I switched to GrapheneOS

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:41:08 -0400

I switched to GrapheneOS

I recently purchased a ’new-to-me’ Pixel 10 Pro to replace my Pixel 8 Pro.

There was nothing particularly wrong with the 8, but I’d had it for a few years, and my father is in need of a new phone, so it was a good opportunity for me to upgrade.

At the same time, I’ve also been meaning to check out GrapheneOS, a custom ROM based on AOSP that has a focus on privacy and security.

Given Google’s recent track record and their initiatives to lock down Android under the pretext of security theater I figured there had never been a better time to try out GrapheneOS.

This post is a record of my experience and of my first impressions.

Installation

I used the official WebUSB installer method to install GrapheneOS.

It was extremely painless, especially compared with my experience installing CyanogenMod in the old days.

All I needed to do was install one Android developer package on Fedora, open up Chromium and follow the prompts.

I was up and running within 15 minutes, which is very impressive.

First Impressions

Landing on the home screen at first launch is somewhat intimidating.

The default GrapheneOS home screen is very utilitarian and barebones.

However, I was able to install Obtanium without much trouble and get most of the apps I wanted installed.

However, I do have some need for Google Play and Play Services, so I installed those too. GrapheneOS makes it painless to do so by including a mirror of the official APK files in their own App Store. I know this compromises the privacy of the device somewhat, but as always one must take into account their own risk profile and ride the line between convenience and security.

I do enjoy that GrapheneOS gives the user far more control over what privileges every app on the device has, even for Google Play Services.

So far I haven’t had too many issues.

The only problems I’ve run into have been the Reddit client that I prefer to use, and of course Google Wallet.

I had occasionally used Google Wallet to do NFC payments, but I knew that this was likely to not work on a custom ROM.

The reddit client I was using was Relay for reddit. For some reason the Google Play Store showed that the app was not compatible. I found a way to get the application to install via the Aurora Store and the app launched just fine - however I was unable to log in at all.

The login webview came up as normal, but no matter what I did, it claimed that my password was incorrect, despite the same one perfectly fine in both the website and Reddit’s own official app.

I can only assume this has something to do with the Play integrity API.

Frankly I don’t use reddit much anymore, so I simply uninstalled both apps and will use the mobile website going forward.

Final Thoughts

I may come back and update this post later, or publish a follow up.

So far I am very impressed with what I’ve seen.

As far Android as a whole - I very much wish that there were more open-source alternatives.

I’m aware of projects like PostmarketOS and SailfishOS, but the issue is two things - device compatibility, and application support.

Everyone should support the Keep Android Open initiative!

Replacing Pocket Casts

Mon, 05 May 2025 08:53:26 -0400

Replacing Pocket Casts

Overview

I’ve been a user of Pocket Casts for a long time now. There’s nothing wrong with it, and in fact it’s been a fantastic experience the entire time I’ve used it.

However, I’ve been trying to move whatever I can to open-source, self-hosted projects, and this was one that I’d wanted to take a crack at for quite a while.

Here were my requirements for a podcast manager:

Self-hosted and open-source.
The ability to listen on either mobile or desktop, and pick up from where I left off in either location.

I went through a few iterations of this, and I’m still not quite happy with the result, but let me go over the projects that I tried out, and the issues I ran into with them.

PinePods

PinePods is a newer project, built mostly with Rust and Python.

I tried this one first because it had a pretty web interface, a companion Android app, and support for sync through Gpodder compatible servers like Opodsync or the NextCloud GpodderSync app..

Installation was fairly straightforward, and I chose to integrate it with my existing Authentik instance for OIDC sign on.

All of that worked great - until I installed the mobile app and realized that OIDC is not yet supported. I assume that this is the reason that I was not seeing my progress synced between the mobile app and the web interface.

Next I tried using AntennaPod for the mobile app, with GpodderSync on NextCloud as the backend.

Somehow enabling GpodderSync in PinePods wiped out all of my existing podcast subscriptions. Thankfully I had them all backed up in an OPML file still, so it was just a matter of re-importing the file again.

However, none of the podcasts I had added to PinePods ever showed up in GpodderSync on NextCloud. However, adding a podcast via AntennaPod worked fine.

Supposedly there is a large update to sync coming to PinePods in the next few days, but I chose to move on and try out something else.

PodFetch

PodFetch is another podcast manager. This one comes with its own built-in Gpodder sync mechanism that just needs to be enabled via an environment variable.

The good:

I actually think PodFetch has the nicer UI of the two.

The bad:

I found the documentation for this project severely lacking and often found myself digging through GitHub issues to try and figure out how to configure certain things correctly.

Once again, OIDC is essentially a non-starter unless you’re not planning on ever using a mobile app.

Also, make sure that the user you try to connect AntennaPod with is not an administrator, or it will just fail. I had to enable additional logging in PodFetch to figure that out.

Once I finally figured out that headache, I discovered that sync is essentially broken. Listening to a podcast on either end and then forcing a full sync in AntennaPod does not change either side. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but this was the nail in the coffin. I was no longer interested in spending more time trying to get this working.

NextPod

Next, I tried out NextPod. This is the companion app to GpodderSync.

It is extremely basic and missing what I’d consider basic features like skip forward and back buttons, but at the very least - the synchronization of listen state works reliably.

For the moment I’ve settled on this setup:

GpodderSync for the backend, which keeps track of my subscriptions and listen state
NextPod for listening on desktop
AntennaPod for listening on mobile

It does essentially everything that was on my laundry list, but I’m not particularly happy with NextPod as my desktop solution. It works, but it lacks even the most basic management features, and the playback UI is, as I said, barebones.

If anyone else has any suggestions I’d like to hear about them. I’ll check out the updated PinePods when the sync updates drops, but for the moment I’ll leave this as it is.

Update: I was just made aware of RePod which looks much more functional than NextPod.

Android on Sysadmin Tales

I switched to GrapheneOS

I switched to GrapheneOS

Installation

First Impressions

Final Thoughts

Replacing Pocket Casts

Replacing Pocket Casts

Overview

PinePods

PodFetch

NextPod