Very sadly DivestOS come to the end 😱😭

Anniversary and Final Update¶
Notes from Tavi

December marks 10 years of #DivestOS!
There were over 7,000 git commits created in this time.
I believe the projects were highly successful in their goals, however this month will mark the end.
DivestOS and its apps will not receive any further updates.
Hypatia and Carrion will no longer receive database updates.
The non-mobile Divested projects (eg. Brace, D-WRT, real-ucode, and DNS blocklists) will continue to be maintained.
Most of our forum threads will be closed and the DivestOS XMPP chat rooms will also be turned off.
Donations will no longer be accepted and all recurring donations will be cancelled.
Thank you to all the users, contributors, and donors for this time. -Tavi

https://divestos.org/pages/news#end

microG GMSCore v0.3.6.244735 has been released on 2024-12-23.



UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS:

This is a feature and bugfix/compatibility update. There is at least one report of a new issue with this release.

If you have critical reliance on your device you may want to wait a week or two until more user reports are in before updating to this. (UNLESS you are still on 0.2.27 for UNLP reasons. Scroll to the bottom of this doc for more info before installing.)


New Features Overview


Initial Support for Play Integrity

If you need this, you probably already know what it is. We doubt this is going to be some magic solution as Google is always targeting to block custom ROM users with this tool, but it may improve compatibility for some users. Let us know how it works for you.


Add support in the Self-Check Page to show compatibility with Google’s new app signing regime

Google recently broke compatibility with Google Apps and future apps downloaded from Google Play by changing their app signing scheme.

This requires a change in your app signature spoofing solution, either inside your ROM or in an external add-on. This change will show you if your ROM or signature spoofing solution has updated to support this Google change.


Other improvements

Improve Google Play Games compatibility, general compatibility improvements, various bugfixes, language translation updates.

For a full changelog, see the links below.


Github release page
Includes release notes overview
https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/releases/tag/v0.3.6.244735


DETAILED changelogs with code commits:

0.3.5 —> 0.3.6
https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/compare/v0.3.5.240913...v0.3.6.244735



========


UPDATING:


* This has been flagged as a PREVIEW release on the microG website and F-droid repo.

Since this is a “Preview” release, it will NOT be suggested to you as a new update unless you have your client configured to offer "unstable” software versions, or select the new version manually in the “Versions” dropdown at the bottom of the app page on F-droid.


The most straightforward way to update the microG core module for most people is by using the F-droid client, with the special microG F-droid repo added. (See our “f-droid-repo” group note here)

You can also update microG on an existing installation by downloading the new APK from the official microG Github download page or website, and install it like any other standalone APK.



REMEMBER THAT THERE ARE TWO MAIN MICROG COMPONENTS: GmsCore and microG Companion. Always update both together, and ensure the version numbers match.

If you use a ROM which bundles microG and the above update methods do not work, you may have to wait for your ROM to update to the new microG version. Ask your ROM developer.

For new installs, the 3rd-party installer bundles will be updated as per each developer's workflow.

Google Apps update

If you're having problems with various Google Apps not working properly starting within the last 2 weeks or so, check this out:

Google recently changed the method used to create app signatures on all Google Apps, and will be rolling these changes out to ALL apps distributed via Google Play starting next year.

This requires all app signature spoofing methods (either embedded within your ROM or used as an external patch) to be updated to continue to support apps distributed via Google Play on a device running microG.

The Github comment linked below contains a list of which ROMs and signature spoofing patches have imported the changes necessary to support the new Google Play app signing mechanism.

We advise you to NOT do any updates of apps sourced from Google Play - especially paid apps or any app that does license-checking - until you have these fixes applied on your devices or those apps may stop working!

(I do not know if the linked post will be continuously updated to reflect news about other ROMs etc but it is correct as of the time of posting. Most ROMs based on LOS should get these patches eventually. Please check with your ROM maintainer.)

https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/2680#issuecomment-2548579352

Here's a summary of the situation:
FakeGApps (fix merged) - v6.5 or higher contains the fixes
LineageOS 19.1/20/21/22 (fix merged) - All builds from 2024/12/17 onwards contain the fix
LineageOS for microG (fix auto-included from upstream) - All builds from 2024/12/17 onwards contain the fix
/e/OS (fix merged) - v2.6.3 or higher contains the fix
crDroid (fix merged) - v15.0-20241225 or higher contains the fix
CalyxOS 6.2.2 and 5.14.1 (fix merged) - New versions in the works
IodéOS v5.8 or higher (fix included)
DivestOS (no info yet)

IronFox

IronFox is a fork of DivestOS's Mull Browser based on #Firefox that has been discontinued. Our goal is to continue the legacy of #Mull to provide a secure, hardened and privacy-oriented #browser for daily use.

And add the release link to Obtainium: https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox/-/releases

Don't forget to use extensions uBlock Origin and Libredirect only. Adding more extensions will cause fingerprinting and most are false security.
- uBlock Origin
-- add the ai blocklist to uBO

- LibRedirect
-- setup all the sites you want to redirect to and choose your mirrors for them.


Set your default search to 4get
(Captcha) https://4get.ca/web?s=%s
(No captcha) https://4get.ch/web?s=%s

Finally, go through all the ironfox settings and set them how you would prefer them.

Read the gitlab page. Specifically...

Known Issues
Please see the list of known issues and workarounds before opening an issue!

Issues inherited from Mull that still apply to IronFox *(contents adapted from DivestOS's website)*

You should also see here for a list of websites with known issues due to hardening, and what you may need to do to fix them. This list is maintained by Phoenix - so while it isn't specific to IronFox or Mull, many of these problems do still apply.
Ironfox has Phoenix already, but this can be added to other browsers on Android and desktop.

Changelog : v4.6.4 (65)

• Fixed issues with shared library installation for apps like Chrome and WebView
• Support for login into personal account using microG
• Fixed an issue with auth verification
• Translation updates; Additional strings localized

#Android #web #browsers

Ungoogled Chromium (forked from cromite) with Bromite patches and additional codecs
https://github.com/macchrome/droidchrome/releases
https://chromium.woolyss.com/#android

Cromite is another example of ungoogled chromium without the extra codecs from the above link, but cromite includes more patches as noted at github.
https://github.com/uazo/cromite
Fdroid repo
https://www.cromite.org/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=49f37e74dee483dca2b991334fb5a0200787430d0b5f9a783dd5f13695e9517b

For an Android Firefox based browser, use IronFox
https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox/-/releases
Fdroid repo
https://fdroid.ironfoxoss.org/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=c5e291b5a571f9c8cd9a9799c2c94e02ec9703948893f2ca756d67b94204f904

These can be added to Obtainium to download the latest release when they are available
https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium

https://archive.is/0OLMG

how to change #linux machine-id

#Linux devices have a unique identifier called machine-id. Here is how to change it.

Posted on February 24, 2021

What is a machine-id, and why should you randomize it? From the machine-id man pages, it is defined as:

This ID uniquely identifies the host. It should be considered “confidential”, and must not be exposed in untrusted environments, in particular on the network. If a stable unique identifier that is tied to the machine is needed for some application, the machine ID or any part of it must not be used directly.
https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/machine-id.5.html

In an effort to promote privacy, having a unique and unchanging identifier tied to your device seems like the wrong approach. It’s quite possible that poorly coded or even maliciously coded software could fetch this ID from your system. Let’s make sure that even if that does happen, that the value is constantly changing so that your device can not be uniquely identified as your device.
This is an incredibly simple and quick adjustment to your default Linux system. What we’re doing is showing you how to either adjust this value manually by hand, or by running a cronjob to change this value every minute with a new, randomized value.
Before we begin, a disclaimer: We’ve tested this on our own work desktops and development environments and I’ve tested it on my daily driver desktop. We have not found that anything has ‘broken’ because of this, but this is untested in many environments and may not be suitable for your use. It’s always reversible if you later wish to continue with a single, uniquely identifying ID attached to your device(s).
Debian / Ubuntu systems
To check your machine-id, open up your terminal and enter the following:
cat /etc/machine-id
The output should look a little something like this:
a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd
You’ll note that this value is also stored in /var/lib/dbus/machine-id and that a symlink between the two exist. Any change to one file, will be reflected in the other.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id a9976154f0084a3782892638656ad9fd
If you reboot your device, you’ll notice that this value remains unchanged. So, let’s change it ourselves!
Method 1: Manually.
Method 2 is automatically, every minute, as ran by a cron-job. If you don’t want to fully commit to that, you can change your machine-id by hand manually whenever you feel like it.
Step 1, remove the old machine-id file.
sudo rm /etc/machine-id
Step 2, recreate the machine-id file.
sudo systemd-machine-id-setup
Step 3, confirm that /etc/machine-id (and /var/lib/dbus/machine-id) now show a new value, different from the original.
cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
That’s it! You should see two lines in your output with matching IDs that differ from the original machine-id you had in the beginning.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id a78badce3e73beced163bbef7e55232a a78badce3e73beced163bbef7e55232a
You’ve changed your device’s uniquely identifying machine-id. This change will survive device reboots and will remain the same until you create a new one.
Method 2: Changing every 1 minute, automatically.
If the above didn’t satisfy your needs, than feel free to automate the creation of a new machine-id by creating a cronjob entry that will generate a new ID every minute.
Step 1, open up your crontab file.
sudo crontab -e
Step 2, enter at the bottom of the file the following:
*/1 * * * * sudo rm /etc/machine-id && sudo systemd-machine-id-setup
Save and Exit.
Step 3, wait a minute and confirm that your machine-id value has changed:
cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
You should see two new matching values, that differs from the original value you had at the start. Wait a minute and run the step 3 command again, and you’ll see that these values have changed.

You’ll see that the command, when ran a minute or more apart, will produce new values now.
me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id b722903d87994e24b6378289262c3021 b722903d87994e24b6378289262c3021 me@virtbox-testing:~$ cat /etc/machine-id && cat /var/lib/dbus/machine-id 4352c41ad7fb4a05a54b0942c5c27cb0 4352c41ad7fb4a05a54b0942c5c27cb0
In closing
Uniquely identifying ID’s are rarely a good thing when you take privacy into consideration, and although these items have their purpose in limited use cases it doesn’t appear that generating a new unique ID every minute has any downsides.
What do you think? Is this a pointless privacy practice or a needed, but often overlooked part in maintaining privacy in the modern age? Let us know in the comments below.
Additional Thoughts
After publishing this article, we received some feedback that I’d like to touch base on here.
Testing the high privacy, pro-anonymity Tails-OS shows that you receive a new machine-id after every reboot. Props to Tails-OS!
Testing the privacy and anonymity promoting Whonix-OS shows that they do not issue a new machine-ID after every reboot.
A commenter on a [RAMBLE] post mentions that MXLinux does not use systemd, and thus does not use a machine-id.
Here is a list of Linux operating systems that do not use systemd. (And will not have a machine-id)
Yes, there are other uniquely identifying aspects on all systems. From device serial numbers to MAC addresses. The purpose of this post was to discuss a lesser discussed unique identifer: machine-id.

Run DeepSeek R1 #AI locally on #Linux with our guide.

https://itsfoss.com/install-deepseek-r1-locally-linux/


the 1.5b model is not that useful, check the other variants here: https://ollama.com/library/deepseek-r1/tags

Up to 14b is recommended for most home computers: https://ollama.com/library/deepseek-r1

@itsfoss_official

Cherry Studio

Cherry Studio is a desktop client for Windows, Mac and Linux, which supports many LLM providers, including large cloud services and local models.

Among its main functions is the ability to work with more than 300 pre -designed #AI assistants, the creation of custom assistants, as well as support for various formats of documents, including text, images and office files.

The application offers tools for global search, top management and translating, which significantly improves interaction with the user thanks to the cross -platform and many settings options.

https://github.com/cherryhq/cherry-studio

DisableGoogleAnalytics

https://gitlab.com/adrian.m.miller/disablegoogleanalytics

Attempts To Disable Common Google Analytics And Ads Receivers In All Affected Packages

What it does/How it works:
On 1st run after rebooting after install the module is assuming you want it to disable the listed analytics and ad receivers, so it will:
Wait till boot is completed
Then sleep for 2 minutes
Then test that cpu usage is under 30% before running
It will then disable the analytics and ad receivers as listed below, and log its progress to /sdcard/fixgoogleanalytics.log

Common Analytics And Ad Recievers:
com.google.android.gms.analytics.AnalyticsJobService com.google.android.gms.analytics.CampaignTrackingService com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementService com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementJobService com.google.android.gms.analytics.AnalyticsReceiver com.google.android.gms.analytics.CampaignTrackingReceiver com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementInstallReferrerReceiver com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementReceiver com.google.android.gms.measurement.AppMeasurementContentProvider com.crashlytics.android.CrashlyticsInitProvider com.google.android.gms.ads.AdActivity com.google.firebase.iid.FirebaseInstanceIdService

Once complete the service.sh script will delete itself
Once that happens any further interaction is purely via the included dga script as a binary in /system/(x)bin

dga takes 2 arguments, disable or enable, though i doubt too many will be looking to enable analytics and ad receivers, unless the disabling has unwanted effects on their system, which is high time to include the usual disclaimer that you run this at your own risk and not even dga enable is garaunteed to undo the changes

Module Installation:
Download from Releases
Install the module via #Magisk app/Fox Magisk Module Manager/MRepo
Reboot

Usage:

After first run optmization has completed, any further interaction is purely via the included dga script as a binary
in /system/(x)bin:

dga takes 2 arguments, disable or enable, though i doubt too many will be looking to enable
analytics and ad receivers, unless the disabling has unwanted effects on their system, which
is high time to include the usual disclaimer that you run this at your own risk and not even
dga enable is garaunteed to undo the changes
Uninstall Note: Uninstalling the module will not reverse the changes, if your intention is to uninstall the module and re-enable the
analytics and ad receivers, please run dga enable first

Tiling Shell
Advanced Window Management for #Linux #gnome desktops

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/7065/tiling-shell

A GNOME extension for advanced window management. It's highly configurable and offers different ways of tiling and managing your windows. The focus is on delivering the best user experience, highest stability, and full customization.

It also works with multiple monitors (even if they use different scaling), comes with a number of tiling layouts built-in but there is a layout editor to allow you to create and save customs layouts.

Tiling Shell also features the Snap Assistant, borrowed from Windows 11: just move a window to the top with your mouse and the Snap Assistant slides in and you can place the window where you want and how you want.

* Automatic tiling
* Fully customizable keyboard shortcuts to tile, move windows, change focus and more
* You can also move the window to the edge of the screen to tile it
* Right click on the window title to place the window where you want and how you want it
* Coming soon this week, Windows Suggestions: after tiling a window you get suggestions for other windows to fill the remaining tiles
...
There are other features https://github.com/domferr/tilingshell

Tiling Shell supports GNOME Shell 40 to 47 on X11 and Wayland.

IronFox Privacy and security-oriented Firefox-based web browser for Android. https://ironfoxoss.org/ releases new update.

Updated to Firefox 135.0
Updated to Phoenix 2025.02.01.1 - (See changes from the last release of IronFox)
uBlock Origin is now installed by default!
Added a toggle that allow users to spoof their locale to en-US (located under Settings -> Language) for additional fingerprinting protection (using patches from Tor Browser). Users fluent in English are highly recommended to enable this setting.
JavaScript & XFA are now disabled in Firefox's PDF Viewer (PDF.js)
Enabled support for Firefox's tab strip feature on compatible devices - #27
Other minor tweaks & fixes.

https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox/-/releases

Net Switch: Isolate Apps from Internet Access

Net Switch is a Magisk module to isolate apps from accessing the internet on your Android device. This tool gives you complete control over which apps can send or receive data, improving security, privacy, and saving bandwidth.
Fully standalone, Operates fully on iptables.

More info :https://github.com/Rem01Gaming/net-switch

#magisk #firewall #privacy #afwallalterernative