Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 and today I am dusting off my studies of Android in response to happenings around the family. Let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phones and Privacy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This round started with my father\u2019s phone screen burning out. He got it repaired, but my sister\u2019s phone screen was cracked, and I ended up giving her my otherwise unused one of the same model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consumer privacy has been an increasingly important question as computers integrate more tightly with our everyday lives. We now live in a time and place where most everyone old enough to read is coerced by convenience into loading themselves down with every tracker known to Man unless restrained by applicable law. And this issue will only continue to grow as technologies such as consumer VR and clinically installable neural interfaces mature and facilitate the collection of ever more intimate personal data. Legislation isn\u2019t keeping up, but a minority of people unsatisfied with this status quo are developing open source alternatives that either let end-users mitigate abuse of technology by obfuscating their data or preventing its collection entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My goal is to one day have the family on Linux phones. OK, what are the main obstacles? From previous research, cell network compatibility has been big, but support from our current carrier is nil the moment I read off my prototype PinePhone\u2019s IMEI number (an individual cell modem identifier). Additional general knowledge research turned up that banking apps have a tendency to really hate working on Android devices without Google\u2019s seal of approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phone Carriers<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most major cell companies will prefer you buy a phone on credit that\u2019s been locked to their network for a couple years. Per contract, you don\u2019t get admin privileges until it\u2019s paid off and unlocked \u2013 assuming you still have a unit at the end. Even if a service has a bring-your-own-phone program, it may be limited to a short list of models, even if your unapproved unit is compatible with the wireless technology[ies] their network is built on (which I believe was the case last time we switched carriers). Even then, a phone may only be compatible between any combination of calls, texting, data, or other wireless functionalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Complicating the matter for me specifically, I cannot even comfortably look at pictures where a part of the screen has been sacrificed for a camera \u201cisland\u201d per the modern trend. I need a phone with like goodies in the bezel where they belong. After doing some research, I narrowed my choices down to the Librem 5 and the PinePhone Pro. General research on each for this week turned up year-old criticism about the American made Librem 5 refunds to weigh against the PinePhone being assembled in China like most other personal devices. I looked up each and found a compatibility chart for each and made a better informed recommendation to my parents for when we switch carriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Android On Linux<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One high priority feature my parents are after in their phones is mobile deposit. That\u2019s not happening on a week\u2019s notice, even if I had a phone already to try it on. From a software point of view though, a Linux desktop is essentially identical to a Linux phone minus a cellular modem, SIM card, and miscellaneous other peripherals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many tools exist specifically to run Android apps on desktop. This week, I explored running BlissOS custom ROM on QEMU\/KVM. QEMU and KVM took a while to straighten out, so I might be mistaken here, but QEMU is an emulator\/hypervisor and KVM is a Linux kernel module for virtualization QEMU can optionally use for direct access to hardware for improved performance. Along the way, I was recommended in the direction of using an AMD graphics card instead of Nvidia. That meant using Derpy Chips, a computer from before Intel came up with the special circuitry needed for this kind of virtualization\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026Well, it looks like I\u2019ve been carrying some bad info around, because this virtualization circuitry has been around for a lot longer than I thought! I navigated Derpy\u2019s BIOS (Yeah, I know I\u2019ve made a stink about them being UEFI and not BIOS, but they\u2019re labeled BIOS despite being UEFI.) to turn on virtualization and and I got a proof of concept going. I tried using its command line installer, but couldn\u2019t figure out how to work anything related to the hard drive. I could consistently get to \u2013I assume\u2013 a live session run directly off the disk image. I successfully accessed the Internet from within the VM, but installing apps or even trying to make an entry on the file system remains an unsolved issue. Nevertheless: this is major progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Takeaway<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Android at its core was made open source by Google to catch up to the iPhone. Now that it\u2019s ahead, they\u2019ve had seasons of moving as much of the definitive experience out of the public eye, but that\u2019s not kept people from making custom ROM\u2019s. While my next major goal in this project is to install an app, the another blockade on my developing road map is SafetyNet. When I get there, I\u2019ll want to look up Magisk and Shamiko, two names I came across pertaining to the Android custom ROM community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll also note that I still have additional options to try, like something based on containerization. While writing this up, I took a second look at WayDroid, which I dismissed assuming it wouldn\u2019t work in an X11 environment, and it just might.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final Question<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you have any experience with Linux phones? I would be most interested in hearing from you in the comments below or on my Socials<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 and today I am dusting off my studies of Android in response to happenings around the family. Let\u2019s get started. Phones and Privacy This round started with my father\u2019s phone screen burning out. He got it repaired, but my sister\u2019s phone screen was cracked, and I … <\/p>\n