Really Basic Questions about Mobile Hardware Devices and their Software
 

I'm not fond of mobile devices because of their inability to run without proprietary software and their restrictions(you aren't able to quickly switch to a tty if a program freezes).
Recently someone gave me a smartphone as a gift. It has the advantage that now people can communicate with me synchronously without having to care about my location, so I decided to at least try to get it up and running the way I like.
The smartphone that I received was a , which came preinstalled with Android.
I didn't take long to notice that I had a really scarce knowledge about mobile devices.
Some of the questions that I have are:

• What is mobile data? How do you get an internet connection out of nothing? Is it a build-in modem?
• What operating systems could I install? I have looked at the by Replicant supported devices, but I haven't found my smartphone in the list.
• How do I install an operating system on a smartphone?
• What are [plural of sms], calls and how do they work?
• Could I send [plural of sms] and make calls from a Desktop? If, not, why?
• What is flight-mode and how does it work?
• What is the password for the root account on Android and how do I log into it?
• Is there a cable that allows my PC to transfer data to my smartphone and vice-versa? If not, what is the hardware device that stores all data on a smartphone(e.g. on a PC, it's the HDD)?
• What are some good sources of information about this topic whose authors do not think that giving too much information may scare the users(except Wikipedia)?

I hope that this post is in the right section. Android(and the operating systems that I want to install) uses the Linux kernel, therefore I thought that linuxquestions was a good place to ask those questions.

e.g. nexus 4, nexus 7 came with a handbook.

even samsung afaik has an online manual for the sm-t580 tablet I have.

How about reading the manual for your phone first?

Yes internal modem. umts => superceeded by lte now

mobile data => internet usage over your sim card => usually limited, usually costs money

otehr operating systems => only when it is supported. usually not => google => custom rom e.g. lineageos

flightmode disables any wireless transmitter or receiver. weirdly samsung is stupid, so i can enable wifi even when flightmode is on. Well samsung is made for stupid audience but that is totally out of scope to explain now. It is intended so you are allowed to use that notebook, tablet, phone, wahtever in an airplane. so no "bad" transmitted frequencies influence an airplane. the reason why it is called airplane mode

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data transfer => mtp protocol => airdroid => android debug bridge

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root nope on android, unless you want to loose warranty and not every hardware is supported. android is a locked down platform. root usually needs a custom recovery to install an exploit (said in newbie words)

this is not a valid device specification, looks like a branded device.

anyhow,wow.
these are very broad and very basic questions.
they are much better answered through personal research.
i daresay wikipedia is your friend here. why do you think it's not a good source of info?
whatever, you can always search the wild web, e.g. like this:
https://duckduckgo.com/html?q=What%20is%20mobile%20data

Since your phone already came with an Android Operating System I suggest you keep it.

-::-Installing another os could turn your phone into a brick.-::-

The same cable that came with your phone (if it's usb at one end) can be used to transfer files from your phone to your pc.

Flight mode OR Airplane mode prevents your phone from sending or receiving calls.

MAKE SURE your moblile data is turned off when the wifi is on or it will eat away at your minutes.

Read the manual for your phone:
https://www.vodafone.com/content/dam...ser-Manual.pdf

Maybe Lineage. See http://www.lineageosrom.com/2017/01/...-s5-g900i.html There are instructions there for installing the recovery program first. This is to create a backup before you start, and then wipe android and to install the lineage rom file --> the backup being useful in case the installation doesn't work, at which point you can recover your old system. Also, you'll need to root your phone first and unlock the bootloader... youtube is a good place to search for information, as well as duckduckgo.com or some other internet search engine.

I assume a regular micro USB cable. Install the packages android-sdk-platform-tools-common and gmtp (available on Debian, and I'm sure these packages exist with other distributions as well). Then, connect your phone to your computer, open gmtp, press "Connect", and hopefully you'll then be able "to transfer data to my smartphone and vice-versa".

it's really helpful. Going to take my exam next month.

A few of your answers:

• Phones come pre-installed with an operating system and generally put the user "in a chroot jail." You're not a super-user.
• "Mobile data" is an Internet connection that is sent by radio to your phone – just like voice and SMS-messages. You're given some quota of how much data you can send and receive each month.
• SMS ("text messages") is another cell-phone protocol for sending short textual messages from one phone to another. (If the message has a "picture" attachment, that it sent using mobile-data.)
• "Flight mode" or "airplane mode" turns off all radio: the phone can't send or receive phone calls, SMS, or mobile-data while in this mode, which is designed for use on airplanes.
• Your phone might show up as a "disk drive" when you plug it into your computer – some Androids do this, some don't – or there might be third-party software which lets you store and retrieve data and to back up your phone. Apple phones use iTunes for this: just plug it in to your Macintosh and wait a couple minutes.
• Yes, there are third-party operating systems (such as Tizen, based on Linux) which can be installed on your phone. (Here is a WikiPedia article on the subject.) But I would buy a separate phone, possibly without a phone-number yet attached to it, for the purpose of experimentation! :tisk: (You might become a "brick collector" ...)

By the way, I know a number of people who are extremely pleased with Tizen . . . they marvel at the "sluggishness" of Android once they've ditched it.