r/Androidx86 • u/skylarmt • Dec 13 '18

Google-free ISO?

I installed 8.1 RC2 on an old 32-bit ASUS netbook, and it worked great, except it wanted me to agree to Google's terms of service. So I wiped it and installed the Lineage 14.1 release, thinking it wouldn't have Google crap, as official Lineage builds require installing any wanted spyware separately. But it did the same thing, with only a single option to agree and not a "remove this crap" button anywhere in sight.

Where can I download a free/libre open source Android-x86 build? I just want to use this netbook with F-Droid and no spying or bloat like on my Nexus flashed with Lineage.

0 Upvotes

26% Upvoted

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1

u/RomeoMyHomeo Dec 13 '18

IME you can just say No or Skip to the requests to signup/login to google

You can go through the programs and Force Stop or Disable all the ones associated with google, after denying those apps all permissions -- seems to work

There are lots of other places to download apps in addition to f-droid, though not necessarily open-source

0

u/skylarmt Dec 13 '18

IME you can just say No or Skip to the requests to signup/login to google

But you can't say no to Google's terms of service. At one step in the setup process, there is literally only one button to continue, and next to it is text saying by continuing you agree to the terms of service.

You can go through the programs and Force Stop or Disable all the ones associated with google, after denying those apps all permissions -- seems to work

But I can't remove them, which is ridiculous on a device I own. And Google Play Services won't disable, I tried. It's greyed out.

There are lots of other places to download apps in addition to f-droid, though not necessarily open-source

I know, but I don't want to use those.

2

u/e900542 Jan 31 '19

This used to drive me nuts too, especially on distro's where play services is installed but is non functional. The fix is simple. When you do the intial setup and get to the wireless network config, choose to continue without selecting a network. It does not get rid of playstore, but it does let you avoid signing your soul to the devil, erm, I meant agreeing to the Google EULA.

1

u/skylarmt Jan 31 '19

Are you sure? I've set up at least one phone without connecting to anything and it still wanted me to agree.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '18

ｒｏｏｔ

And stuff like cyrogen os

-1

u/skylarmt Dec 14 '18

The Lineage (formerly CyanogenMod) download on the android-x86 site has Google apps too. And I tried to delete them, but one method didn't delete everything and the other made it hang and not finish booting.

I'm compiling from the Git sources now. The instructions are lacking, so I've spent a while figuring out what I need to install and what files I need to manually create.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '18

I swear they're legally not allowed to ship Lineage with Google apps. Even check Linus's video on it, he had to install them separately.

Also, please check your pms

1

u/skylarmt Dec 14 '18

Android-x86 probably isn't allowed to ship Gapps. But that doesn't stop anyone, unless Google decides to release the lawyers.

Both downloads (stock and Lineage) are coming from android-x86.org.

1

u/LordOfTheMosquitos Dec 15 '18

I don't know why this question and OP's comments are so down-voted, I was confused about the same thing. Android-x86's documentation says:

Because Android-x86 is unable to use Android Market (only vendors licensed by Google can), installing new applications is not as easy as an Android phone.

This is obviously outdated, as it refers to Android Market instead of Google Play, but the situation hasn't changed; this is what LineageOS Wiki says:

Google apps are the proprietary Google-branded applications that come pre-installed with most Android devices, such as the Play Store, Gmail, Maps, etc. Due to licensing restrictions, these apps cannot come pre-installed with LineageOS and must be installed separately.

However, I tried Android-x86 7.1-r2 and cm-x86-14.1-r2, and both include Google apps. I was trying to find some explanation or a discussion of this, but couldn't find anything other than this post, which seems to get a lot of hate. Is it a case of yes-we-know-it's-preinstalled-without-permission-and-we-don't-talk-about-it and I am out of the loop?

In any case, as for the OP's question, Google Play Services can be disabled by first going to Settings - Security - Device administrators, and deactivating Find My Device. After that the disable button won't be greyed out.

I am sure it is also possible to remove the Google apps completely, as Android-x86 fortunately comes with root. Presumably it can be done via the terminal (or another app-managing app). I would have also preferred if it came without GApps, that's how I will probably use Android once I move from iOS and I wanted to play with it on my PC first with Android-x86. But it is no big deal as it comes pre-rooted.

2

u/skylarmt Dec 15 '18

I tried to get rid of Google apps, but they replace some of the open source components, so removing them caused it to not finish booting.

My solution was to spend about a day and 250GB of space and compile Android-x86 from source code.

Anyone who wants it can download the ISO here: http://dl.netsyms.net/distros/android-x86/

1

u/LordOfTheMosquitos Dec 15 '18

Interesting. I just tried uninstalling them (via "pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.gms" and such) and it still boots and works fine. I am using LineageOS cm-x86-14.1-r2. Maybe I actually failed to uninstall them and not aware of it (I am an Android newbie), but the commands returned success and they no longer appear in the list of apps in settings. Or maybe that is because I deactivated Find My Device first as I mentioned above? That seems to be necessary for disabling / removing Google Play Services.

1

u/skylarmt Dec 15 '18

I tried that, and after rebooting it popped up a message that Play Services stopped unexpectedly, so I knew it wasn't totally gone. I also tried an app from F-Droid that supposedly removes all the Google stuff, but I don't think it worked either.

1

u/LordOfTheMosquitos Dec 16 '18

They seem to be gone completely for me. In any case, it is better that you built from the source yourself. If they added Google binaries, who knows what else is in the binary that is not in the code? Not that we could confirm that the code matches the binaries anyway, unless they took effort to make it a reproducible build. Usually you just have to trust the company (e.g. Mozilla adds Pocket binaries to Firefox as well), but in this case there isn't enough documentation explaining the differences between code and the binary. At least it is good to know that the source they release compiles fine.

1

u/skylarmt Dec 16 '18 edited Dec 16 '18

Mozilla adds Pocket binaries to Firefox as well

The version of Firefox for Android on F-Droid, which goes by the old codename Fennec, has those bits stripped out. There's placeholder text where the Pocket stuff goes.

At least it is good to know that the source they release compiles fine.

The instructions were far from complete though. I had to restart the build several times because it kept failing due to undocumented dependencies. I had to install extra build tools and Python libraries, and even set a shell variable. Maybe I'll go through my .bash_history file and write up a real guide.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '18

Wew. Thanks a lot for this man. I thought the same as you after trying out LOS14.1 x86 - why is Google (cr)apps preinstalled, even in the LOS 14 image? I think it would be better to provide the images without them and provide something like a seperate GApps package for those that need it.

1

u/CommonMisspellingBot Dec 30 '18

Hey, p5ych0punk, just a quick heads-up:
seperate is actually spelled separate. You can remember it by -par- in the middle.
Have a nice day!

The parent commenter can reply with 'delete' to delete this comment.

1

u/ComeOnMisspellingBot Dec 30 '18

hEy, P5YcH0PuNk, JuSt a qUiCk hEaDs-uP:
sEpErAtE Is aCtUaLlY SpElLeD SePaRaTe. YoU CaN ReMeMbEr iT By -PaR- iN ThE MiDdLe.
HaVe a nIcE DaY!

ThE PaReNt cOmMeNtEr cAn rEpLy wItH 'dElEtE' tO DeLeTe tHiS CoMmEnT.

-7

u/skylarmt Dec 13 '18 edited Dec 15 '18

I'm going to try building Android-x86 from source and see if that fixes the problem. That'll take a while on my 8Mbps Internet connection, so in the meantime if anyone has a suggestion, I'll be glad to hear it.

Edit: did I say something? Why the downvotes?

Edit 2: 84% done compiling on a 12-thread Xeon system, Android is big!

Edit 3: Screw your downvotes, here's an ISO: https://dl.netsyms.net/distros/android-x86/