Hello everyone!

A lot has happened since my last post, specifically talking about my LineageOS inquiries. I had a string of bad luck and broke the digitizer but no cracks to my Pixel 7 Pro.

So I ended up “upgrading” to the Pixel 8 Pro because the store I went to only had the 8 Pro and not the 7 Pro in stock and it was dire that I have a phone.

So this leads me to my next questions:

What is your favorite Android spin for your Pixel Device?

I have used GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and Stock Android (of various versions on my Pro 7)

This leads me down the rabbit hole of deciding which experience I want on my Pixel 8 Pro.

I have GrapheneOS on my 8 Pro right now because I wanted to see if I could make it fit my needs, and I am leaning towards it not working for me. Since I switched, android auto is not connecting even following the instructions GrapheneOS has to offer.

AdAway (nonroot) is not working on GrapheneOS, as it just kills any internet connection to everything on GrapheneOS. So that’s another point against me wanting to stick with GrapheneOS.

No AFwall+. Another point against it.

It appears that CalyxOS is going to give me a similar experience with issues related to the ones I mentioned with GrapheneOS.

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I had considered trying out LineageOS for microG but unsure if this is the route I want to go because I am unsure if some of the apps I will rely on will work for various reasons. (Mainly unsure if MicroG will suffice for them.)

I am open to other options to, and would love to hear what you are using!

Thank you!

  • Takeshidude@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    After 10 years of iOS, I made the switch to Graphene last month, and I’m loving it. Android Auto was functional for me, but none of the music apps were nice to use, so I’ve left my old iPhone in airplane mode in the car to keep playing my downloaded music.

    I’ve not tried any other options since GrapheneOS is the only degoogled option I’m comfortable with

  • h3ndrik@feddit.deEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    You mentioned exactly the two ROMs I’m currently using. GrapheneOS on my Pixel phone. And LineageOS for microG on my Samsung tablet. I’m really happy with both of them.

    I don’t use that many proprietary tech so there is little issues for me. My car only has regular old plain bluetooth, so I wouldn’t know. And instead of some add-on firewall/dns adblocker solutions, I’m just using the Librewolf Mull browser with the uBlock plugin.

    • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      As a former LineageOS for microG user I’m happy to say that it’s no longer necessary to use it instead of official LineageOS because they finally added signature spoofing to upstream LineageOS [1].

      As far as I understand, this allows microG to work perfectly fine with any app on official LineageOS, without any patching of the ROM needed.

      I haven’t tried it and there’s no reason to switch of LineageOS for microG, but I’ll definitely give it a shot on a future device.

      [1] https://review.lineageos.org/c/LineageOS/android_frameworks_base/+/383573

  • youmaynotknow@lemmy.mlEnglish
    2·
    6 months ago

    As a matter of fact, I spent about a year on my 7 Pro, and just got my hands on a Pixel 8 Pro. I am finishing installing GrapheneOS on it right now.

    • Hellmo_luciferrari@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      Mull is my current browser of choice, so I like that idea. I will have to give DivestOS a shot. Thank you! It doesn’t look like the Pixel 8 Pro is supported by DivestOS, at least not from a quick glance. I will have to look into potentially what it would take to build it for it though.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Bummer. Guess no one who’s compiling it has an 8 yet.

        I kind of use Lineage and DivestOS rom availability as my guide to my next phone. If they have a tested rom, then I can upgrade.

        • Hellmo_luciferrari@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          I would have given DivestOS a shot if I was on a Pixel 7 Pro, because that’s what I wanted instead of the 8 Pro, but necessity dictated I bought one because I can’t be without one for very long.

          I will keep an eye on Diveset, but it is looking like I may go back to what I had setup on my 7: LineageOS, rooted, with my necessary tweaks. At least I like tweaking things, so there is that.

          • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            Yea, I stay on slightly older phones so I can run a well-established rom version and I can afford to keep a spare at home, both as a hot spare and for testing. Currently running Pixel 5.

            With everything setup right, the home phone syncs everything constantly, only have to do a quick SMS restore and it’s just like the previous phone.

            • Hellmo_luciferrari@lemm.eeOPEnglish
              2·
              6 months ago

              I ended up trying GrapheneOS on my P8P, but it didn’t quite fit my use case.

              I ended up back on LineageOS again, so I could have AdAway, AFWall+, and as of today I installed a custom kernel (Sultan Kernel) and I am pretty happy with the outcome.

              I still love GrapheneOS but I was having issues with notifications among other things.

              • BearOfaTime@lemm.eeEnglish
                1·
                6 months ago

                Yea, I like Graphene, really appreciate what they’re doing. Plan to run it on my spare in a couple months.

                But I also want root, Adaway, AFWall, and a few other thungs, so it’s DivestOS or Lineage.

                • Hellmo_luciferrari@lemm.eeOPEnglish
                  1·
                  6 months ago

                  There didn’t appear to be a DivestOS image for my Pixel 8 Pro, so I went back to LineageOS since I couldnt have AdAway and AfWall+ among other things on GrapheneOS.

  • Krafty Kactus@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    I use GrapheneOS and all I miss from Android is the custom lock screen clocks and pulling images from any app using the recent apps page.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    Maybe try some more troubleshooting on GrapheneOS? Also, I’m sure that the folks in the GrapheneOS Matrix channel are ready to help you out. You should be able to get Android Auto to work somehow.

    Regarding AFWall+, do you actually need it? GrapheneOS has a built-in firewall, doesn’t that work well enough for you? And can’t you use something like NextDNS instead of AdAway? Also, the Graphene folks might be able to help troubleshoot the AdAway problem.

    If you are going to switch to another OS, I recommend DivestOS. It’s the only thing that even comes close to Graphene in terms of security. It’s based on LineageOS, but has some significant security improvements, and for example allows for bootloader relocking. It’s the only other OS recommended by the Graphene devs.

    • Hellmo_luciferrari@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      I did end up getting Android Auto to work luckily. However, other things just went sort of south from there. My use case for GrapheneOS wasn’t quite fit.

      The built in firewall did work well enough for my usecase. However, I didn’t want a DNS based adblocking solution as that took away from my ability to connect to my home VPN. I should reach out to see if they can help. However, I did end up switching back to LineageOS since I could use a custom kernel which significantly lowered the running temps of my phone.

      I wanted to try DivestOS, but there isn’t a Pixel 8 Pro build yet.

      Huge fan of what GrapheneOS and the team/community have done to make it better. I am sure going to keep my eye on it going forward.

  • Osiris@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    CalyxOS. Uses microG but is otherwise google free. Feels fairly vanilla and has a pretty solid backup solution in Seedvault