[guardian-dev] migration to CopperheadOS

Wed Jun 29 17:01:32 EDT 2016

Supporting devices is mostly a question of someone finding the time to
do the work.  Copperhead is choosing the devices that they can support
for the longest amount of time with the least amount of work.

As far as I know, there is no plans to grant apps root, that's too much
of a security risk and not within the use cases that they are targeting.
Since they include F-Droid by default, that's the main app that needs root.

.hc

Greg Troxel:
> 
> I see that there is some joint Guardian/CopperheadOS/F-droid notion,
> which makes sense.  I don't see any lists for CopperheadOS, although I
> have seen some tweets about making CopperheadOS more accessible to those
> wanting to get involved in development, but I'm finding it a little hard
> to follow as a user.  So I am sending comments here.  Much of this is
> really a request to add answers in the docs.
> 
> * device support
> 
> I think it's unfortunate that the Nexus 7 (2013) is not supported.  I
> realize there are perhaps technical reasons and definitely there is
> limited effort available, but it seems like there are a lot of them out
> there.  I bought one to use for testing before upgrading my phone; this
> made it more comfortable to move from Google-provided ROMs to
> CyanogenMod.  (Perhaps I just need to get used to buying new hardware
> every few years even though the old hardware is ok; I realize that's an
> issue far bigger than CopperheadOS.)
> 
> The Nexus 5 is marked deprecated at
>   https://copperhead.co/android/docs/install
> but it doesn't say why.  I tend to use old computers, so the Nexus 5
> seems fairly recent to me.
> 
> It might be nice to give advice about buying a phone specifically to run
> Open source/hardened AOSP; it seems like 5X or 6P is the right answer,
> with 6P costing more and likely to last a year more than the 5X before
> being desupported.
> 
> * AOSP base
> 
> At
> 
>   https://copperhead.co/android/docs/technical_overview
> 
> it is not clear which versions of AOSP are in use, and what the plan is
> for the future.  I realize I may not understand AOSP versioning as well
> as I should, but it would be good to aim things at someone who is a
> CyanogenMod user, at most.
> 
> I think the situation is that CopperheadOS is based on Android
> 6/Marshmallow. But the mr/dr split is unclear to me.
> 
> * stable/development branches
> 
> I see there is a stable branch and development branches (separately for
> dr/mr).  There's the notion that the OS is basically stable except for
> obscure features, but presumably that applies to the stable branch.
> Does that imply that installing it on a phone (e.g. Nexus 5) and
> expecting to actually use the phone normally is a sane idea?
> 
> Can one move from stable to development and back without a full
> reinstall (and data wipe)?
> 
> * future
> 
> Are there plans for when 7/N is released?  Will 7 be declared stable and
> 6 be desupported at the same time, or two versions, or?
> 
> * Google services vs open-source code
> 
> CyanogenMod comes without Google's location service and without google
> play services.  What about CopperheadOS?  Can one install them
> separately?  Is there some fused location service, or should one install
> unifiednlp like one does on CyanogenMod?
> 
> * root, XPrivacy
> 
> Is one able to grant root to apps like in CyanogenMod?
> 
> Can one run XPrivacy?
> 
> * app compatibility
> 
> Does pretty much everything in f-droid work as well as it works on
> cyanogenmod?
> 
> * privacy
> 
> The focus seems to be mostly about exploit mitigation, but also privacy
> (mac randomization, geotagging defaults).  Has there been an effort to
> remove all code that exfiltrates data in terms of phoning home (other
> than CopperheadOS update servers)?  Or, is it at least stated that any
> data being sent without explicit user request is a bug?
> 
> In particular, what about AGPS loading?  I have heard that on some
> systems that sends location and a unique ID.
> 
> * camera geotagging
> 
> It's nice not to ask people to turn it on, but arguably that's most
> important in the phones of people not running ParanoidOS :-)
> 
> It would be nice to be able to safely use geotagging.  Basically I would
> like to geotag at limited times, especially when taking tourist-type
> photos in public places.  So I wonder if there is an easy toggle and
> visual indication in the camera, and some sort of enable that would time
> out after 1h or so, so that when you've forgotten it is on it will be
> off again.
> 
> 
> 
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