GSI roms with spoofing? - Treble-Enabled Device Questions and Answers

I apologise in advance if this is the wrong place to post this..
I recently got a Ulefone power armor 13 that I've been trying to to de-google, I've avoided smartphones for a long time due to concerns about tracking ect but I decided to take the plunge after seeing articles online about privacy focused google android alternatives.
The one I've really been trying to get to run is CalyxOS, I know it only officially supports a limited number of smartphones but there are some unofficial GSI ROMs of it. I really liked the idea of being able run both open source apps and google apps with spoofing, I know I said that I was trying to degoogle this phone but the simple fact is there are a few google apps I'd like to run if I can avoid the tracking.
Unfortunately I've only had dead ends and headache trying to to get them to install but I have had some luck getting AOSP GSI to install so I'd like to try something new.
Can anyone recommend a GSI rom that has either microg or some other way of spoofing google? Or alternatively a way of adding it to a AOSP GSI rom?
Many thanks for your time.

What do you mean by "spoofing Google"?

Spoofing may have been the wrong term to use, what I meant by "spoofing Google" was some means of allowing google apps run without my data getting back to them.
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From what I've read online microg does this by somehow creating a fake ID for the device. Now my laypersons understanding may have have got this wrong if I have I would appreciate it if you could point me in the direction of some reliable info?
If I understood everything correctly this would need to be used along side the Aurora store or a similar app store to get the full benefit of it.
Maybe a better way to phrase my request would have been are there any GSI roms that do the same thing as CalyxOS or is it possable to get something similar with a stock AOSP GSI image and adding microg to it myself?
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Star_Eagle said:
From what I've read online microg does this by somehow creating a fake ID for the device. Now my laypersons understanding may have have got this wrong if I have I would appreciate it if you could point me in the direction of some reliable info?
If I understood everything correctly this would need to be used along side the Aurora store or a similar app store to get the full benefit of it.
Maybe a better way to phrase my request would have been are there any GSI roms that do the same thing as CalyxOS or is it possable to get something similar with a stock AOSP GSI image and adding microg to it myself?
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I'm not sure if you had any luck or not. I thought I would follow up to this. I don't know why there's not much posting info on GSI ROM's. From what I've found there are ROM's available for what you are looking for. I did find some degoogled GSI ROM's even with or without microG preinstalled. If you need a list of some, I can provide you. I'm not sure they will work, but it is sometimes a trial and error. For the phone you listed you should be able to get some to work though.

Hi defcondoc
Thanks for taking th time to reach out to me, I currently have the phone running an Arrowos GSI ROM from the phhutson ROM list and so far its been ok for me though I would be REALLY happy to have list of other possible ROMS to play/tinker with. Afterall you never know what you might find unless you try new things.
If you have the time send me the list you have I would be really greatfull, I don't mind if they don'e have microg preinstalled at this point so long as its clearly marked that its not prinstalled.
Thanks again.

Related

Would I be able to bypass Googles Huawei restrictions by switching to Lineage?

I'm not quite sure what to make of the whole situation, but I would hate to not any important updates on my phone in the future. For Huawei phones it's not that easy to switch to cutom roms, since I would need to buy a bootloader-unlock-key from a semi trustworthy source for ~30€+.... So before I get into any of that, I wanted to make sure, that I would ultimately be able to bypass all the possible restrictions.
Will I be able to run a fully functional Android version on my phone (Huawei P10 Plus) with Playstore and most importantly security updates or will my device still be 'detected' as an unsupported device?
Hey there,
It seems like you can unlock your phone for free given this post: link
I didn't test it so i can't guarantee, sorry!
But to answer your Question: Yes theoretically LineageOS would give you the Security Updates and with Open GApps you would also be able to use the Playstore and everything else from Google.
BUT it looks like there is no Official or even Unofficial LineageOS Build for your phone
The only option i found is this: OpenKirin
But i can't tell you much more about it, sorry
Thanks for the link, will definitely give that a read!
Hm I didn't even think about IF there was a Lineage build for my phone,
I just assumed it would be... But good to know that there are at least
some options to work with, in case they can't work it out with Google!
Thanks!

Noob here. How can I find a ROM with no Google cancer and no proprietary software?

I'm thinking of buying a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, and I want to install a quality open-source ROM on it since I don't want the Chinese or Google spying on me.
I've never installed a ROM before, and I don't think I really need any fancy features (except for basic smartphone things, like support for camera, flashlight, WiFi, Bluetooth, phone calls, audio/video recording and playback, GPS, etc.). I guess my only other requirement is that it can support something like aptX/aptX HD so I can use it with Bluetooth headphones and it won't sound like ass.
I've got some questions:
Do most ROMs generally tend to work with most phones? Can I just download some random ROM and have it work most of the time?
Are the 2 pages of ROM threads listed on this forum the only ones this phone can support? Or are these just the ROMs that forum users have tested it with? A lot of these ROMs I've never even heard of, and many are listed as [UNOFFICIAL].
Cyanogenmod has been discontinued, but could it still work on newer devices? There's projects like freecyngn which can remove propriety Google Analytics stuff from it, and I don't know if any similar tweaks exist for Cyanogenmod's successors.
What's a good resource for de-googled ROMs with no proprietary software? And which can support aptX/aptX HD or an alternative. And would hopefully actually work with the phone.
Sorry, someone is always out there listening, watching, monitoring and data mining - regardless of the OS eco-system. Learn to built your own and have fun. Good luck !
P.S. Stay away from smartphone, go back to a "dumb" phone. Find yourself a good old Motorola Startac classic or Sony-Ericson ... maybe. That is, if backdoors were not integrated at the chipset level.
Letitride said:
Sorry, someone is always out there listening, watching, monitoring and data mining - regardless of the OS eco-system. Learn to built your own and have fun. Good luck !
P.S. Stay away from smartphone, go back to a "dumb" phone. Find yourself a good old Motorola Startac classic or Sony-Ericson ... maybe. That is, if backdoors were not integrated at the chipset level.
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I'm not asking for a phone to go off the grid and hide in the amazon jungle with, but there's an obvious difference between an OS bloated with proprietary spyware garbage and an OS that's as barebones and open-source as possible. I want to make the best choice when it comes to what's installed on my smartphone, or as close as to the best choice as I can get.
I don't think programming is something I'll ever learn to do, let alone build my own OS. The best I can do is make a table with fancy text in HTML.
Let's start with your Google account if you want to stay under the radar - it's a given with Play Store, unless you feel comfortable going without it and sideload Gapps or manually install/update from APK mirror. A2 Lite is a good but entry level smartphone, don't expect nor realistic to count on extensive custom rom development.
You will need to learn and experiment to find out for yourself, start with rooting the A/B partition and installing TWRP, then select a ROM ... you will be flashing at least several of these to decide what work best for you. Read - there is plenty of comments, feedbacks and caution.
I run the stock Global rom, Android One - which is as close to "pure" without bloatware as it can be (having owned, used & played with probably 2 dozens+ smartphone in this decade) - and have no problems - unlike others and not eveyone is having issues with WiFi & bluetooth.
I run Lineage OS on the Huawei Honor 5X ... and there are custom roms that are barebone and/or need only minimal Gapps to be flashed (nano or pico) - it comes down to the question for you, what is your definition of spyware, proprietary or stock/OEM and preloaded. If you are paranoid, don't use it, disabled it, block it and change permission - IMHO, with Oreo & Pie roms - it will probably crippled your device badly.
Trust me, "they" all know where you've been and just left, approximate time spend and what you clicked. Give it a rest unless you have reasons to worry.
I don't know what I should download because I have no idea what would work with this phone. Online it says that Android One "only runs on certain smartphones", so probably not that. If Oreo/Pie stop working if you disable certain bloat, then I'm fine with using something older or even ancient, as long as it can function. And I'm probably going to be installing Play apps from APK mirror instead of the Play Store. What actually is the difference between that and sideloading? I thought when you installed an .apk from APK mirror it meant you were sideloading.
Again, my expectations for an OS are quite modest - basic smartphone features, along with the ability to use aptX/aptX HD or some other variants.
Can you link some de-googled and de-bloated ROMs I can choose from? I can't find any ROMs named "nano" or "pico" on the ROM section for this phone, or on Google.
dooshbagel said:
I'm thinking of buying a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, and I want to install a quality open-source ROM on it since I don't want the Chinese or Google spying on me.
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Roms listed here are the ones you need, they are the ones for this phone. Successor of CM is LineageOS and people are happy with it. Being such a noob do your reading before you get into flashing, that prevents pulling too much hair. Mi A2 lite is a good phone.
Ah, avoid stock, it's a mess according to people who used it. I erased it as soon as I got the phone. I run AOSiP and am content with it.
On this phone you can also flash GSI systems (more reading), ArrowOS 9 worked just fine for me, others may be good too.
dooshbagel said:
I'm thinking of buying a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, and I want to install a quality open-source ROM on it since I don't want the Chinese or Google spying on me.
I've never installed a ROM before, and I don't think I really need any fancy features (except for basic smartphone things, like support for camera, flashlight, WiFi, Bluetooth, phone calls, audio/video recording and playback, GPS, etc.). I guess my only other requirement is that it can support something like aptX/aptX HD so I can use it with Bluetooth headphones and it won't sound like ass.
I've got some questions:
Do most ROMs generally tend to work with most phones? Can I just download some random ROM and have it work most of the time?
Are the 2 pages of ROM threads listed on this forum the only ones this phone can support? Or are these just the ROMs that forum users have tested it with? A lot of these ROMs I've never even heard of, and many are listed as [UNOFFICIAL].
Cyanogenmod has been discontinued, but could it still work on newer devices? There's projects like freecyngn which can remove propriety Google Analytics stuff from it, and I don't know if any similar tweaks exist for Cyanogenmod's successors.
What's a good resource for de-googled ROMs with no proprietary software? And which can support aptX/aptX HD or an alternative. And would hopefully actually work with the phone.
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Just try this https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/development/rom-barebones-lineageos-16-0-t3931121
celrau said:
On this phone you can also flash GSI systems (more reading), ArrowOS 9 worked just fine for me, others may be good too.
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What is GSI? And I don't see ArrowOS 9 listed anywhere in this phone's forum section. Can I just download it anywhere from the internet and have it work with the A2 Lite?
dooshbagel said:
What is GSI? And I don't see ArrowOS 9 listed anywhere in this phone's forum section. Can I just download it anywhere from the internet and have it work with the A2 Lite?
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GSI stands for generic system images but as I said, do your own reading on all these. ArrowOS is here and you will need AB. And no, you can't just download it from anywhere on the internet and have it work. Search for what treble and GSI are, how to flash them and so on. Theoretically GSIs are easier to deal with since you don't need to change slots (don't ask me what slots are, you have the internet) but they are generic and some features may not work. If this is too much for you there is a thread here about debloating the stock rom, maybe that's more in tone with your current level of experience.
dooshbagel said:
I'm thinking of buying a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite, and I want to install a quality open-source ROM on it since I don't want the Chinese or Google spying on me.
I've never installed a ROM before, and I don't think I really need any fancy features (except for basic smartphone things, like support for camera, flashlight, WiFi, Bluetooth, phone calls, audio/video recording and playback, GPS, etc.). I guess my only other requirement is that it can support something like aptX/aptX HD so I can use it with Bluetooth headphones and it won't sound like ass.
I've got some questions:
Do most ROMs generally tend to work with most phones? Can I just download some random ROM and have it work most of the time?
Are the 2 pages of ROM threads listed on this forum the only ones this phone can support? Or are these just the ROMs that forum users have tested it with? A lot of these ROMs I've never even heard of, and many are listed as [UNOFFICIAL].
Cyanogenmod has been discontinued, but could it still work on newer devices? There's projects like freecyngn which can remove propriety Google Analytics stuff from it, and I don't know if any similar tweaks exist for Cyanogenmod's successors.
What's a good resource for de-googled ROMs with no proprietary software? And which can support aptX/aptX HD or an alternative. And would hopefully actually work with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying to reply in a simplier manner than previous comments:
I come from the similar direction to yours. I am not a whistleblower, but I'm sick of all the data collection, all my moves logged on Google servers, all the synchronization and all the targeted ads.
For downloading apps you don't need to sideload, just use F-Droid + Aurora Store for Play Store.
LineageOS is the continuation of Cyanogenmod project.
The best you can find right now is this build of Lineage: https://forum.xda-developers.com/mi-a2-lite/development/lineageos-16-0-xiaomi-mi-a2-lite-t3919060
Be aware that it has unofficial status by now and it's unclear if it's gonna change anytime soon. It means you have to put all your trust in the maintainer, plus it doesn't use official Lineage infrastracture for delivering updates etc. Also SELinux is not active, at least yet.
The phone itself I definitely recommend - cheap, 10+ hours of SOT, fast enough, camera is ok for random pic taking.
celrau said:
GSI stands for generic system images but as I said, do your own reading on all these. ArrowOS is here and you will need AB. And no, you can't just download it from anywhere on the internet and have it work. Search for what treble and GSI are, how to flash them and so on. Theoretically GSIs are easier to deal with since you don't need to change slots (don't ask me what slots are, you have the internet) but they are generic and some features may not work. If this is too much for you there is a thread here about debloating the stock rom, maybe that's more in tone with your current level of experience.
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Alright, cheers. What are the basic procedures if I lightly or horribly screw up something while I'm doing this? Resetting, etc.
Might I respectfully suggest that you brew a cup of coffee or tea or whatever beverage, sit back and do some serious reading. Maybe, buy this device first and/or play with something you currently owned to get a better feel of how flashing & other basics like ADB and installing of ADB works.
You will probably need to be comfortable using (Xiao)MiFlash to fix any possible soft/hard brick to recover it back to OEM stock condition. All of the above plus other suggested files, roms and tools on your PC, ready to do its part. I also agreed, perhaps, once you decide to buy this device - start with debloating the stock rom as a beginner, to see what all this is about - before freaking out in a panic about all those warnings & errors on the device's screen as it boot up.
dooshbagel said:
Alright, cheers. What are the basic procedures if I lightly or horribly screw up something while I'm doing this? Resetting, etc.
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As the other guy is saying, best do some basic reading and install adb and fastboot on your computer, you will need them. If you stay with stock and just get rid of Google and friends (highly recommended for worm up) but **** up at some point and you can't boot or it bootloops, restart in recovery and reset. Or if you boot and something is not working but you have access to settings app, reset from there. Here, I'm doing your homework. DuckDuckGo is your friend.
dooshbagel said:
1-Do most ROMs generally tend to work with most phones? Can I just download some random ROM and have it work most of the time?
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Click to collapse
For the past years, unlike PC systems, a ROM was device specific and each supported device (of Cyanogenmod, let's say) was maintained by a dedicated developer. We still call it the same version of the said ROM, but each one has specific drivers files for its compatible device. It's still the case nowadays, and that's what you'll see in the ROM section of this device.
However, beginning from Oreo, google introduced a project called "Treble" that intended to separate the common Android System from the device specific files and driver's, by separating the classic system partition to a "vendor" partition, which contains all the hardware specific stuff, and a "system" partition containing a only generic universal Android system.
With this "Treble" project, a new type of ROMs emerged, called GSIs. These ROMs work on all Treble compatible devices (the Mi A2 lite included), and don't need to be maintained for each one. The Treble forum is here ; you'll find a more large selection with GSI ROMs, but I advice you to stay with the device specific ROMs on the Mi A2 Lite forum, which are more optimised for their specific device.
dooshbagel said:
2- Are the 2 pages of ROM threads listed on this forum the only ones this phone can support? Or are these just the ROMs that forum users have tested it with? A lot of these ROMs I've never even heard of, and many are listed as [UNOFFICIAL].
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Click to collapse
As answered above, these are the specific ROMs especially developed for this device, they'll be the more adapted to the Mi A2 Lite.
UNNOFICIAL just means that the developer that buildt the ROM for this device isn't working directly with the team responsible of the ROM. (For example the CrDroid ROM being official, it's A2Lite version will be hosted in the CrDroid site, an unofficial one won't).
It can be an indicator of stability, but you may find a very stable and clean UNNOFICIAL rom.
Now almost all the ROM that you've seen in the list are based on LineageOS, itself the son of CyanogenMod. We'll come to this point now.
dooshbagel said:
3- Cyanogenmod has been discontinued, but could it still work on newer devices? There's projects like freecyngn which can remove propriety Google Analytics stuff from it, and I don't know if any similar tweaks exist for Cyanogenmod's successors
4- What's a good resource for de-googled ROMs with no proprietary software? And which can support aptX/aptX HD or an alternative. And would hopefully actually work with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The CyanogenMod project was going on like one week after it was discontinued, under the name of "LineageOS". Its 100% the same source and base, and the LineageOS team is the part of CM team that wanted to continue the CM rom developpement after their team split.
If you want a clean ROM with the basic features and independent from Google software, LOS is the more advisable. They provide their own version of all the basic feature apps (dialer, camera, music player etc) so that you don't need using Google software, and are in general VERY privacy axed, and have a centralised interface called Trust from which you can control what informations each app have access to.
Like I said above, almost all the ROMs (in the A2 Lite section) you'll see are based on LineageOS, adding customization features mostly. So if you just need the vanilla Android feature, with no obscure ROM additional software, and axed on privacy and security, I think LineageOS is your best shot.
The LineageOS 16build for this device is unnoficial but is fully buggless and regularly updated and maintained by a xda recognized developer.
Lastly, unrelated to you questions but you may need to read some "A/B devices - seamless updates" documentation, and carefully read the guides, or you risk bricking your device. (And possibly provide yourself with all the necessary stuff to unbrick your device, just in case)
Thanks GDFI, great post.
Alright bois, time for me to do some research then.
I built a custom version of LineageOS for personal use, with some built-in apps removed, patches for signature spoofing and some (mostly FOSS) apps included (microG, F-Droid, Lawnchair, etc.)
https://rarepepes.faith/lineage-16.0-20190606-UNOFFICIAL-daisy.zip
You can't really go full FOSS with any of the Android phones (Samsung S3 + Replicant ROM is as good as it gets), but you can minimize Google stuff on your device and filter network connections using apps like AFWall
Have fun!
You kids can try to Port "mokee os" ?
Hi, I recommend you to stay with AndroidOne OS.
I don't know why you want to change OS because Xiaomi still releasing security patch which is very important to protect your phone.
Custom ROM rarely update and maintain.
Not to mention in order to flash it, you need patient and time to learn the knowledge.
It is only suitable to go for custom ROM when Xiaomi not longer support Mi A2 Lite.
coolwei1 said:
Hi, I recommend you to stay with AndroidOne OS.
I don't know why you want to change OS because Xiaomi still releasing security patch which is very important to protect your phone.
Custom ROM rarely update and maintain.
Not to mention in order to flash it, you need patient and time to learn the knowledge.
It is only suitable to go for custom ROM when Xiaomi not longer support Mi A2 Lite.
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Obscurantism at its best :good:
When nobody use a custom rom, nobody will develope on this device. Ergo no stable custom rom in the end of service for mi a2 Lite

Any way to try out LOS without installing it on a phone ?

Hi
I have a Honor 5X (kiwi / KIW-L21) as my daily driver and as its nearing the end of it warranty (2 years) its starting to run slower (good job, Huawei). Given this and the fact that during these two years i never received ANY update apart from an update to android 6.0.1 from android 5, im considering switching to LOS 16.
The thing is im completely new to custom ROMs, recovery, phone rooting and that jazz and im a bit scared.
I wanted to know if there is a way I can try out LOS 16 (say for example on a VM) to be sure that i like it before installing.
If not, would I be able to restore my phone back to its current OS in case i dont like LOS and want to fall back to EMUI ?
PS : I wanted to try it out on an older phone I have and for which i dont care as much, but its not supported :'( Its an Asus Zenfone go ZB552KL
Thanks in advance !
The oldphone approach is a good idea. Go to a recycling place and grab some old Motorola or Samsung phones. Broken screen is OK.
kurtn said:
The oldphone approach is a good idea. Go to a recycling place and grab some old Motorola or Samsung phones. Broken screen is OK.
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My local trash collecting place isn't very open to people who want to take stuff (yes, what a nonesense) but i'll try that i guess. The thing is we have like 3 or 4 old phones but none of them are listed as compatible on the LOS website
IamGron. said:
My local trash collecting place isn't very open to people who want to take stuff (yes, what a nonesense) but i'll try that i guess. The thing is we have like 3 or 4 old phones but none of them are listed as compatible on the LOS website
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Click to collapse
You don't need official. Search XDA and you will find unofficial lineageOS for many old phones. https://twrp.me/Devices/ is a good place to find the phone's code name. With that you can check stats.lineageos.org for popular ROM versions.
Will give it a look, thanks.
If nothing usefull comes out of this investigation and I end up doing it on my 5X, is there a way for me to backup the whole phone (i mean not just data, like the whole OS) that way I can fall back to its current state if something goes wrong / i dont like LOS ?
IamGron. said:
Will give it a look, thanks..........
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To be honest, there's various ways for backing up a whole device but, there's limited (possibly no) choices that all depends upon the device itself and the capabilities of said device. So there's no real way of answering this question without, also, taking under consideration that what works for one may/may not work for another.
With that stated...
I've always found that the only way to know if I like something as huge as updating the Custom Android version Firmware, is to "Hope for the Best and Prepare for the Worse".
I've been successful with Restoring TWRP Backups made but, have always had an (approximately) 50% +/- of a restoration working without any issues (a chance of requiring a fresh installation in the end).
In another words...
The only "recommended" way to upgrade/downgrade the LineageOS Android Versions is to make sure you have everything on hand for performing a fresh installation for both the upgrading and the downgrading of both Android Versions.
For anyone to guide you any other way should (ethically) be able to provide you with guidance in case something goes wrong in the process (of said guidance) with your specific device.
You should also ask for support and guidance within the LineageOS thread and, if needed, somewhere within the Device Dedicated Area of the forum that's specific to your device. This will help locate assistance from those who has your device as well.
For example...
[ROM][9.0.x] LineageOS 16.0 Official (kiwi) [NO VoLTE] by BadDaemon
[ROM] [9.x] LineageOS 16.0 Pie Unofficial for Honor 5x (kiwi) by coldhans
https://forum.xda-developers.com/honor-5x
I hope that I had explained this okay via text... :thumbup:
I wish you the best of luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unless asked to do so, PLEASE don't PM me regarding support. Sent using The ClaRetoX Forum App on my Apple Macintosh.
Ibuprophen said:
To be honest, there's various ways for backing up a whole device but, there's limited (possibly no) choices that all depends upon the device itself and the capabilities of said device. So there's no real way of answering this question without, also, taking under consideration that what works for one may/may not work for another.
With that stated...
I've always found that the only way to know if I like something as huge as updating the Custom Android version Firmware, is to "Hope for the Best and Prepare for the Worse".
I've been successful with Restoring TWRP Backups made but, have always had an (approximately) 50% +/- of a restoration working without any issues (a chance of requiring a fresh installation in the end).
In another words...
The only "recommended" way to upgrade/downgrade the LineageOS Android Versions is to make sure you have everything on hand for performing a fresh installation for both the upgrading and the downgrading of both Android Versions.
For anyone to guide you any other way should (ethically) be able to provide you with guidance in case something goes wrong in the process (of said guidance) with your specific device.
You should also ask for support and guidance within the LineageOS thread and, if needed, somewhere within the Device Dedicated Area of the forum that's specific to your device. This will help locate assistance from those who has your device as well.
[...]
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Hi there, thanks for the answer and sorry for the delayed reaction, I was busy
I will investigate on the linked threads and see what I want to do after that. My main concern being fingerprint sensor gestures (I know, stupid habits lol) asking on the kiwi forum is definitely a good idea. Same things for installing TWRP and the recovery, someone there would probably be able to help.
Thanks a lot for your time

Looking for stock, debloated, deodexed, microG-backed MIUI rom

So I came back to the forum after 6 months and was pleasantly surprised by the number of custom roms available now. From the few (currently trending) threads I checked out, I see that either there are still some kind of bugs are still lingering or the dev abandoned the project or the thread was closed or ... I think you get the point. For this reason, I'd rather stick with the official stock rom but I never quite liked the bloatware (both mi and google) and google tracking. To maximise performance and battery life, I wish to clean my rom of all of these stuff or, if possible, install a pre-configured one.
I have some questions though:-
1. Best way to debloat?
Yes, I have tried adb uninstall command when I first got the phone but for some reason, that didn't work. I saw a recent guide on the forum for this purpose that I could try later.
2. Any experience with microG on MIUI?
I don't know if it's possible/working on MIUI roms since this is my first Xiaomi device.
3. Recommended custom ROM?
I may have missed out on all the good stuff during my absence. If you could recommend a rom you find the most stable and clean, even if it is AOSP, it would save me a lot of time.
Look, you are probably going to tell me that I could have done a bit more search on my own before posting here. The thing is, I have returned to the whole modding stuff after 4 years so lest I might break/mess up things, I deemed it more reasonable to ask here.
Hope someone sees this. Thank you.
You're looking for the exact same thing I did.
For me the solution was lineageos with microg, magisk, fdroid store + aurora store.
Lineageos has some minor bugs for me, as well as cameras not working properly.
Reason for most bugs in the most roms is probably that they are based on Android 10,
the devs will probably be able to solve all the bugs as soon as Xiaomi releases miui 12 for this device, which will be based on Android 10.
What you are looking for is probably miui EU rom.
You can easily debloat most of the unwanted sofware with "Xiaomi ADB/Fastboot tools".
Your problems with ADB probably has to do with SU priviligies.
If I remeber correctly you have to use Xposed framework in order to get microg running on miui, I could be wrong on this!
Hope this helps a bit!
SkogstaTarzan said:
You're looking for the exact same thing I did.
For me the solution was lineageos with microg, magisk, fdroid store + aurora store.
Lineageos has some minor bugs for me, as well as cameras not working properly.
Reason for most bugs in the most roms is probably that they are based on Android 10,
the devs will probably be able to solve all the bugs as soon as Xiaomi releases miui 12 for this device, which will be based on Android 10.
What you are looking for is probably miui EU rom.
You can easily debloat most of the unwanted sofware with "Xiaomi ADB/Fastboot tools".
Your problems with ADB probably has to do with SU priviligies.
If I remeber correctly you have to use Xposed framework in order to get microg running on miui, I could be wrong on this!
Hope this helps a bit!
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Thanks! I am more inclined to use vanilla Android than MIUI. At least now I know my desired setup is within the realm of possibility. Will surely give LineageOS a try.

Installing microg over Lineage questions

Hi all. Please forgive me if this is not the appropriate place for my question, and kindly point me to where. I tried to look for a microg targeted thread and couldn't seem to find one. I'm also kind of a newbie in general, so you may have to be a little verbose with some of your responses. I made sure to read microg's official docs on how to install over lineage.
My question comes in two parts; 1. Do I actually need to do this for my specific case? and 2. For my specific case, is there anything specific in which their official instructions might not cover.
So here is what I keep referring to as "my specific case".
My device is a OnePlus 7 Pro. I had LinageOS with microg 17 on it. Things worked great. Including microg. I recently upgraded to Lineage 18, as per their official documentation for how to upgrade major versions. Well, I was so focused on not bricking my device because I was so nervous. As I said, I'm a newbie. Much of this is out of my comfort zone. I wasn't paying attention to the fact I was using lineage's zip/img/rom that I was installing, and not the microg one specifically. I had many other complications with the upgrade and was tracking all of those down. Now, things seem to generally work ok, but there are many apps giving me issues because of no google play services. At first, some would just alert me, and then keep working. So I just kinda wrote it off, and figured this was just an issue with version 18 or something. They had an OTA update the other day, and now those apps just flat out won't work anymore. At first it didn't even cross my mind that it was because I installed the img from lineage's repos, and not microg's specifically. Because I still have the microg app installed. I will note, from reading the "Post-install" section in microg's documentation, I don't see the two plug-ins which they say are installed by default. MozillaNlpBackend and NominatimNlpBackend. So I feel like this is because I installed the non-microg img.
As I started searching around for how to fix my issue, it's basically led me to the point of my first question. "Do I actually need to re-install the microg specific img?" I think the answer is Yes. But I just wanted to confirm since I still have the microg settings app, and for a little while, some apps worked prior to this last upgrade.
So, if the answer is yes to my first question. My second question, is there anything specific I need to do since I kinda fudged up the upgrade? Do I need to uninstall microg settings? I noticed in microg's install instructions under the "Migration from LineageOS" section. They mention things such as "you can't directely flash our ROM on top of the official LineageOS while keeping your data". So does this mean in my case I can't keep my data? And there is a specific note for "Unofficial builds" of all the apps that I had such as F-droid, and microG's apps (GmsCore, GsfProxy, FakeStore and mapsv1 API). I had these, but they were from the official lineage 17 with microg I had prior to the upgrade. So those are not "Unofficial" right? As well as their mention of "GApps". Does that mean everything I installed through Aurora Store?
I basically want to know if there is any other "gotchya's" or "in your case, you should x y z" type of questions. I think it's clear that since I did just OTA update I probably need to wait on the next release as per their install instructions. Right? Let me know if there is any other details I can provide in order to help better answer my questions. Thanks in advance for your help.
Your case is not so special. Flash lineage.microg.org zip
kurtn said:
Your case is not so special. Flash lineage.microg.org zip
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Thank you for your response @kurtn. So I guess you are saying, I do in fact need to flash. Correct? And I don't need to uninstall the microg settings app? Also, do I need to prepare for backing up and saving my personal data even though their documentation says it can't carry it over? And I don't need to wait for the next version even though there documentation says I do? I'm sorry for the newbie questions. I just want to make sure my assumptions are correct. TY
I just fixed my issue, and tested pretty much everything. It all seems to be fixed and working as expected. I will answer my question in case it helps someone else.
1. Do I actually need to do this for my specific case? Yes
2. For my specific case, is there anything specific in which their official instructions might not cover. No, not really.
I waited for a newer release before flashing the microG version of LineageOS. I'm not sure if it was required or not. But since their official documentation said to, I did. Then I followed their official instructions, and everything worked flawlessly. I've tested all apps and services; phone calls, texts, etc. It all seems to be working just fine.
@kurtn was not wrong. All I needed to do was flash the microG version of LineageOS. But since I was hesitant, and wanted confirmation specifically a few details like; Do I need to backup personal data? Do I need to wait for the next release? etc. I held off on attempting it.
Hopefully that helps someone.

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