i am once again asking you to free me from the necessity to compile android from source to have a phone i'm comfortable using
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when i upgrade my laptop i'm going to get one with two 2280 NVMe slots. this will allow me to store two android build trees at once instead of one
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Replying to @whitequark @pcwalton and @ManishEarth
to build Android, before even getting hired at Google, reevaluate your entire belief system and also delete all software from your machines
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i would also like to have a third security model, something in between "anyone who downloads fastboot.exe can do anything with your phone" and "if you forget the passphrase you have to desolder the eMMC and reimage it with a sector level backup of OEM partitions"
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If you forget your passphrase, you can boot up recovery and use the menu to wipe the data partition. Play services uses an AOSP API for storing a factory reset protection (frp) data block to preserve Google account registration through wiping data. Pixels provide it via TItan M.
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If you have Play services and the phone was registered to a Google account, the Google account credentials are needed to start using it.
AOSP itself provides the API but doesn't implement any kind of anti-theft protection itself, so wiping from recovery gives a usable device.
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It means that continuing to use the device after wiping involves the standard Google account recovery process if those credentials were lost. Often users wipe their device without realizing this. It's common enough that 2nd-hand Android phones are often received bricked this way.
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Leads to bad situations where the seller of the phone needs to resolve the issue by either providing their Google account credentials to the buyer, or they need to enter them into the phone (hopefully not a different malicious one) temporarily given back to them by the buyer...
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If it's your own phone, forgetting the passphrase can't really brick it unless you patched out recovery's wipe data option.
Factory Reset Protection isn't helpful as someone that had their phone stolen. Helps deter phone theft in general since stock Android + iOS have it though.
Replying to
I was under impression that GrapheneOS removes the option; did I read something outdated or misleading?
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Yeah that's just how it used to be before it was Android Hardening / GrapheneOS.
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