I like to travel around. But I don’t go by plain, if it is possible. And I don’t have any problems to waive targets I can’t reach without planes. Last year we spend our bike holidays in Ireland. We reached it by train, ferry, train, bike and ferry again and the same back. Time consuming and a little bit expensive. But that was o.k. and nice!
For such journeys it is quite helpful to use a smartphone with special apps for traveling. There is one delivered by the German railway company (Deutsche Bahn) called “DB Streckenagent”, which could be very helpful. You tell it, where and when you want to go and it tells you, which trains you may use, whether they are in time and if not, which you can take for substitute. It also tells you, where you have to go to find your connecting train or bus. That all sounds quite well! But this app needs Google Services. :-((
I did install it at a LOS 14.1 - microg phone, but it doesn’t work without Google. It gives an error: “Fehler beim Senden von Daten (2)”.
I did install it as well at a LOS 15.1 phone, plain without microg or Open GApps, and it doesn’t work as well.
Would it work with Open GApps? Is there anybody privacy consciously, who has experiences with this app at Lineage OSes or the open Fairphone OS? Would be great to get some assistance!
Personally, I use the bahn.de website on my phone for that purpose. Should give you most of the features without installing the app. Most railway companies that operate regional or city wide trains have a similar system on their websites.
You should also checkout the app “Transportr” on F-Droid. It uses OpenStreetMap for giving directions and supports not only Deutsche Bahn, but also many regional “Verkehrsverbände” in Germany and in Europe. Here are some screenshots.
One caveat, though, is that those apps don’t support the “Handy-Ticket” (ticket on your phone), which I think is a very useful thing as long as public transport is not free.
You could try whether perhaps DB Navigator works with microG or without Google services, even if it doesn’t seem to have all the features of DB Streckenagent.
And I suspect microG is tweakable, perhaps somebody with enough microG knowledge could get DB Streckenagent to work.
Else … I use DB Navigator with Open GApps pico without a problem.
And I just installed DB Streckenagent, and it works with Open GApps pico, too.
Hint: I find the topic title a bit misleading. While I understand the thought it expresses, I now expected kind of a general discussion about aspects of LineageOS in the usability/privacy regard.
I’d suggest something like “DB Streckenagent or similar traffic navigation App without Google” to attract users who perhaps could help you with your actual problem, but I’ll leave that to you .
Very good to know, thank you!
To use it myself I would have to install a pure LOS version without microG? Probably LOS-microG doesn’t work together with Open GAapps? I havn’t understood the differences between microG and Open GAapps really!
Open GApps bundles the original Google services and Apps together in different packages so you can easily install them additionally to custom Android OSes which originally come without them, like e.g. LineageOS.
microG tries to reimplement the basic Google services many Apps depend on in an open-source, Google-free way.
So …
Open GApps = Google functionality because 100% original Google stuff,
microG = mimicking Google functionality without any Google stuff (if it works).
I use Öffi. It is not open source, but there is a version that works without Google Maps services (though I use the normal one). It supports a variety of services, including Deutsche Bahn, and often with live data. I absolutely love it for its great visual overview of connections, which I never found in another app. This is incredibly useful in bigger cities where you have multiple possible connections with more or less changes / footwalks etc.
I just installed “DB Streckenagent” on my LineageOS+MicroG FP2, and it worked immediately.
Did you checked in the MicroG settings that the requirements are met?
As already said, MicroG utilisation is for running apps dependant of G…Services, but without installing G…Services nor OpenGApps.
Thank you for all your very helpfull contributions! For the Lineage OS 15.1 now there is an official Open Gapps 8.1, which I have installed. At that OS and on a LineageOS 14.1 microG phone I will try the ‘transportr’ and the ‘Öffi’ app.
Edit: Öffi doesn’t work at the LOS 15.1 phone (Galaxy S5), probably because the OS is beta still. Error: App incompatible, no download.
No such problem to install at a LOS 14.1 system.
Now I have got back my Fairphone and tried to install ‘Öffi’ at it, but again it said ‘incompartible’, and it also doesn’t install from a copied apk file.
The Lineage version is 14.1-20180307-NIGHTLY-FP2, the phone is rooted.
I also asked the dev Andreas Schildbach direcly via mail.
Edit: Andreas Schildbach already answered some hours later:
“probably the Google Maps v1-Library is missing. (LineageOS fehlt wohl die Google Maps v1-Library)”.
Yes, it is the plain Lineage version at my FP2 without microG or Open GApps.
At other phones with microG or Open GApps Öffi does run!
I didn’t, because I downloaded via Yalp store and there you don’t get this choice!
Now I have seen, that I can get it at the devs site ‘oeffi.schildbach.de’.
Thank yozu very much @DietmarP!!!
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