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?
Word of advice: do not do this to any device that you actually depend on. Linux enthusiasm is all fine and fun, but this will kill most practical functionality of your device. I’d say try it out on a old phone you might have laying around but not on your daily driver.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe the 2018 J3 has a locked bootloader. The fact that I can’t find even a SINGLE custom ROM on XDA for this model means it’s highly likely that the bootloader is locked, and/or the device isn’t dev friendly (no kernel sources available etc).
so I guess doing the same on my smartphone wouldn’t be too hard.
Mate, you’ve no idea… Smartphones are a completely different ball game to desktops. You could try and compile your distro, but without the kernel sources and drivers for your specific model, nothings gonna work. You won’t even be able to boot the damn thing. And even if you did have those, it’s going to take a LOT of effort just to get basic OS functionality working. Forget getting actual phone stuff working, like making calls etc - that’s next to impossible. Even large projects like PostmarketOS struggle to get basic functionality going even on dev-friendly phones.
But you can stop dreaming about all the above if you can’t even unlock the bootloader.
Basically, what all this means is that there’s no point wasting your time on the J3. Stop right now and don’t waste any further time on this.
If you’d really like to run GrapheneOS / Linux on your phone, your best option is to sell your J3, and get a used Google Pixel from Swappa/eBay or something.
It’s not the best option though, as long as the hardware is decent.
https://www.androidauthority.com/install-ubuntu-on-your-android-smartphone-765408/
Doesn’t stop the host OS (Android) from “spying” on you though, so doesn’t really help OP.
Great answer. People frequently think that Android phones work just like desktops, but they are very different.
Have you installed a custom ROM on it? If not, you definitely don’t have the skills for this. If so, have you built your own ROM for it? If not, do that so you learn how it works in a predictable environment. Then port something existing to it, like UBPorts. Only after you do all of that and probably a lot more should you attempt to effectively develop your own distro on hostile hardware.
I daily drive GNU/Linux on my Phone (PinePhone Pro), I would say it usable, but Android is way more practical.
Also not a lot of devices can run GNU/Linux and have fully functional HW due to missing drivers. And only 3 phones of them can run mainline kernel.
Waydroid works fine, I use it for banking apps, but it’s a bit slow on my specific device.
