DivestOS: long term device support with enhanced privacy and security

@kml
my bullhead is working fine on the latest update
you likely need to run the flash-radio.bat/sh file from here: https://dl.google.com/dl/android/aosp/bullhead-opm7.181205.001-factory-5f189d84.zip

your unit may also be impacted by the soldering defect and suffer from the bootloop issue

In the list of supported devices the versions

14.1 / 7.1.2 / Nougat / END OF LIFE
15.1 / 8.1.0 / Oreo / END OF LIFE¶
16.0 / 9.0 / Pie / END OF LIFE¶
17.1 / 10.0 / Quince Tart / END OF LIFE¶

are marked as EOL and despite that it says: “Last updated: 34 days”

also 18.1 / 11.0 / Red Velvet Cake is not listed as EOL even though A11 is EOL

@ZinePinch
the whole point of DivestOS is providing updates to EOL versions/devices

but yes, I’ll adjust that title there for 18, it was indeed missed

What are you updating?

  • Android no longer get security patches
  • The kernel no longer gets updates from SoC manufacturer (I assume)
  • The manufacturer no longer releases firmware updates

@ZinePinch
please read the website:

And the browser updates:

And the extra updates: Faq - DivestOS Mobile

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@SkewedZeppelin congrats on FUTO, any details?

Thank you for your outstanding work, and congrats on achieving such massive milestones (community funding + grant)!

WebView Browser Security Enhancements

Your browser comparison table is a valued ressource, I think it would be great to add that there are some mitigations and improvements available via flags for the missing privacy/security features of WebView browsers.

Flags I’ve tested with Mulch WebView for some weeks (and had no issues with at all):

  • site-per-process
  • WebViewXRequestedWithHeaderControl
  • PartitionedCookies
  • ThirdPartyStoragePartitioning
  • SupportPartionedBlogUrl

The easiest way to set these flags (only required once) seems to be using Privacy Browsers -WebView DevTools-

The Privacy Browser Dev has a post with some additional explanations I found helpful:
https://www.stoutner.com/webview-devtools/

Maybe you could even enable these flags per default in Mulch WebView.

(Besides, I also wonder if the actual device name and patch level has to be stored in Mulch Webview, maybe it should be spoofed to some popular device with a similar screen resolution.)

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Avicii - Missing Firmware for Wifi?

I’m on the current DivestOS 20240312 for avicii.
Everything works as usual, though a long standing issue after upgrading from Divestos 17 to 20 on avicii I have (and only now researched properly), is that Wifi is non functional, even after a factory reset.

This very issue (I assume) is mentioned in several LineageOS bugreports, for example this one:

… and the cause seems to be too old/missing firmware files.

Is it possible to include the vendor Wifi firmware parts in DivestOS?

Because the “solutions” mentioned in the LineageOS wiki and replies to the bugreports involve usually installing the official Oneplus Spyware or downloading arbitrary zip files from who knows where, dumping stuff with scripts off of github and flashing parts of them.

It could also be mentioned in known issues / or the general installation section (if it were indeed necessary to install stock OS first).

@free_as_in_freedom
firmware is already included for avicii: avicii/Android.mk · master · DivestOS Mobile / firmware-empty · GitLab

did you try flashing the update again?
I haven’t heard any other reports of wifi not working either on avicii.

regarding the webview, you already asked this twice:

@Licaon_Kter
thanks!
anything particular?

if it’s about one specific thing or “all Divest things” in general

Full reset, successful reflash with fastboot and adb sideload, full reset (following to the device specific instructions to the dot) − the nonfunctional Wi-Fi issue still persists unfortunately.

Edit: Created a bug report here with some relevant logs.

Wasn’t me in particular, but agree, should’ve searched the repos first to avoid duplicates.

@free_as_in_freedom
thanks for the logs
that sounds more like a hardware issue
or potentially the same issue as Broken Wifi on LOS 20 fajita (#4667) · Issues · LineageOS / issues / android · GitLab

or perhaps did you have another system on it like ubports or pmos?

I haven’t had any other reports of wifi not working on avicii.

@Licaon_Kter
the latter

Alright, thank you for looking into it (and the quick help in general).

Besides OxigenOS that I replaced immediately (hence why I thought the firmware could be old), I only had LineageOS and DivestOS on the device.

The linked issue describes very similar symptoms, though I assume they also fit faulty hardware quite well, unfortunately, especially considering the same setup works for other avicii users on DivestOS.

I wonder if it makes sense in such cases to disable or uninstall the wifi related packages via adb, so the system doesn’t constantly retry to utilize faulty hardware (as there was a lot of wifi related stuff in the logs), or at least fails quickly and ideally controlled.

(I know disabling packages with adb is neither supported nor recommended as mentioned in the FAQs, and it might cause other issues, but I can see it making sense in this instance, but am not sure.)

@free_as_in_freedom
I don’t think the Wi-Fi service daemon can be stopped without root.

Flashed the radio via fastboot, but to no avail.

I used to have a unit with the soldering issue, but this was different. The device wouldn’t start at all after some time.

Here I can easly flash a different recovery than some LineageOS-Version which boots just fine.

Hm. The DivestedOS-Recovery itself is working and the flash process shows no errors. Is it possible to debug this any further?

Thanks in advance!

@kml
that is very strange.
it still hangs at the Google logo? never gets to the DivestOS animation?

Yes. Exactly. Well, after ten minutes I stopped waiting.

Hi again SkewedZeppelin

Out of curiosity, is there a way to change the DNS server fallback from Quad9 to another server, editing same file with or without root/adb, compiling and so on?

Greetings.

@Narsil
The fallback DNS cannot be changed. But it really is a fallback for when no other DNS is available and is rarely used.

The Private DNS setting always takes precedence over it.

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Thanks for your response.

Anyway, do you remember what file system is related to it?

I was looking for on your repo but wasn’t able to find anything…