Messing around with my phone today, trying to figure out where the 'live wallpapers' are stored. Obviously they are not in any accessible portion of my phone. According to forums like XDA-Developers I have to root my own phone; so this pretty much got me thinking about my next phone and the 3 main requirements that I have for said phone:

1. No bloatware
2. External storage(microSD card slot)
3. FULL control of phone (FS, apps, no need to root)

Considering that buying a smartphone can cost a few hundred dollars I do feel that I am entitled to have FULL control of the phone, without have to resort to breaking into my own phone. It is nice that right now I can simply connect my S4 and transfer files back-and-forth (which is something that you can't even do with an iPhone(remind me again why they are good phones?))

So I guess maybe a Linux phone is the way to go, I did have my eye on that Ubuntu phone by Canonical but that pretty much fell through. So - am I completely out of luck when it comes to a smartphone?

I do like Samsung - considering their recent problems, but I don't mind jumping ship to another manufacturer. I like Android, but if I can get a Linux smartphone with the features I want then I don't mind.

I was hoping Google's upcoming phone might have said features, but it is doubtful; some people like the Nexus ; problem I have with it is that it puts more emphasis on cloud storage and the exclusion of an external microSD slot.

So am I out of luck? Even with a Linux based phone? I don't really care if it would be Ubuntu based, but to re-iterate my earlier requirements, considering the amount of money one pays for a smartphone - I SHOULD have FULL control of my own phone without having to 'root' it.

Geeksphone?

Unfortunately for geeksphone:
So much for truly being open

At one point when I was considering jumping to the S7 - I did seriously just shelling out the $600 out right (found an unlocked international version from factory - on amazon) which meant it would be the stock Samsung rom and not the stupid provider's rom.

I guess I am just asking too much then?

I wonder if we applied this logic to a desktop PC (inb4 MACs)

When you buy a PC - you have the absolute freedom to do whatever the hell you want, install any OS; its just not the case with a phone then?

I bought one Android device which came already rooted -a TrekStore SurfTab with android 2.3. But I've not heard of other models which come already rooted, but there probably have been some.

Anything newer than JellyBean is a real pain. KitKat nearly removed all SDcard support, Lollipop brought it back but still quite locked down. Marshmallow finally lets you manage rights for each app, but requires a modified boot.img to maintain a permanent root.

I'm afraid the only way to get what you want is to roll-your-own, basing perhaps of cyanogenmod or other custom ROM.
I would say to just use an old/new JellyBean device, but since GooglePlay doesn't keep old versions of apps, many of them you get today won't work on on pre-KitKat systems.

It is not always necessary to brutally break into your phone using an online 'service' or app which runs some kernel exploit to root your phone (and who knows what else). Many devices can be rooted by using the built.in system upgrade method -where the su app is packaged as a flashable upgrade *.zip. You can also use adb and/or fastboot to boot alternate images, flash portions of the ROM(sic) or install apps to the device from your computer.

If you search for the phone model and 'root' you can quickly find out if there is already a solution for rooting the thing -just avoid oneclickroot. I bought a newer lenove tablet for my son which is quite rare -being an intel/emmc setup. No official updates, modified ROMS or clean root methods exist for it, so I am trying the 'Ahem, GPL' method of contacting official support for a copy of the sources -and maybe they'll be nice and send a copy of the stock ROM. Then, I can modify the stock ROM and flash that to the device, or, using fastboot, boot an alternate kernel and/or initrd images.

Dream on. Even if you install a custom ROM, you only have (some) control of the top layer.
What about the baseband processor ?. Do a search on stingray to see can be done to your phone surreptitiously. And has been "forever".

Wow I never knew some versions of Android even locked down the microsd.


Seems all so ironic now - a device running an 'open' platform yet the user is locked out in fully accessing parts of said device, something I thought open licenses wouldn't allow, or I guess I am just naive.

If Android is this draconian - then I will have to look at a purely linux-based phone - I've checked around Canonical's website - though I know that idea kinda fizzled. Again I am prepared to even dump Samsung if I have to, since they include 'security' apps like 'Knox' - and as far as I know the only way to gain full access to a Samsung device is to use an exploit.

I also made the mistake of trying that on my S4; and ended up bricking it - luckily I was able to find a stock rom on the web (carrier rom). It did not help that I tried to root said phone in a Windows VM, but unfortunately the tools for Linux is rather lacking.

It is rather disheartening as I have stated before, if these are 'open' platforms why is the user locked down like this? I don't have tablets because I think they are crap - if a Linux based phone won't offer what I want either, I might just have to fall back on a flip phone. Sure maybe there is FirefoxOS - but I already have doubts about that as well.

For various reasons* I seriously give thought now and again to buying a £10 phone for when I need calls, a 3G or 4G modem and trying to put something together using a Raspberry Pi. If they still sold viable, small, netbooks I'd have one of those instead.
As far as I can tell if you want a phone nowadays you buy a slab of glass and get a Google account or an iTunes account. I don't see any other options and certainly no free (as in open) ones.

*Android being one of them, lack of physical keyboard another plus other functional reasons. I'm actually more bothered by lack of physical keyboard than being free to modify the OS but having to use a load of google crud I don't want just to get a phone working isn't something I relish doing either.

That was why I decided against the Nexus. I've spoken to those who swear by it, and it is very easy to customize and use a different rom; problem is the Nexus puts all emphasis on 'cloud storage', no microSD slot; Motorolas supposedly are easier to mess with, but again no microSD slot from what I can tell. Sorry but I am not uploading over a 100+GB of lossless music, there is a fscking reason I bought that 128GB microSD. I know at one point Samsung tried to be like Apple (the S5 I think?) is when there was no microSD slot. I am probably also sure that maybe the recent issues with the Note7 is probably that the battery is also not removable? (I could be wrong though).

So pretty much, if I spend hundreds of dollars on what essentially is a computer, I still cannot have full access. Maybe there is something wrong with me but I just cannot accept that. This is something I fully expect from Apple, but other manufacturers using an open platform, I am just rather dumbfounded. I am still looking at actual Linux phones, I don't care if it runs Ubuntu, or even Fedora - if I can have FULL access to everything I would be fine with it. Again, even if the manufacturer isn't someone big like Samsung.

Being able to freely transfer your own files back-and-forth is one thing, that is something that flip phones back in the day did not have; but it seems that for one step forward there is a huge jump back. Yay, I can now use my phone as external storage with my computer, transfer stuff - but thats it. Well sorry for wanting more than that but I do - especially if I am running something that is touted as 'open.'

if you want a tinny computer get a tablet
I would rather have a flip phone at least there is no GPS chip in it to
track my where abouts other than from the cell towers
what ever smart phone you get it's sure to have a government back door
in it do you really trust the government ?

Ironically even flip phones have GPS capability, so you are actually better off not getting a phone by that logic. I hate tablets, smartphones to me are more useful than tablets - so that is why I am still hoping for the best. I am seriously looking into a Linux phone for my next device. I've been trolling around the XDA forum, and cyanogenmod site, it couldn't be less clear on how to really flash the phone. My s4 is the i919 model, but all roms I come across is just i9506. *sigh*

Of course I am not going to risk it - I had a 'fun' time trying to recover my phone in the first place - I'd figure I'll try to flash a custom rom whenever I do get my hands on an actual Linux phone.

Well I give up trying to run a custom rom on my s4 - quite frankly the instructions are poor - the heimdall util has errors trying to communicate with the s4 (tried different usb ports, cable is good), so to hell with it, at this point I will gladly settle for rooting my device just so that I can at least remove some of the shit that is on there right now.

Again I still pin my hopes on Linux phones. Who knows.... *sigh*

Sadly, as far as I can tell, all the Linux phones mentioned in the linked article are either discontinued with the OS having been dropped or they've never even seen the light of day beyond a small initial release.
I'll admit I type the above from having read a lot of articles regarding the various phones rather than specifically researching each one so I'd love to be wrong but I don't think so.

Awesome..........

I found an app that WILL remove the pre-installed apps on my phone, but it won't actually remove anything because of course it complains that the phone is not rooted.

I've googled rooting the s4, yet even that is not straightforward either.

I would go back to a flip-phone if there weren't certain features that I actually needed such as uber svcs, and even something as email on a flip-phone is a pain in the ass.... Whatever texting I do is more convenient on a smartphone rather than flip-phone.


Oh the app in question is called 'root app delete' - it does list every single app on the phone, too.

You have to remember that a phone or tablet is an *appliance* -built to provide a *defined* set of functionalities. I think you'd find that any linux phone would also be delivered as such. -no manufacturer wants top be bothered with sorting out legitimate warranty claims from devices which have been broken by super-users.

Basically, there are three way to root an android phone:
1. Using the phones built-in ability to apply system upgrades
2. using the phones built-in ability to flash parts of the firmware
3. use a kernel exploit to raise privileges and install 'su'.

#1 and #2 are done using the phones' recovery mode and/or fastboot modes. For some devices there is still another mode, where one can even replace the bootloader. For intel devices this is called 'dnx mode'. Other phones similar have something similar, like 'odin'.

#3 can be achieved several ways. One way is by installing an app like framaroot or kingoroot. When run, they figure out which kernel/system you have and run, or download and run, an exploit which applies to your kernel. The same thing happens if you use an online rooting method, like oneclickroot. I am not sure, but these may even use browser exploits to accomplish the job. Obviously, this category is the least desirable for anyone in the know. But, they are the easiest so they get used lots.

#1 meany you apply a flashable *.zip update which just contains and installs the 'su' program and the front-end app. This will not work for later versions of android, starting at lollipop I think, as the boot.img contains code which hashes the /system partition and will not boot if it has been changed. These devices can only have a permanent root by using a modified boot.img

#2 implies that a modified ROM is available which contains su & Co.

You should understand that ROM is not a very accurate term, as used by android-ites. Under linux, we think of ROM as being a contiguous block of storage which can only be written as a whole(is not a block device). An android ROM consists of several pieces which are flashed to mapped areas of the internal storage. Typically, there is an area for the bootloader parts, an area for the 'radio' which is a binary blob and includes wifi/3g/4g/bluetooth.
There is also an area for the boot logo.

Then, there are two bootable images. These are basically a kernel-plus-initrd in a format recognized by the bootloader. The one is the boot.img(named so when extracted as a whole). The other is the recovery.img which is the mini-system which can be used to apply updates, create/restore backups. CWM and TWRP are modified recovery systems.

Once the kernel boots, the initrd is run which mounts the several partitions for /system, /data and /cache. The partitions are simply mapped addresses within the bulk internal storage. Once 'flashed' to the device these can be mounted like any other partition. The ones for /data and /cache get mounted read-write. But, here's the catch: the /system partition gets mounted read-only, so changes can only be made there by remounting it read-write, which requires root privileges or to be running from recovery.

If I had the money to spend on this sort of thing, this is what I'd try to do:

1) Get a hot-spot service instead of a cell phone (such as FreedomPop, although FreedomPop's service sucks).

2) Buy an OpenPandora or equivalent tiny Linux computer.

3) Maybe buy a bluetooth set, but honestly I usually use speaker mode on my phone anyway.

4) Buy a service from Skype or something to get a "real" phone number for phone calls and texting. (Because, for whatever reasons, people in the USA cling to the big money making scam of "real" phone numbers. Yippee.)

It's clumsier to have two things to pocket rather than one, but I guess that's the price for freedom.