ANSWERED Can someone kindly answer some stupid questions regarding Android devices?

[OmniNegro 155]

Hello everyone. I am entirely new to Android devices and am rather perplexed by what I am seeing. Allow me to explain.

 

I bought a ARM S905 based Android device to replace basic cable television for my elderly mother. I then had the good sense to try to install OpenVPN on it. First problem was that Google Play required a login, and I could not find a working way to generate a fake login. So I gave up and used a real one. (My only gmail account as well.)

 

But then in a minute I had OpenVPN installed and imported the configuration I made here according to the instructions. It connected fast and here is where I am utterly unable to fathom what happened. It *NEVER* asked me for my username or password...

 

It seems to be working fine, but I worry that it is not actually using the VPN since I never gave it proper credentials. Am I misunderstanding and the config generator imported my username and password as one of the huge blocks of hashed text like the "Static Key" or "Private Key"?

 

Thanks in advance for anyone able to explain this to me. And in addition, if anyone knows a way to make a gmail account not linked directly to me, and without a telephone, I would be very thankful. I have never owned a mobile phone, and my home phone is VoIP and does not seem to accept SMS messages, so I cannot seem to get Google to accept it. I am not about to waste money buying a mobile phone I will never use just so I can make a gmail account to make this device work.

 

Good day everyone. Thanks for reading.

[zhang888 1065]

AirVPN is not based on usernames and passwords, but on certificates. Those certificates are embedded inside the config file,

so once you import them with any VPN client you are good to go. This is a more secure and convenient way running a public VPN service.

 

You don't really need a Google account on Android in order to download and use FOSS tools like OpenVPN.

For that, you have to install F-Droid (apk manager) which acts like an alternative to Google Play Store:

https://f-droid.org

 

You can also download non-free apk's from 3d parties, however you need to verify hashes and make sure

they are identical to the ones from the Google Play store, for example using a mirror service like APKpure:

https://apkpure.com

 

Last, if you want to create a Google account you can do it without phone verification, but you need to do it

from an IP address that hasn't been used for Google signups for at least a few days. Any home ISP without

NAT is usually enough to accomplish that.

[OmniNegro 155]

Thanks a lot. That is very good to know. Do you happen to know if I can remove my gmail account from the device without bricking it in some dirty, rotten Google parasite way?

 

There is much more to learn before I should try changing what currently seems to be working, but when I do start changing things, F-Droid and APKpure are certainly going to be essential to everything.

 

As for generating an account from my home ISP, it seems Google still wants a phone number, and will not relent on this. But perhaps I can find a work around later.

 

Really. You have probably helped me more than you can imagine. Thank you. I will not forget the help.

[OpenSourcerer 1359]

Do you happen to know if I can remove my gmail account from the device without bricking it in some dirty, rotten Google parasite way?

 

Accounts can be safely deleted in Settings > Accounts. Click on the Google account > three dots in the top right corner > Delete account.

 

If you need an app from the Play Store and you've got a computer running Java, Raccoon can help.