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I Killed Google and My Phone Almost Died

I set out on a journey to sidestep Google's version of Android and instead use free, private, and secure open-source alternatives on my phone. I made some stupid mistakes, including potentially bursting into flames, but I learned a lot along the way.

By Max Eddy
May 29, 2019
Freed My Phone From Google

The headline to this story is both slightly misleading and completely factual. Both of those things actually happened. I did successfully install and use an open-source operating system on my phone, freeing it from corporate control and guaranteeing my privacy. And then everything went wrong.

Why Did I Do This?

I blame Mastodon. I've been spending a lot of time on this off-beat social network, connecting with security geeks and generally trying to avoid the cesspool that is modern social media. Places like Mastodon are magnets for the kind of utopian-minded open-source evangelists who promise a better life by embracing community-built and -supported technology projects.

If one just took the time to care, the argument goes, one could escape the surveillance economy thought prison with wholesome software. If the need to make a profit is what drives companies to impinge on user privacy, than removing the profit model restores privacy.

SecurityWatch Perhaps seeing these arguments day in and day out on Mastodon got me thinking that maybe I, with what few skills I have, could do it, too. I could put my money where my mouth is, and live better via ethical software. Sure, my previous experiences using Linux to revive an aged netbook and flashing a new OS to a phone were mostly exercises in frustration, but that was a long time ago. I wanted to see if I could get it to work, and if I could truly live outside the techno hegemony, attaining a higher level of cyberconsciousness. Free your phone, and your ass will follow, as it were.

The Plan

My plan was simple: take an old Android device and slap a free, open-source OS on it. Once it was up and running, I planned to shun the Google Play store and instead use F-Droid, a privacy-respecting app store that serves open-source alternatives to popular apps. This phone would run nothing but the most secure and the most anti-capitalist software.

I went with LineageOS because it works on lengthy list of devices, because it keeps pace with the latest Android releases, and because it seemed very user friendly. Its own lineage goes back a long way, to the heady days of CyanogenMod, so I figured it was a good choice.

Google Nexus 5xPicking a device to unshackle from Mammon's bonds was a little harder. Initially I thought of using my partner's Nexus 7, since it's still a great device, if a little sluggish these days. In the end I was unwilling to risk it, however, and instead went with the Nexus 5x. This plastic phone, from the tail end of the Nexus line, has always been a favorite of mine and the thought of giving it new life was in line with my recent tirades about how glass phones are expensive and stupid.

I admit there is also a kind of high school sophomore level of rebellion to taking a phone made by Google, and turning it into a functioning example of free, open-source software. It was a bit like drawing an anarchy symbol over a NIKE logo, and I was down for it.

Brain Swap

Very quickly, I ran into my old nemesis for open-source projects: struggling with documentation written for someone with a better understanding of the subject matter. This was followed very quickly by my other nemesis, trying to remember how to use the Android Device Bridge (ADB). This is a command-line tool for digging around the guts of an Android phone and no sane person (developers excluded) should ever have to use it.

In fairness to ADB's creators, it's actually pretty easy to use. I just forget how to use it every time.

Installing LineageOS requires a few things: first, you have to unlock the bootloader on your phone. This is software that loads other software each time you turn on your phone or computer. Then you have to install the TWRP custom recovery software. This is a powerful tool needed for installing LineageOS and other software. Next is installing the OS itself. For that, I had to find the version of LineageOS written for my specific hardware, load it into the phone, and then tell the bootloader to run it.

After many false starts, many typos, and a few heartstopping moments when I thought I had bricked my phone, the work was done. The phone rebooted, and a little animation showed the Lineage OS logo. As is always the case when I use ADB, I felt like a wizard even though I barely understood what I had done.

I was surprised to find that LineageOS was, in fact, very user friendly. I stepped through a series of onboarding screens that I recognized as being identical to the Android running in any other phone. I even registered my fingerprint for faster unlocking—something I frankly had not expected would even be an option. Poking around the OS itself I was almost disappointed with how familiar and, frankly, normal it was. It was Android as I already knew it, with a few little extras, like custom color schemes.

Choose Your Marketplace

Next up was installing F-Droid, the alternative app store. F-Droid only allows free software, and is designed to respect the privacy of the people that use it as much as possible. It also has security measures in place, albeit different ones than those used in the Google Play store.

This turned out to be a whole process in its own right, and while researching it I started to get nervous. I was confused about how to install and update the store, and how apps were meant to be updated. I also had aspirations of using this as my primary phone, and the prospect of finding alternatives (or failing to find alternatives) to the the apps I use every day was daunting, when added to to all I had already done.

Now, I don't want to throw any shade on the F-Droid project. Someday I'll try it again, and in hindsight I regret not tackling the challenge. Instead, I went back to a step I had noticed in the LineageOS instructions: installing what is effectively a clone of the Google Play store along with Google Play Services.

Of course, this would ruin the purity of my experiment. I would be making a deal with the devil, exchanging privacy and independence for a more familiar experience. In the end, I invited the devil in.

The instructions said that I should have installed the app store and Google Play Services components before I booted up LineageOS for the first time. Figuring I had come this far with a healthy dose of reckless abandon, I went ahead and installed it anyway. Instructions be damned.

It turns out that instructions are important. After installation, my phone decided it wasn't so into turning on anymore. Rather than admit defeat, I started from scratch: reinstalling LineageOS along with the Google Play components. A few seconds later, the phone returned to life and a Google Play icon sat happily on the desktop. Sure, I had waffled on my principles, but this also felt like a sneaky win. I was going to get my independent phone and benefit from the massive collection of Android apps in Google's store. Practically cackling, I started to download and install apps onto my new Frankenphone, my fingers drumming happily against the bulge at the bottom of my phone.

Wait.

I flipped it over. Was that really a bulge? I angled the phone, held it up to my eye, sighted along the edge like a pool cue. Was it always like that? Maybe this was some weird ergonomic design feature that I had simply forgotten about. After all, I used the 5x only a few times a year by now. That must be it.

I poked.

The white plastic backing yielded a little and bounced back into place. Loose glue. That was it. Surely. Definitely not the tell-tale sign of a damaged lithium ion battery. I decided to put it out of my mind. I'm an alarmist anyway.

The Ticket That Exploded

Mention "bulging battery" to anyone in this industry and their eyes will get wide and they'll either show you YouTube clips of people's phones bursting into flames or just run away. It's the most dangerous thing that can happen to a piece of consumer electronics, and while it doesn't happen a lot, when it does it understandably grabs headlines.

In my heart, I must have known I was doing something very stupid. But I continued to do it anyway. Now, to be clear, LineageOS wasn't causing my battery to inflate with fiery potential. The phone was doing that on its own, a product of its age and the hard knocks it had received over the years.

Over the next few days, I continued my experiment in freeing the soul of my phone. I browsed Mastodon a little more smugly, feeling like I was truly part of the revolution. I also started to find a few more obstacles I'd have to learn how to get over. For example, LineageOS provides updates over-the-air, but I wasn't sure which to install or if I had to install of them in order. I also wasn't sure if I had to update my imported version of the Google Play store. I researched these questions from my Nexus 5x, all the while nervously tracing the now very obvious, tumor-like bulge on the back.

A few days after my initial success with LineageOS, I finally opened a new browser tab and searched for anyone else with a bulging Nexus 5x. I was hoping to find something other than a dangerously damaged battery that would explain what I was experiencing. That's not what I found. What follows is a highly condensed version of the posts I read on the subject.

Person 1: Hello friends! I have a Nexus 5x and it's bulging on the back a bit. Is that weird?
Person 2: Your phone is now a deadly weapon that will harm you and those around you.
Person 1: Are you sure? It seems fine.
Person 2: Every time you put this phone up to your ear to make a call you're basically playing Russian Roulette. Don't hook it up to a charger because that's definitely like lighting the fuze of a spherical cartoon bomb. We love you and only want to see you survive.

I glanced over at the Nexus 5x sitting on my desk, connected to a wall charger, and noticeably wobbly as it balanced on it no-longer flat back. I knew the experiment was over. I had to get rid of this thing.

This created a whole new problem: How do you get rid of a potentially explosive phone? Although it was already late in the work day, I went to our inventory manager, Alice, and explained my situation. She looked at me, looked at the phone, and then produced a zippered box from the bottom of a drawer.

It turns out that there's a product for every problem. In this case, the FireIce Shield ChargeSafe Case, a sturdy, hardshell home for your phone whilst it charges. It's unremarkable from the outside, but the inside is lined with tubes of goo. The goo, I'm told, is meant to stifle any explosion and suffocate any flames. I unceremoniously placed my beloved 5x, last of its kind, into the tiny coffin and zippered it closed. Alice took it from there.

Did I Learn Anything?

I had a few goals with this experiment. First, see how hard it is to install an open-source mobile operating system. Second, find out if these alternatives are actually usable. And finally, see if I could remake my digital life without trading privacy and security for services.

To the first point, I was both impressed and frustrated with the experience of installing LineageOS. The instructions provided by Lineage are clear and the documentation extensive, but it's far away from the seamless experiences offered by Google and Apple. This process requires patience, and some understanding of how to use tools like ADB. I also had to be willing to really, really screw up a phone in the process. I am privileged enough that I had access to free phones to experiment with, but most people probably can't afford to buy a second mobile device just for fun.

As to whether or not these services are usable, the answer is absolutely yes. LineageOS is mature to the point of being boring. That's exactly what an OS should be. It does lack some creature comforts, like a straightforward updating process; and some critical ones, like an app store. That said, you could absolutely use a Lineage phone with little discomfort.

On the last point about remaking my digital life, I absolutely failed. Not only did I have to get rid of my phone because it almost became a fire hazard, I balked at the idea of having to give up the convenience of Google's app store or its free services, like Google Photos. Little life experiments like these really do reveal the extent to which many of us rely on big corporations like Amazon and Google, without even realizing it or even choosing it.

The bigger question of whether it's possible to reclaim privacy (or whether we should even have to) in the surveillance economy age is still fuzzy for me. Had my phone not become potentially deadly, I don't know how long I would have continued to use it when easier but less private alternatives are ubiquitous. What is clear, however, that we're living in a golden age of alternatives. Tech giants and their myriad products dominate the discussion and are deeply entwined in our lives, but the idealist community is thriving.

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About Max Eddy

Lead Security Analyst

Since my start in 2008, I've covered a wide variety of topics from space missions to fax service reviews. At PCMag, much of my work has been focused on security and privacy services, as well as a video game or two. I also write the occasional security columns, focused on making information security practical for normal people. I helped organize the Ziff Davis Creators Guild union and currently serve as its Unit Chair.

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