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Cyrmax

I have found an old Samsung Galaxy s5 while reorganizing my old boxes with technical stuff.

16 gb of storage, 2 gb of ram, 32-bit cpu, Samsung Touch Wiz on Android 6.0.1, everything working but battery is almost dead.
Perfect target for crazy experiments, isn't it?

I've flashed #CRDroid 7 with #Android 11 without #gapps.
The latest update was in February 2024 and this is an official end of life for this device. But still it works and Android 11 on a device which was abandoned officially on Android 6 is stable and smooth.
Not the fastest of course, but works and doesn't freeze every second.
I'd say it is comfortably usable for some tasks.

In the series of posts I will tell my experience and share anything I find useful.

So check replies to this post or visit my profile :D

#degoogle #android #degoogled

17 October at 18:08 | Open on mastodon.ml
8 comments
Cyrmax

So, I've flashed #CRDroid version 7.39 with #Android 11.
You can find flashing instructions around the internet. I rather give you a bunch of useful links for you to not search and download something random.

We need #Odin to flash something because Samsung's download mode isn't compatible with Fastboot and only operable via their program.
I've used #Odin3 v3.14 which my friend gave to me. Probably you can download it here but I'm not sure:
odindownload.com/download/Odin

Also we need #TWRP recovery; It's available on the official website (we need a tar file, not the bare img):
dl.twrp.me/klte/

And of course we need official CRDroid:
crdroid.net/klte/7

If you need #Root, then download #magisk (but this CRDroid already includes some minimal root):
github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/re

That's it! Download, Flash by following instructions and enjoy!

#degoogle #android #degoogled

So, I've flashed #CRDroid version 7.39 with #Android 11.
You can find flashing instructions around the internet. I rather give you a bunch of useful links for you to not search and download something random.

We need #Odin to flash something because Samsung's download mode isn't compatible with Fastboot and only operable via their program.
I've used #Odin3 v3.14 which my friend gave to me. Probably you can download it here but I'm not sure:
odindownload.com/download/Odin

17 October at 18:25 | Open on mastodon.ml
Cyrmax

Important note for #blind users!
#CRDroid doesn't contain #gapps, there's no Talk Back available.
You have to download it manually and put it to your phone via recovery.
Also you'll need a TTS engine and this is kinda problem because I know no TTS which work out of the box without prior network access.
#Espeak needs internet to download language data on first launch;
#RHVoice needs internet for every new voice;
#Vocalizer is paid and needs the same;

The only option at least for Russian people is to download #FonTTS (modern implementation of #NewFon) and use it.
If you know totally offline TTS synthesizers for other languages, please share.

Also even if you put Talk Back and TTS via recovery they won't start via volume buttons.
You have to enable usb debugging via recovery and then, on welcome screen, via adb, enable Talk Back and set default TTS for speech output.

After that you're good to go as an usual user.

#degoogle #android #degoogled

Important note for #blind users!
#CRDroid doesn't contain #gapps, there's no Talk Back available.
You have to download it manually and put it to your phone via recovery.
Also you'll need a TTS engine and this is kinda problem because I know no TTS which work out of the box without prior network access.
#Espeak needs internet to download language data on first launch;
#RHVoice needs internet for every new voice;
#Vocalizer is paid and needs the same;

17 October at 18:38 | Open on mastodon.ml
Cyrmax

After the welcome process you'll see a standard #CRDroid launcher which is fully accessible and is very simple.
I use Microsoft Launcher on my primary phone but for the sake of battery and cpu optimization I'll stick to the default launcher on this old Samsung.

Some accessibility labels in the UI are not translated to Russian and some buttons on recent apps screen have no accessibility labels at all.
The left one is for share, the middle one is for force kill of current app and the right one is for closing all apps.
Or enable read identifiers in Talk Back and get English names of these buttons.

Btw, Jieshuo screenreader works fine on this phone and as usual is much much faster than Talk Back, so I switch to it and leave Talk Back as a backup method.

Advanced Braille Keyboard #abk works fine too and I'm happy about that :D

#blind #degoogle #android #degoogled

After the welcome process you'll see a standard #CRDroid launcher which is fully accessible and is very simple.
I use Microsoft Launcher on my primary phone but for the sake of battery and cpu optimization I'll stick to the default launcher on this old Samsung.

Some accessibility labels in the UI are not translated to Russian and some buttons on recent apps screen have no accessibility labels at all.
The left one is for share, the middle one is for force kill of current app and the right one is for...

17 October at 18:44 | Open on mastodon.ml
Cyrmax

What's the situation with app stores on degoogled phones?

Google Play isn't available, of course.
I've installed #fdroid app store and it works well (btw thanks for their great accessibility for #blind users).
For Google Play apps I've tried #Aurorastore and it works too.
Free aps are downloaded even without a Google account. If you have paid apps, just login with your Google and download them.
If some apps try to verify their license via Google services they will fail. But for apps which have no such checks everything will be okay.
For example Advanced Braille Keyboard installs and works without any problems.

For Russian users #RuStore also may be needed and it works normally.
But if you have root, better add rustore to deny list in magisk before first launch. Russian services usually share info about root detection even if they are from different developers, so to avoid problems think about it in advance.

#degoogle #android #degoogled

What's the situation with app stores on degoogled phones?

Google Play isn't available, of course.
I've installed #fdroid app store and it works well (btw thanks for their great accessibility for #blind users).
For Google Play apps I've tried #Aurorastore and it works too.
Free aps are downloaded even without a Google account. If you have paid apps, just login with your Google and download them.
If some apps try to verify their license via Google services they will fail. But for apps which have no...

17 October at 18:51 | Open on mastodon.ml
Cyrmax

My Samsung Galaxy s5 is 32bit and sometimes it's problematic to find compatible apps.
For example I was able to install Brave Browser only from GitHub releases via "brave-mono-arm.apk" file. Universal apks are for 64bit only and so don't install.

Also, #Brave for some reason requires Google Play services when joining sync chain. It shows a box with alert but continues to work and joins sync chain normally via text words. QR scanner doesn't work.

#degoogle #android #degoogled

My Samsung Galaxy s5 is 32bit and sometimes it's problematic to find compatible apps.
For example I was able to install Brave Browser only from GitHub releases via "brave-mono-arm.apk" file. Universal apks are for 64bit only and so don't install.

Also, #Brave for some reason requires Google Play services when joining sync chain. It shows a box with alert but continues to work and joins sync chain normally via text words. QR scanner doesn't work.

17 October at 19:52 | Open on mastodon.ml
Cyrmax

I have only 16 gb of storage on my Galaxy s5, but the phone supports external sd cards up to 128 gb and luckily I have one :D

I plan to use this phone primarily for audio books, podcasts and other offline media.
But most of apps either do not support selecting custom folder for their content or even aren't moveable to sd card.
I found an app called "app mgr iii" which requires root access (thanks that I have it) and moves any app to sd card ignoring app's manifest.
Will it be stable? We will know in future. Now the av3715 app (Russian free audio books for #blind) successfully downloads its content and works after moving it to sd.

Other apps will be checked too soon :D

#android #samsung #crdroid #degoogle #degoogled

I have only 16 gb of storage on my Galaxy s5, but the phone supports external sd cards up to 128 gb and luckily I have one :D

I plan to use this phone primarily for audio books, podcasts and other offline media.
But most of apps either do not support selecting custom folder for their content or even aren't moveable to sd card.
I found an app called "app mgr iii" which requires root access (thanks that I have it) and moves any app to sd card ignoring app's manifest.
Will it be stable? We will know...

17 October at 22:10 | Open on mastodon.ml
Cyrmax

I've purchased an extended accumulator for my old Galaxy s5.
The standard one had 2800 MaH, but this extended version has 5600.
When I installed it, the phone showed 21% and all night it was discharging. Today morning it was on 9% and I turned on flashlight and made brightness to 100% to discharge the phone more quickly.

Now it is charging and we will see how much time it will take and how many hours this phone will live with an extended battery.
5600 MaH sounds promising but we'll see :D

#samsung #degoogle #android #degoogled

I've purchased an extended accumulator for my old Galaxy s5.
The standard one had 2800 MaH, but this extended version has 5600.
When I installed it, the phone showed 21% and all night it was discharging. Today morning it was on 9% and I turned on flashlight and made brightness to 100% to discharge the phone more quickly.

19 October at 12:05 | Open on mastodon.ml
Cyrmax

#SyncThing doesn't work on my old galaxy s5.
Probably an old 32-bit CPU is the problem or insufficient RAM...
But at first start it took about 20 minutes to generate keys, and after I've added 3 devices and about 5 folders, half of them just disappeared from lists.
Like I've added my PC, another phone and laptop, closed and reopened the app and saw only my PC :D
And the same with folders, one was there, but others were just ignored despite I saved them correctly.

So, it seems like this phone is too old to use it as a backup device for SyncThing. Sad but not fatal.
I'll look for another way to sync my audio books from PC and keep their progress.

#degoogle #android #degoogled #samsung

#SyncThing doesn't work on my old galaxy s5.
Probably an old 32-bit CPU is the problem or insufficient RAM...
But at first start it took about 20 minutes to generate keys, and after I've added 3 devices and about 5 folders, half of them just disappeared from lists.
Like I've added my PC, another phone and laptop, closed and reopened the app and saw only my PC :D
And the same with folders, one was there, but others were just ignored despite I saved them correctly.

23 October at 21:50 | Open on mastodon.ml
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