I have an old tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which was given to me about a year or two ago. It came with the official 4.x rom, but I quickly installed a new recovery and installed an AOSP rom 7.1.2. Problem is right now the system is outdated and I am trying to “manually” patch it a little. I am aware that there are 8.1 roms for this tablet but that is still outdated and not very stable so I will only install those if it is really worth it.
Cases in point that I want to update:
Webview. I tried installing a newer version with Aurora and Yalp, but none will work over Tor. I tried installing the Bromite version but it doesn’t work. The browser I use is Privacy Browser, but it won’t even open when using those versions, so I am left with 61.
Orbot. I cannot get a connection when I go past 12.0.5-RC. Basically the Tor version 0.3.4.9 works, but 0.4.0.4 doesn’t…
VLC. Version 3.0.13 works great, all other don’t give sound. I believe it might be due to audio buffer because the logs mention that, but I have actually tried searching for other video players. F-Droid shows none, but I found MPV online and tried it. Doesn’t work well, so I am stuck. Also there is a “ExoPlayer” that is supposed to be open source but I cannot find anything usable.
File manager. I have been using Amaze, which had all the right features for me, but I see it won’t be updated anymore. This is not so bad since I can move to another option presented in F-Droid, I just really liked Amaze.
All the rest of the system. I was thinking about removing gallery launcher and all and installing versions from F-Droid (the simple mobile tools are nice, even though there is some debate going on over if they will remain FLOSS).
So, basically, any ideas how to update the points I mention above are welcome. I know it’s hard to keep a system such as this up to date but I would like to try at least in the most important areas (internet related stuff).
Tor Browser is my first choice as a browser, but it doesn’t run on this device (no Firefox derivative does, I think I read something about the “rendering engine”, I know it is the same reason why LO Viewer won’t work either). So I started using Privacy Browser (which I really like, the developer has some good ideas).
As for Orbot I don’t have my tablet with me right now, I will check that later and get back to you. Thank you!
Tried downloading the apk from Guardian Project, and ended up downloading a 29 MB file (instead of the usual 8 MB). I can now run and connect using the latest version 0.4.2.5
It doesn’t always connect on first attempt, and feels slower than using the older version from F-Droid, but it works!
This is good.
Too bad that I still have no way to update WebView, and VLC also keeps giving me trouble (I had already tried installing VLC from the official apk, and the problem remains the same).
As for the rest of the system: gallery, launcher, camera, etc, is it worth it to replace the stock ones with F-Droid ones?
I installed both chromium and bromite. These versions run, unlike the standard ones because these are made to work with Tegra 2. However, I still have the 61 webview installed and running (Privacy Browser indicates that, and in Settings - Developers - I still only see one menu entry for WebView).
I know it is up for me to decide, I was asking for insight and maybe opinions… Do these have had any security issues or bugs never corrected, or are other alternatives that are better suited than the stock ones.
Yes, WebView is a whole other problem. I right now am considering using Bromite and Orbot VPN as my main browser. I really appreciated Privacy Browser, but webview is a major attack surface and I think I ought to use a more up-to-date software. Bromite is apparently a very privacy-security featured browser.
As for VLC, any suggestions? I Can’t get the newer versions to play sound I can use only 3.0.13 and never connect it to the internet, but… I would like a more clean-cut solution.
