Android
The new home of /r/Android on Lemmy and the Fediverse!
Android news, reviews, tips, and discussions about rooting, tutorials, and apps.
πUniversal Link: !android@lemdro.id
π‘Content Philosophy:
Content which benefits the community (news, rumours, and discussions) is generally allowed and is valued over content which benefits only the individual (technical questions, help buying/selling, rants, self-promotion, etc.) which will be removed if it's in violation of the rules.
Support, technical, or app related questions belong in: !askandroid@lemdro.id
For fresh communities, lemmy apps, and instance updates: !lemdroid@lemdro.id
π¬Matrix Chat
π°Our communities below
Rules
-
Stay on topic: All posts should be related to the Android OS or ecosystem.
-
No support questions, recommendation requests, rants, or bug reports: Posts must benefit the community rather than the individual. Please post to !askandroid@lemdro.id.
-
Describe images/videos, no memes: Please include a text description when sharing images or videos. Post memes to !androidmemes@lemdro.id.
-
No self-promotion spam: Active community members can post their apps if they answer any questions in the comments. Please do not post links to your own website, YouTube, blog content, or communities.
-
No reposts or rehosted content: Share only the original source of an article, unless it's not available in English or requires logging in (like Twitter). Avoid reposting the same topic from other sources.
-
No editorializing titles: You can add the author or website's name if helpful, but keep article titles unchanged.
-
No piracy or unverified APKs: Do not share links or direct people to pirated content or unverified APKs, which may contain malicious code.
-
No unauthorized polls, bots, or giveaways: Do not create polls, use bots, or organize giveaways without first contacting mods for approval.
-
No offensive or low-effort content: Don't post offensive or unhelpful content. Keep it civil and friendly!
-
No affiliate links: Posting affiliate links is not allowed.
Quick Links
Our Communities
- !askandroid@lemdro.id
- !androidmemes@lemdro.id
- !techkit@lemdro.id
- !google@lemdro.id
- !nothing@lemdro.id
- !googlepixel@lemdro.id
- !xiaomi@lemdro.id
- !sony@lemdro.id
- !samsung@lemdro.id
- !galaxywatch@lemdro.id
- !oneplus@lemdro.id
- !motorola@lemdro.id
- !meta@lemdro.id
- !apple@lemdro.id
- !microsoft@lemdro.id
- !chatgpt@lemdro.id
- !bing@lemdro.id
- !reddit@lemdro.id
Lemmy App List
Chat and More
view the rest of the comments
I mean, why would I ever unlock the bootloader if I'm going to keep the stock OS? People don't just unlock the bootloader and leave it there sitting doing nothing π
Well depends on why you're unlocking the bootloader. Some people just want root but not necessarily a custom ROM. Though for some phones a custom ROM may be more appealing than others.
i mean in this case, if you're planning to root you'd much rather use a custom OS that will still give you OS updates
or, just buy a different android and avoid the bs entirely
For rooting it, for example. That's always an option, even when your phone does not have a good alternative ROM
I have never met a person that just rooted their phone without slapping a custom ROM on it. The initial motive for rooting is normally to install a custom ROM, but that makes sense I guess
Edit: yup, I'm wrong about needing root to install a custom ROM. My apologies, my last rooted device was the galaxy note 3 back in 2013/2014. My memory is very rusty.
"The initial motive for rooting is normally to install a custom rom".
Nope.
Rooting has nothing whatsoever to do with installing a custom rom.
Root is a function within a rom - it's the equivalent of granting admin access in Windows (root means you have write access to the root directory). Most ROMs that you can install aren't rooted themselves. That's how little root is related to rom.
What is common between rooting and a custom rom is the requirement for an unlocked bootloader.
I've rooted almost every phone I've owned (since 2009), and all but the last 2 never had a custom rom available. Most phones don't have a custom rom available - it's a rare phone that does have a custom rom available.
Check out rom developers, like Lineage, to see how many devices get custom rom support.
You don't necessarily need to root to install a custom ROM
On a Fairphone at least you can practically flash the device OOTB after unlocking the bootloader, no root needed.
Now you have
I think there are some misunderstandings.
Root is not needed to flash a custom ROM. That does not (usually) happen from a running system, but through fastboot or the recovery, and those don't ask for root permission, only an unlocked bootloader.
Magisk, Revanced using root to simply replace stock YouTube app without having to deal with MicroG, tuning kernel to achieve Moah powa babeh, better battery, etc.
soo basically encouraging people that just unlock the bootloader to do this to install a different OS?
It is OS endorsed by Xiaomi. Plus I've paid for the device, so it is up to me what I do with it.
Would using root to remove an app remove everything? Because if not, why not simply use adb to uninstall an app like YouTube, for example?
Since you cannot unlock the bootloader without going into the OS now, I prefer to leave it unlocked but stock.
That way, if the device ever cannot boot, I can at least Adb pull my data off the device from fastboot.
That's makes it much less secure and is a wide attack surface.
https://grapheneos.org/install/web#locking-the-bootloader
Is there a way to lock the bootloader and keep a ROM different from the one the device shipped with? Or do I need to relock and reunlock every time I need to update the custom ROM, with all the data loss this implies?
That might depend on the device. I used to tinker and switch a lot, but haven't in years. I do however have GrapheneOS (which is not a ROM, but "a privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open source project") on my Pixel and it gets regular updates. Most times weekly/every-other-week, but at worst monthly with the monthly security patches, often before Google releases them...all with the bootloader locked, per GrapheneOS' recommendation.
I say all that to say...not 100% sure outside of my personal and recent experience with GrapheneOS on Pixels, and I haven't had enough coffee yet to do research into phones I don't have.