is AI right about this?

Gopher1

i was talking to ai about airplane mode on Graphene vs linux phones like pine and librem with thier kill switches

AI said the graphene team admits on first boot the phone might ping a tower before the OS can tell the modem to shut up

im wondering if this is true?

because if it is true wouldnt it then become a problem that graphene reboots on its own every day? if im trying to avoid tower pings, i need to keep my phone in a farday cage when not in use cause it could reboot and ping a tower if im not physically using it

this is all purely hpothetical

but i can endsession if i want to flush the encryption key (i think), so i dont really even need scheduled reboots to flush my keys, i dont have anything but sms on owner profile, and that only cause i dont know how to disable it on owner

nologo

Gopher1 AI is never 'right'. It knows no truth or facts. It does not 'know' at all. It just tries to guess, based on data, what you want to hear. It is very good at confirming your assumptions very convincingly - no matter how wrong these assumptions might be. Consulting AI about important matters is a very bad idea.

nandohyphen1

Gopher1 AI is wrong. Don't trust AI for this. A good "right" resource is https://grapheneos.org

de0u

Gopher1 AI said [...]

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/11951-ai-generated-text-is-forbidden-with-the-exception-of-automated-translation/

Posting LLM output that is right arguably results in no harm being done.

Posting LLM output that is wrong means that the wrong answer is more likely to be generated by LLMs in the future than it was before. That harms people.

Posting LLM output without knowing whether it's right or wrong means that it's probably wrong (as of early 2026), and thus arguably reckless.

People who want to be part of a user forum that contains useful facts arguably shouldn't post any LLM output ever.

gristle-cause

fernweh As far as i know GrapheneOS does not activte airplane mode on initial setup, read this GitHub issue

I assumed OP meant every power-on cycle, not the initial boot after install, based on this section:

Gopher1 wouldnt it then become a problem that graphene reboots on its own every day

At any rate, I believe you are correct - GOS does not activate airplane mode by default on install. If absolute anonymity from your cell network is needed, do not insert a SIM card until enabling airplane mode after boot

router99

nologo To be fair, OP did ask if it was right about that.

gristle-cause

No. GrapheneOS makes absolutely no cell connections with airplane mode enabled:

Activating airplane mode will fully disable the cellular radio transmit and receive capabilities, which will prevent your phone from being reached from the cellular network and stop your carrier (and anyone impersonating them to you) from tracking the device via the cellular radio.

Your AI is incorrectly citing this thread. It's discussing a quick, short-range radio noise on power, no mention of pinging any cell towers

Vomitorius

AI is always left.

EverettHitch

I would not trust AI on this but how many of you studied logs from boot process and can 100% confirm that airplane mode kicks in before radio is initialized? I thought so, nobody. Please, don't be so quick to dismiss OP's concerns.

Probably9857

EverettHitch how many of you studied logs from boot process and can 100% confirm that airplane mode kicks in before radio is initialized?

Why would you trust the logs? Turns out someone actually measured radio emissions directly.

https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/26586-brief-note-on-mobile-phone-measurements-with-airplane-mode-onoff

TL;DR there is a brief spike from the WiFi/BT module, but nothing from the cellular modem.

gristle-cause

EverettHitch Trust but verify, your doubts are fair & reasonable. As Probably9857 referenced, the techies among our user base tend to take the verification bit pretty seriously

Here is another good comment discussing those wideband spectrum analysis tests

Vincent96

AI told me the word Strawberry has 2 R's.

nandohyphen1

Vincent96 AI told me the word Strawberry has 2 R's

AI told me the word Gazelle has 1 "L"

fernweh

As far as i know GrapheneOS does not activte airplane mode on initial setup, read this GitHub issue.

Vincent96

nandohyphen1

Discussions about the reliability of AI are justified, but in this case both statements are logically correct.

Blastoidea

You are wasting your time even reading that nonsense, to say nothing of others’ because you lack the knowledge and/or ability to evaluate it.

rjo12

My default assumption, pending independent evidence to the contrary, is that AI is wrong.

In this case, my default assumption is clearly on the money.

Most AI engines are designed to mimic intelligent behaviour, rather than to actually exhibit it. So it can provide an argument that might seem convincing, but be drivel.

Probably9857

gristle-cause If absolute anonymity from your cell network is needed, do not insert a SIM card until enabling airplane mode after boot

Devices still connect to networks even without a SIM though. If this is a concern, the best practice AFAIK is to do the initial setup on public WiFi (not at home).

NetRunner88

Probably9857
Not in airplane mode

Probably9857

NetRunner88 Not in airplane mode

Right. The post I was replying to suggested not inserting a SIM on the initial boot, before you've had a chance to enable airplane mode.

That does not actually prevent the phone from communicating with cellular networks.

Onlyfun

Probably9857 this can be done by holding power button and volume up button together during the boot.

otterfoghornrainfall

Onlyfun To clarify, are you saying airplane mode can be enabled with that key combo during boot?

Onlyfun

Onlyfun this can be done by holding power button and volume up button together during the boot.

Onlyfun Yes. That combination makes the device boot into 'safemode' which includes the airplane mode ON. I don't see any drawback of such approach.

Disregard above comments, combination does not work. I will research further and update with a working one if it exists anymore.

Onlyfun

otterfoghornrainfall
Yes. That combination makes the device boot into 'safemode' which includes the airplane mode ON. I don't see any drawback of such approach.