Is LineageOS possible on Boox devices?

[cartz]

LineageOS is now possible on the Hisense e-ink devices (A9 and HiReader Pro and possible others also). See the following reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/commen...or_hisense_a9/

I'm wondering if anyone who has technical knowledge of the Boox devices if they think this would ever be likely on the variety of Boox devices. I know a lot of people are concerned with the privacy of Boox devices and LineageOS would be a game changer in this respect.

[ottischwenk]

Is LineageOS possible on Boox devices?

What would be gained from it?
No Google Play Store!
I don't know if that's a win

[rowe]

Lineage is with/without Play Store

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

No Google Play Store!

The post states:

It comes with Gapps fully functional.

Gapps includes Google Play Store -- or it least it has on all the Android devices I've installed LineageOS onto.

Originally Posted by rowe

Lineage is with/without Play Store

LineageOS typically comes without Gapps (so that you can choose how extensive or minimalistic a version of it you want -- see here) -- however, per the above quote, it appears that this version comes with Gapps (and thus Google Play Store) already included

[Quoth]

It's just a patched version of Android. Nearly pointless with the version that has Playstore.

[joblack]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

What would be gained from it?
No Google Play Store!
I don't know if that's a win

So surveillance?

[rowe]

Well, with the original post you can run higher versions of android on devices otherwise limited to old versions. Which has a number of positive points (like being able to install the latest versions of many apps that would otherwise be unavailable on the Play Store).

Also removes junk software and improves the battery life while porting the e-ink refresh code.

I used an alternative method to get Android 14.

[bigwigs]

Depends on which Boox device. If device has note taking capabilities via stylus then it will lead to loss of that capability. Maybe for Boox Palma it would make sense but others not sure what additional functionality would Lineage OS provide that is currently not available.

[rowe]

Personally I’m not really interested in eink note taking, but it does add complexity. Ideally the native notes app could be ported over.

[kandwo]

It might make sense on the Palma or a future phone version, if they decide to release that.

The problem would be dealing with the BSR - is there any code that needs to be ported over?

And one would lose access to Neoreader, which still is not available as an app/apk. Not a big loss for non-notetakers.

[cartz]

Originally Posted by bigwigs

Depends on which Boox device. If device has note taking capabilities via stylus then it will lead to loss of that capability. Maybe for Boox Palma it would make sense but others not sure what additional functionality would Lineage OS provide that is currently not available.

As someone who uses e-ink devices for the majority of my internet use having devices that I can trust with private tasks such as online banking is important to me. On my Hisense A9 with Lineage I can now do this with a degree of confidence that I could never trust to my Boox or non-Lineage Hisense devices with.

So it's not added functionality that LineageOS provides, it's added confidence. Yes you would lose handwriting ability and if that is important to you then it wouldn't make sense to install Lineage. In my case I use a Boox Max Lumi connected to a keyboard and it would be a dream to have LineageOS on it.

[bigwigs]

Originally Posted by cartz

As someone who uses e-ink devices for the majority of my internet use having devices that I can trust with private tasks such as online banking is important to me. On my Hisense A9 with Lineage I can now do this with a degree of confidence that I could never trust to my Boox or non-Lineage Hisense devices with.

So it's not added functionality that LineageOS provides, it's added confidence. Yes you would lose handwriting ability and if that is important to you then it wouldn't make sense to install Lineage. In my case I use a Boox Max Lumi connected to a keyboard and it would be a dream to have LineageOS on it.

If you are concerned about ur privacy you can use vpn and private dns. As far as using banking apps on Hisense a9 with lineageos you are still using it via hideprops and other workarounds.which can be done with stock rom also.

I have multiple boox devices and have checked its internet activities using private dns, it doesn’t acccess any other sites like Hisense a9 which had 3rd party code baked in their phone os.

So, for Hisense a9 it makes sense to have lineageos to remove those 3rd party crap but boox isn’t like it.

Also, with lineageos on a9 still not eink experience like stock rom.

[rowe]

The e-ink experience is pretty good on LOS, as long as the refresh code is ported over. Not really necessary, but it can have themes applied to make the general UI more e-ink friendly.

[Anghirrim]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It's just a patched version of Android. Nearly pointless with the version that has Playstore.

It's not "just a patched version of android". A custom ROM is usually:

- More battery friendly (thanks to all bloatware removed)
- More privacy friendly (for those who actually don't like Google spywares)
- Snappier than the stock rom (as it is most of the time lighter than the stock firmware)

While for the GAPPS, F-droid and Aurora store are very good alternatives to Google apps.

So yes, there is definitely some interest in getting a custom rom on any Android device.

That being said, I am a privacy, "less is more" and anti-GAFAM user. Everytime I buy a device, I make sure it's as open (from a software standpoint) as possible.

So yes, an open e-ink Android tablet would be a plus. I'm actually eagerly waiting for it.

While for the stylus, if the custom ROM is well built, you don't loose it (especially with latest Android versions). As an example, I just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and with another guy, we adapted a custom recovery (to flash custom ROM's) on it. Recovery and ROM's preserve the use of the S-Pen.

[ottischwenk]

The really interesting boox devices have BSR (controlled by a 100K FPGA) - and this will certainly not be possible to port