Just signed up - new user here

JoeBlogs

Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I have recently switched from an iPhone to a Pixel 7 with GrapheneOS now installed. I have done loads of research beforehand and I believe I have made the right choice with the GOS as nothing else comes close to it. With good security comes good privacy and IMO they are closely related and the security side of things should not be forgotten as some others have done with only concentrating on the privacy side of things so good job devs and thank you and everyone else for your hard work and contributions. Decentralised FOSS happy days.

I've been lurking for a while now and thought it was about time I registered now that I have the phone. So far I am enjoying the OS and very impressed. It feels like it is working with me rather than me having to fight everything. It's on my privacy and security level wavelength and the trust is there. I am newish to Android as I have mostly only ever had iPhones and I dislike Google as a whole so degoogling myself is great. I have never really fallen hard for any mobile phone use due to the invasiveness of big tech and their attempts to control us and data theft. My iPhone ended up becoming a dumb phone, no internet accept on my home LAN if required and disabled again, no iCloud, no Apple Store or Account, no Bluetooth accept when required and in use. It was literally for phone calls, SMS, camera and alarm clock....you get the idea. It was a good looking dumb phone with smart internals trying to outsmart me.

I want to learn all about GOS and hopefully be able to contribute in any way I possibly can, whether that's helping others on here, reporting any bugs discovered, feature ideas / requests. And I'm sure I shall have a whole bunch of questions to begin with and am very happy to become part of the community.

I do have a quick question if you can either give a quick answer or point me to the appropriate thread. Is it possible for me to mount the GOS on my Mac desktop as a disk image so I have direct access to the contents, and which USB setting would be the correct one for this? I need to figure out a way of copying files back and forth, for example a csv file from contacts or make a backup, or maybe drag some music files across or get photos off etc.

I know...TLDR so I shall apologise in advance. I have a tendency to chatter away.

raccoondad

JoeBlogs Is it possible for me to mount the GOS on my Mac desktop as a disk image so I have direct access to the contents, and which USB setting would be the correct one for this?

MTP is supported on android

ignatius

I am not sure if you can do exactly what you want to do. However, the good news is that there are much easier ways to do it. I nearly always use LocalSend , on rare occasions I will use Signal's note-to-self (however there is a 100mb file limit). Also, if you insist on not using extra software, you can always use a USB stick + the USB-A to C adapter Google provides with their phones.

tV0gr

I personally use sftp to transfer my files using the internal-sftp server from OpenSSH. I don't own a mac but OpenSSH seems to be supported. On my pixel I use termius but many other apps support sftp such as file commander via a plug-in. The configuration is a bit more involved (passwordless/public key authentication, separate and dedicated user and folder on my computer, only that folder is visible via sftp) but not terribly complex and I like the type of control it gives me. I am not a security expert. It is only exposed when I am connected to my wifi and I start/stop the server on demand.

JoeBlogs

Now there's an idea the CLI and SSH or good old FTP. I did notice there's a Linux terminal in the debug menu that can be enabled. Interesting! It could be a good excuse for me to learn the Linux terminal, maybe install termux. Mind you it's a phone not a proper computer (workstation) if you know what I mean and it could open me up to more vulnerabilities plus having to squint at a small screen and endless scrolling. One thing I don't like about the mainstream OS's these days is that they seem to be trying to change the interface design to be like mobile device OS's. It's a terrible UX design and I don't mean anything disrespectful towards the GOS it's just the name of the game with mobile OS's. I kind of regret not opting for the Pixel fold now.

I like the idea of using a USB stick directly that's neat but I would have to careful and remember to switch the USB back to charging only. I'm curious as to where it would show up mounted as a directory on the OS. I think I may investigate this further. Of course online file sharing hosts is an option but I'd rather not. Can be useful for small files though exporting a CSV file or something.

Thank you for the replies you given me food for thought.

ignatius

JoeBlogs If you're referring to the Linux terminal available in the dev options, I would avoid using it for anything other than testing atm. It is not very stable and prone to crashing irrecoverably (with the only option being to wipe the whole image and redownload.) Termux is still actively developed and probably better suited for this atm.

tV0gr

JoeBlogs I am no expert but you might want to consider ftps (ftp over tls I think) if you want to go the ftp route, not sure if something like vsftpd is available on mac. It on my to-try list to try but I have no experience with it.

If all you want is run command/script via ssh from your phone then Connect Bot can do it. One advantage (or disadvantage) that you might have using a dedicated app for sftp transfer is that you can set-up storage scope. But it really depend what you intend to use it for and there are many apps that support those protocols.