These are some of my observations on navigating the minefield of daily driving a custom rom on an android device.
\u000AHiding root is harder than rooting
\u000AKernelSU-Next provides the cleanest interface for rooting , and requires the least amount of effort to hide.
\u000AKernelSU-Next is also the hardest to get right.
\u000AInstalling any android stock rom on linux is basically impossible, not even on a windows virtual machine ( though some claim on doing it successfully) or a docker container, it requires a full bare metal windows installation.
\u000AGoogle is trying its level best to make android a locked garden, making both modifying a stock android device and using modified custom roms difficult. If only they focused as much on improving their actual products and not abandon them.
\u000ABanking apps are getting notorious to detect any modifications to the host device.
\u000APayment apps and the entire UPI ecosystem is another walled garden , requiring an unmodified host device to perform well, using custom roms are a big no no.
\u000AInstalling custom roms require absolute precision . A single missed step can very well equal a bricked device. It is the least tolerable installation experience, rivalling even the windows installation experience. And if you apparently nuke your windows partition and daily drive linux in your desktop then congratulations , you have to install windows to get to the stock rom installation process.
\u000AUpdates are always risky, the more modifications you make , the less updates you can afford to do on a weekday.
\u000AThere is practically zero automation implemented so far for this entire process, since there are a shit ton of device variants.
\u000AMost devs working on these are having a tough time, since they face the double toxicity combination of the custom rom community as well as open source development. Some devs make their products closed source. an example
\u000AA lot of features that used to be custom rom specific were later implemented in android itself in subsequent versions.
\u000AMod managers such as Magisk / Apatch and KernelSU require care in terms of handling, making backups non-negotiable.
\u000AAlways follow and re-read documentation during installation, this is common sense but it could be tempting to overlook.
\u000ACustom roms are cool AF tho.
\u000AHP Battery Counterfeit Error Fix
\u000AIf you get an error along the lines of “hp battery counterfeit error ..” and you own a hp laptop where you have no idea where the battery is, and you have a UEFI based system, you probably have to update your BIOS firmware.
\u000AFOR A WINDOWS USER you typically already have the utils pre-installed to update device firmware.
\u000AIf you Dual boot with linux and windows u can just go to windows and upgrade your firmware
\u000AFor anyone else, HP doesnt give a fuck and you are on your own.
\u000AWhat i had to do
\u000ARequirements: Docker, A spare USB drive, An internet connection (to set things up initially).
\u000AThe BIOS upgrade took a few minutes. When it was over the hp-battery-counterfeit-error did not show up.
\u000AWhy
\u000ACause I did not have a windows system / partition in my laptop. I also did not want to set up a windows VM and already had docker installed. I tried to execute the exe file using the Hiren boot usb technique but it did not detect my wifi drivers :(
\u000AAlso the many posts suggesting to extract the bin files from the exe file and move it to the kernel modules were not helpful for me. All I got was an another cryptic EFI file
\u000AThe stuff I looked up and didnt work
\u000AThese may / may not work for you
\u000AYou , the reader and I are closer than ever before in human history. Only constraints are your internet speed and the render time of this site.
\u000AWhat we know of each other is more or less the same. We share the experience of being human. To read , to write , to speak , to share information are some more things we might have in common. We both have a rough idea of what’s happening in the world at the moment. Our interpretations may vary , though , and its alright as long as we get the general idea.
\u000AWhat we know as knowledge is stored away in the next tab. What we both don’t know might be stored there or is waiting to be uploaded.
\u000AWe both are made of the same content. What we create is also similar,content that a human is capable of creating. In OOP terms, We are all instances of the same class, constructed with different parameters and destructed eventually.
\u000AAnd we are getting closer to each other.
\u000AFaster internet speeds , increased coverage , increased translation features emerge as I type.
\u000AMuch more innovation may happen before you can read this.
\u000ABy the time you read this, Hope our levels of mutual respect align on a way never seen before.
\u000AHope the conditions we live in match.
\u000AHope our differences dissolve away in the stream of time.
\u000AHope we both be kinder to each other and to others of our kind.
\u000AHope you and I would be the same one day.
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\u000AA sample markdown post to start
\u000A", "title": "Hello World", "date_published": "2024-08-16T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2024-08-16T00:00:00Z" } ] }