Can we get ability to create hotspot on non-owner users?

graphy00

When travelling I use my phone for internet to connect my laptop etc. But as many people I use graphene in a user to protect the owner level. But this means I can't throw a hotspot. Could we get this ability?

Dumdum

graphy00 I use graphene in a user to protect the owner level.

What do you mean by this? I'm not sure secondary users "protect" the owner in any way. As long as the phone is in AFU, the owner is always available. Using secondary as main simply allows the use of the phone while ensuring data can be encrypted and locked away in the secondary when needed. It seems like you've misunderstood what a "tidy owner + secondary profile" setup is for.

Also since the hotspot is a network feature, I imagine that only the owner profile has the necessary technical access/privileges needed for hotspots to work, but I could be wrong.

DeletedUser43

You protect the owner by setting a hard password and disabling fingeprint unlock. Also, if user-profile gets compromised, it won't allow to take over the whole phone - not that this changes much, but ok. I'm assuming this is what graphy00 means.

Not being able to turn hotspot on and off is an old and unnecessary issue on Android side. They just don't bother to fix it as not enough people use phone outside of the owner profile.

@Dumdum Airplane mode, wifi on/off are network features as well, and user-profile can control them. In practice, user-profile can disable hotspot by turning wifi off then on. I'm fine with hotspot config being left to owner, but on/off toggle should be allowed for everyone.

I think this is an upstream issue, not GrapheneOS, but I still have more hope GrapheneOS will be so kind to fix it some day, especially because they recommend usage of secondary profiles. Maybe GrapheneOS could make a found raiser for this fix? I'd contribute right away.

graphy00

Yes, in theory it would be OK to turn on hotspot with owner and then toggle WiFi with user, but if your connected device isn't connected for a bit (you go out and leave your laptop and buy a coffee) your hotspot will turn off automatically because nothings connected to it. So you'll have to switch users 20x a day.

DeletedUser43

graphy00 I fill your pain. I'm actually planning to buy my next laptop with WWAN card mainly for this reason or I'd be willing to just pay someone to implement it. There's just no one willing to fix it, most likely it's not trivial.

I think it's tracked here: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/238925070

AFAIK GrapheneOS is working on faster user profile switching, so this could get less annoying in time.

other8026

graphy00 While in the owner profile go to Settings > Network & internet > Hotspot & tethering > Wi-Fi hotspot (tap the text on the left, not the toggle) > Turn off hotspot automatically. Toggle that off and just make sure you turn off the hotspot manually when you're finished with it.