graphene os advice

Pantherina , 4 months ago

First, discuss.grapheneos.org

If you have bugs, github.com/grapheneos/os-issue-tracker/issues

first I lost my fingerprint sensor

Same device, no problems, likely hardware problem

now with one of the more recent beta updates

have just screwed it up over and over again.

You may want to use the stable channel.

intermittent cell service issues in areas where I never used to have service issues.

Likely LTE-only mode, network settings. Keep it on if you care about using something without known security flaws.

I’ve been considering switching over to graphene for a while now

How can you consider it and at the same time use it?

Please just use their website, it should cover what is working and what is not using their sandboxed play compatibility layer.

Gmail works, avoid using their app, and just switch to a better provider. Privacyguides.org

That family link stuff idk, if it is invasive like parental controls it will not work.

but wanted some feedback on how that works when I’m not really trying to disconnect from the rest of Google services.

The OS makes no connections to google. Sandboxed play uses the same google code but as a sandboxed app. This will not give google any sensitive data or control over the device. Read and understand this thread

Will I have any issues if I switch using the same Google services?

Check gmscompat compatibility. Search for every thing you use in their forum or matrix (server: grapheneos.org), if you dont find it ask in the forum.

assuming Nova works just fine on graphene as well?

Yes it does. For paid apps you need sandboxed google play, have not tested that. Aurorastore (use session installer, dont grant file storage permission) doesnt require google login and services but may break in the future and is less secure.

Atemu , 4 months ago

If your issue with fingerprint stopping to work is anything like the issue I experienced in home-brewed LineageOS on my Fairphone 4, the only solution is to wipe userdata.

OmnislashIsACloudApp OP , 4 months ago

yeah I suppose it’s time to try a reset

Mahonia , 4 months ago

I’ve been using GrapheneOS for about 5 years.

Google pay won’t work, but everything else should. I’ve never experienced any of the issues the other commenter had, and I’ve installed Graphene on 4 devices (not dismissing you BTW, just saying I think your experience is quite uncommon).

I don’t think third-party launchers are a good idea (you’re giving full device permission to an unneeded app) but it should work.

Almost every app I wanted to use worked with Graphene before they introduced their sandboxed google services, and now everything I’ve tested works with Google push notifications. The only exception is Google pay, and there are upstream reasons for that. Keep in mind, on a very rare occasion the hardened memory allocator breaks compatibility (again this is very rare), but there is an app-specific setting toggle to turn this off so it’s kind of a non-issue.

pinpin , 4 months ago

Google Pay and RCS don’t work. Third party launchers shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t give them network access. That’s how I use Nova.

OmnislashIsACloudApp OP , 4 months ago

ah dang I do use rcs, that would be annoying

dataprolet , 4 months ago

Don’t use the Beta channel and expect everything to work.

I don’t use Google at all but theoretically everything should work with the sandboxed Google services.

And I did use Nova Launcher and it’s working without an issue. Importing a profile should also work.

OmnislashIsACloudApp OP , 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago)

I actually switched to beta hoping it would fix the broken biometrics update, was using standard release before that.