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View Full Version : Low Cost Rootable/Flashable Phone



R0b0t1
07-24-2017, 03:19 AM
Are there any affordable phones that have rooting packages published or that are supported by Lineage OS (what used to be CyanogenMod)?

I have an LG Stylo 2 but it doesn't seem to be supported by anything.

anth_
07-25-2017, 12:31 AM
I'd recommend xiaomi phones, they're pretty cheap (I got my note 3 for 120 quid, it's specs are comparable to an s6/edge and the note 4 came out a few months back. It's had a lot of abuse and still going, got a good rom scene as well. The battery life is superb as well (no google services, and a little bit underclocked gets me 2-3 days medium use, although the battery has degraded as I've had it for a couple of years. Would highly recommend, just try and get from a reputable seller I guess :)


Are there any affordable phones that have rooting packages published or that are supported by Lineage OS (what used to be CyanogenMod)?

I have an LG Stylo 2 but it doesn't seem to be supported by anything.

EDIT: I abuse it real good, daily

R0b0t1
07-25-2017, 04:23 AM
I'd recommend xiaomi phones, they're pretty cheap (I got my note 3 for 120 quid, it's specs are comparable to an s6/edge and the note 4 came out a few months back. It's had a lot of abuse and still going, got a good rom scene as well. The battery life is superb as well (no google services, and a little bit underclocked gets me 2-3 days medium use, although the battery has degraded as I've had it for a couple of years. Would highly recommend, just try and get from a reputable seller I guess :)



EDIT: I abuse it real good, daily

Do you have any recommendations? I am leery of Chinese phones because in the past they were generally lower quality (LED screen instead of AMOLED, etc) and they are probably heavily backdoored by a government not exactly on good terms with my own.

I had a Note 3 but broke it. You are making me reconsider buying another one.

anth_
07-26-2017, 02:07 AM
Do you have any recommendations? I am leery of Chinese phones because in the past they were generally lower quality (LED screen instead of AMOLED, etc) and they are probably heavily backdoored by a government not exactly on good terms with my own.

I had a Note 3 but broke it. You are making me reconsider buying another one.

Hmm, i would say the build quality is decent, maybe not on par to iphone/nexus etc but i haven't had any major issues so far (dropped it lots). Yeah, everythings backdoored lol. Your best bet is probably something with isolation, replicant exynos, an n900, a PCB sandwich, or something like that. Android is fucked by design :p

R0b0t1
07-26-2017, 07:50 PM
Hmm, i would say the build quality is decent, maybe not on par to iphone/nexus etc but i haven't had any major issues so far (dropped it lots). Yeah, everythings backdoored lol. Your best bet is probably something with isolation, replicant exynos, an n900, a PCB sandwich, or something like that. Android is fucked by design :p

A phone that could run Replicant would be great. I think most phones are safe enough, but at the lowest level there is code you can't control that has to initialize hardware that you can't replace. Most of the time it is encrypted and you can't tell what it does.

I might get an old phone because modern ones seem to not let you use the phone without providing Google account details, and/or display ads. However in the past I had to stop using my Note 2 because a CyanogenMod update bricked it. I don't think it's actually unrecoverable, but there is no freely available OS which will run on it now, and I don't have the factory image. Using an old phone might not be possible because the software projects surrounding Android keep moving along with new flagship phones.

I brought this up in IRC and the consensus seemed to be that I needed to buy a Google phone if I want to experiment with it. Thinking about the state of phones always makes me sad.

anth_
07-27-2017, 04:55 PM
A phone that could run Replicant would be great. I think most phones are safe enough, but at the lowest level there is code you can't control that has to initialize hardware that you can't replace. Most of the time it is encrypted and you can't tell what it does.

I might get an old phone because modern ones seem to not let you use the phone without providing Google account details, and/or display ads. However in the past I had to stop using my Note 2 because a CyanogenMod update bricked it. I don't think it's actually unrecoverable, but there is no freely available OS which will run on it now, and I don't have the factory image. Using an old phone might not be possible because the software projects surrounding Android keep moving along with new flagship phones.

I brought this up in IRC and the consensus seemed to be that I needed to buy a Google phone if I want to experiment with it. Thinking about the state of phones always makes me sad.

How come? I don't use gapps at all (better battery life / no google botnet) , never had adds etc (adaway / ublock origin helps). You can run an AOSP ROM pretty much google free - LineageOS, OmniROM and SlimRom seem to be my favourite! (I mostly stick to Omni).

Apart from that, if you want everything de-blobbed, replicant is the way to go. They wrote an open-source Samsung RIL (Radio Interface Layer) to talk to the baseband and it's generally solid. You can add the wifi/graphics blobs so stuff works, but it cuts out all the other shit that comes in other Android ROMs. Security-wise they're still pretty good since security fixes are backported to android 6, a la https://source.android.com/security/bulletin/

Best bet is a galaxy s3 for replicant then (not the 4G one). They're cheap, alright specs (1.3Ghz quad core, 720p, decent battery and a 4400mah anker one if you want). Yeah, everything low-level (bootloader, baseband etc) seems to be locked down. I think something like replicant is the best you're going to get, unless you want to setup something with VOIP.

Oh and your note 2: https://github.com/Benjamin-Dobell/Heimdall should work, just check your model and get a stock rom in heimdall, flash it (I remember doing it via cli), flash a recovery (TWRP) and then flash a custom rom if you want. You might be able to get away with just flashing the recovery first, but I'm not sure. Good luck :)

R0b0t1
07-28-2017, 03:14 PM
The ads are built into my phone (and others). My phone doesn't have a rooting package or any ROMs available for it. These ads are in the system menus, I can't remove them with uBlock Origin. I'll see if I can't get an S3 or another Note 3, or maybe fix my Note 2. Kind of short on time to do it.

Where do I get the stock ROM?

anth_
08-03-2017, 02:23 AM
The ads are built into my phone (and others). My phone doesn't have a rooting package or any ROMs available for it. These ads are in the system menus, I can't remove them with uBlock Origin. I'll see if I can't get an S3 or another Note 3, or maybe fix my Note 2. Kind of short on time to do it.

Where do I get the stock ROM?

Sorry mate, didn't see because of no quote. https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ will have stock ROMs (depends on your model)

R0b0t1
08-03-2017, 09:03 PM
Sorry mate, didn't see because of no quote. https://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ will have stock ROMs (depends on your model)
Thanks, looks like they only have Japanese Note 2 ROMS though.

anth_
08-04-2017, 12:00 AM
Sorted on IRC :D

R0b0t1
11-13-2017, 07:36 AM
Hello again everyone,

Sorry to dig this up. If anyone has some suggestions that are cost-aware I would really appreciate it. A capable GPU is the only priority. The existing suggestions are the Note 3, and "Xiaomi" phones (a model would be nice). Cheaper phones would work, but I spent a fair bit of time trying to port and build both Lineage OS and OmniROM to devices I own (LG Stylo 2, no luck; Note 2, OmniROM seems inactive) and had no luck.

Should nobody feel confident making a strong recommendation, some tips on how to evaluate phones or a quick survey of all major brands would be welcome.

deejaay
11-13-2017, 11:29 AM
Hello again everyone,

Sorry to dig this up. If anyone has some suggestions that are cost-aware I would really appreciate it. A capable GPU is the only priority. The existing suggestions are the Note 3, and "Xiaomi" phones (a model would be nice). Cheaper phones would work, but I spent a fair bit of time trying to port and build both Lineage OS and OmniROM to devices I own (LG Stylo 2, no luck; Note 2, OmniROM seems inactive) and had no luck.

Should nobody feel confident making a strong recommendation, some tips on how to evaluate phones or a quick survey of all major brands would be welcome.

You should check out ResurrectionRemix for the Note 2, I just recently flashed it onto my Note 2 probably not even a week ago and I'm loving it so far its Nougat 7.1.2. I would link it but idk if that's against the rules but it's on xda.

R0b0t1
04-05-2018, 05:33 AM
Hello again everyone, I feel like I need to resurrect this thread.

I am still looking for something cheap that I can root. Those are the only two requirements. Support on LineageOS would be great as well. So far I have found BLU phones. Coincidentally I also found someone who had gotten LineageOS to run on them. With any luck I will be able to compile LineageOS for a BLU Advance 5.2. If not, I will go with an older Moto device, but they are starting to get expensive.

It seems like MediaTek devices are easy to root, even if I am unable to get LineageOS built. This is important as many things can't be done on stock devices, a few of which are potentially interesting if trying to interface with OSRS on Android. If this experiment works well there are even cheaper BLU Android phones that could be suitable for a device farm.