Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Sky Aisling]

Hello woofers,
Is the Linux coding in an Android phone the same as the Linux coding in Puppy? GNU Linux?
I recently got for the first time ever, a 'smart' phone.
I've spent the last two weeks attempting to make a 'dumb' phone out of it.
The brand is UMX with OS 8.1.0.

The goal is twofold:
1) to loosen the grip of Google on my phone activities
2) I just want a phone to call people, to receive calls, to get messages, text and occasionally take a picture. That's all I need or want from the device.

I downloaded the app 'Nova' from, ironically, Google Play store in order to rid the home screen of the Google search bar. I managed to embed DuckDuckGo into Chrome as the preferred search engine.

I realize this is blowing smoke into the wind, but, it's been interesting to try.
There has been a legend for a long time that Google used Puppy for a model way back when they first started developing Android.
True or not, I am able to follow the general OS in the phone because of my experience with Puppy.
But, I get stuck every once-in-a-while.
For example:
A picture is downloaded and goes into 'download' directory.
Logically I would then place the picture in the 'gallery' directory.
After much finger pushing of icon images the picture shows in gallery.
But, when I look at the path of the image it shows:
/storage/emulated/0/Download/my-pictures/Snowy-Owl.jpeg
I created the directory 'my-pictures'.
Android creates 'emulated/0/'. What is emulated/0/?
I get a sense that Google has modified Linux to GLinux? Am I right?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Sky

[dancytron]

If you want to de-google your phone, then you want to root it and install a custom rom.

For legalish sorts of reasons, custom roms are completely de-googled by default and actually have a provision to separately download and install various subsets of the Google apps.

Then you want to install something called "Titanium backup". It will enable you to backup and then uninstall any application on your phone. Careful though, uninstall the wrong thing and you'll break it for good.

There is an open source (or at least more open source) substitute for the Google Play Store called F-droid that is good for the de-googled phone.

Whatever you want to do, the first thing is to get root access. Until you have that, you aren't the administrator of your own phone.

[Sky Aisling]

Thank you, dancytron
That is what I expected to do was to 'root' the phone.
So, off I go to 'root' around. lol.
Your help was appreciated.
Sky
PS - I watched an interview with Edward Snowden in which he was asked how he managed his phones to keep some privacy. He said he literally opens up the phone and breaks the solder connections to the speaker and the speaker in the camera.

[dancytron]

A little advice.

Find a set of instructions for your exact model of phone and follow them exactly and its easy. If you go on xda, pick a method where lots of people report success. https://www.xda-developers.com/

https://lineageos.org/ is another good place if they support your device.

Good luck.

[Sky Aisling]

Thanks, dancytron
Will do.
Sky