Well, they say that development for these phones is mostly dead.
Also, I do think that getting a virus by simply downloading Android ROMs from some unknown source (or an open source project maintained only by 1 person) would be quite easy. Not to mention that xz-utils, an open-source project was recently backdoor-ed.
I want to install a (or build my own) custom AOSP-based OS on my Samsung Galaxy J3 SM-J337W that has microG instead of the proprietary Google Play Services. Please forgive me if I'm doing something stupid: I'm a complete noob with this.
So, the first thing I did was check and see if my device is officially supported by ROMs like LineageOS and I couldn't find anything. Not only that but my device isn't supported by TWRP.
Next, I've done a bit of further research and read about GSI ROMs and Project Treble. The Treble Info app says that my smartphone is Project Treble compatible with the following requirements:
- VNDK version: 28 (lite mode)
- System as Root: disabled
- Manifest location: Modern
- CPU architecture: ARM32
- Binder architecture: 64-bit However, the only a64 non-SaR GSI images that I could find are some of Andy Yan's builds of LineageOS 16 and 17 and they do not have microG installed. Plus, I just don't want to install any malware-infested OS from some random Joe.
I've been thinking of building my own custom ROM or GSI. However, compiling AOSP would take a long time.
Has anybody ever managed to install a custom OS on the Samsung Galaxy J3 SM-J337W?
Well, I just found a guide on how to install twrp 3.2.3 on a Samsung Galaxy Star here, which has the model number SM-J337T. It has the exact same SoC, CPU and GPU as my device. The guide has a link to an unnoficial twrp recovery.img image. Would it be safe for me to use that for my SM-J337W?
PS. What does the T and W mean in the device model number?
I have a Samsung Galaxy J3 2018 (model number SM-J337W) on which I want to install my own custom AOSP ROM (because I don't want Google or Samsung to spy on me, I'm stuck with my current phone, and my phone is not supported by LineageOS, GrapheneOS, or CalyxOS). I have managed to install ADB for Linux and unlock the bootloader, but I can't download any TWRP binaries because my phone is not on the list of officially supported devices. I believe i've found the source code for TWRP on this Github page: https://github.com/minimal-manifest-twrp/platform_manifest_twrp_omni. However, I'm not really sure how to build it. According to the code lines bellow, I believe it requires some kind of device number or code: ~~~ cd <source-dir>; export ALLOW_MISSING_DEPENDENCIES=true; . build/envsetup.sh; lunch omni_<device>-eng; mka recoveryimage ~~~ or if I'm not using a recovery partition: ~~~ cd <source-dir>; export ALLOW_MISSING_DEPENDENCIES=true; . build/envsetup.sh; lunch omni_<device>-eng; mka bootimage ~~~
Also, I am not sure whether or not if my device uses a recovery partition or not. How do I find that out on my specific device?
Also, when I open up AIDA64, then go to System -> Device, it says j3topltecs. Should I use that for my device number/code?
Also, please keep in mind that this is my very first attempt at rooting any Android smartphone so sorry if I sound like an idiot noob. I also use Linux and don't have Windows installed.
Also, is there any way I could tell lunch (or whatever tool does the compiling) to use only a specific number of threads because if it starts compiling using all 8 threads then my PC will definitely overheat.
PS. Do I even really need TWRP? Has anyone ever managed to install a custom ROM on this specific device?
Well, I think this may be not a bad idea at all. However, what would really stop me from using your search engine is if my search queries (or anything else I send) were somehow tied to me and/or sold to someone. Please don't be like Google, Microsoft, or OpenAI.
Mee too. Already switched to Gentoo. I also plan on setting up my own NAS.
Uhm, if that happens, maybe the devs could use something like qemu or a specialized fork of it?
I hope this isn't going to be the default. I know, the average granny might prefer to have a BSOD with a QR code, but I think a lot of the people who are more tech-savvy, like me, would prefer to see log messages when booting because then you could see which service failed and why or why it's all of a sudden taking so long to boot. That's also why I choose not to have a splash screen when booting.
Anyways, this BSOD thing doesn't apply to me because I use Gentoo with OpenRC.
Good. I hope this poorly written piece of spyware dies out soon. Carefully read Microsoft's Privacy Policy and I guarantee you it will scare you away and make you run to Linux and other open-source software. No seriously. The amount of spying they do is simply unacceptable. Same thing with macOS (yes, Apple does collect a ton of data about you!). You can get Apple's Privacy Policy here.
Is it ok if I skip some challenges or do them later? University final exams are comming up soon for me.
Well, I eventually got bored of Arch and installed Gentoo this summer. I enjoyed it 😎.
PS. I wish there was a Gentoo emoji.
I would like to see:
- Corporations treating their customers like people, not just bags of money.
- Corporations and employers to stop spying on people. Like, it makes me feel so unsafe and that I can't really trust them.
- People becoming more tech literate.
- Open source software, such as Linux being used by more people, especially those who are not so tech literate.
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?
Ok, then C++.
For me it would be C/C++.
Well, you do have qemu, which can run x86 programs on other architectures (not just running x86 virtual machines on top of hosts of other architectures).
I am currently a Computer Science student in university who really loves Linux and FOSS software, hates it when governments and corporations spy on people, and would probably rather have a job that brings meaning and benefits society than one that has a high paycheck (although I do recognize that I also need to have enough money for food, housing, .etc). I also watch Scammer Payback and Jim Browning and I love what they're doing, but I don't know if I could turn that into a real job.
I've thought of doing pen testing (later on in my career), but I've come to realize that it is better if users just started using privacy-respecting FOSS software like Signal, because if you give a hacker enough time, patience, and the right resources, they could hack into anything. Although for something like banks, I'd maybe be ok working there, as everybody still needs them and they're not going away any time soon.
I also need something that I could get into fresh out of university or even as an internship or co-op.
Am I being too pessimistic? What would you suggest me to do? Feel free to challenge my views on life.
Well, that's how most troubleshooting happens on Windows/macOS as they are just big black boxes with poor documentation. On Linux, most issues can be fixed by the user themselves.
Kseniya
I use rclone. The command I use to mount my GDrive is basically:
rclone mount "GoogleDrive:" ~/googledrive --vfs-cache-mode full --daemon
And then I could access it (almost) as if were a regular USB drive mounted onto my filesystem (by doing cd ~/googledrive). Only difference is that it is a bit slow, as none of the files ever get synced to the computer's hard drive (all changes are immediately uploaded to Google servers), and I cannot change the filesystem permissions (they are always a+rw for all of the files).
Well, for schoolwork, I mount my Google Drive storage onto my ~/googledrive directory (where I store all of my schoolwork) and usually use mc to navigate. Although, I am quite comfortable with the terminal. Its just that I have a lot of subfolders and going to a specific subfolder in mc is usually faster than doing "cd ~/googledrive/subfolder-with-long-path".