Dumbifying grapheneos, uninstalling the app store and the browser

thales

Hello, I would like to uninstall the app store and the vanadium browser from grapheneos, how do I do it? do I have to "root" grapheneos? I'm fine with this reducing the security of the operating system.

I've done this before on stock android on another phone.

MineralWater

You can deactivate both in the settings.

Rooting the OS would make the use of it obsolete.

DeletedUser639

I would dearly love to remove several apps from GrapheneOS, but I am sensible to realise I can't, so I just disable them.
By rooting GrapheneOS you kick holes in the OS and undo countless hours of developing security by people who know more about the OS than you or I ever will.

DeletedUser699

why?

thales

MineralWater well I don't want to just deactivate them I don't want them on my phone

DeletedUser699 I don't want to have them on my phone, just want my phone to make calls. I don't want anyway of accessing websites or installing apps (without my pc)

raccoondad

thales do I have to "root" grapheneos?

thales

DeletedUser639
"who know more about the OS than you ever will." unnecessarily rude thing to say to someone in the process of studying CS.

disabling does not work for my purposes, would rather it be insecure than not work for me, personally.

thales

does anyone know if they're possible to uninstall via adb without root? would rather not root it.

raccoondad how?

grain0613

Haven't tried it with GrapheneOS yet, but I used to use Suzaku + Canta to uninstall system app without root in my older stock android phone.

Not sure if that's a good idea though. Why is disabling the app will not work for you?

Overlay1404

thales rooting isn't support by GOS and breaks the security model, meaning there really isn't a point in installing GOS if you want a rooted phone.

thales I would like to uninstall the app store and the vanadium browser from grapheneos,

As other have said, you can disable it but you cannot remove it. Vanadium in particular is tied to the OS in more ways then just being the browser and will cause stability issues with the phone if you removed it.

thales

grain0613
Thank you for your reply, it would not work for me because, I could just re-enable it, looking for a digital detox, I want it gone in a way that would not let it be possible to reinstall these apps without another device.

considering following this https://github.com/lingeringwillx/How-to-Dumbify-Your-Android-Smartphone

thales

Overlay1404
thank you for the information, is there any way to disable it in a way that would not let it be re enabled?

Novaliss

thales would not work for me because, I could just re-enable it, looking for a digital detox, I want it gone in a way that would not let it be possible to reinstall these apps without another device.

Now I totally understand you, it wasn't a dumb attempt to make your device better. Well, but no, you can't have GrapheneOS with the mentioned components removed. For your needs, how about limiting your internet access by a suitable choice of provider/data plan?

W1zardK1ng

thales Yes you can use the ADB commands to uninstall vanadium, maybe leave the app store alone. Its not recommended and may break something but people have done this before and are fine.

DeletedUser639

DeletedUser639 By rooting GrapheneOS you kick holes in the OS and undo countless hours of developing security by people who know more about the OS than you or I ever will.

thales "who know more about the OS than you ever will." unnecessarily rude thing to say to someone in the process of studying CS.

Note the difference, trying to play the victim, its a cheap trick, ineffective.
Knowledge is knowing what root is, wisdom is not applying it to GrapheneOS.

Novaliss

W1zardK1ng If the advice to this fresh user is to be 'yes, use Adb', wouldn't it suffice to make them limit the network access for Vanadium, instead of removing it?

thales

DeletedUser639 I am not here to have a flame war with you nor do I want to, you claimed "they know more about the OS than you ever will" and "they know more about the OS than I ever will" (both paraphrased), I only think the first is rude, I can only speak for myself, I do not have any problem or think it's rude of you to say that about yourself.

I will not be replying to any response as to not make this thread about this argument.

gristle-cause

thales can you elaborate a bit on your threat model?

From the messages I've read in this thread, your goals can be accomplished securely through the GOS permissions manager, by disabling network & app installation privileges.

I do not yet understand the threat you hope to mitigate by removing core system apps

thales

W1zardK1ng Thanks for the information,

would it be possible to get around the uninstalling of the app store and vanadium by just creating another user?

if so, is there also a way to disable the ability to create/utilise multiple users or to , the adb commands I came across for this use adb root

Create a text file named local.prop with the following content:

fw.show_multiuserui=0
fw.max_users=1

After that push the file to Android:

adb root
adb push local.prop data/local.prop
adb shell chmod 644 data/local.prop

Novaliss

W1zardK1ng Yes you can use the ADB commands to uninstall vanadium, maybe leave the app store alone.

Look at what you've done;

thales is there also a way to disable the ability to create/utilise multiple users or to , the adb commands I came across for this use adb root

This is not a good start for any meaningful GrapheneOS usage. Completely unsupported and risky. If you 'dumbify' your install this way, it stops being GrapheneOS.