Hey all,
im looking to ditch the stock rom and put a rom on that doesn’t have any proprietary stuff on it. i have a Moto G Stylus 5G 2024, and from XDA, it seems that there is not only root, but also GSI roms. do GSI roms still contain google binaries (play store, play services, etc…) or is it similar to a AOSP rom where its just a bare android image with no apps other than the very basic stuff? Sadly i can’t afford getting a pixel atm or another device that can run mobile linux or graphene, so just wanted to see if this was viable.
Yes. That’s to say they can be either depending on how the ROM was built. All of the GSI ROM builders I’ve worked with usually have multiple releases of the same build with different configurations: root, no root, with Google services (often MicroG), without Google services, combinations of both, etc.
To my understanding, GSI ROMs are basically just the “userland” portion of a full ROM. Basically they use the stock/existing kernel, drivers, etc but replace the rest of the system that runs on top of it. If memory serves, they’re possible due to Project Treble. Sadly, they still require an unlocked bootloader to install, so they’re not a total fix-all.
They’re also very generic generic images (hence the “G” in the term). They’re not optimized for any specific device and can be hit-or-miss feature wise depending on the device. If you’re already reading about a specific device on XDA forums, then you’ll probably be able to see what works and what doesn’t.
TL;DR: Running a GSI ROM is like upgrading to a newer Linux distro but without upgrading the kernel.
ah i see ok. yeah i don’t want microG. thanks