I’ve been trying to de-google my life since the start of 2021 and I’m not making much headway. I purchased a Galaxy S9 from the efoundation store and I’m having problems that I don’t know where to go find solutions so here I am.
If you are an advanced user I could benefit from your experience. I know a phone is a very personal device and folks have strong opinions about one thing or another but what I will say is… I don’t even know what I don’t know yet. When tech changes as fast as it does these days it’s easy to read old info and go down a rabbit hole that isn’t necissary.
-First thing is about Bliss Launcher - it’s using like 80% of my battery. Is this Normal?
-Is the Aurora Store incompatible with Bliss?
-Is the Bliss Widget screen buggy? sometimes it’s not there, sometimes it takes up only the top part of the screen (and scrolls)
-How do I “find” the apps that I installed? this has been by far the most frustrating
Every thread I jump into seems to require essential or assumed coursework.
I’ve been an android fan since 2008 and have some experience with adb and software. It just seems like I’m missing something major about how to make this thing worthy of being my daily driver.
Hi @Kritischer and welcome to the community.
Being myself a Linux user, and now a /e/ user I can easily understand your frustration. It is due to the struggle between old habits (commercial software and stock Android) and - hopefully - new ones (open source software and degoogled systems).
May be that the installation of “Lawnchair” will ease the transition a bit. You can find it as a substitute for Bliss under the “Apps” icon. It is more similar to stock Android
Welcome @Kritischer !
I would like to add, that I also understand your confusedness. But if you look around in the forum, some users might already stumpled upon similiar issues and I’m sure you’ll get the most out of it. In Bliss the apps you already installed should drop somewhere to the various homescreens - you’ll find different varieties of launchers on the inbuild appstore or F-Droid or even Aurora Store. I do not know what you’re used to, but the most common launchers are available.
Just recently there was a thread about launchers. So some users and myself shared some experiences with different launchers, if you want dive into some Bliss alternatives: Alternative Launcher.
Good questions. I installed \e to my Nexus 6P but there were no instructions on how to proceed after that to find and install my favorite apps. Not a hint. No app store, no F-Droid no anything. So I went back to my degoogled Moto G7 where all my favorite apps are and I’m happy, mostly. If /e thinks all it’s users have to be programmers they are going to have a very small user base.
Yes @Gritz I admit that I am the one that needs to be programmed.
Nonetheless I do get frustrated. I’m learning to temper my expectations because I didn’t get to be this dependent on big G overnight… It happened over the course of the last 12 years and I (new users) need to understand that we can’t flip the switch and do away with old habits overnight either.
I understand completely and we are in the same boat. We want to use the ,/e project but there is no guidance after flashing and we don’t want to go back to Linux 101 just to use a new OS. My Moto G7 with lineage 17 works fine and my Nexus 5 with Ubuntu works fine but I’m hung up with my Nexus 6P running /e … There seems to be no pathway beyond flashing to installing new apps.
Thanks aibd … my Lawnchair opens with only 5 apps showing so I’m looking deeper. On boot I was getting a vendor mismatch so downloaded and installed that … now doing F-Droid install. From there I would assume that I can uninstall the old Lawnchair and then reinstall it … or Bliss and see what happens. I’ll report back if I have success … or errors. Thanks for your help
Thanks … I appreciate. After I installed the update after getting the “Vendor Mismatch” message things are looking up. I still don’t have the “Apps” target icon but I think what I need is there since I was ,able to install the Aurora Store and start pulling my favorite apps.
GSI? Good question and I have no idea. I flashed my Nexus 6P, with /e probably in Feb of this year. crDroid version 4.7.2 shows right now. But then flashed again a week ago after continually getting the “Mismatched vendor build”. So now my suspicion is that I no longer have a De-Googled phone … maybe half de-googled and half not. Runs like a charm … everything works but I have no idea about the privacy. It’s possible I will have to start over from the beginning. I have a Moto G7 with lineage 17 and for now I may just use that phone when I’m away from home.
You could install an app like Blokada, from F-Droid, set it to run at start, select a couple of privacy lists/tracker blockers in the app menu, and see the connections being made by your phone in real time as you use the phone. Some will be automatically blocked, and some will be allowed through. You have the ability to blacklist connections manually, too, but be aware that this might affect connectivity.
P.S. If you’re using the preset 9.9.9.9 for DNS, and if Blokada isn’t showing any activity (this seems to be the case with the unofficial build that I’m using), you might try switching to “Use network DNS” temporarily, just to see what’s going on behind the scenes. Then switch back to the preset DNS when you’re satisfied.
