It seems that the motherboard is dead, and that it’s a common issue with the 5a and I “should’ve known better,” despite it being impossible to find decent information on phones these days.
I got it because it was the last Pixel with a headphone jack, and because it had good official LineageOS support. But I compromised: giving up the SD slot was tough for me, and now that I’ve been burned by not having one (I typically auto-backup my Signal history and other things to the SD card) I don’t want to get another phone without it.
But the landscape seems bleak. The vast majority of phones that are officially supported by LineageOS are Pixels. It’s impossible to find easy information on which phones have non-official LOS ROMs. Search results are useless these days, and I also keep running into an issue where after researching a phone for half an hour I discover that it has some arcane process to unlock the bootloader that doesn’t always work, and the forum posters imply that the purchasers “should’ve known better.” I’m just at my wit’s end.
If anyone can suggest something that has decent deGoogled ROM support with the following features, I’d be very grateful:
- OLED screen (a must-have for my photosensitivity)
- SD card slot
- I am willing to give up the headphone jack in order to expand my options
I founded r/privatelife many years ago to combat the privacy nonsense spouted on Reddit, and to combat the favouring of Apple and western Big Tech companies that western moderators did themselves and also allowed to flourish. Then I made c/privatelife on Lemmy as a mirror. I write guides for smartphone hardening, Linux/Windows computing, threat modelling, activists, and have written a few dozens of micro guides.
Currently, I am moderating c/privacy and c/technology on Lemmy.ml, and head my c/privatelife community.
You quoted madaidan, one of the biggest idiots who has been collectively shat on by r/Linux and many people who know the grifting he does. He loves his Windows and MacOS and shits on Linux, claiming insecurity, and does the 4chan meme unironically where he declares security of software and OSes based on programming languages it has been written with.
I am new to android safety and honestly the world of the internet drama I have always kept to myself but recently needed to get into this and there’s mountains of data fighting for both sides. Sorry for being standoffish just tired of bs as well and sifting through years of articles and shit. What’s your take om hackliberty.org?
I’ll probably stay away after looking at this the moment I opened their Discourse forum. He calls COVID fake. https://forum.hackliberty.org/t/operation-coronavirus/103
Actually, my goal is exactly that - to end this fucking privacy circus. And I think I am the one who has made biggest strides in accomplishing this, since almost everyone loves to pivot themselves to drama and fill their empty lives with all this bullshit. I do not have much allies though, since it is counterintuitive to their drama goals. Those same people try to accuse me of being dramatic, just because I put in 5 years of effort to join the dots and expose this circus singlehandedly.
Yeah that shit is crazy also that is just one of his moderators not the author of the site and I dont care about drama I just want the most secure phone lol
So again what’s your opinion on that cause the bootloader and root argument seems strong IMO madaidian or not
My reason for advocating for no rooting and unlocking is the same as madaidan, Micay and these other people (yes I agree with few basic things they say), so my non root smartphone guide is going to work well. It applies to every single Android phone since Android 9, and any phone you get nowadays will have 3-5 years of official security updates. Just get any Android you want instead of limiting yourself to some brand because someone told you something. All of the mainstream ones are solid and secure enough for regular usage and threat actors being yout mischievous friends, nosy wife, that tech whiz kid or hackerman friend. Even police cannot do much in most countries, unless they use tools like expensive Israeli Cellebrite kits reserved for high profile criminals.
If your enemy is a state actor or government, I do not think any smartphone will help you. Those require different ways of using devices, and less reliance on phones. You will need a computer, an OpenWRT router and certain type of secure OS like TailsOS for that, which I doubt is your daily need.
TLDR just get any decent Android phone, debloat it, do steps I recommend in my guide, harden it that way and you have eliminated 99% of your problems without the inconvenience, risks and complications. https://lemmy.ml/post/128667 Go through it, you will love it.
I want to say I do not agree with most of madaidians post but this one seemed logical is all. I totally understand phones are just not something someone who is an anarchist or activist should even carry lol.
Thank you for your input I have been reading your guide and it is exactly what I need for this threat model I pretty much already do everything minus a few things which I never thought of. I am a privacy enthusiast who likes to understand how my shit works and a very noob self taught programmer/hacker (idk what I’d call myself, just want to understand the stuff im using to protect myselfl ) I have so many questions about the other set up and will be joining your matrix to pick your brain about a few products and software hope you dont mind lol
And I want to finish I’m sorry if I offended you. I too dont like listening to people telling me to use a certain OS and phone but researching this has been hard so thank you for your well written guides
Cool thank you for being civil. I will start following your stuff and reading your write ups I see the issues with him but then I would like your input on the bootloader and root even with madadians crazyness that makes sense IMO that the bootloader and root are most important for security. I’m look at the Sudo arguments for linux as an example