MiniageOS: "Dumbphone" Version of LineageOS

50 points
1/21/1970
6 days ago
by ashenke

Comments


chasil

First of all, did you disable the calculator? This app is an amazing feat of intellect, and should be retained due to its fundamental worth of ingenuity.

https://medium.com/@jnebos/the-humble-android-calculator-4f1...

Second, the kernel itself presents attack surfaces. It is important to accept updates, when they are offered.

3 days ago

4thguy

As I read down the readme, I kept saying to myself "ok, that's reasonable," right up until I saw the 300GB free space requirement to build the image. Is that really what is needed to build an image for a phone or is this a one-off?

6 days ago

yjftsjthsd-h

My understanding is that yes Android build requirements are... significant. Given that a gentoo system can self-host in like <10% of that space, I am somewhat mystified how it got here, but yes that's "normal".

3 days ago

nosioptar

My x220i w/ i3-2310m and 8gb ddr3 can compile gentoo from a stage 1.

Android's build system must be hopelessly fucked to require the specs it does.

3 days ago

realusername

Android build system is a heavy Rube Goldberg machine, it's amazing it even works at all

3 days ago

kasabali

Android is a heavy Rube Goldberg machine, it's amazing it even works at all.

3 days ago

tripdout

android-latest-release branch (Android 16 QPR2) for lunch target aosp_cf_x86_64_phone-trunk_staging-eng (Cuttlefish emulator):

> du -hs --exclude /aosp/android-latest-release/out /aosp/android-latest-release

132G /aosp/android-latest-release

> du -hs /aosp/android-latest-release/out

127G /aosp/android-latest-release/out

So ~130GB each for the compiled artifacts and the source code. It's heavy, and at times can easily fill 64GB of RAM during the build.

3 days ago

nrclark

Yes, that's normal for an Android build. Maybe even on the lightweight side as far as build requirements. I agree that it's an absurd about of space.

3 days ago

exe34

Android uses like 7 build systems and repo is like 50 submodules deep.

3 days ago

em3rgent0rdr

Compiled android once ~10 years ago, remember it taking at least half a day. Really helped me appreciate how many things go into it.

3 days ago

hulitu

> how many things go into it.

maybe how much bloat.

a day ago

[deleted]
3 days ago

trollbridge

Building Android is heavy, and so is Chrome.

3 days ago

dwedge

This is an interesting concept but I think the dumbphone aspect will make people expect something different. It seems like it's more a static digital minimalism setup that you cannot easily undo. I saw someone doing similar by setting up MDM for their iPhone so you couldn't install anything without sending updates from a laptop.

I prefer the MiniageOS method if it's quick enough to refresh when needed. When you say banking isn't supported, I have a couple of banking apps that work on my two phones (AOSP and Graphene), would those still work? There are also a lot of apps that kind of rely on a browser being available even if not accessible (Uber is one but that doesn't work without Google play so whatever, but WiFi captive portals are another). Is there support for that?

3 days ago

a96

> Create a stripped-down "dumbphone" version of LineageOS for your Google Pixel without giving up the camera quality and touchscreen of a smartphone.

Dumb interface for smartphones, unrelated to dumbphones. Not that it was likely to be anything else. Pretty neat.

6 days ago

iAMkenough

What in your mind makes a dumbphone a dumbphone? I see many for sale with cameras and touchscreens, even app support.

3 days ago

dwedge

Do you mean the ones running KaiOS? I'm not sure I'd count those as dumbphones they're only dumb because they have limited apps due to popularity (WhatsApp was there but left) and they often have the nokia style design (some with t7). In my opinion a dumb phone is one that might support internet but can't do anything with it except potentially hotspot

3 days ago

iAMkenough

I’m not sure. From the few articles I’ve now read today, I see there’s a LightOS and WiseOS too.

3 days ago

codethief

If you're already using a Pixel, why base your custom, very much stripped down version of Android on LineageOS as opposed to GrapheneOS? From a security perspective, that's insanity.

(I would actually love to see a GrapheneOS-based version of this!)

3 days ago

cocoa19

For people already owning an iPhone, you can make it a dumb phone if you own a mac.

Turn on iPhone supervised mode (requires factory reset), then create and load a profile with Apple Configurator on macOS.

You can disable installing apps, just certain apps, or just block certain websites. If you want to ban TikTok and Reddit but not give up your banking app, you can do it. You want no browser, you got it.

3 days ago

tomashubelbauer

I thought this was going to be an OS for actual dumbphones. Had me hoping I would have a reason to dig out my childhood Sony Ericsson W810.

3 days ago

ifh-hn

Same here.

3 days ago

LoganDark

> What will not work when using a phone running this build?

> RCS messaging

> (The points above apply to any phone with an unlocked bootloader, including ones running official LineageOS builds)

RCS really depends on attestation now? What the fuck?

6 days ago

cspeterson

Unsure about details, but it must at least not require Google Play attestation because Graphene supports it now

6 days ago

GreenVulpine

RCS also goes through Google servers. I don't see much point in using it.

3 days ago

Nux

You can run your own afaik, but most MNOs prefer to outsource (big surprise here).

3 days ago