I have a Samsung Galaxy J3 (2018) smartphone which currently has the stock Samsung Android OS installed on it. I wanted to install an Android “distro” that doesn’t spy on me, like Graphene OS, but I couldn’t find a ROM for it. Since I would probably need to compile AOSP from source code anyways, I though, why not install Gentoo on my smartphone (doing the compilation on a more powerful computer using distcc). I have already installed Gentoo on both my laptop and desktop from a stage3 tarball and I’m loving it, so I guess doing the same on my smartphone wouldn’t be too hard.
Now, the problem is that I need to use a few apps that are not available on Linux, like the proprietary app that I use to pay for my bus tickets. How well does waydroid work?
I just bought a OnePlus 6 to test out mobile Linux and it’s not there yet. Firefox it a pain to use and it doesn’t auto rotate either. So far it’s been good to read manga on and… Ye that’s about it. Camera doesn’t work on it and the UI still isn’t the best. I haven’t used KDE’s DE for phones yet but I’ve used phosh and now I’m using gnome mobile and so far gnome mobile is a lot better but still buggy. I’m excited for the future development of it but with how locked down phones are it’s a bleak future
As others are saying, that’s not really an option unless you’re really dedicated. IF it has an unlockable bootloader you could technically get to compiling and tinkering to get everything built, but in order to get a phone all set you’d need to get the right drivers and do a whole lot of tinkering (like full time job levels of building and tinkering) kind of deal to get it built. Phone’s aren’t so plug and play like computers.
If you there’s no rom support and/or a permanently locked bootloader but you want an OS without x y and z you can always try to fire up ADB bridge and disable stuff. You could also accomplish the same by rooting, though it’s a bit of a security risk (though not as overblown as some people say IMO).
Phones aren’t like old laptops. They’re a different architecture entirely, and the hardware is often somewhat custom to the device. Building an image that would even boot on it would be a challenge, much less getting stuff like the touch-screen etc working
Ok I’d cut through all of this and focus on your needs: phone with no spying, can’t find rom. I assume you mean your phone isn’t supported for graphene, lineage, or calyxos, or any others I missed?
Easiest way: buy a phone that is supported for the privacy minded os you want.
Hardest way: buy a PinePhone Pro Explorer edition with all the accessories. Then miss several calls and texts, and brick it 4 times.
For a spare phone if you want to just tinker and have fun, go ahead. For a main devicez just. Don’t. It is very very alpha quality software.
