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How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

arstechnica.com

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Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#121

Post by microtonal »

stymaar wrote: post #113
microtonal wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting security updates for issues that are not marked high/critical. These are not your typical RCE, but they are used in exploit chains. For those not aware, Android Security Bulletins only cover high/critical vulnerabilities. There are also rumors that Google will soon stop fixing vulnerabilities in not-actual versions that were discovered by Google in LLM-driven vulnerability discovery. There was recently a Grap…

> Getting security updates for issues that are not marked high/critical. These are not your typical RCE, but they are used in exploit chains. Aren't those back-ported for a while?

No, they are not.

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114101511604296440

You need new releases or QPRs to get other patches.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#122

Post by coldpie »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #17

I would love a Fairphone, but no headphone jack is a nonstarter for me. Still blows me away that a company saying they are focused on longevity would get rid of a universal audio interface that we've had for decades. In the article they claim it's to fit other features in, but frankly that's not a believable claim. Other manufacturers manage to get a headphone jack in just fine, without any noticeable downside.

Given how severely that hard requirement restricts your available options, I'd suggest adapting to the USB-C audio world. No, it's not as nice as a headphone jack. But it is a relatively small con to just stick an adapter onto the ends of your 3.5mm devices and replace it a few times a year when it breaks. And yes, you can get a "charge and listen at the same time" adapter.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#123

Post by rustcleaner »

Borealid wrote: post #109
evolve2k wrote: post #106

Anyone have any updates on why this device can’t support or get behind Graphene OS? A repairable and secure phone is my desired option for a phone that’s truely mine and I’m sure this is true for many others also. From my understanding it’s not there as the Graphene team says that fairphone haven’t taken security hardware seriously and there’s key hardware security features missing that means they are not even intere…

[flagged]

While yes I am on GrapheneOS' side on these issues, I'm surprised nobody clones the GrapheneOS repo and simply disables the minimal handful of features which block it from working on devices. Maybe calling the clone CarbonOS? If MTE is required to boot GrapheneOS and Fairphones don't have MTE, then Fairphone clones GrapheneOS and disables MTE for its images. Graphene has so many features beyond just hardware security that other Androids lack, that it would be worthwhile to do this and it would still be higher security than the others (even if it's below GrapheneOS' own full security). Sensor & network permissions, storage & contact scopes, autoreboot, scrambled pin, radio auto-off, MAC address randomization, and more, I'm sure don't require MTE or Titan etc. Just follow GrapheneOS as upstream, making sure that the minimal set of changes needed to get it working on other/older devices transfers with the new updates.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#124

Post by artisinal »

somat wrote: post #110
artisinal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serial is a universal data interface that we've had for decades. Don't need RS232 on my phone though.

Boy it would be nice however. On that note, I remember reading how some phones were able to use the headphone jack as a serial debug port, which is pretty neat. https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Serial_debugging/Cable_sc...

The Apple 30-pin connector on the iPod and early iPhones had serial!

That is how your car radio could display the name of the current track.

https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/30-pin_Connector

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#125

Post by artisinal »

throwa356262 wrote: post #77
artisinal wrote: post #43

The recently released Fairphone 6+ runs on Android 16. I had to look that up on Wikipedia, their website doesn't even clearly state that. Android 16 is 14 months old at the moment. Android 17 was released to manufacturers 6 months ago and had a general release 2 months ago. So why does a brand new phone run an operating system from over a year ago? Does it really take over 6 months to update a phone to a new version…

I belive you are mistaken. Android 17 final was "released" 6-7 weeks ago. But Google being Google, this release is pretty much useless until Samsung et al deal with all bugs and performance issues, which will take 2-4 months.

As a Linux, macOS and Windows user it’s really strange to me that you can’t just install the latest OS on your device. Even my iPhone updates to the latest version as soon as it’s released.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#126

Post by kwanbix »

phtrivier wrote: post #111

I suppose it's a testament to their success, but, I have a fairphone 3 from almost 6 years now, and I'm a bit annoyed that they're basically "sunsetting it" (no more software updates, no more spare parts.) My fairphone 2 had lasted 5 years, but was completely unusable at the end. My current phone works very well (again, huge kudos to the team if anyone is reading this), and I would not mind trying to reach the decade…

My previous phone was an OPPO Find X3 Pro phone. Incredible phone. I only changed it because it has no zoom on the cameras. But I used it for 5 years.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#127

Post by pferde »

rustcleaner wrote: post #123
Borealid wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

While yes I am on GrapheneOS' side on these issues, I'm surprised nobody clones the GrapheneOS repo and simply disables the minimal handful of features which block it from working on devices. Maybe calling the clone CarbonOS? If MTE is required to boot GrapheneOS and Fairphones don't have MTE, then Fairphone clones GrapheneOS and disables MTE for its images. Graphene has so many features beyond just hardware security…

Lack of MTE is not the only huge reason why the GrapheneOS team refuses most devices. Most vendors' lack of timely bugfixes for device-specific drivers and firmware, and no commitment to keep providing bugfixes for a number of years is another major factor.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#129

Post by rlpb »

phtrivier wrote: post #111

I suppose it's a testament to their success, but, I have a fairphone 3 from almost 6 years now, and I'm a bit annoyed that they're basically "sunsetting it" (no more software updates, no more spare parts.) My fairphone 2 had lasted 5 years, but was completely unusable at the end. My current phone works very well (again, huge kudos to the team if anyone is reading this), and I would not mind trying to reach the decade…

I had a similar experience but with the Fairphone 2. I never swapped out any parts because performance hardware upgrades never became available and it was superseded by the Fairphone 3. I've not invested again in a Fairphone since. I've no interest in paying extra for repairability I'm never going to use since they have the same obsolescence/replacement model as any other phone.

Re: How Fairphone built the Fairphone Gen 6+

#130

Post by cherryteastain »

Borealid wrote: post #109
evolve2k wrote: post #106

Anyone have any updates on why this device can’t support or get behind Graphene OS? A repairable and secure phone is my desired option for a phone that’s truely mine and I’m sure this is true for many others also. From my understanding it’s not there as the Graphene team says that fairphone haven’t taken security hardware seriously and there’s key hardware security features missing that means they are not even intere…

[flagged]

MTE is not the only blocker here. Pixel 7 series do not have it and are currently supported by GrapheneOS. There are other concerns regarding things like a proper secure element implementation and timely firmware/binary blob updates.
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