Rooted or installed custom roms before?

[Flame]

I've installed a custom rom on my Oneplus 6T now its official OS support has ended. its much better then the official stuff, and more light and what I need without the bloatware.

So have you rooted or installed custom roms before? or are you planning to once your OS support ends like mine?

 

[SAIYAN48]

I could do a custom ROM on my shitty Firetablet, but I don't really use it much.

 

[emon1618]

yeah, I tend to flash a new rom for my s5 frequently but I always go back to lineageos or ressurection remix cuz I like to mess around with aesthetics alot lol. I sure wish I had a oneplus tho cuz even if most of the samsung phones in north america arent supported anymore like the s7, they have locked bootloaders so i cant really flash anything :/

anyways what rom did you choose for your os?

 

[Flame]

I could do a custom ROM on my shitty Firetablet, but I don't really use it much.

how was the process? mine was very kinda hard. before i remember it was easier to install custom roms.

but i think this is because of the encrypted disk/partition.

yeah, I tend to flash a new rom for my s5 frequently but I always go back to lineageos or ressurection remix cuz I like to mess around with aesthetics alot lol. I sure wish I had a oneplus tho cuz even if most of the samsung phones in north america arent supported anymore like the s7, they have locked bootloaders so i cant really flash anything :/

anyways what rom did you choose for your os?

I installed Pixel Experience. this one https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...-oneplus-op6-t-24-02-2022-by-optimus.4399029/

word of advice. dont get an OnePlus phone. 6T is my last.

 

[SAIYAN48]

Never actually did it. I should look into it...

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Not having LineageOS or at least root privileges on an Android device is out of question for me. The reasons are too long, so I put them (at least partially) into a spoiler below.

Having criticized the closed/locked nature of so-called “smart devices” since they became popular without knowing from own experience, I forced myself… and started digging a bit into the topic in the form of Android phones/tablets.
After all it is not very convincing criticizing something I don’t know. Sadly, the (at times intense) activity with Android devices didn’t resolve my reservations. Quite the opposite: The more I found out how the majority uses this devices, the more I was shocked and speechless.

My Android devices and their status in photos:
Be warned in case of slow connection: The pictures are almost 3MB together.




Together they have cost me less than 200 Euros over the last 3½ years. No brand new devices for money concerns. I guess gaining root privileges and opening bootloaders only got more difficult to impossible over time.

Spoiler: Reasons

For me the cardinal error, the greatest fallacy in “security arguments” concerning Android, is the assumption, that an unmodified device is secure and a modified device is insecure (by definition). Well… given that all the verification is implemented correctly by now, attestation of “not modified” means exactly this: The OS has not been modified and is in a state intended by the vendor.
To get remotely close to "unmodified=secure", we have to assume that the responsible authorities (manufacturer, Google) are

• trustworthy
• independent (US Cloud Act?)
• do throughout checks before a ROM is accepted as “clean”

I wouldn’t go as far and say that any of these three is true.

On the other hand unmodified ROMs don’t give me the permission to use the software as I want to. The manufacturer and Google are administrators on a device I payed for – and I am not. The computer is running software with forced EULA (worthless and void in Germany) giving the manufacturer all rights and none to me. This state is considered to be safe… by banks! The software may be grossly outdated and have more known (security) holes than a Swiss cheese: No root found, Google Safety Net attests unmodified… you’re good to go!

Having full control over the device (root, custom ROM), using open source software on latest patch level with no bloated services in background doing who-knows-what (Google Play for example) is unsafe by definition.

Gaining root (and getting rid of Google apps) is a must for me before even browsing the web. I still didn't do anything of importance with an Android device (banking, shopping, entering personal data, or logging into GBAtemp)

 

[Takokeshi]

I think root's a terrible idea, and entirely unnecessary, at least on newer Android. There used to be value to it on older versions of Android, but they've done a pretty good job at implementing basically everything I would've ever used root for I think.

Note that "rooted" and "unlocked bootloader" are two different things, and that root is not necessary for installing alternate OSes. I would never accept a phone that doesn't let me replace the OS. Can't believe people are okay with that, and the amount of people who are running around with 5-year outdated phones...

Most custom roms imply some kind of security compromise, especially if you intend on running a newer version of Android than your device officially supports, but an up-to-date OS security patch level probably more than makes up for any security compromises you have to make by unlocking for alternate OSes.

You got to vet your OSes properly though... make sure they actually implement every security fix for each patch level instead of lying about it and pretending... did you know some OEMs actually do that? Imagine being stuck with a phone like this and not being able to replace the OS with one that actually patches shit properly.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

I think root's a terrible idea, and entirely unnecessary, at least on newer Android. There used to be value to it on older versions of Android, but they've done a pretty good job at implementing basically everything I would've ever used root for I think.

Having full control over an OS is anything but a terrible idea and unnecessary. I don't like being told: "You don't need that." Everybody should be allowed to decide for themselves what they want or need.
Nowadays every constraint against(sic!) the end user is justified with an imprecise "Security!11!!" … and more or less everybody agrees. Screaming the word "security" is not a very educated approach. Not having unrestricted access to my OS and my data while somebody else (manufacturer, Google) does have those privileges, is not computer security, it is DRM. Giving unknown and untrusted apps superuser access is very risky – not just having the option to become root if needed/desired with a trusted app.

The concept of sandboxing applications to prevent a malicious app from wreaking havoc in the space of other apps makes theoretically sense. In practice this won't work out in the current implementation: User wants to install an app, app demands some access rights and will not work if declined. Virtually all users will tap on allow. Try it. Some people do not even consciously acknowledge the presence of warnings. They are used to such things and automatically click on "Yes" without realizing what they do.
The moment they allow SD/internal storage access, a malicious app can do bad things with personal data¹ ("My precious photos!") while the sandboxing successfully protects the save of a game from being altered. See: Personal data not safe despite no root, but thankfully at least the DRM is still intact.

Spoiler: Why I root all Android devices

I'm still at the very beginning with my research concerning Android, so maybe I'm missing pieces here and see some things wrong being on noob level. Please correct me if the things below are wrong and do work without root. Maybe there are workarounds for some of the problems. Things I think root is needed for:

1. Reading out full hardware/software information on a newly obtained device

Even this basic task failed without root (hwinfo or similar). The application told me that newer Android would require root for gaining full data.​

2. Missing commands

Android is a Linux. Somehow at least. It uses the Linux kernel, right? I can open a terminal emulator or connect from PC via adb shell. Nice. Seeing that made me feel at home right away… up to the moment I realized half of the commands I took for granted were missing. Why are those missing? Magisk + BusyBox module = A happy LittleSinchen​

3. Removing Crapware/Bloatware/Adware

All the devices on the pictures I have uploaded above came with some sort of crap preinstalled. This is not a question of cheap/expensive or what manufacturer one chooses, they ALL come with crap. Ironically the most expensive devices (Sony Z3C, Samsung Note II) had, by far, the most garbage. Fortunately good LineageOS versions for those phones exist, so getting rid of all the garbage while upgrading to newer Android with latest security patches is easy.​

But I don't buy stuff new. I don't always have the choice what I can get my hands on ("Your fault: You bought the wrong phone!"). Many (often more obscure, cheap) phones, especially with MediaTek SoC, don't have the option to obliterate the stock ROM in order to replace it with a custom OS – there are no custom ROMs.​

How to delete (not disable! And even that option is sometimes missing) so-called "System Apps"? I don't want a ton of Sony/Samsung/ZTE/Huawei/… apps. And I don't want Google Play Services, Google Play Store, Google App, Google this, Google that…​

I've not (yet) tried the method of uninstalling apps with ADB for current user simulating actual deletion. No idea if it works for all manufacturer and Google apps, especially those that don't allow disabling.​

4. Read(!) access on block devices

Android won't allow copying the EMMC raw data. How to copy /dev/block/* to SD in order to have a look at them on my PC?​

5. Reboot

Very minor thing, but annoying. reboot, reboot recovery and reboot bootloader work without root via adb. Doing the same in terminal emulator on a phone|tablet doesn't work without using su before.​

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Spoiler: look like this

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6. Exporting apps

Maybe I'm blind. Is there an option to export installed apps back to APK without root?​

7. My special topic: Backups

I've not found a possibility to access (read+write) app data without having root access. "Access denied." That blows my mind! I install an application or game and am not allowed to read (and modify!) the data the program stores. Being GBAtemp's Backup Reminder I deem this insupportable. And no, every app having to have their own "local export function" at best or "Cloud backup" at worst, is not a replacement for proper (maybe even automated) local backup of everything at once.​

On my Linux PC runs backintime – every six hours. It copies personal files as well as application settings to a snapshot every six hours. Whatever files I create, whatever files the applications create for themselves, it gets stored on an external HDD (in addition to manual backups every few weeks for storing off-site). I can undo mistakes and restore application data to previous status no matter what. No cloud, no export/import, no access denied. Ironically this is possible without root on the PC because application data isn't hidden from the legitimate user with some security pseudo-arguments. I still use make use of root here to access multiple user accounts at once and store the backups read-only for the normal user preventing potential malware running in user context from destroying them.​

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Not tried yet:

• Network analyzer, monitoring all data in/out
• Various server applications

__________________________
¹ I've no idea if newer versions of Android have any additional functions trying to mitigate such risks – like for example the Windows 10 "Anti-Ransomware" that prevented me on my only Windows computer saving documents with LibreOffice in the appropriate folder. What I've tried on Android, is accessing SD and internal storage files with FX file manager. Deleting personal stuff and complete folder structures is no problem for FX, so I don't think it would be a problem to implement destructive (deletion) or encrypting (ransomware) applications.

 

[Takokeshi]

1. What is the use-case for this?
2. Android is not Linux, but if that's what you want to use your phone for, I'd rather people use rooted Android than Linux phones.
3. Custom rom doesn't need root to do that though. Otherwise yeah, adb allows you to uninstall for current user, that can be touchy with certain devices though. There are universal debloater scripts that should be able to know what is safe to remove depending on the device you're using.
4. What do you need to backup? You can do full nandroid backups via custom recovery, you don't need rooted Android. An unlocked bootloader is sufficient.
5. Very minor I agree.
6. adb doesn't need root to access the data partition. I've had luck simply using

adb pull /data/app/app-id/base.apk

7. Ah, backups... ever looked into seedvault? Knowing you, I think you'd love it. Failing that, you don't need root for this. Custom recovery should have access, and this only requires an unlocked bootloader.

Note that when I say "root", I mean the ability to grant root permissions on the Android side. A custom recovery is of course assumed to have root permissions, and you can adb root into it to do whatever you need. Otherwise, userdebug Android generally comes with the option to enable adb root permissions, without the possibility of granting apps root permissions. Then you can just adb in via usb debugging without the need to reboot into recovery.

If your bootloader is unlocked, though... you will need to at least make sure you have a strong password on your system encryption, otherwise it is trivial for someone with physical access to your device to access all your data via recovery.

I'd suggest giving this a read, either way: https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/android.html

I'm a mega security nerd, if you hadn't noticed it's okay if people want to weaken the security of their own devices for the sake of customization or convenience, but I want people to at least understand the implications. Hopefully you can understand that?

On most of your devices it probably doesn't matter at all, I doubt you use them for anything sensitive. I'd urge you to prioritize security on your main daily driver though, for your sake.

Can't wait for Storage Access Framework to improve and become more widespread. With SAF you are able to grant applications read/write access only to the specific files you want it to have access to, meaning you won't need to grant access to all your stuff just to access a couple files you need in the app. It's only getting better from there d-(^.^)z

Spoiler

About Windows 10 ransomware protection... that's a good thing, no? It'll warn you when an app tries to modify something, then you can just whitelist it. If you ever see a notification about a process you don't recognize, or everything worked fine despite the warning, then you can ignore it and leave it blocked. This is a good thing imo. The user has control over what is allowed and what is blocked.

 

[TomRiddle]

If I did have an android I would probably learn to install custom ROMS and then use something privacy related honestly, just to give the finger to Apple/Google ecosystems and privacy invasions lol.

 

[stompysan]

Run custom ROMs on all of my devices, going all the way back to my HTC Evo 4G. Have a Pixel 7 with EvolutionX right now. Personally, I don't root anymore. ROM passed SafetyNet without rooting, and the main reason I root at this point is for theming. All of that is integrated. Even ad-blocking is easy without root now with custom DNS settings. Only reason I would root at this point is if I was forced to use a stock ROM and had to use AOSPMods.