The issue I am facing:
My home network is currently running pi-hole so all devices connecting to the wifi benefit from the protection that the pi-hole offers.
I am investigating running Pi-hole on a debian based smartphone so that the phone can benefit from pi-hole protection when not connected to the home network. Also to protect other devices when the phone is being used as a wifi hotspot.
Details about my system:
PinePhone (Pro) running mobian, based closely on debian bookworm with the Phosh (Phosh/XFCE) desktop.
I have read a lot of posts regarding local installs that recommend using docker. What is the benefit of adding another layer of software to the PinePhone rather than installing pi-hole directly on the PinePhone which is already running debian?
While the PinePhone Pro is quite snappy in use the original PinePhone is a bit more lethargic. So it would be useful to avoid any extra overhead by not running software that is not actually needed.
Another question, given that the phone would not need pi-hole running locally all the time as it is sitting behind a pi-hole when on the home wifi what is the best way to switch between the local install and the network? Would things such as DNS settings need to be changed between the two modes of operation?
If all the above are possible, will using the phone as a hotspot cause any problems for pi-hole?
You have to consider that Mobian is not Debian even if its based on it. It's hard to say if you could even get Docker to install on Mobian but if you could, docker would provide a container that should provide for dependencies that perhaps Mobian does not compared to if you installed baremetal.
What your considering is very much an edge case. For scenario #1, using your phone outside your local network and still getting piholes benefit, you might be better off just install a browser extention like Ublock origin and block at the browser level. Your Friend connecting to you on a hotspot are on thier own
Seriously though, Mobian isn't support by pihole and docker may not be supported by Mobian ( you could reach out to the Mobian group for clarification on that ).
This doesn't even touch on your 2nd question on interation when at home or abroad. Being the edge case that it is, I doubt you'll find this has been done before by others.
You can achieve the same effect using inside your home network (just like you already have) and using a VPN to connect your phone when you are away from home.
uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger are standard extensions installed on browsers on the devices I use.
What is the issue with installing pi-hole on a single device that is also used for browsing? I can browse the internet on the RPi that runs pi-hole on my home network. Does the pi-hole blocking still work on the device running pi-hole?
Your question was around putting pihole on a pinephone running mobian and the point I was making is that its an unsupported os and you may have hardware compatablity issue as well. You can try and put it on the device but your likely not going to find a lot of support for trouble shooting issues. Pinephone is not a widely used device.
