Alternative to GrapheneOS
Alternative to GrapheneOS
Im considering buying a new phone and i don't really consider a Pixel. I really like Fairphones approach, with the self repairable stuff. Even though they don‘t have a headphone jack. But well… I can’t change it. I’ll definitely go with the adapter over wireless headphones.
But to my question: What private OSes are there? Fairphone sells FP4s with eOS, how is that? And does it work on the FP5? GrapheneOS only works on Google Pixels right?
Yes, GrapheneOS only works on Pixel devices, because the project has some pretty extensive hardware security requirements: https://grapheneos.org/faq#future-devices
The Fairphone is a highly insecure device, which comes nowhere close to the (hardware) security of a Pixel. On top of that, the Fairphone company doesn't even know how to maintain their own Fairphone OS. The verified boot implementation is fundamentally broken and very misleading, since it's signed with the publicly available (!!!) AOSP test private keys. This is such a blatant disregard of security practices, that should have made it impossible to certify their devices. It's not a surprise either that Fairphone regularly misses important Android security patches, or delivers them months later. That's also why GrapheneOS will never support devices like the Fairphone. There are more issues with Fairphone's misleading update policy that I haven't covered in detail.
I highly recommend against purchasing such insecure, and poorly maintained hardware. DivestOS is the best option for "damage control", if you already own a Fairphone. Its developer actually cares about users and their security, and the OS is properly signed.
I've never heard of Fairphone and have only barely heard of DivestOS.
Fairphones can also run CalyxOS if you want to look into that
Graphene does only work on the pixel devices. What makes it special is that you can lock the bootloader again after installing it, which with things like lineage, you cannot do. I have never used /e/OS but i use lineage as my daily and it can be installed on FP
What makes it special is that you can lock the bootloader again after installing it
I'm not sure why this is considered special. You can also re-lock the bootloader with CalyxOS, iodéOS and DivestOS. This is a Pixel thing, not a GrapheneOS thing.
It's also possible to relock the bootloader on a handful of Motorola and fairphones, at least as part of the Calyx install procedure
Okay, I was not aware of that, so thanks for the information.
Honestly trusting the bootloader feels very risky
In that case, have fun coding up your own bootloader and flashing it onto the device. If you can't trust the bootloader, then you can't trust anything at all from the operating system that sits on top of it, because it could be compromised. If you can't trust a bootloader, then the only thing you can trust is a pen and a piece of paper.
It has very minimal code and its implemented in a robust manner. Unlike UEFI and the desktop implementation of secure boot, it does work well and it has not yet been exploited on pixels. Its way better to have any kind of OS integrity check than none.
There are several degoogled OS options for the Fairphone models, with different levels of degoogling and privacy: LineageOS, CalyxOS, DivestOS, iodéOS and /e/OS.
Most of these are based on LineageOS (I understand that CalyxOS isn't, but I might be wrong). I personally use iodéOS and I like the helpful developers, the ability to remove / replace any of the apps preinstalled with the system, and the iodé blocker which blocks trackers, adds and any connection you want to at a system level.
I currently run DivestOS on a oneplus 6 and it's pretty slick with mull for web browsing and neostore for apps.
Personally, and thanks to some comparison charts, Graphene is the best, followed by DivestOS for most devices. Others are weaker, and Calyx is not useful as we have stronger Graphene.
I'm on CalyxOS, it works great. Locked bootloader, ability to block connection of devices when screen is locked (defeating cellebrite's method of choice), work profiles and firewalls etc.
DivestOS is the way to go.
There are only a few to consider. /e/os if you want it easy or DivestOS if you want it most secure and private. All the other possibilities have disadvantages compared to these.
Please be aware that you should buy FP5 as FP4 has huge hardware issues and the support is a dissapointment. And yes, /e/ is available for FP5 (but not via easy installer, but it's not hard to flash it yourself)
/e/ is announced as 'degoogled' but that's not 100 % true (and not nearly as well). For example MicroG connects to Google as well as connectivity backup check. Patch level is far behind AOSP. The App Lounge uses clean APK for some apps which is very risky. Communication is a problem and they do not react like they should for example when Mike Kuketz analysed /e/ and found several problems.
The community is huge and they support many devices.
DivestOS is better in most points but is managed by one person alone. MicroG is not included by default (if you need it) and multi sim support is a problem.
You can disable microg connecting to google servers, but basically you get a standard gms free experience, with most apps simply not working from play store. They list in the wiki how and why they connect to google: https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/wiki/Google-Network-Connections
A completely google free experience would be unusable for "normal" people, so they somewhat right as they target "normal" users. I also don't like /e/, but because they are deliberately obfuscating a lot of things in their documentation, and they try to sell their os as something genuine, but it's mostly just AOSP with microG.
FP4 with CalyxOS works perfectly.
As somebody that might be changing phone sometime this year and to cover all the possibilities, do we have a recent comparison of all these projects?
Yes! There is a really helpful (from a privacy and security standpoint) comparison chart here. It also includes GrapheneOS and "stock" Android.
If I had a Fairphone I'd use CalyxOS or DivestOS. They seem to be the best for privacy and security out of the OS that Fairphone supports.
CalyxOS is another one. Some consider fairphone problematic
Can you explain that? Why is Fairphone problematic?
Well, whether anything is problematic or not is highly subjective.
Do you consider no headphone jack to be problematic? Or that some think it was done intentionally to push their wireless headphones?
What about the use of slave labor? After realizing it was impossible to get away from that, they tweaked their slogan from a fair phone to a "fairer" phone.
How about the high price and little demand?
See what I mean? One person's problem is not everyone's.
Depending on your linux knowledge, you may want to use real linux (postmarketOS). But beware, the amount of things that require closed source OSs like android or ios isnt 0. banking apps for example arent accepting of non proprietary phones yet. I dont know about emulation though.
I daily drove a Oneplus 6 with PostmarketOS for a few months. While it was very cool and gave me a bunch of freedom compared to android, I missed things like always having proper mobile UIs and a working camera. It is my understanding that the fairphone 4 is in a similar state of support, if a bit worse. Can recommend it though if you like using linux and don't need banking or a camera from your phone.
Thanks for chiming in. I agree that pmos is not a perfect drop in alternative for android yet. but for me it is 1. not necessary to have a perfect copy and 2. not a permanent situation since pmos is picking up steam, same as the rest of linux. So I believe cameras will become usable at some point and banking apps will probably also come around at some point. The more people use it, the faster imo.
/e/OS, DivestOS, LeneageOS and CalyxOS are some options I'm aware of.
Don't forget iodéOS!
Oh yea! My bad 😅
/e/OS is often a month or more behind on Android updates (including security). Unacceptable I think.
Some info about patch history here: https://www.divestos.org/pages/patch_history
General comparison table of Android ROM features: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm
May i know why you do not like the pixel phones?
They are expensive and I don't want to give money to Google
They are expensive
Sometimes you get what you pay for, and...
I don't want to give money to Google
I get that, but your purchase (the entire Pixel department, to be honest) is a drop in the ocean to their profits. They won't notice you not buying one at all. You're handicapping yourself in the mobile security arena (not being able to install GrapheneOS) to take the high ground and not effect a tech giant.
That aside, if you really don't want to give Google, buy one from a reseller and not from the Google Store.
they sometimes retail at a loss around the holiday season.
If you don't want to give money to Google, why not take money from Google?
Then, once you've offset enough money, then you can buy a Pixel at an overall loss on Google's side.
I dont know. Its not that I dislike pixels, I just liked the concept of Fairphones. And I just never thought about google phones because I thought google and privacy don’t match, even if I have a different OS installed.
DivestOS is a good option
I use MicroG LineageOS which is in my opinion comparable with graphene os and is supported by a lot more devices.
Graphene and Lineage are the most uncomparable custom roms. Have and look at security and privacy and the type of Google Play handling.
See https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm to geht a first idea
I use CalyxOS on my FP4. I have been happy. Almost 2 years now.
What about de-googled android? Is that private/secure?
No given the recent Cellebrite leak. You're only secure if you use Pixel 6 and after, stock or GOS.
Of course that mostly only apply if you put government into your threat model.
That's a threat to any device. Also the pixel scored way better than many other devices
Yeah Fairphones all are fair and whatnot until you find out their software isn’t fair and they don’t give a shit about managing security properly nor collaborating with others such as GrapheneOS.