Over a month ago I was asking questions on the Chat related to Graphene. And on a forum.
Perhaps I should say, I do not have at home internet. I am older and only have a meager Social Security payment for income. Fast, always available, unlimited, WiFi, makes doing some things easy .
I seem to recall that a person said that in order to get Graphene OS to load he needed the phone to be working and updated. Somehow I took that to mean that he had placed a SIM Card into Phone and had activated phone as an Android Phone, that is, the phone had a phone number. I was also under the impression (and I am often wrong) that for a phone to work on WiFi it needed a number, although not an active carrier. I have friends who have limited phone plans but take their phones on plane trips (before Covid) and used them on WiFi. using Viber. I repeated what they said, as I had hoped that someone who had used Graphene for some time might warn me if I am incorrect.
I usually use an unlimited data plan. I know for an Iphone, updates will not download on the data plan, but require WiFi to download updates. Several years ago I had an Android Phone, which would download updates, but only if I was sitting under the correct tower.
That was the phone provided to the poor by the government. Huwai phone that spend all of my resources either uploading backups, or downloading something. Every day, To use the phone for a phone call, I had to do factory reset, drive over and sit under tower for like forty minutes. If I tried to limit the setting to not back up all my data, the phone would drop connections. Like someone said, Google is obsessed to spying on me to the point that limited processor phones are useless.
When you say, side load, I am guessing you are saying that Graphene, after it is on phone an functioning, will download and install Android ROM updates, those that are part of the underlying security of the phone. Not the Google, or carrier nonsense.
I do not want to find myself frustrated by getting the Graphene install to fail, and perhaps be difficult for me to recover. So I set up a plan to use the phone on Android, update it, then install Graphene, and hope I would not end up losing value of phone carrier card.
As I am old, I do not want to be without a working phone for long. I likely will port my current number onto Pixel. Which is as more of a Security Problem than I desire, but, Sending a new number everywhere means not much improvement.
I am constantly trying to scheme a way not to spend so much money on my next phone. This project looks like more than six hundred.
Thanks for any advice. I do not personally know anyone else who is using GrapheneOS.
I do expect that the Pixel with GrapheneOS works smoothly. This is a,not like a lot of Linux, always has something I need to fiddle with.
As an older person with a lot of medical issues, I need a phone that works all the time.
Hope the Bunny was good to you this Easter.
