J
Javcek

  • 12 Feb
  • Joined Dec 30, 2022
  • ACA_iF I'm heavily used to completely overhauling my UI (I love skeuomorphism still, I like changing the boot animation and taskbar, etc). It's just somehting I'm used go doing over the past 11 years.

    Those changes can't be made in GrapheneOS as shipped. If you want to make such changes, the proper way would be to fork GrapheneOS and maintain your own builds. That way you could implement such features whilst preserving the Android security model.

    • I just wanted to give my praise to everyone involved in GOS, and folks on this forum that contribute their viewpoints. GOS is exactly what I've been wanting for nearly 10 years, and I'm really happy with it.

      My overall experience with it has been excellent, it feels like I could have bought a phone like this at any retail store. I'm glad I installed it myself and that installation was easy, but I mean in terms of quality.

      Here are some things I love about it:

      • Google services removed by default, can be sandboxed if needed
      • Turning off Bluetooth and Wifi actually turn them off. Important since other devices can leak your location if everyone is scanning each other all the time and a tiny portion of them share location.
      • Scopes. This is an amazing idea, I think of it like high quality spoofing. I'm really excited to see how it could expand. I'd love Location Scopes for example.
      • Hardened subsystems
      • Strengthened user profiles
      • Strict permissions policy by default, including disabling network permissions upon installation
      • Per connection id randomization
      • Vanadium

      I haven't run into any serious issues so far. The biggest one has been when switching user profiles about 1/4 of the time, the pin screen that pops up immediately will sometimes disappear while I enter the pin, exiting me to the lock screen. It's as if not everything was loaded in the new profile at first, and once it does, it starts me at the lock screen. But it's a pretty minor bug.

      And the gallery app is a bit buggy (and ugly), I haven't gotten around to deciding on a replacement yet. I wish Vanadium's fingerprint helped me blend in just a little more, but that can be subjective. Better battery life would be nice to have.

      That's basically it. These are just nitpicks, I basically have zero things to complain about.

      I learned about GOS a few years ago, but it seemed not quite mature enough for me to make the jump from an iPhone. I'm grateful that's no longer true.

      • I have a question regarding push notifications: Molly has 2 versions: FOSS (that is using an alternative push notification service but consumes more battery) and regular (that delivers notifications through Google Play services but consumes less battery). The regular one that relies on Google Services, does it encrypt the messages when in transit - in other words, can Google read the messages in transit? If not, what data can it gather regarding the messages (metadata, etc)?

        • Victus
          This article suggests setting the PWM-frequency through software is possible, on Pixel 8 Pro. Since the frequency was changed with an update from Google then it would hopefully be a relatively small task to study the code changes and revert it.

          • I'm still fighting this -- overnight it dropped from 100% to 72%. I was on airplane mode the entire time with Wifi on, Voice over Wifi enabled, bluetooth disabled. 0 min SOT. System usage has Mobile network reported to have used ~60% of the battery each 2 hour time block (which doesn't make sense since it dropped 28% overnight). App usage is all <1%. I tried resetting mobile network settings, but that didn't help. I don't understand why "Mobile network" is using anything at all since I'm in airplane mode the entire time.

            • So, as it turns out, there is a "High Brightness Mode" for OLED screens. But it cannot be enabled without root. (or if such a switch is not added on the Graphene OS side)

              For this reason PWM was reduced alot when playing HDR video. You can see it in the pictures in some of the posts above.

              Developers can add a switch so that those users who need it can enable "High Brightness Mode", which will help to increase brightness and thus reduce PWM by more than 50% for sensitive users (on maximum brightness).
              And "High Brightness Mode" won't be a problem for everyday use. There are apps that overlay a dimming filter to adjust brightness, such as PWMFree. So there will be no need to use the system brightness slider. The main issue is to reduce the PWM. It's better than nothing.

              • Malakai That is very useful. i am not android developer and I was using 'better battery stats' app for doctoring my cellphone but the app stopped working with android 14.

                using the top command appears to really find something.
                Anybody knows about a good app showing process stats? (good means - gives results, can be ugly, no ads, i'd rather buy it).

                anyway this instant doctoring, ups and downs, not sure. two weeks good, then days with 30%/hr drain. I had to buy another cheap android cellphone because i could not do some work related stuff because my battery was empty at worst possible moments.. so now i am carrying two devices, on one i am with privacy, on the second of course, people at google know even how often I fart.
                annoyingly (is that a word?) that damn cheap moto phone lasts 6! days.. for 20% price of pixel.. uh huh

              • Curious about the present status of this. Does it seem like this is something that can be brought to GrapheneOS at some point or is it too tightly enmeshed with Google stuff to be feasible?

                Some of the clock faces, such as the one featuring the weather, are clearly dependent on Google stuff but might it be possible to port the ones that aren't?

                • archvile77 signal is known for huge battery drains if run without google play.
                  Search the forum about signal and battery.
                  You will gain more battery life running signal with Google play.

                  Other apps such as Telegram has little drain or even other push emails. But signal has due to the way its push is badly implemented.

                  • Javcek The GrapheneOS project has higher priority features to work on at this time and clock styling will be done after.

                    All of the Android 14 features which aren't part of Google apps are part of AOSP, so clock customization is part of AOSP but it's not enabled by default. We'll have to figure out how to set it up and the clock themes included in the stock Pixel OS might not be part of AOSP.

                    Source: https://twitter.com/GrapheneOS/status/1711136525767893446 / nitter

                  • Signal 33%, Briar 21%, Proton VPN 3%, Launcher 3%, all others are <1% each.

                  • Anybody experiencing this with the last two Signal GitHub updates? I keep it running in the background along with Proton Mail. No real drain from Proton. Signal always had a bit of a drain, but it has at least doubled the last two APK updates for me. Anybody else experiences this? Yes, I use sandboxed Google Play (not logged in) running for pushes, but always have when the Signal battery drain was much less.

                  • You choose what you share with other people just as you choose what you share with apps and services you use on GrapheneOS.

                  • I think your privacy is at risk from everyone with whom you interact, and the only way to be sure is to become a recluse.

                    That makes it very difficult to do mundane things like make a living, buy food, maintain an address, get mail, and so on.

                    As someone said, we just do the best we can, with what is available.

                  • Indeed if you send data on someone's device you have to acknowledge the privacy context of this device.

                    We can't have full privacy if we want to interact with the world using the new technologies and not living in a cave. The sad truth is that yes the power of Big Tech to gather information is quite huge and we are only able to limit it. When you combine their power with the power of a government it is even more difficult to resist.

                    Nevertheless the choices made by using for example GrapheneOS limit a lot this power of data gathering. People remain the customers that keep society running. The more they express a need of privacy by their choices, the more the companies and the politicians adapt to this need, or at least try to.

                    It is an equilibrium to find. There is no miracle solution.