updates and implementing artificial hardware compatibility restrictions. 3. Through some quick internet research you will find the lead dev has gone off the deep end aggressively marketing the OS, attempting to put down competitors, and censoring any criticism or opposition to his narrative that his project is the best available and could not possibly have anything wrong with it. This is very shady behavior. The lead dev claimed to have stepped down and relinquished control after all the internet drama, but I am highly skeptical anytime I see this sort of behavior to begin with. https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm>>87822

>>88816 >>88817 > I don't use a mobile phone on a daily basis. I have one in a drawer switches off, which doesn't have a sim card in it and was in airplane mode when I switched it off. How do you stay in touch with people, or use services which require a phone number? VoIP number? I don't mean to pry, I'm just curious how people go without phones or phone numbers for the most part. > So it's rather unlikely that phone is used to spy on me, although not impossible, as it has a non removable battery, so it could theoretically be activated remotely and adversaries might somehow make it connect to an enemy wifi/hotspot/skylink network. I think in the (statistically unlikely) event you have adversaries that are willing to go to those lengths it may be safe to assume they'd rather install hidden cameras and microphones in your home instead. But if it helps you sleep better at night, you could always invest in a Faraday pouch to keep your phone in when not in use. > I need it occasionally for google authenticator, as there are still many services that don't support hardware security key authentication for MFA. You can also use KeePassXC for 2FA, or something similar. You can export the secrets from the app into a file and import them into KeePassXC - not sure what the exact process is for this but you can look it up. Doing so would free you from needing a mobile phone. > [A]lso damn microsoft authenticator, it's even more complicated to use without a smart phone It seems like you can also export the secrets from microsoft authenticator for use elsewhere. http://web.archive.org/web/20251006171538/https://gist.github.com/chowder/2ead734d60d84d4d15034fcce81aaaf9

>>89230 Different poster, but I have managed to survive without a cell phone by using a VoIP provider for SMS/MMS and regular phone calls. It is not an ideal solution, especially if you need to be reachable on-the-go. But it is possible to set up forwarding calls/texts to a cell phone which is connected via cellular data only. I keep a Pine phone with the modem switched off if needed for emergency calls. I have considered Graphene for more usability, but it looks like the Pixel phones have a history of hardware issues (bulging batteries, failing screens). Not sure how much of that is due to the stock software or firmware. Also I would really hate voluntarily giving Google money.

GrapheneOS is perfect for niggercattle. The documentation intentionally uses misleading language to downplay and hide flaws in the security model. Case in point: https://grapheneos.org/faq#encryption >Full disk encryption is implemented via filesystem-based encryption with metadata encryption They falsely try to compare their soykafty encryption implementation to "Full disk encryption". Android used to have proper DM-Crypt password based block-level encryption for the /data partition, but Google removed it for... Uhh... Reasons. This is where the GrapheneOS master bullshitters come in, they claim that f2fs fscrypt + dm-default-key metadata encryption is equivalent to "Full disk encryption", which is synonymous on PC with password based block-level encryption systems like LUKS, Bitlocker or Filevault. It isn't. The file contents and filenames in the "User CE" storage class are encrypted with f2fs fscrypt using PIN/password derived credentials, but all other metadata on the device and the "System DE" storage class is encrypted with an ephemerally-wrapped device key loaded in the hardware on boot. That means, if a hardware exploit is found in the hardware-wrapped keys subsystem or inline crypto engine, the "System DE" storage and all non-filename data for the /data partition can be decrypted - regardless of how strong your password is. This includes highly sensitive data, such as the apps installed on your device, f2fs metadata about hot/cold files which can be used to infer which files you access often and which apps you use most, the file length, number of files, permissions, timestamps and directory structure which can be used to statistically infer the filetypes and organisation of the filesystem. This can be combined with flash-level forensics to get information about deleted applications and see how many files were deleted, when you deleted them, etc. Combine that with ISP logs, network forensics, and data extracted from the baseband modem using cell tower spoofing - and you can reconstruct a geolocation timeline of when and where you used particular apps. The over-reliance on hardware security rather than implementing strong software and cryptographic protections is a recurring theme in GrapheneOS. They place a lot of faith in Google's hardware root of trust implementation and secure element - particularly in protecting against AFU key-extraction attacks, which is entirely dependent on hardware security features, regardless of what their documentation might seem to suggest about being "invulnerable" to AFU or BFU unlock. It's the same level of stupidity thinking the Titanic is unsinkable. What a joke. Corporations keep pushing these retarded hardware security initiatives like secure boot, TPM, remote attestation, secure enclaves, verified root of trust. Everyone knows it's security theater, the first thing you do when you install Linux is turn off secure boot because it's useless trash that doesn't protect you from real threats and is easily bypassed by actual threat actors. It's just another scam to give corporations more control, restrict freedoms, and insert backdoors. People keep relearning the hard way that endpoint security and the "trusted client" model is doomed to fail - there have been many hardware exploits and jailbreaks over the years, particularly against game consoles and security keys, including the Google Titan. Rely on tried-and-true cryptographic primitives rather than security by obscurity and "trusted authorities". Implement anti-forensics and amnestic boot to minimize damage. Add deniable encryption to protect against realistic threat models. Use hardware features as defense-in-depth rather than blind faith and trust. GrapheneOS devs do none of that. Instead, they lie and gaslight their users on forums that there is no problem and anyone that criticizes them is "spreading misinformation".

>>89240 Take your meds, shizo.

>>89199 >>89240 This could all be 100% true, and yet: Is it any worse than Desktop Linux? If not, then it is at least not a downgrade of your overall security posture. I'm willing to settle for a phone that is not actively hostile. At some point good enough is good enough. We're not going to live forever. >Micay They're all less than ideal characters in their own way. Torvalds, Stallman, Moxie...

Using Pixel 9 XL with Grapheme for 2 months now. the only issue is how I cannot install the same app in multiple user profiles. You have to decide in which user profile the app goes and it will be only there. That means you have to switch over user profiles if you want to, for example, read incoming messages. If you chose strong profile passwords, this is highly annoying. Also some apps don't work. The biggest upside of Graphene OS for me is how I don't feel like someone is listening in on me in every minute of my everyday life. Coming from an iPhone, this is liberating. I feel more at peace. This is how Android must be, the original idea of a smartphone. A neutral OS with a set of apps that you choose and permissions management. It's truly dystopian how this is not the normal and how you basically have to decide whether you give Google or Apple (or Huawei) all your data if you want to use a mobile device.

>>89364 Profiles are meant to separate app data, like a sandbox. If you want to have everything together, use one profile. >If you chose strong profile passwords, this is highly annoying. Use fingerprint.

Does anyone here use Pixel tablets with GrapheneOS? What is your experience like? I want to get a tablet for ebooks and anime because hauling off my laptop across the house becomes tiring after some time but I want the full FOSS experience of my laptop too. I think a GrapheneOS tablet would fill that niche for me. Another question. Google is apparently closing off Android with each release. Will GrapheneOS keep being viable to justify an investment into Pixel hardware now, or should I call it off and get another laptop for the living room?

>>89453 You """should""" be able to get the full 7 years of updates and security patches for any device you buy now, at least. There are rumors that Graphene's developers are in talks with an OEM to get their own hardware, but that probably won't help with App Verification. Even the FSF decided to jump in, but then it turned out their effort is going to be based on Lineage. There's always the ultimate fallback of a mobile hotspot (or cheap tethered burner) and a true hand-computer (Pi + screen + battery). It's always the phone part that's broken on Linux-/free-phones, so this should actually work pretty well. You can even duct tape your hand-computer to your hotspot. Presto!

>>89364 > the only issue is how I cannot install the same app in multiple user profiles. You have to decide in which user profile the app goes and it will be only there. That means you have to switch over user profiles if you want to, for example, read incoming messages There is an app available via the Accrescent app store for transferring data across different user profiles ("Inter Profile Sharing" by digital.ventral.ips). > Also some apps don't work. Such as? This may be an issue with disabling the hardened malloc and other security features that Graphene automatically enables for apps. >>89454 > There are rumors that Graphene's developers are in talks with an OEM to get their own hardware Yes. It's not a FairPhone as the developers assert that those have issues [0]. It is one of the top 10 Android OEM's [1], and the GrapheneOS developers are confident that they have the hardware down - it is merely a matter of improving the security of the device and supporting GrapheneOS (see [1], further down in the thread) They'll also continue to support Pixels, up until the Pixel 10 (Pixel 11 is unsure for the moment) [2]. > but that probably won't help with App Verification. I assume by App Verification you mean not running untrusted apps on the device? Only time will tell. > Even the FSF decided to jump in, but then it turned out their effort is going to be based on Lineage. Yes, they're attempting to reverse engineer and replace the proprietary firmware modules for specific phones for Lineage OS. Maybe not as security focused as GrapheneOS, but it's still progress [3]. > There's always the ultimate fallback of a mobile hotspot (or cheap tethered burner) and a true hand-computer (Pi + screen + battery). It's always the phone part that's broken on Linux-/free-phones, so this should actually work pretty well. This could be interesting to run for a bit. Perhaps replace the true hand-computer with a mini laptop for ease of use, and add in a Faraday pouch for good measure when on the go. > You can even duct tape your hand-computer to your hotspot. Presto! Funny idea. Or you can get a laptop with a dedicated SIM card tray. If you're dead set on using a Raspberry Pi (a RockPi or something similar with more processing power may serve you better, but it's your choice), there are SIM card boards that you can buy to use with it. Example (Not a recommendation, just the first one to come up): [4] [0] https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/24134-devices-lacking-standard-privacysecurity-patches-and-protections-arent-private [1] https://xcancel.com/GrapheneOS/status/1965167250081796394#m [2] https://red.artemislena.eu/r/GrapheneOS/comments/1o4j9ia/more_information_about_the_gosoem_partnership/ [3] https://www.fsf.org/news/librephone-project [4] https://sixfab.com/product/raspberry-pi-4g-lte-modem-kit/

>>89461 >App Verification Google will soon be requiring developers to legally identify themselves before they can sign an APK. >Maybe not as security focused as GrapheneOS, but it's still progress It's a dead end. The focus should be on standardized platforms for ease of developers and to avoid the risk (guarantee?) that after all the hard work reverse-engineering, that next year's custom phone design will break all compatibility. There's no point trying to contort free software onto mainstream phone hardware. Even when relatively successful, like Lineage, it doesn't result in high market share or any other benefit.

>>89463 > App Verification > Google will soon be requiring developers to legally identify themselves before they can sign an APK. Wasn't aware of that, thank you. I assume it means that alternative sources such as F-Droid will be harder to install and install apps from, which is a shame. That said, I'm sure there will be workarounds that will come up as needed, or perhaps legislation pushing back against this. > Maybe not as security focused as GrapheneOS, but it's still progress > It's a dead end. The focus should be on standardized platforms for ease of developers and to avoid the risk (guarantee?) that after all the hard work reverse-engineering, that next year's custom phone design will break all compatibility. Solid point. I'm curious to what GrapheneOS's official partnership with an OEM will yield - perhaps it will be similar to what you're advocating for. > There's no point trying to contort free software onto mainstream phone hardware. Even when relatively successful, like Lineage, it doesn't result in high market share or any other benefit. Not everything is done, or should be done, for the sake of high market share alone. If the FSF wishes to fund such an initiative, that's their perogative. In other news, the EuroStack [0] seems like an interesting project. If it leads to a viable alternative to Android or iOS, I welcome it. The same for initiatives such as PostmarketOS on other phones. Only time will tell. [0] https://eurostack.eu/

>>89240 FDE was fully dropped in Android 13. Maintaining it would take a lot of resources so I get that they just rely on upstream solution since GOS has a small developer team that relies only on donations. It's a shame Micay picked some jewish glitterboy for CopperheadOS project, things could be different if GOS had some good business model and more resources to not be so reliant on Google hardware and AOSP. AOSP seems dead anyway since Android 16 QPR1 source is still not available after months since release, GOS seems to be at least able to keep with security patches but they rely on OEM partnership that can also end anytime. I guess all paths lead back to Linux.

>>89517 >all roads lead to Linux Not only that but GPL licensed software. They wouldn't be able to close the source if their userspace was GPL'd. There is a reason they avoid that like cryptonite.

>>89519 Rust niggers are so eager to infiltrate and rewrite everything like coreutils because the new software is MIT licensed, no longer GPL

>>89520 It's a good thing. Imagine having to deal with tons of stuff someone coded 30 years ago and retired. By rewriting it they also trick themselves into taking responsibility / maintainership over it.

>>89519 >They wouldn't be able to close the source if their userspace was GPL'd. Them being google they could just force contributors to forfeit their copyright. Easy peasy.

Nail Polish is a good and save way to block you front camera, It sticks good, but comes off if you want and doesn't leave anything behind

https://www.androidauthority.com/graphene-os-major-android-oem-partnership-3606853/ *prays to Santa for Chinese-tier hardware*

>>88605 Almost none of what you said is true I do wish they would calm down a little bit on social media.

>>89782 I can't tell if they are straight up mentally retarded or a paid actor. For what it's worth, Cellebrite can't crack GrapheneOS encryption so there is that.

>>87855 >I need a phone to interact with people in my uni. no you don't. all the communication "apps" have desktop or web equivalents >inb4 muh camera buy one, poor user

>>89316 >This could all be 100% true it is >Is it any worse than Desktop Linux yes >I'm willing to settle then you are weak

Fresh off the presses, we had some drastic revelations today. First, GrapheneOS doesn't have backdoors. Second, Android and iOS do have backdoors. Just read between the lines. >France threatens GrapheneOS with arrests / server seizure for refusing backdoors https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46036217 >GrapheneOS migrates server infrastructure from France amid police intimidation claims https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2025/11/22/grapheneos-migrates-server-infrastructure-from-france-amid-police-intimidation-claims/ It's also possible that they'd push a backdoored GrapheneOS update to a suspected user's phone (signed with subpoena'd GrapheneOS signing keys). I'd guess you could defeat this by fetching the same update twice from different Tor circuits, comparing their SHA256 digests, and only install the updates if hashes match. This type of attack would work for Linux repositories and other centralized app stores too (like F-Droid, Google Play Store and Apple App Store).

>>89838 This just indicates that the French government doesn't have the key to those backdoors. It's safe to assume the NSA and Google more than likely have some type of IME access to the device. I think the only realistic reason to use GOS over other something like Android or iOS is to prevent your local data to be fed to LLMs and used in personalized ads. If you have something to hide, or use an absolute definition of privacy, just installing GOS and continuing life as normal is no solution.

>>89854 How long did it take for the IME to be discovered? It's safe to assume that the GrapheneOS developers would have found anything by now.

>>89854 How is that going to work without a hardware backdoor?

I know this is a dead message but whatever I really liked it, I switched back to stock rom on my 7 Pro since I wanted to use Android 16 QPR2 LMAO But I really liked it and definitely think it's worth it if you have the money and are up for the switch, nobody is forcing you. As for the security of the OS, It's definitely more hardened than Stock Android, but it also won't help you make mistakes that could expose something on your phone to attackers. No system is perfect but this one is close.

>>87852 Are you a cop? We all know the issues with phones, but having a bit of an extra layer is probably fine for the average person who isn't doing anything that'll put 'em on an alphabet list. Your contributions are not helpful and you sound like a cop running some kind of psyop

do any lains here use anonymous eSIMs? was thinking of getting one next time I travel or get a new phone cuz I'm tired of handing out my personal info for KYC purposes and interacting with people who try to sell me overpriced plans I don't need >>89609 good idea >>89775 it's Motorola, dunno how much chinesium is in it. hope the camera's good, the pixel had allowed me to hold off on buying a mirrorless camera

>>91207 > do any lains here use anonymous eSIMs? Not sure how one would go about acquiring one in the first place. If you know of a way to do so I'd love to hear it. > it's Motorola, dunno how much chinesium is in it. I suppose it's a matter of waiting to see what they come out with. The GrapheneOS team asserts that the phone itself will be fine since Motorola has a history of making phones, so I suppose we can expect something similar to one of their existing models. Source: https://xcancel.com/GrapheneOS/status/1965227870428815551#m > hope the camera's good, the pixel had allowed me to hold off on buying a mirrorless camera Hopefully. The one feature I'm hoping makes it is expandable storage. The GrapheneOS devs have already confirmed that future lower end variants will have headphone jacks. Source: https://xcancel.com/GrapheneOS/status/1965311074317861380#m

>>87822 i've been wanting to get a phone for graphene and got a Pixel 10 Pro XL a couple months back. unfortunately bitch verizon locks the bootloader so i cant install it anyway

That's pretty cool Motorola is partnering with Graphene. Now all that's missing is adding a RISCV processor into the mix.

>>91231 on a pixel, that's harsh of them to do that

>>91215 silent.link is one company that offers the service, they have regular and data-only plans. other companies I've found are simsup.net, smspool and stealths.net. anonymous is probably inaccurate, I doubt these hide your IMEI. Private, maybe. I'm mostly curious as to how well these work. headphone jack would be nice, hope they have removable batteries too like my last Motorola phone

>>91232 > Now all that's missing is adding a RISCV processor into the mix. Inshallah we shall see an official GrapheneOS phone with a RISCV processor. >>91234 > silent.link is one company that offers the service, they have regular and data-only plans. Ah, I'd forgotten about them. They seem to have decent ratings on kycnot.me: http://kycnotmezdiftahfmc34pqbpicxlnx3jbf5p7jypge7gdvduu7i6qjqd.onion/service/silent-link > other companies I've found are simsup.net, smspool and stealths.net. I know smspool is intended for receiving SMS messages from specific services. The others seem interesting. I haven't heard of them, granted I mainly go off of the recommendations from kycnot.me. > anonymous is probably inaccurate, I doubt these hide your IMEI. Private, maybe. I'm mostly curious as to how well these work. More so private than anonymous, especially if you pay with crypto and don't provide KYC. I doubt they (silent.link et. al.) hide your IMEI, I think the main appeal is that you can have a cellular data connection without providing KYC. > headphone jack would be nice, hope they have removable batteries too like my last Motorola phone A solid phone for me would include: - Expandable storage via microSD card - Physical SIM card support - Headphone jack - Good battery life The other bells and whistles included in most phones are of less importance.

>>87822 >I care a lot about privacy and security If you actually cared you'd already be using Graphene > I don't want to drop money on hardware if the OS ends up not being worth it Another pop-privacy loser looking for absolute convenience... Only you can tell you if it's worth it or not. >>87842 > basic social participation is becoming increasingly difficult without smartphones I'm being extremely serious when I say "skill issue" and "your problem is imaginary"

>>91238 They say they dont need a half decent camera till the day they do , 9A has a solid camera IMO

>>91248 You never will get a good camera on a phone unless it is set up same as a point and shoot then at least it will be decent. Everything else is just post processing it does using AI to hide how bad the cameras are.

>>91248 it does, astrophotography works better on my pixel than my DSLR with a fast prime. granted, I might just be too poor to afford a sufficiently fast one. don't think graphememe has postprocessing either but I could be wrong

>>89240 >turn off secure boot because it's useless trash that doesn't protect you from real threats and is easily bypassed by actual threat actors. Lolwut, "it's actually better to walk around with your dick out because pants are useless trash and actual threat actors could just pull them down"

If you're really concerned you could also remove the internal microphones from your devices and place the devices in a faraday bag while moving around, though I feel like at this point we need to start looking for alternatives to phones because they really are the perfect device for surveillance and stupid cheap dopamine scroll addiction apps; Reticulum seems pretty cool. The more time you spend actually tinkering and getting to know your hardware and software the better you'll feel.

Motorola hardware is pretty good value, but their software/firmware updates are notoriously slow. Hopefully that doesn't affect the GrapheneOS side of things.

>>91570 people criticize Pixel's hardware but Motorola phones are even worse. Tensor chips are still more powerful than Snapdragon 7 and 8s chips, they're only weaker than the SD 8. The only Motorola phones with better hardware than Pixels are the Razr Ultras.

>>87842 All replies to you before me are transparent schizoids or bright glowies.

>>87822 hi lainon, I thought this was a cool post and wanted to share my experiences so far. I've used grapheneOS for a few years now, started with a pixel 4a 5g, now I have a pixel 7a. It's been pretty fine honestly. I feel more comfy with my phone. The hidden profile thing is awesome for conveniently having extra copies of apps/ a seperate filesystem in an extremely accessible profile has been really helpful. Nearly everything I want works (I do miss the IOS emojis though lol). Anyways here's my usecase: Clover (browsing imageboards), Newpipe (Private youtube viewing) and YTDLnis (downloading youtube songs with album covers mostly), Antennapod (Podcasts), Auxio (Playing local songs and playlists), Organic Maps (offline maps), Banking app, KeepassDX, Random Messengers (Signal, Element, snapchat, quik for sms, discord), Uma Musume, ProtonVPN and Orbot in my hidden profile, Syncthing. I left a little out but all of it works fine, Uma Musume crashes sometimes which is a bit annoying but has never mattered. One thing I like is that gOS proxies things like captive portal checking and other random services so that's more private. RCS is available but you need to use Google Messenger which is pretty lame since only google and apple support E2EE RCS texting. Overall I think you're going to have access to a lot more open source and privacy focused apps so that adds a decent bit of value. my 4a 5g I cracked the screen on, haven't had a battery issue yet honestly. Also people can say what they want about the phones physical security but it remains one of the hardest to crack phones for all forensics and phone cracking companies that are contracted by governments. I also do have Google Play Services and Play Store installed because I want notifcations, some apps like molly (signal fork) support different notification services so you don't need it for some things but most of the time you will. If not having a google device is important to you then I'd wait and see what motorola brings us. Cheers:)

I recently switched from iPhone to GrapheneOS as well. I would say it's definitely worth the switch, I ended up going with the pixel 9 and it's been perfect for my EDC. Also WOAW, who knew how long a battery could last when your phone isn't running spyware 24/7. I only have essentials installed and can get 2-3 days of use.

i wonder how likely it is that pixel hardware is already entirely compromised?

>>92363 judging by leaked Cellebrite documents - it may be compromised under very specific conditions, but otherwise we are still safe

>>92364 oh i do remember this a little bit, i think the cellebrite tool did something special to be able to bruteforce passwords or encryption keys stored in memory once the phone is in an AFU state. i think it was either the reelockable bootloader or some tpm thing combined with the autoreboot if not unlocked feature of grapheneOS being enabled that made this attack no longer be exploitable >>92363 i guess in a very broad and probably inaccurate to what you really mean sense of the hardware being compromised, a lot of software (which includes drivers and firmware) can have unpatched vulnerabilities so if you run an outdated OS version that could be compromised maybe? though i doubt anyones exploiting it yet.

>>92365 sorry i made a mistake with this post, after i saw the post on /g/ i realize now its because they also shut off data transmission on the usb port alongside their tpm + anti bruteforcing measures. credit to /g/thread/109010600#p109013411

mini bump, it sounds like google on motorolas will be better, not in a schizo google bad kind of way but because of the pacing of updates. heres some quoted mastodon posts back to back from a thread by grapheneOS. "Initially, Google would usually provide access to the tarballs within a couple hours. Lately, they're often taking weeks to get back to us. They're the ones who chose to use this archaic system instead of pushing Git tags and it's their responsibility to handle requests promptly." "These changes won't negatively impact GrapheneOS on upcoming Motorola Mobility devices. In fact, it's a major part of why our partnership exists. It only negatively impacts Pixels and hurts Google more than anyone else. Google wants to make Pixels worse for no apparent reason." https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117057147111471501 https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/117057178910747943

>>93723 Do any of those motorolas have a removable battery and/or SD slot? That's always been my biggest issue with pixel hardware.

>>93764 ???. What phones now have a removable battery? That feature has been gone for like a decade at least. SD slots are increasingly rare as well outside of phones like the Sony Xperia.

kekd, maybe /pcbg/ had a point apparently.

Schizos here? Could you explain to me why does the deep state allow GrapheneOS to exist in plain sight with BDFL's credentials known and likely tracked to his door mat?

>>93952 The deep state is ruled by a cabal of Satanic pedophiles. It is deeply spiritually important to the rule of Satan that you ALWAYS have a moral choice. A real one, not a false one. It is vital that your decision is based on your own sins, your greed, your sloth, your lust, your vanity, that you CHOOSE to step the downward slope into perdition, that you love your sins and shun virtue, for long and hard be the straight and narrow path.

>>93952 because they're stupid