2 questions with newly installed graphene OS

Mobile Tech Phones & Tablets
1

  1. The directions say to disable oem unlocking in the developer settings menu, but I’m not seeing it; where is it?

  2. Best way to upload contacts from pixel 5 using android to pixel 7 with graphene OS?

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2

  1. To get to the developer menu you have to go to “build version” in the “about phone” section and rapidly tap it until you see a toast message about unlocking the developer menu.

  2. Google Takeouts

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To add to @DagobahPrime once you unlock the developer menu, you can find it under settings/system/developer options

You can also search for OEM unlocking in settings and it will find it for you if the developer options are enabled.

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Ohh, I got a newbie question; when I reboot, I get the screen saying “this phone will load an alternative operating system” and have the side button.

Its the same screen where I changed/unlocked the bootloader or actually installed Grapheme.

Is this normal? Or have I just not locked something back up?

Should it only have the graphene hexagon when it boots?

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i found the oem unlocking. now I’m just struggling to import contacts from my pixel 5. I’m just struggling installing apps now. I tried the google play sandbox that is preinstalled but keep getting errors and whenever i try to download any apps directly from the internet it doesn’t recognize my phone as a potential place to download it.

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I personally dont ever use a service to transfer my contacts. I export them as vcard files and transfer them manually either with a microsd card or pc or wirelessly. Snapdrop is a great encrypted file transfer option for tranfering on the same network.

Also while one of the benefits of using graphene os is the sandboxed google play. I would highly advise looking into the apps available on fdroid. There are tons of awesome apps that can do many of the things needed from a google play app.

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7

Welcome to the yellow triangle club! That sounds normal to me- you should see a yellow warning triangle, which means you are booting with an alternate OS with correctly signed keys. You should also see the key fingerprint at the bottom to verify that it is indeed signed by graphene’s key and not the NSA’s or one of the other eyes.

Orange triangle means unlocked bootloader so no verification is possible/meaningful.

Red triangle means data are corrupt or improperly signed OS.

The google keys are the only ones that will give you the “green triangle” and bypass all the warnings, straight to the google boot animation.

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For the play store, I recall there was a “something went wrong message” at one point with the play store, but I think it resolved eventually. I think it just takes a little time to contact the google servers?

If you have the apks downloaded, you can sideload them with adb. I think google provides a way to download the binaries, but I never tried that method. I’ve been compiling them from aosp source.

I can’t help you with the contacts. I’ve been self-hosting a lot of my own stuff for a while, so I don’t know about google apps. Maybe export them as vcards?

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Looks like tap to pay for google pay doesn’t work. Anyone have favorite alternatives?

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The whole piont of installing Graphene OS is to avoid Google’s tracking, if you install Google Play you are defeating your original goal. Use Fdroid instead.

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I slightly differ.

I have an Ubuntu phone, devoid of Google.

I would like some android apps.

I am hoping Graphene, allows for some apps, with a reduction of tracking.

I have a Google account, and install apps from their play store
They gather a lot of data from, and about me

I understand this, and am not happy about it, accept a level of compromise.

Otherwise, I would just use the Ubuntu phone, with it’s limited apps, but ability to be a Phone as well as texting and web browsing.

Perhaps I am making the problem worse, by not rejecting banking etc apps altogether, but I like some of the convenience provided.

I had an IPhone, and am aware Apple was mining and pharming my data too.

I use fdroid apps where I can.

And yourself?

Do you keep yourself clear/clean, or compromise?

Would you simply just adapt life to not use utilities, goods&services which are app dependent?

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I generally avoid google, whenever I can, and try to find an open source version or comparable app. That being said, there are a few apps that I find useful- gcam and maps. Maps will mostly run on a non-google phone. Gcam requires a little help to run with either gcam-services-provider for aosp, or the build in compatibility layer in graphene.

There are quite a few apps that will run without google. Installing them without google is left as an exercise for the reader. I do use some transit apps for riding trains/planes that don’t require google. I generally avoid banking apps on mobile and just use the website.

I certainly think there is a spectrum of de-googling and it’s a different balance for everyone, but every little bit helps. I certainly use a lot less google than I used to.

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