would installing GrapheneOS through an OS running from a USB be a bad idea?

chile

I've ordered a Pixel and it should be arriving soon, I plan to install GrapheneOS through the web installer.

I currently run Fedora on my PC, which of course is not a supported OS, and I don't really wanna go through installing Ubuntu/Debian just for the Web Installer process and then switch back, so the idea I had was to just use a USB stick with Ubuntu/Debian.

Would this be a bad idea? should I go with installing the OS on my PC for less chances of screwing up or it doesn't matter?

and also, which one would be the best to chose between Ubuntu, Debian and Mint for the install?

de0u

chile The idea I had was to just use a USB stick with Ubuntu/Debian. Would this be a bad idea?

I haven't tried it, and I don't recall hearing from people who did, so the below is speculation.

If all of the prerequisites are met, in theory it should be fine. But some "live image" setups don't have lots of writable storage, which the web installer needs a fair amount of. Also, specific browsers are required, and some fancy packaging systems (which I can imagine might be popular for "live image" setups) break USB access for the web installer.

I suspect it can be made to work, but I also suspect it's an "advanced intermediate" sort of thing, not an "advanced beginner" sort of thing. If you are using the web installer then failures are not likely to harm the device.

If you have an Android device (doesn't need to be GrapheneOS) that meets the prerequisites, that might be easier than futzing around with a USB-stick LInux.

raccoondad

chile I can't really see an issue, Fedora should work as spring-onion has stated (udev rules are important)

If it screws up just restart :V

Themble

chile Do happen to use a Fedora Atomic Distro? If this is the case, could its compartmentalization be the root of the problem?

missing-root

chile

I just installed GrapheneOS from Fedora without any problems.

sudo dnf install android-tools
sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/android-tools/51-android.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload

Then follow the CLI guide and download the official Google binaries as Fedora fastboot is broken.

For some reason webinstall didnt work on any device, not on my phone too (used it before!) but CLI from Fedora worked for the first time.

You need to link those udev rules as a security measurement, I will add documents soon as this is completely unexpected (and not how it works on Ubuntu afaik)

roygilbo

I love the word "futzing" LOL

spring-onion

Good news, you don't have to bother with any of this. Fedora will do just fine if you follow the instructions to setup the udev rules here. During the install, skip the "flashing as non-root" section. Everything else still applies so take it word by word.

chile

spring-onion
that's great! thanks a lot! also since I should skip the "flashing as non-root" section should I also skip the "Working around fwupd bug on Linux distributions" too since it talks about Debian/Ubuntu or should I also follow this part too?

chile

spring-onion
I followed these instructions to setup the udev rules but still my browser (Brave, shields turned off) isn't detecting my phone.
did I missed something or maybe I just didn't installed it correctly?

spring-onion

chile No don't skip that nor anything else. I expect Fedora to have updated the respective package already, but better safe than sorry. Easy enough to check the version (or just stop the service and have that out of the way).

MarsTrue

tried it on fedora and it didn't work. something about the USB not detecting my phone.

tried Linux mint live USB and after installing
chromium and platform tools it detected my phone but froze when downloading the release. probably some browser storage issue.

then I installed Linux mint on the PC and things went well.

simplest install I've made was from another graphene device tho.

chile

spring-onion
alright, guess it's just better if I follow that part then

Themble
no I don't use the Atomic version of Fedora, and I haven't tried the webinstall yet, I'm waiting for my Pixel to arrive currently

missing-root

chile

spring-onion

You can skip didabling fwupd, Fedoras version is new enough.

treequell

missing-root It's fine also to use the web installer on Fedora, it must have been something specific to your set up that caused the issue you faced.

spring-onion

chile You're experiencing a connectivity issue for now, probably either the cable or the port you're connecting to. If your udev rules are setup incorrectly/missing you'd only know after selecting your pixel from the prompt.

Storm

chile Are you using the Flatpak? Try installing the Chromium RPM. I've installed GrapheneOS twice on Fedora using it