Recently, I set up a Pixel device and I ran into Google forcing me to connect to the internet before allowing me to proceed further. This blocked me from installing GrapheneOS on it, as I couldn’t get into the phone (to unlock developer mode). My assumption is that this was to verify that the device isn’t on some blacklist or something along those lines. I eventually caved, and connected it to a router with a VPN connection.
Just wanted to mention this to anyone planning to set up GrapheneOS and didn’t know about this requirement. If I knew about this ahead of time, I would have went to a coffee shop or a free Wi-Fi spot to do the initial connection.
fun fact: did you know that you can use a phone running Vanadium (GrapheneOS) to flash GrapheneOS on another phone? (Source: Web installer | Install | GrapheneOS) That is what I did for this install.
Yeah, this is actually one of the few “missing things” in the GrapheneOS installation process documentation. The community consensus solution over at the GOS Forum tends to be to use a local public Wi-Fi if one wants to stay hidden from Google.
It’s to check over the Internet whether that specific device was sold as a part of a carrier deal as a locked unit. Pixels won’t enable OEM unlocking before they can check their carrier deal status. We can thank the US-based carriers for loving to lock their phones & then that change rippling out to the rest of the world to all Pixels.
Unless something has changed, you can boot into the stock OS and unlock the bootloader without ever connecting the Internet. I certainly did not connect to the Internet or log into a Google account last time I installed Graphene. I used Chromium on a Linux PC and the USB cable that came with the phone, which I bought from a local Google store. The SIM card was not inserted until GrapheneOS was running.