I messed around with it back in college. Had a lab where we had to make our own OS with a purpose. Lots of people made their own digital picture frame. This was back in 2005 when linux and gentoo were rougher around the edges. I tried compiling my own custom kernel. One that had only the drivers needed for my hardware. Took like 2 days per compile. After several tweaks and fixes I got the kernel to compile, but not boot.

Eventually caved and went the easy route of compiling the generic kernel because I had a deadline. I installed xfce, metasploit, nessus, wireshark, and a handful if other tools to make a knockoff kali linux for my project. It was fun, and I learned a lot.

Boot into a live usb. They’re great for debugging stuff like this and giving you some clues.

If it works, it’s not a hardware or windows issue. If it doesn’t, it might be.

Fight it as long as I can with my current fairly new phone. I assume that update by google would require an OS update, not a google play update. I might just not update my OS until I get a new phone.

If I’m lucky I won’t need to update for a few years and an awesome linux phone will be available. If not then some de-googled android phone.