Hey, I want to give /e/OS a try (as there are not that much CustomROMs available for the FP5 yet) and will follow the command line approach (I’m fine with that + nothing else is available right now).
2 quick questions:
1. The anti-rollback feature is only an issue when the bootloader will be locked again, right? (no need to start discussion risks about an open bootloader, I’m aware of that and I will also root my device, so bootloader lock is not possible anyway; I had a FP4 and installed CalyxOS without issues and I never really payed attention of this issue [ok I checked unlock ability when I handed the device over to a family member and locked the bootloader in that case again]; wanted to double check this time )
2. Is there an easy way to skip the microG installation? I run my FPs (had them all from 2 to 5) without any GSF or microG as I only use apps from F-Droid and some installed via Aurora - those who need GSF will be ignored → no issue and I don’t miss anything.
The anti-rollback feature is only an issue when the bootloader will be locked again, right?
I asked myself the same question, here is one response from another thread confirming this.
Also here are some developer documents and the way i read this is the ‘AVB_SLOT_VERIFY_RESULT_ERROR_ROLLBACK_INDEX’ is ignored (non-fatal) when the device is in an UNLOCKED state. As this is more of a developer guideline, it depends if the bootloader flashed on the FP5 follows this guide.
Yes, but iodéOS seems to be available and should have easy uninstall of microG if I understood correctly … wouldn’t this be an easier approach than getting microG out of /e/OS where it is considered an integral part? … https://iode.tech/iodeos-installation/
Regarding 1.
I think this is correct. (@chris81 )
When your phone (in my case the FP5) is new and you enable OEM unlocking you will see already a popup message that this step will already disable the “device protection” (<- not 100% sure about the wording here, but it was also not exactly stating “anti-rollback feature”). At this step the bootloader is still locked and I guess this is already one step in the direction of ignoring it that way. As I don’t want to be the one who tests this, I cannot fully confirm this so it is still a assumption.
Also my FP5 was in the same security patch level as the latest /e/OS when I started flashing it (5th November 2023; an FPOS update was available, but I don’t wanted to mess around, as explained). Even I would have done this (meaning update FPOS, so that the initial security patch level would be newer), to be 100% sure, it would have been needed, to lock the bootloader again → what I did not do as well, as I rooted my device.
Regarding 2.
I disabled microG for now in a the following way:
as it is described in the other threads (open “microG Settings” App directly via launcher or go via Settings → System → microG … disable from bottom to top)
self explaining, but I did not log in with a Google Account
in addition I disabled some packages for which I’m sure that they are not needed. (there are several ways to do so, even without root, I used AppManager)
mircoG DroidGuard Helper (com.microg.gms.droidguard)
I keep com.google.android.gms enabled as I want to keep the location provider part. Afaiu this depends on the gms package. Also in the Self Check a couple of things are still shown on.
Thanks for pointing on that. I did know that is is possible with iodéOS. I was thinking which one to choose /e/OS or iodéOS … afaik there are no other (“stable” build) CustomROM options for the FP5 - yet.
No GSF is important to me on the other hand I didn’t want to leave the FP5 lying around unused any longer.
Next time I will read more exactly. My assumption from my quick research was that they are both shipped with microG and there is no easy option to skip for both of them. So again thx for sharing.
@AnotherElk
The (manual) install procedure looks pretty much the same to me … flashing a zip and this includes afaiu microG, but maybe I oversee something?
The statement is not very specific, isn’t it? ^^ (and it is a normal Forums member I think at least there is no bio or so, which states that he/she is from iodéOS or so → just the logo as avatar)
I mean, I can in theory state the same here for /e/OS.
Sure I’m free to uninstall, but how exactly?
“microG Services” (the app name to package “com.google.android.gms”) is installed as a system app here (the other 2 I already disabled as well; I assume it is the same for iodéOs), so if some would like to take this “freedom”, how would he/she do it exactly?
Without root there is no easy way to uninstall (I think / or at least idk ^^).
What you can do is disable the apps as I did → so for now I don’t see a big advantage to choosing iodéOS over /e/OS.
IodeOS has a Settings page that allows you to uninstall any of the pre-installed apps, including the microG components. If you select to uninstall an app, it is uninstalled the next time you reboot.
I assume it uses the same mechanism as the adb uninstallmethod of removing system apps (See this thread), as you can choose to re-install it from the same settings page. When an app in ‘uninstalled’, the app .apk file is still present in the devices storage, but it cannot be run, until you reinstall (using the settings page, or adb) and reboot
Little add:
It is also stated in the iodéOS part of their FAQ about microG .
So not specifically about Apps in general, but specifically to my question about microG.
Also it seems to be possible to already skip/uninstall during setup. (“… you can also uninstall … directly from the setup wizard…” ). When I have some time I will flash iodeOS and go that way.
Edit (already installed it):
When your boot into iodeOS the first time you have the choice and can select what Apps you would like to have. For those you de-select the state is “Hidden, data deleted, uninstalled on next reboot” as you can see.
They can all be reinstalled (as discussed in the other Thread) and you have to reboot again before they show up (Status after hitting “Install”-Button → “Installed on next reboot”).
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