An unrooted OS version for fairphone

Hi,

I loved the idea behind Fairphone, however, due to the fact it’s rooted, I can’t make use of GOOD for enterprise on it. I tried several ways to hide the root status, but all failed on me. I would really like to have an OS version which is not rooted so I can run GOOD. You guy’s may find a way to hide the root status for GOOD, but probably a next release of GOOD will kill this work around.

So I was hoping someone could point me to a ROM for Fairphone which does not have root access.

Greet,
Martijn

Interessting Idea!

Currently the Root Access is part of the fairphones concept and required for the Updater and GApps installer to function. I am pretty sure that mantaining and supporting two different FP OSes is too much to ask for but it might be something to consider for future software releases to make the Fairphone root optional. I think it is great to have root on the Fairphone, but i stumbled on some apps myself the refused to run with root enabled.

Actually, i would prefer a very easy, like one-click / one-terminal-command, option to a prerooted device because it actually seems to be more secure for the typical users.

Also the Belgian Bancontact-app doesn’t work because FP is rooted. Is there a solution?

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Yes there might be one.

##How to hide root access
The Xposed app which allows to modify your Android after boot with different modules ( for example GravityBox which can hide the second sim bar and other stuff). One of the modules is RootCloak. This should allow to hide the root access from selected apps. There is some risk as Xposed can modify almost everything on Android so take care which modules you use. However Xposed is often used and amongst the module developers are a lot of well known developers.

Edit by @Stefan: Added title & links.

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Hi all,

I’ve used the Xposed Framework for quite a while, but I started noticing a lot of issues, as I explained in another post, here. This was mostly in combination with custom launchers and not the default Fairphone OS-launcher

Quoting myself


I had Solo Launcher for quite a while, but it had the same errors with other launchers (Go, Google Now, Apex…) The main problem was that when I exited an app, by pressing the home button, my launcher had to relaunch every time. Basically this spinning ‘loading’ thing popped up (default for android) and it had to reset my home screen. As well as my app drawer: every time I reopened my app drawer it had to ‘reset’ the icons.

Secondly: whenever I used the ‘quick launch’ tweak from Gravity Box (i.e. you could the drag the ‘unlock arch’ to an app, the phone would unlock and the selected app would be launched immediately), my phone completely crashed and I had to reset it by taking the battery out. It looked something like this1, but note that this is not Gravity Box.


So use GravityBox/Xposed Framework with caution!

Kind regards,

Robin

Hi Ben, the Root Cloack you suggested is indeed solving a lot of my issues (e.g. all bank related issues using the Belgian bankcontact app or Belgian bank mobile apps) are now working correctly.
For users who have difficulties installing the Xposes framework and the Root Cloack module, I found a nice video tutorial here: http://tutorialsfactory.com/how-to-run-apps-that-don-t-run-on-rooted-android-rootcloak/15821

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Hey Pierre,

I have the same problem with a Belgian bank app, but it isn’t solved with the Root Cloak (thanks for the link to the video though). I try to use Record Mobile. On which one does it work for you? I called the bank, but apparently they can’t solve the problem.

Kind regards,

Kirsten

Hey Kirsten,

For me both Crelan and BNP Parisbas Fortis work fine, and a friend has a Belfius account, for which it also works fine…
To be honest, I have no idea why it does not work for Record. Did you add record bank to your list of apps for which root needs to be hidden?

Regards

The Argenta and ING apps are also working fine on my FP (even without the Root Cloak). It seems Record and the Bankcontact app are the only ones with problems?

Hi Johan,
For Crelan, I also needed rootcloack.
For BNP Paribas Fortis, this was not necessary…

I am having the same issues with the Barclay App…and another banking app i think i remember.
But i do not want to install some mysteroius root hiding app. :frowning:

Hey Pierre,

Of course I added it to the list, so the problem is more complicated than I first thought. I already called the bank, but unfortunately, they haven’t got a solution yet.

How (Hack / privacy) safe is this ‘xposed app’ solution?

Maybe this thread and this thread help you decide how safe it is for you.

I think the Xposed framework is as safe as your way of using it.

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Prefer it if the next Fairphone is not auto-rooted as root interferes with security sensitive apps.

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There is no way an available root can interfere with programs. It’s all in those programs. They just don’t want to be used. And this “security sensitive” is just BS. There is nothing secure in an unrooted phone at all nor does root decrease security in any way. If a program doesn’t like a rooted phone, you should be nagging the author of this program not unrooting your phone.

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Please not! Root was one of my most desired features while buying my Fairphone. For me root increases my personal security (Firewalls, XPrivacy etc.) a unrooted phone secures only the apps from be controlled by me.

regards,
Shiny

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100% agree! :smile:
Root is the first characteristics a “Fair” phone ought to have :smile:

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Using Xposed Framework