TL;DR
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Google has made it harder to build custom Android ROMs for Pixel phones by omitting their device trees and driver binaries from the latest AOSP release.
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The company says this is because it’s shifting its AOSP reference target from Pixel hardware to a virtual device called “Cuttlefish” to be more neutral.
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While Google insists AOSP isn’t going away, developers must now reverse-engineer changes, making the process for supporting Pixel devices more difficult.
If Pine64 can spec out a reasonably decent prototype of a phone and Purism can sell theirs for 2 grand (not worth it), then somebody else can legit come out with something just the same. Pine64 project and Purism cannot be the only communities that can somehow come out with these kinds of tech. Better yet, more people should be jumping to help out these guys to be free from Google and Apple dominance.
Teracube just came out with their 3 phone Teracube 2s, and of course there is Fairphone
That was bound to happen at some point. Buying a Google device to then “degoogle” it never sit quite right with me.
Amen but here we are
I bought mine secondhand because I had a bad feeling about giving google money just to degoogle as well but still really wanted to use GrapheneOS
Oneplus gang, how we feelin?
as a panicked graphene enjoyer, does oneplus measure up as a decent alternative or no?
I use a Oneplus 7 pro and my rom maintainer still updates and I still get a new version once every two months or so. If you want to omit gapps, you are more than free to do so. (Crdroid)
You are selling me mr. Fudge. I still need to do a lotta research but you are def sellin me here
The trap: He could stop builds for the OP7… tomorrow with zero warning.
That leads to my main takeaway for custom roms. Pick the phone with the most topics and replies on XDA. The more popular and liked, the more supported you’ll be.
and never get attached to anything. Your phone miraculously has support, none are guaranteed it.
You have now anti-sold me and hyper-enlightened me with some very worthwhile wisdom. I can not say thank you enough–I truly need more like you in my life
Have a couple OP 9pros and they’ll be the last OP devices I buy.
There are severe bugs that OP never fixes and make using the phone for something like navigation unreliable. Battery life can be great one day and terrible the next when not even using the phone. Also OP sells carrier specific hardware. My TMO phones can’t be used at AT&T or Verizon, severely limiting our options. My understanding is unlocked Pixel phones can be used on any carrier.
I really wanted to load Graphene, but even without it I’ll consider a Pixel device.
Idk man.
I love my OP12. But we’re switching carriers to a Verizon MVNO which “won’t work” with my OP12, so I bought a Pixel 8 Pro on sale last week and need to switch over.
I’m starting to wonder if that “it won’t work” is bullshit tho…I’ve got a Verizon SIM in slot 2 and it works fine. Maybe I’d be missing out on 5G speeds? I got 5 bars on my tmo sim and my vz sim…but my Tmo got 1.1Gbps down, and my Vz sim only got 70Mbps.
Verizon MVNO
Christ, why?
This is not good, this is why I don’t like permissive licenses.
Or in other words, cuck licenses.
Haha, great name, thanks for the link!
Does this mean Graphene is dead? Probably the real reason they would do this is to kill Graphene.
This fits into Google tying Android closer to them, same with the recent move of only making release source publicly available.
They’re regretting having started Android as an “open” platform and want to gain control fast, maybe preparing for the current anti-trust trials they are facing in the US.
It certainly feels like it is judging by the general moodshifts occuring. But I’m a moron, what alternative exists for a secure phone of comparable functionality? It feels like ditching phones is the only option to some extent(for me). If stupid, isn’t the phone the most vulnerable weakpoint open to attack?
What i understand is porting over android 16 is gonna be slow.
The GrapheneOS team is very aware of their dependence on google. They are planning to either find an OEM for their own line of hardware or a brand whose phones support their requirements other than google. That being said, it will complicate work a lot, but for now it would be to early to jump to that conclusion.
Also, Google couldn’t care less if <1% of buyers flash a custom ROM / OS on their phone, this is about tying the android ecosystem closer to google in general. Most other big phone manufacturers know this and are trying to come up with their own solution, like Huawei had to because of the ban when the orange man has been president the first time.
or a brand whose phones support their requirements other than google.
Wasn’t Graphene’s “selling point” for long being that nothing but Pixels can match their reqs? I don’t see why any current band would want to make it easier for them, and I also don’t see new brand significantly entering the market.
Graphene boiled themselves in their own frogpan.
Nah, you have it backwards. GrapheneOS didn’t choose Pixels for any reason other than they’re the only acceptably secure devices out there. I can’t imagine they want this to be the case.
That still sounds like choosing to me. Like, if your project requirements are so strict that it only works on the mornings of a Tuesday that falls in a prime number day that has a blue moon and where there are no ATP tennis matches going on (all pre-existing things you have no vote on), maybe you should re-evaluate if you actually want your proyect to have a viable audience.
Is it really so outlandish to want my phone to be unbreakable by cops?
In this year of 2025? No. But it still is basically setting oneself for failure from the perspective of Graphene, IMO. Like, the strongest protection in the world (assuming Graphene even is, which is quite a tall order statement) is useless if it only works on the mornings of a Tuesday that falls in a prime number day that has a blue moon and where there are no ATP tennis matches going on. Everyone else is, like, living in the real world, and the uniqueness of your scenario is going to go down the drain once your users get presented with a $5 wrench, or even cheaper: a waterboard. Because cops, let alone ICE, are not going to stop to ask you if they can make you more comfortable with your privacy being violated.
This is not a selling point but rather a unfortunate but comprehensible circumstance. Nexus and later Pixel phones have not been anything more than reference hardware without significant sales until the Pixel 6. Google has been a software company that has greatly benefited by android being an “open” platform you could contribute to and use their services on.
The App / Cloud ecosystem has gained a lot of competitors, so Google is doing their best to reverse this course of action by pulling more and more functionality out of AOSP into Play services and now into Cuttlefish. We can only wait and see how other phone manufacturers react to this.
We can only wait and see how other phone manufacturers react to this.
Honestly, it’s obvious how they will react. After all, they’d have to pass a certification process if they want to be able to ship Google stuff.
What about the OS part of AOSP?
Don’t the ROM makers already fork AOSP to begin with?Unrelated: The top bar in this article indicating the article position is so fucking stupid. Guess what the scroll bar on the right hand side is for?
apple and google are doing their best to promote linux phones at this point.
dont buy american
It’s the year of the linux phone. /s
I swear to good how many time it has to pass until developers realize open source is just a facade only Free Software licences are free as in freedom
Sorry how would have a GPL`d aosp helped here? Google would and could still have not published their drivers for the pixel. You’d need pixel drivers licenced by someone different from google to make them publish their changes to the drivers
huh, look at that. the thing people were warned about when buying pixel phones happened.
Google doing something bad? SAY IT ISN’T SO
I was about to buy one next year… what do you recommend instead?
Long time coming, Play Integrity (or whatever’s called nowadays) restrictions have effectively killed any alternative distributions.
Now more than ever we need more work on PostmarketOS, Mobian, Gnome Mobile etc…
Bummer that it’s still so hard to find a somewhat modern, affordable phone that is Linux compatible
Why can’t we install it on a Samsung Galaxy A06 A065F DS ? They are like, less than 200$ new without contracts
I know someone at a company that built and sold a Linux phone 19 years ago.
You’re not upset you can’t find a Linux phone: you’re upset you can’t find one anymore.
Yeah, I’d totally buy a phone running one of those provided it does all the phone things properly: SMS/MMS, reliable calls, all day battery, etc. I don’t need fancy apps, I just need a working phone.
If I can get that, I could probably donate some time porting apps.
I want a phone with only cellular data, no calling, no sms, just an open source browser capable of webasm and webrtc
We had those, they were called Pocket PCs. I too want them back. I loved the Dell Axim x51v. A tablet does the job, but it’s the same shitty OS.
Sounds like a tablet, and that very well could be easier for someone to build than a phone.
Can we have one of those that fit in my pocket, like 6.5" max ?
I really want to give furios phone a shot. It’s apparently close to supporting my carrier.
That and a sailfish phone. The community one though didn’t support my carrier (think it’s mainly EU specced only.)
What I find missing most of the time though is any esim support. Makes me wonder if the hardware one that you can program an esim on works.
Why eSim? Does your carrier not support physical sim?
For traveling I find it much easier to just buy an esim
I plan on buying one when my current phone is no longer usable.
It’s so crazy (technically understandable, but still crazy) to me that reliably receiving calls is still such a major issue
Damn, I’ve just switched to Pixel 3a XL I got for $100 and then installed Evolution OS.
This fucking sucks. Cyberpunk dystopia
In cyberpunk dystopia you could buy normal things, just most wasn’t it.
