I wanted to degoogle since Google has been most annoying so far with S21FE. Was thinking of getting Pixel 8a but due to mixed reivews I was looking for other phones. Thoughts on this? Would be also nice if I can get some opinions from people who have the phone as well.
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I managed to degoogle stock ROM, as I wanted to have the glyphs available (I feel like I’m in a minority of users that find them useful as well as just cool).
I did have the phone enter crash dump and at points had no ROM or recovery and it took a while as I was endlessly searching tools available.
I’m more than happy to share what I did?
Word of warning is you need quite a few tools, apps and packages, but they have source code available.
I’m not a mobile developer but going through the tools they are regarded well in the developer community, or scanning the code myself didn’t raise an alarms.
I used Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro/K20 Pro before, I can get used to recovery and flashing stuff
To unlock bootloader:
Installing orangefox:
https://wiki.orangefox.tech/en/guides/installing_orangefox
NP2 is A/B.
The read-only to rw package [github so you can look over code beforehand]
https://github.com/lebigmac1/System-
RW-Super-RW-v1.36-featuring-Make-RW-ro-2-rw-v1.1?tab=readme-ov-file
File manager: I used total commander -
https://m.apkpure.com/total-commander-file-manager/com.ghisler.android.TotalCommander
Magisk Modules - only really needed for if you want MicroG:
— App systemizer (you want a terminal, e.g. termux and I also have busybox but not sure it it’s 100% needed)
https://github.com/stangri/AppSystemizer
— Shamiko https://github.com/LSPosed/LSPosed.github.io/releases
— Zygisk - Lsposed https://github.com/LSPosed/LSPosed/releases
this one needs installed and fake Gapps needs installed and activated before you install MicroG
— Universal safety net fix:
https://github.com/kdrag0n/safetynet-fix/releases?ysclid=lmqr900nnd297490396
For MicroG:
https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-degoogle-any-device-and-install-microg.4058743/
I just saw I have a MicroG module, so link:
https://github.com/FriendlyNeighborhoodShane/MinMicroG_releases/releases
I used the 0.2.24 version.
Make sure to remove Play store etc first, and install the fake Gapps otherwise you have to remove and reinstall. Once installed I updated immediately from F-Droid.
https://github.com/whew-inc/FakeGApps
The XDA forum gives the Gapps you can uninstall.
You may want to use a systemless debloater with Magisk first, as you can turn modules on and off in orangefox so if you bootloop you can just enter recovery and then turn the module off and revert the change :)
Points to make a full system backup:
— before unlocking bootloader
— before making system read-write
— before deleting a system app/a group of system apps
— before moving any apps to be system apps if you don’t use the magisk systemless module [this is where I messed up big time]
I also made several backups as I was changing things, e.g. when I added my new dialler etc, I backed up the working system beforehand in case anything broke.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions!!
Afaik /e/OS isn’t completely Google-free. It just uses some anonymization stuff to make Google services a bit less invasive and I think it has proprietary software too. For a complete Google-free experience you probably want something like LineageOS or GrapheneOS
/e/OS is based on LineageOS with microG. They did make a choice for Magic Earth as maps app which is not open source. For “normies” /e/OS seems a fine choice to me to De-Google.
At least Magic Earth has good policy though, no?
Aw shucks, the porter moved on from Lineage to develop more on e/os
Any alternative custom ROMs that are generally considered complete Google-free other than those 2?
Not really dislike, but was wondering if there were any better choices
Idk about completely Google-free ones. Most of vanilla ROMs (such as crDroid, ArrowOS, CherishOS etc) do have some pre-included fixes for Google apps because most of the users flash them and I think they use the proprietary version of Monet theming (there are 2 versions of it). Usually LineageOS is what you go for if you want a completely vanilla ROM. I heard they’re considering adding some fixes for Gapps too but I don’t think it’s going to be anything bad or proprietary
Should I be concerned if I am not going to be installing Google Apps (or gapps) or microG?
Depends on the exact ROM (I think they’re only really tested with Gapps) but usually you should be fine. It might be relatively easy to identify a user of ROMs like this because of mismatching device fingerprints (done to unlock Pixel features such as unlimited Google Photos storage and high FPS limit in games) though
Here’s a comparison of the main ones. They are all good projects in their own right so take a look at their features and which phones they support. Some are focused more on hardcore security and privacy, while others are more casual in their implementation. Some only support Google Pixels while others support a pretty wide range of new and old devices.
It isn’t google-free in the sense that it ships https://microg.org
Unless you enable SafetyNet, none of Google’s code runs.
if you want to degoogle the only way to run some apps without unprivileged code (GMS/microG) is to use grapheneos & its sandbox compatibility layer. this is unfortunately only available on the pixels.
I also worry you won’t be able to use some of the customization options that the nothing phone 2 offers with its hardware when using a custom ROM. if thats something u care about.
I have the pixel 7a & have had essentialy no issues with anything for what that’s worth.
Do you think its worth waiting until Pixel “9” becomes available? I’m switching out on July since that’s when my installment is over + getting out of this hell hole S21FE
honestly I would personaly look into a used option just for pricing reasons. I think the 8 offered additional security benefits though. It may be a while until the 9 drops but that would also be an option.
Ye T-Mobile is offering Pixel 8 Pro for free if I do 24 month installment but that isn’t worth sacrificing for
That’s why I was looking at Nothing Phone 2 which is on sale, unlocked too, for double the storage as well (I already used up 90% of my 128GB) at $550
Heard community is growing but I was uncertain
If you need more storage, the secondhand market is better for you anyway.
Though I just saw a 7 pro with 512GB on Woot for under $500. That’s a decent deal.
Regular Pixel 8s are going for 500 on a deal.
I got my 7a referbished for 350. the nothing phone is cool IMO but probably not going to have good support rn for nieche stuff. lineage & divest not having working versions for the phone raises red flags personaly.
if you are anti pixel & $500 is in your price range maybe take a look at the fairphone 4?
Just be aware that everyone has a different idea of how much privacy they need and who/what from. Whilst it is absolutely true that there are more private custom ROMs available, that does not necessarily mean that /e/ is universally “bad for privacy”. Depending on the extent to which you are attempting to deGoogle your life, it may be good enough.
