Hello everyone!

A lot has happened since my last post, specifically talking about my LineageOS inquiries. I had a string of bad luck and broke the digitizer but no cracks to my Pixel 7 Pro.

So I ended up “upgrading” to the Pixel 8 Pro because the store I went to only had the 8 Pro and not the 7 Pro in stock and it was dire that I have a phone.

So this leads me to my next questions:

What is your favorite Android spin for your Pixel Device?

I have used GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and Stock Android (of various versions on my Pro 7)

This leads me down the rabbit hole of deciding which experience I want on my Pixel 8 Pro.

I have GrapheneOS on my 8 Pro right now because I wanted to see if I could make it fit my needs, and I am leaning towards it not working for me. Since I switched, android auto is not connecting even following the instructions GrapheneOS has to offer.

AdAway (nonroot) is not working on GrapheneOS, as it just kills any internet connection to everything on GrapheneOS. So that’s another point against me wanting to stick with GrapheneOS.

No AFwall+. Another point against it.

It appears that CalyxOS is going to give me a similar experience with issues related to the ones I mentioned with GrapheneOS.

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I had considered trying out LineageOS for microG but unsure if this is the route I want to go because I am unsure if some of the apps I will rely on will work for various reasons. (Mainly unsure if MicroG will suffice for them.)

I am open to other options to, and would love to hear what you are using!

Thank you!

  • h3ndrik@feddit.deEnglish
    2·
    1 month ago

    Hmm, if you have a home network anyways… Maybe you can run AdGuard/PiHole there. I’ve switched to blocky.

    I made it listen externally and just configure it in the network settings of my devices to override the automatic DNS server. That way I don’t need to install sth like AdAway on all of my laptops and phones, because I have one central instance.

    Is there anything else that blocks video ads? I’ve never found anything except for uBlock which actually works. And I’ve recently learned that you can enable developer mode in Firefox based browsers on Android and install all the Plugins they don’t like you to use on mobile. Like SponsorBlock etc.

    • Hellmo_luciferrariOPEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      I know it’s overkill, I was running AdAway as root, with a Wireguard connection to my home VPN, which was running behind a PiHole instance, along with uBlock Origin, and a few other measures of blocking like AFWall+. But I may just go the route of using PiHole as my adblocking solution (along with my own unbound DNS server.)

      Though, you have piqued my interest with Blocky, as I have had some issues with PiHole that I am not wanting to troubleshoot at the moment.

      I may have to fine tune my uBlock in order to block advertisements from video (and luckily with Mull I have been able to use SponsorBlock successfully.)

      The video advertisements that haven’t been blocked are on other video hosts that I have found for various purposes, but maybe with fine tuning my uBlock, and having blocky, or PiHole, or AdGuard home (although if I am being honest, I am avoiding anything that isn’t open source as much as possible.)

      I know my preferences and use cases are niche, but I really do appreciate the conversation around this! Thank you so much!