GrapheneOS

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An unofficial discussion community for anyone interested in GrapheneOS.

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Heaps of questions from a brand new grapheneos user (thelemmy.club)

submitted 2 days ago by philanthropicoctopus@thelemmy.club to c/graphene_os

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Hi everyone

Writing this on my new (second hand) pixel with grapheneos. Have been watching this project for a few years and stoked to finally be here. I'm getting closer and closer to the online life I want all the time.

I have a few questions:

Sourcing apps - is it safer to use f-droid (in my case I like the neo-store) or obtainium?
For non open-source apps, Aurora or sandboxed google play?
Is it OK to use WiFi at my work? Or at the mall? What are the risks? I've got a VPN but using it prevents me from accessing my server via tailscale
WhatsApp - I've tried to set up whatsapp but I get stuck at retrieving the backup from google drive. I'm seeing conflicting views on weather or not this is possible. It'd be great but its a price I'm willing to pay if it means not using WhatsApp
Can any app be sandboxed?
What else should I know about operating the phone? I'm effectively an absolute beginner to grapheneos
My phone now won't connect to the internet without the VPN, is this normal?

Any advice appreciated, thank you

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

7 is not normal

6 read the gos faq it's good info

5 here sandbox just means not privileged, and all apps except Google apps are used to running without privilage. You have three independent spaces on your main interface: owner, work, private you can put apps with different VPNs, google services into each. You have more with account switch, but it's more work

3 depends on what you do with your internet and your threat model, if you have a always on vpn wifi anywhere isn't a threat

2 depends on your threat model: google will give you the most official packages and good chain of custody. You can just use Google play in one account /space copy the app to another space, and let play update it

1 depend on your threat model - reproducible builds where the code is signed by the developer but froid verifies the source used to build the code is the gold standard