What custom ROM is on your phone?

The Baldness@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 71 points –

Since we don't yet have a specific community for custom phone ROMs, let's discuss them here. Are you running a custom ROM? Which one? On what hardware? How is it?

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GrapheneOS. I love it. I migrated from the Apple ecosystem about two years ago into the FOSS and Linux world and haven't looked back.

None sadly because fuck samsung

Locked bootloaders should be illegal if the phone is paid off.

I hate how they blow fuses to permanently disable security features when the bootloader is unlocked.

LineageOS on a Fairphone 3. It works well for what I do on my phone.

Unfortunately none. I have an S10e with a locked bootloader. This is the first android phone I've owned that I hadn't used a custom ROM on. The last Samsung phone I owned was an S4 and I hadn't kept up with the custom ROM scene, so I hadn't known the locked bootloader nonsense when I got the S10e.

It sucks because there are no note security updates for the phone even though the hardware is still in good condition. I can't justify replacing a working phone even if I could afford a new one. I'm hoping eventually a vulnerability will be uncovered that allows unlocking the bootloader. There was one a few years ago I think, but it got patched before I even knew about it.

That sucks. I also have never used a stock Android phone. I don't know that I could. Because I'm in the USA, my choices for phones that will run a custom ROM and still make phone calls is very small. But that's the subject of a different post.

LineageOS with microg on a s10+. It works great, no issues with apps not working but still have minimal google dipping it's fingers into my life.

I only buy phones now that will support a custom ROM, I can't go back now.

I use this little niche OS called iOS, made by some fruit company.

Oh that. I heard the project leader died of a perfectly curable form of cancer because he was going to heal himself with food or something. Crazy story, but the OS works well.

Guy who ran a fruit company tried to cure cancer with fruit. It’s like poetry, it rhymes.

GrapheneOS on a Pixel 4a, bit I'm looking to upgrade to a 6a vor 7a depending in the next good sale price

Are these sales directly from google?

Last time I checked pixel phones the performance and "freshness" Vs price ratio was really bad compared to something like Xiaomi with working xda ROMs.

CalyxOS on a Pixel 5. Its nice and micro G works fine in most situations. When I have the time though, I'm probably going to try graphine os with sandboxed google play and see how that works for me.

Man I remember the days of xda and custom Roma holy shit. Nexus 5 was the one, slimrom was the way. Ahh memories.

I recently flashed LineageOS on my old Note 4 that had previously ran a few custom ROMs but other than that haven't used one in years since I haven't had a need with my last LG or current Samsung phone.

These days there's more of a need for custom hardware like a headphone jack or SD card slot but unfortunately those can't just be flashed to a phone like a ROM can. The software/firmware side of things has been fine for me.

GrapheneOS on a Pixel 6. Works, I've had to override the custom memory allocator one or two times for banking apps, but that's just flipping a switch in the app info.

GrapheneOS on a Pixel 5a5g 👍

Same but on Pixel 6. Though I caved in and installed the sandboxed Google Play to run bank apps, fortunately they do work that way without problems.

Same but on a Pixel 6a. It's good for the most part. I don't use this phone for calls/sms so I wish I could just disable that while retaining mobile data, but I haven't figured that out yet really.

I read you can delete any stock apps like Phone and SMS Messaging by connecting your phone to a computer and using adb (does not require root). I haven't tried it but you can search online about using adb.

I have CalyxOS on my Pixel 4a; want to try GrapheneOS

Did development stop on CalyxOS? When I mention it, people usually recommend Graphene.

It still active, but still a small project, compared to graphene. Also graphene have better implementations like internet access as permission, as a quick example, play services sandboxing and segurity updates are implemented quickly. I choose calyx cuz having a setup I will use and also I haven't used android in a while, at the time, so I didn't want to break anything. Probably I made my election wrong, I mean calyx is a incredible project, but graphene looks better

Pixel 7 with Graphene. I love it. I have sanboxed google play installed, and occasionally dont get a notification (i suspect the apps are just not running in the background, so once I open the app I get the notifs). Would recommend.

Not getting notifications for something like a chat app is a big deal. Are there ways to allow apps to run in the background?

If the app uses Google FCM (which uses Google Play Services to poll notifications on device) it should register an FCM service that runs separately from the application, so it shouldn't need to run in the background.

However to answer your original question, you can disable battery optimization for particular apps. Or if an app wants to really never be killed, it can create an Android foreground service.

I have been back on stock for a bit and I swear been having notification issues for a bit (maybe last update?).

LineageOS on a Moto One 5G Ace. Soon to be replaced with a OnePlus Nord N200 because the charging port of all things is failing.

Also LineageOS. Pixel 3a

It's going to take a lot for me to want to upgrade when this phone has unlimited photo upload, and a headphone jack.

None ... yet. Hadn't even looked into the possibility since my Pixel 2XL, and I have no idea what I dug up all those years ago.

I'm now on a Pixel 6 Pro and would love to move to a privacy-focused OS; I'm already on KDE Neon on desktop for both my production machines as of May. Rexxit has motivated me to at least dip my toes in on mobile, but as with desktop Linux, I fully expect my first attempt to bring into specific relief what I'm looking for and then go try things until I find what I like.

Graphene and Lineage seem like the best starting options at this point, but I'd love to hear from anyone else on my hardware on their experiences. My use cases are vanishingly small: Signal for text, voice and video; the local transit app; music app (still haven't found one that makes be forswear any further experimentation) for my commute; mindless games (currently Royal Match) for my commute; 10-15 texts a week; and a phone call or two. I barely even use the camera except for work, and yes, I'm aware I purchased a phone utterly overpowered for my needs, but I'm picky about pixel size.

What recommendations do y'all have, either as a starting point or — perish the thought — an obvious daily driver?

LineageOS seems fine for your use case (and it has official support), but Pixel users are honestly spoilt for choice on custom ROMs so you could try out a few. Maybe Pixel Experience if you want to keep the Google "look", or crdroid for another AOSP rom.

I'd actually like to move away from Google's aesthetic. I took the demise of Windows Phone/Mobile pretty hard, specifically the live tiles that meant all I usually needed to do at any moment to get the info I wanted was wake my phone. The number of notifications I have on an app is never a question I've found myself asking; the content it denotes is what I'm interested in. Why give me irrelevant information and require further interaction to get that relevance?

Honestly AOSP (stock Android) isn't that different to Google's look, just more minimalistic and most roms will be based on AOSP with some minor tweaks. You could look into custom launchers, although not really an area I'm familiar with.

Agreed on notifications, I like to block the majority of them, which you can mostly do with modern Android versions. You might like to use F-Droid if you haven't already, since all apps are open source and not monetary focused, so tend to have less obnoxiousness to them as well.

I've been through a lot of launchers, to the point where I'm not even certain what I'm currently using. It's all cartoonish and absolutely against my design aesthetic. I turned notifications off months ago for anything but direct communication from my contacts and set the phone to go straight to voicemail for anyone else, and it's been bliss. I have a few F-Droid apps, but I've found that I prefer the desktop experience for most use cases through that store ... rarely do I have a pressing need to check my RSS feed where I can't read links on a full monitor.

I get into work and back home in a far better mood by playing a casual game and listening to music on my commute, and there's nothing I miss about slavishly checking my phone.

Stock android ROM(s) sound like a good fit since you seem to like a minimal experience.

GrapheneOS would probably suit you too and has improved privacy and security, but it's Pixel only so I've never got to try it myself.

I have a Pixel 6a, not 6 Pro, but I am running GrapheneOS. I had it on my Pixel 4a before this phone. I like it a lot!

From all the responses, GrapheneOS seems the most popular. Worth a weekend gander.

But I'm really responding to say I love your user name.

I'm using GrapheneOS on a Pixel 6a, it's great.

Man, got the 7a in May and the 1080p screen + 64 megapixel camera made me spend the extra $50 to not get the 6a. Blown away with both for the price. Regardless, Graphene here too.

GrapheneOS on a Pixel 6a and iOS on an iPhone in the other pocket lol

/e/os on a Fairphone 3 for a few months now. It's my first custom ROM, and it's been a breeze so far :)

Some quirks that I don't actually mind : when the phone is turned off and charging, the animation on screen doesn't update the current battery level (but idc, usually the phone charges at night), the phone calls volume is really loud (but I usually plug my headset in for calls) and the integrated vpn is sometimes slow enough to cause websites/apps to timeout (I can live with that).

I still have my old android phone mainly for my bank application.

Edit : typo

I used to run CyanogenMod/LineageOS on my older phones, but since my S8, I've been using stock ROMs. Honestly not even sure a custom ROM exists for the S21. I'd love to make the switch if it does, however I know Google Wallet (Google Pay at the time) had a huge issue with custom firmware/ROMs and I don't imagine it's gotten any better over the years.

yeah, one of the main reasons i'm not using a custom ROM either. On Samsung phones it trips knox, and then pretty much all banking/financial apps will stop working.

Also, there doesn't seem to be much need for them any longer.

I used to run HTC phones and the custom ROM scene was LEGIT. Now I'm in the same boat as you - stock Samsung, but I removed as many bullshit stock apps as I could with ADB.

I miss CM and simple boot unlocking.

... stock Samsung, but I removed as many bullshit stock apps as I could with ADB.

Yea, I did the same. I have no idea why Samsung decided to force certain apps on their phone with no ability to disable them, for example the calendar. I miss the old days when android wasn't bundled with the manufacturer/carrier's preinstalled apps that can't be removed without having to jump through some hoops, however easy those hoops may be. It should just be as simple as clicking uninstall.

/e/OS - I bought a cheap Poco X3 pro, that was probably cheap because they show ads inside the OS. So now I got to have a cheap phone that's also private and fast (a friend bought the same phone, no custom ROM, and now complains about it being slow)

GrapheneOS on a Pixel 7, having a great experience with it.

GrapheneOS on my Pixel 5, and I highly recommend it!

Also, it's "operating system". Not "ROM".

CalyxOS on my Pixel 3. Love it. Runs better than the standard Android crap.

Who knew getting rid of all the tracking bullshit helps? This is my surprised face -> :-/

I've never had a stock android experience except for two weeks with an original Nexus phone when it came out. Hated it so much, I returned it and got Blackberry. When I was eventually forced into Android, I immediately loaded CyanogenMod and have never used a stock ROM. My friends talk about their phones, and I have no idea what they're talking about. My experience is totally different. I couldn't use a stock ROM.

PixelOS on Redmi Note 10 Pro, more stable and less bloated than MIUI tho I didn't try the other pixel roms or stock android roms.

Yeah feel like mostly recently MIUI has become unbelievably bloated with random BS. Nowadays everytime I get a new xiaomi phone I start by unlocking the bootloader.

I've been using CrDroid on my Poco F2 Pro (LMI) for a long time now , have also dabbled with Elixir , Nusantara and a few others which was fun, I love custom roms and tinkering plus MIUI sucks badly.

Also the mire I tinker the deeper I go, I made my first magisk module this year , git pretty good at debugging and root files etc , plus I can restore my phone pretty fast now (I brick it every now and then lol)

This year I also got into battery replacement , I switched out my battery and my camera module, and switched out a samsung s9 plus battery, was pretty fun.

I don't know anything about Magisk, but I really should learn. Replaceable batteries, or a battery that I can replace without totally destroying the phone, is a requirement for any phone I get.

Oh they aren't replaceable easily , I bought all the required tools and pried the phone open in order to replace them.

Where can you find camera modules? I had to switch phones as my last phone's camera got damaged by vibration. Everything else on the phone is in fine condition

I just got one on Aliexpress , since apparently the better Poco F2 Pro Zoom edition had a better camera that fit into the pcoo f2 pro so I just switched out the models and bam it worked.

I went with good old lineageOS but I would like to pick up a Pixel device so I can give GrapheneOS or CalyxOS a go.

I use EvolutionX on my Xiaomi Poco F3 (Alioth), and it's the best custom ROM I have ever used features-wise and stability-wise.

I'm running Evolution X on my Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro and have been for the past 3 years or so. The main maintainer uses this phone so it has always been pretty polished and feature rich.

Grapheneos for years now

I was using Arrow OS Android 13 until 2 weeks and then my bank decided that even though i wasnt rooted and just unlocked bootloader my phone is a security risk and i couldnt access the app so ive had to go back to MIUI for now. I actually noticed on the custom rom that it only ran on V12.5 firmware when Miui is on V14 firmware which I think added APTX Adaptive and other things. So im really on the fence about ever sticking a custom rom on this Poco F3 again

First I tried iode but after a short trip to Ubuntu Mobile I decided to try Calyx. Runs fine on my Fairphone

I used /e/ (now Murena IIRC) : really loved that I used Lineageos, and also SailfishOS as I have 2 smartphones compliant with this one. Now I use stock rom with a little debloat on my side for apps like facebook or netflix

Lineage OS on my pixel 5. I'm looking to set up my environment so I can build and sign my ROM that way I can lock the bootloader.

Have you ever built one before? I've looked into it and it's not a trivial thing.

No but I have compiled firmware for keyboards, managed to go completely off script and deploy Lemmy using a custom compose and unsupported proxy, and im half decent at using linux.

I like to joke that im the tech equivalent of 1000 monkeys with keyboards, eventually I figure it out :)

It's not trivial but not as hard as I thought, at least last time I tried it. The absurd amount of disk space the build environment requires, along with the time to actually clone it it, is probably the most annoying part.

Unofficial crDroid with Poco X2. No real issues, although I haven't been able to get SBC-XQ working which it supposedly supports.

I'd love to dabble with something like Graphene OS, but I find the Google Dialer Spam Call/Text Protection and Hold For Me features indispensable. Right now as far as I'm aware, those don't work with Graphene. Also, I'm on the Advanced Protection program with Google so it is a no go for me as far as I'm aware.

Am using Elixir on my Xiaomi phone, I really like the customization stuff. It would be ideal if it would come in a variant without Google services :/ Otherwise it runs pretty nice.

Yes, Google Services is a no-go for me unless it was sandboxed, which I understand is how GrapheneOS handles it.

May I ask why googleless is efficient? I tried it once and it was quite uncomfortable, no gmail, no youtube, no photos. All of them needs google services to operate, no? Simply not use them?

Yeah I switched from 99 % of Google services (the 1 % is google services used by my school etc. and youtube, for which I use NewPipe), however Google services should not be required for the likes of gmail or youtube, google services might be required for some games (google play games dependencies) or to receive certain push notifications (firebase notification service or something like that)

Honor 10 with some old rooted Lineage Android 8.1 without gapps, wife has Xiaomi Mix 2s running some old Xiaomi.eu I think Android 9 with gapps (plus she has company S20 FE with official ROM), actually upgrading to new phone would bring pretty much zero benefits to my daily life besides having better camera

couldn't be bothered to upgrade to newer one, it's available for wife's one, but there is no point, if it wouldn't improve her life at all, as for me I would need to go to EMUI to have slightly newer Android but I will rather have clean Android, anyway looking for years for replacement compact phone with decent camera (4a seemed great but asymetrical punch hole and crap battery and all other pixels had either this problem or they are too big already, zenfones unreliable hardware without software support), currently Xiaomi 12 seems like best option for 400EUR