this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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Is there any permanent risk to the phone itself if you install graphene OS? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 6 months ago by Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml to c/android@lemmy.ml
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Back in 2007-ish I told my Mum all about how you could jailbreak iphones and unlock them to make the phone with other carriers. I helped alleviate any concerns by convincing her and myself that if there are any problems after the procedure, nothing physically has been changed on the phone and as long as I made a backup first, we could always switch back.

I jailbroke the iphone 3g she had and it didn't take long before she began to notice a lot of problems, it got hot all the time, the battery drained way fast and animations were juddery and slow and sometimes apps crashed. I restored the backedup image of the phone from before thinking I'd fix everything, but although it improved the situation somewhat, the heat and battery dissipation remained permanent and the phone became useless. Ever since then I've been pretty scared of doing anything of that nature to any phone.

I really want to install Graphene OS on a pixel phone but... well, I also want to be sure I can go back if I change my mind, especially as the phone is expensive. Any risks associated with doing this? Is there any way to screw it up so bad that you permanently brick the phone? If the USB cable breaks or gets yanked in the middle of it or something like that can I always get back to square 1? Is there any known way for things done in the installation of Graphene OS to somehow survive having stock android flashed on to it?

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[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

As for the iPhone 3G, I think it was just software and an aging device. My iPod definitely got pretty laggy with multiple apps open on a device with 128MB of RAM in an OS that doesn't even support running apps in the background. The more mods and plugins loaded the laggier naturally.

But even with a jailbreak, they didn't mod drivers or anything that would make it different from a hardware perspective. They just sideload a store that can then install any apps. You can install bad apps but nothing that would survive a restore in iTunes.

What could have happened is she got an iOS update after the restore that also was a bit laggier and energy intensive. Or maybe the faster discharge and higher energy consumption is what finished an already aging battery. It's very unlikely the jailbreak caused it, more likely triggered it or expedited an existing problem. Like formatting your mom's PC whose hard drive is on death's bed and the IO of reinstalling an OS makes it kick the bucket. Is it the OS's fault? No. But did installing the OS cause the fault? Yes. People will still blame the OS, especially if it's a different OS in case of a jailbreak or putting Linux on your mom's laptop that's still on XP or 7. The new thing, it broke the thing!

[–] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It was brand new at the time come to think of it, it wasn't released until 2008 so this more likely happened in 2009. The timing and the dramatic difference from stock to jailbroken is just too striking to have been a coincidence, although you might be alleviating some 15-16 year old guilt, that perhaps it triggered something. Still very worrying that a new and very expensive phone was triggered in to dysfunction from the process but maybe it was unlucky defective model. I definitely think that while it was jailbroken the problems were as a result of the OS but maybe the Cydia apps or something else were particularly draining and then that fast draining cycle triggered something else physically.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah if it was brand new, it might also have been defective, I've seen that happen. It's just between jailbreak and manufacturing defect, which do we default to? Depends on the whole timeline really.

It's not impossible it broke it, but anyway the Pixel is made for that so it's a lot less sketchy to begin with. It's the same risk as installing an OS on a PC really.

Google releases betas and developer previews for the Pixel, it's made to survive buggy code.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Pixel phones are basically the gold standard of Android phones for flashing custom ROMs. Google doesn't lock anything down and provide everything necessary to not only build your own, but it even fully supports relocking the bootloader with your own keys and all the secure boot security features.

In most cases I think Google has an online tool you can run right from the browser to fully reflash the stock OS on it.

The only thing that won't work is apps using Play Integrity which some bank apps and streaming apps use for DRM, including Google Pay/Wallet. There's not much you can do about it especially in the longer term, as this is hardware-backed so unless some major exploit gets dropped, you can't really fake the phone being stock to apps. Reverting to stock should bring back full functionality.

You really have to go out of your way to brick a Pixel and mess with overclocking to do permanent hardware damage.

Have fun!

[–] Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is mostly sounding reassuring. My wanted banking app is on a list of apps that people have successfully used on Graphene OS so it's probably ok, but yeh, definitely want to be able to go back. I guess I don't know what answer I'm looking for, but in the anecdote I started this post with, I was amazed that it was somehow possible for changes to somehow survive a re-flashing to stock. I really, really don't want that to happen.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 4 points 6 months ago

I just replied to that in a dedicated comment. But for your Pixel it's even better because it's something that Google even officially endorses, it doesn't even void your warranty.

I've been modding phones since the Android 2.2 days, and I've never had any major issues or anything that would make me want to go back to stock, and never had issues going back to stock. Even my S7 with a modded bootloader splash screen, it was gone when I flashed stock back on it.

[–] cyrus@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

If anything, installing GrapheneOS on a Pixel probably reduces the risk of something happening to your phone, that's kind of the point with having an Android distribution that maximizes security and privacy.

And because the installer is so simple that you just connect your phone, open a browser and hit three buttons, it's really unlikely that you'll accidentally brick your phone trying to install it.