Here's what I've figured out so far, reading up on stuff here and making decisions about my threat profile...

threat profile:

  • Low risk, high probability: manipulative content curation via algorithmic voodoo, and straight-up propaganda.

  • high risk, low probability: overzealous law enforcement getting a bee in their bonnet about me for some dumb reason.

Countermeasures: use GOS. don't use apps like facebook, twitter, etc that are specifically designed to figure me out; use silent link for data, jmp.chat for legacy calls and texts because my family is a bunch of old farts who refuse to care about privacy. might do SMS pool for legacy sms crappy 2FA because companies still don't know how to use actual 2fa i guess. don't use google. Put Microsoft apps on a separate profile for work, put personal life on its own profile, stay off the owner profile unless i gotta use it to mess with settings. use Mullvad VPN and DNS. and don't be stupid, stupid, but also don't spend five years going down a rabbit hole of futility about trying to lock everything down, because I don't need to go through all that effort for diminishing returns.

that being said, I just turned the pixel on and it's asking me to connect to the internet, and i did, because the GOS install site said i needed to update it to make sure it has updated firmware... and then the pixel said it was sending stuff to google. So now I don't know how to proceed - set up offline, then connect to the internet and update later, or set up online? I have to do some junk to set up esim stuff to make silent link work, but i think i don't have to do that in basic android, right?

You can enable your eSIM on stock, or in GrapheneOS. Factory resetting/flashing another OS doesn't wipe the eSIM.

You can set up offline, then briefly connect to the Internet so that OEM unlocking can be enabled, and proceed accordingly.

    I'm gonna go with setting up offline and connecting later, and manually downloading the security update. I hope that gets me the firmware the GOS website was talking about, while skirting around the edge of google until i get GOS installed.

    next up, i think, is getting silent link set up. I'm not entirely sure i understand the difference between data.plus and no number. they say data.plus has "rock solid operation" but... i can't find any information beyond that

    ok I think i'm in bootloader mode because my pixel says safe mode in the bottom left corner, but windows won't let me install any new drivers? It says I already have the best drivers available, but I'm still getting the No Compatible Devices Found error in the web installer

    and it just straight up wont show anything related to android when i try using windows update

    @GlytchMeister Safe mode is not it. The bootloader interface is called fastboot, it's got a red triangle and a primarily black background to it, try again.

    Ah, okay, thank you. I think it might be a good idea to put that in the web launcher walkthrough so new users know when they’ve got it wrong or right

    Okay, I’m about to lose my mind, every time I download a GOS factory image, it stops when the bar appears full, and the button to “download release” lights back up, and if I press “flash release” it tells me to download a release first.

    I ALREADY DID? Hell, it even says it’s downloaded!

    I’m on windows 10, Brave, shields down. Help?

    • de0u replied to this.

      GlytchMeister Check that there is sufficient free storage? Is the browser up to date? Try a different browser?

        next on the docket is getting obtainium and droidify, right? I was going to get obtainium first, but... uh... I don't actually see a button in github to install it? do i need a github account?

          ok, how do i find storage and contact scopes? I opened up aves libre and was going to set up a storage scope but realized i needed to make a folder, went to the home screen, realized too late that there might have been a button to make a folder, went back into aves, and now i cant find my way back to that screen.

            GlytchMeister
            Long press the app icon > App info > Permissions > Photos and videos > Storage scopes

            Likewise for contacts but Contacts > Contact scopes instead

            If Scopes is already enabled, it should appear on the App info screen below Permissions however

              Ok I'm working my way down user2288's lists, and next up is keyboards...

              I was hoping for a good FOSS keyboard that has a number row above QWERTY like what i briefly saw in the default android keyboard when I first turned on my pixel. current keyboard, anysoft, openboard, and floris all have the number row... uh... "inside" the QWERTY row, as... uh... "swipe-ups"

              I'm making terms up, i hope those make sense

              Anybody have some suggestions?

                ohhhh wait it's missing emojis.

                hmm.

                Okay lemme take a look at heliboard and a second look at the others, I realized they might have a separate number row and just don't make a big deal about it maybe