> Am I right in guessing that using a VM would be the easiest path to success? I've been able to successfully build Android on Arch Linux. Depending on which p

> Am I right in guessing that using a VM would be the easiest path to success? I've been able to successfully build Android on Arch Linux. Depending on which particular ROM you're building, much of the required build environment is packaged with the source. I just needed repo's dependencies and to rebuild the prebuilt Bison with the included source. > I've been a bit frustrated with android's sparse docs and unreliable build tool. The guide at https://source.android.com/source/ https://source.android.com/source/ should result in a working AOSP build. I've followed it before without problems. My guess is you're trying to do something weird that makes sense to you that isn't really supported. > Is xda-developers still the main place to go when looking for help, or have any other communities started to overthrow them? XDA is still the primary place ROM development is carried out, yes. Finding a ROM's IRC channel can be helpful too. > Is anyone here running their own ROM, or Copperhead in particular? I built Copperhead for my Pixel but unfortunately it resulted in a bootloop so I gave up on it. I'm running PureNexus right now and might try Copperhead later. > My only big remaining concern would be with Project Fi; I'm uncertain if the service will work if Google Apps aren't installed. I don't think it'll work totally bereft of Google services but you might be able to manage it with MicroG: https://microg.org/ https://microg.org/