Any chances to see something similar to install Linux images (native, no chroots) to old Android tablets over the original OS? Some hardware wouldn't be supported, but I wouldn't mind not having for example video acceleration, audio and/or modem, if I could use an old tablet as a IoT screen or to show graphs from sensor data, etc.
Having a full OS, hence the ability to use multiple programming languages, libraries, etc would change everything.
Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
11–20 of 147 posts
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#12Any chances to see something similar to install Linux images (native, no chroots) to old Android tablets over the original OS? Some hardware wouldn't be supported, but I wouldn't mind not having for example video acceleration, audio and/or modem, if I could use an old tablet as a IoT screen or to show graphs from sensor data, etc. Having a full OS, hence the ability to use multiple programming languages, libraries, e…
Sounds like you want https://postmarketos.org/ or https://mobian-project.org/ ?
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#13Any chances to see something similar to install Linux images (native, no chroots) to old Android tablets over the original OS? Some hardware wouldn't be supported, but I wouldn't mind not having for example video acceleration, audio and/or modem, if I could use an old tablet as a IoT screen or to show graphs from sensor data, etc. Having a full OS, hence the ability to use multiple programming languages, libraries, e…
https://postmarketos.org/ might be of interest to you.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#14Any chances to see something similar to install Linux images (native, no chroots) to old Android tablets over the original OS? Some hardware wouldn't be supported, but I wouldn't mind not having for example video acceleration, audio and/or modem, if I could use an old tablet as a IoT screen or to show graphs from sensor data, etc. Having a full OS, hence the ability to use multiple programming languages, libraries, e…
Checkout the postmarketOS project, they do exactly that!
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#15Does this support GrapheneOS's Google Services Framework compatibility layer? And why not fork GrapheneOS instead of Lineage?
The main dev has expressed that they don't intend to add any google play services compatibility, and probably forking Lineage because GrapheneOS is already pretty good but works just on pixels, as opposed to Lineage which works on maany many phone models.
DivestOS has been a fork of LineageOS since before it was LineageOS: https://divestos.org/index.php?page=history
The precursor to GrapheneOS also used to have a non-foss license for a period of time.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
For new/supported devices I strongly recommend GrapheneOS. The other projects who support some of these older devices have numerous issues as noted here: https://divestos.org/index.php?page=patch_levels#osSecurity Edit: also of note: DivestOS currently provides monthly updates spanning seven versions of Android, I don't know of any other project doing that specifically.
To note, the monthly security updates DivestOS provides don't (can't?) include baseband and such "firmware" updates for legacy OEM-unsupported versions of Android. Don't get me wrong, it's terrific that security patches are backported to such ancient versions of Android by those working on DivestOS and it's a great option for devices that aren't supported by GrapheneOS, LineageOS, et al.
Firmware is included for 45 devices, but no one but the vendor/manufacturer can actually provide security updates for them, so they are largely just the last release.
https://gitlab.com/divested-mobile/firmware-empty/-/blob/mas...
This is indeed an issue and is documented on multiple places of the website.
Patching everything else is the best harm-reduction for this.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
For new/supported devices I strongly recommend GrapheneOS. The other projects who support some of these older devices have numerous issues as noted here: https://divestos.org/index.php?page=patch_levels#osSecurity Edit: also of note: DivestOS currently provides monthly updates spanning seven versions of Android, I don't know of any other project doing that specifically.
GrapheneOS looks interesting but DivestOS's focus seem to be aftermarket devices that Graphene is not targeting. I recently got an unofficial build of LineageOS running on a Nexus 4 (mako) device and I was positively surprised with the speed it can run modern software. But this is an unofficial build that is also broken on some essential points, such as WiFi. For these old devices, Graphene is not an option and if th…
fwiw voron00's mako builds and my builds are fully functional. I daily drove one a while back for fun.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#18The tool https://gitlab.com/divested-mobile/cve_checker is fascinating; I've usually seen people attempting to bring needed drivers to a mainline kernel, but backporting security fixes to a vendor kernel does seem like a plausible way to get a lot of the benefit with less work.
It isn't perfect, but I am quite happy with how effective it has been considering how simple it really is.
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#19I have an old OnePlus and it's managed to last like 7 years. Sadly every other developer has abandoned it. Hope this project can bring it back from the dead!
Re: Show HN: DivestOS – Long-term support for end-of-life Android devices
#20Does this support GrapheneOS's Google Services Framework compatibility layer? And why not fork GrapheneOS instead of Lineage?
Is GrapheneOS' PlayServices sandbox open source?