10 ms·

LineageOS 16.0

190 points by commoner 8y ago

p1mrx 8y ago
What's the deal with their lack of support for the Pixel 2 and 3?
teekert 8y ago
I have 15.1 on my OP3 right now, I highly recommend the Google camera, it is sooo much better than the lineage stock camera. So much so that I will first investigate if Google camera is already ported to 16 before switching. Chrome casting my screen never worked sadly so I do feel compelled to upgrade...
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
  I use an app called Manual Camera DLSR which has served me very well. Agreed that the LOS camera app is garbage.
  - teekert 8y ago
    The thing with Google Camera is that is starts an optimization process of a couple of seconds and it lifts the picture quality by a very large degree (nicer colors, slight hdr affect, without overdoing it), is that also with Manual Camera DLSR?
captn3m0 8y ago
How can I get notified once my device is supported?
- commoner 8y ago
  The LineageOS blog has an RSS feed, but they don't post updates on a regular schedule: https://lineageos.org/feed.xml https://lineageos.org/feed.xml A site called LineageOS Changelog tracks device support, but you'll have to check manually: https://www.lineageoslog.com/ https://www.lineageoslog.com/ You can also find the XDA Developers forum for your device, and follow the LineageOS thread for updates: https://forum.xda-developers.com/ https://forum.xda-developers.com/ Finally, for real-time updates, you can view the commits to the LineageOS repositories themselves: https://review.lineageos.org https://review.lineageos.org https://github.com/LineageOS https://github.com/LineageOS
  - glglwty 8y ago
    I find it hard to believe that an open source project doesn't even have a mail list
    - commoner 8y ago
      There's no mailing list, I'm afraid. https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/9ulb17/is_there_a_mailing_list_for_lineageos/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/9ulb17/is_there_... https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/an1fo9/whats_holding_back_the_los16_release/efr5rc4/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/an1fo9/whats_hol... The LineageOS subreddit is another news source, as development team members do comment there.
kbenson 8y ago
So, if I wanted to buy a good middle of the road (or even somewhat cheap) phone that has good LineageOS support, what would the community (of LineageOS or HN) recommend? I looked on /r/LineageOS and found some older posts (a year plus) that claim to give some insight on this. Those might still be fairly accurate, but the same conditions that would cause me to need a guide also mean I wouldn't know if one is still accurate after a year. :/ I would consider putting it on my current phone since it's close to end of life with the shipped Android (Samsung S6, getting slow), but it only seems to support 14.1, which just went unsupported earlier this month.
- IloveHN84 8y ago
  You can go for a Wileyfox or a Motorola G series. My gf had a G2 with Android 6 but it ran LineageOS beautifully up to the latest version without any issue
  - OJFord 8y ago
    Wileyfox is in administration, any hardware sold is old stock and not supported.
- voltagex_ 8y ago
  I'm trying to work out why the S6 is unsupported. Funnily enough, I just helped a friend put 14.1 on their G920i, but I didn't realise it was so far out of support. I also don't know why a faulty / for parts S6 still goes for ~$150 here in Australia.
  - mesaframe 8y ago
    Probably because S6 has Exynos and not Snapdragon SOC.
- _bxg1 8y ago
  OnePlus seems to be a favored line for Lineage. You'll notice that the One, a 5(!) year old phone, is still on the initial-adopters list for 16.0. The 3T, two years old, has 6GB ram and still stands with the latest flagships in terms of raw power. The whole line is known for being really easy to put ROMs onto and being a great bang for your buck, and in theory any concerns about Chinese software would go away given that you're putting a new OS on there.
IloveHN84 8y ago
I would like to see a commercial phone with LineageOS in Europe, that's fairly cheap. But vendors are pushing now for 2000€ phones none needs because they can fold
- ptman 8y ago
  I have high hopes for cheaper Nokia (HMD) phones. Like 6.1, https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6_1-8972.php https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6_1-8972.php . LineageOS doesn't seem to support it yet, but aosp does: https://downloads.aospextended.com/PL2 https://downloads.aospextended.com/PL2
  - joelthelion 8y ago
    I think OP would like a phone sold with Lineage. That's what I'd like as well: officially supported, on warranty, with guaranteed updates.
  - trissi 8y ago
    Nokia has no bootloader unlocking, except for the Nokia 8 and the have publicly stated they don't plan to add new devices to the unlock program. Some older devices are supported through some weird unofficial sites where you have to send in your IMEI, which is obviously shady... Also they don't update their kernel sources in a timely manner at all. Which makes developing custom ROMs WAY harder.. So sadly, Nokia sucks if you wan't custom ROMs, I ditched my Nokia 8 for a Poco F1 for this reason.
- ynottry 8y ago
  https://wileyfox.com/ https://wileyfox.com/ The older models used Cyanogen and then moved over to Lineagos Cheap and cheerful.
voltagex_ 8y ago
I don't understand the device support - what makes the Galaxy S5 eligible for an upgrade where the S6 is stuck on 14.1?
- commoner 8y ago
  Most devices have different maintainers, and all of them work on device support at their own pace. At the moment, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S6 lacks a maintainer: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/zerofltexx/ https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/zerofltexx/ Maintainers are volunteers, so there's little you can do besides volunteer yourself if you're able to help.
  - _bxg1 8y ago
    It also depends on what devices people have donated for them to test with. If they don't have an S6 on hand, it's harder to target.
- blihp 8y ago
  It could be as simple as one of the maintainers still using the S5 as their primary device (or is being sponsored to support it) but none of them are using an S6. Or there could be a driver issue with the S6. Or something else entirely. The major brands don't really care all that much about unofficial builds like LineageOS and really wish they'd just go away which often makes life more difficult for maintainers. (they should be careful of what they wish for: the momentum to support many of these devices seems to be waning as people move the the up and coming manufacturers) If the S6 is still on 14.1, it's not likely it's going to get 16.0 support... I'm in the same boat with my older Nexus devices.
snvzz 8y ago
Hopefully with no April Fools antifeatures this time around?
- yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
  What antifeatures happened in the past?
  - commoner 8y ago
    Last year, LineageOS bundled a prank app that showed a persistent notification for April Fools' Day, but the timing was off: https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/04/05/dont-freak-lineageos-bad-late-april-fools-joke-latest-builds/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/04/05/dont-freak-lineageo... They promised to "do better" this year: https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/ https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/
Scene_Cast2 8y ago
Somewhat tangential, but is there a guide to a complete and full list of steps needed to make a lineage-flashed phone physically secure? As in - stopping access to data if someone has unlimited physical access and <$1MM in equipment / funding. E.g. do I need to put a lock on recovery? Disable ADB? Disable root? Disable developer mode? Enable encryption? etc.
- fulafel 8y ago
  Unlimited physical access is a "game over" scenario for phones. Consider supply chain attacks - just pwn the device before the user gets it. You might swap in a digitizer that logs all input (also works later). Etc.
- yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
  Enable encryption. ...I think that's all you need to protect against a stolen device being compromised. It doesn't protect you against evil maid attacks. Basically the same situation as on a laptop that doesn't have secure boot.
- resoluteteeth 8y ago
  The biggest problem is that in general you need to unlock the bootloader to install custom firmware. On some phones it might be possible to relock the bootloader after you flash the firmware, but I think most phones won't let you do this with a custom firmware. Once the bootloader is unlocked, anyone with physical access to the phone can reboot the phone into custom software and run arbitrary code, read data etc. I guess you can still use encryption in case your phone is stolen, but anyone who temporarily gets access to your phone could backdoor it.
Dunedan 8y ago
What's really a shame is that with each new version of LineageOS a lot of devices are dropped from being supported. I have some perfectly functioning devices (including a 2014 flagship device from Samsung), which will very likely stay stuck on LineageOS 14.1.
- lsh 8y ago
  the new (and cheap) Xiaomi Note 5 Pro (Whyred) was dropped in October last year after about a year of support. I bought the phone specifically because it was supported. It sucks, but they depend on volunteers to keep the builds happening. There are plenty of unofficial builds now happening but nobody appears to have stepped up for official status. The phone was originally marketed to India and gets a lot of usage there. I still think Lineage and this hackable phone are fantastic
  - Arkanosis 8y ago
    I bought the same phone… I think it hasn't even been supported for one year, maybe six months, maybe even less. I'm willing to build Lineage myself for it when I find the time for it (the amount of stuff you have to download to build an Android distro is completely crazy), but I'm just wondering… why aren't unofficial builds official? Is there anything that makes it difficult, or do people just not care?
    - muks 8y ago
      I can give you a link to download my build if you want (which is a pristine unofficial build with Android security patches till February 5, 2019), but in the end, it depends on whether you'll trust a binary build from some random person: https://mukund.org/tmp/lineage-15.1-20190214-UNOFFICIAL-whyred.zip https://mukund.org/tmp/lineage-15.1-20190214-UNOFFICIAL-whyr... It is neither difficult nor very slow to build it from source, but it can do with a fast internet link (~fiber speeds) as the build process initially clones from several git repositories (but later syncs just fetch the changes which is very fast). Unfortunately not everyone has access to fiber. With fiber, the clone and build ought to complete in about a day depending on your machine's performance. I recommend that you build your own (let the initial build run in the background even if it takes more than a day to finish). If you do it once and use the built OS, you'll not search again.
doorbellguy 8y ago
I've been using v14.1 for about a couple years on a 2013 Samsung. That phone was paperweight but this OS brought it back to life.
fro0116 8y ago
I'd personally love to see a ROM that focuses less on customizations and adding their own "flavor" to Android, and just attempts to track AOSP as closely as possible while supporting as many devices as possible, so users whose devices are no longer supported by their manufactures (or who just don't like the customizations the manufacturers have made to the UX) can continue enjoying the latest Android improvements in UX & security. LineageOS is great, and already supports a wide range of devices, but all the features/changes it has accumulated over bare Android means it necessarily has a much harder time porting to the latest versions of Android, and supporting new devices compared a ROM without those customizations. If a ROM like that already exists, I'd love to hear about it.
- ascii_only 8y ago
  It's called AOSP. Community makes AOSP images for a bunch different devices. If you are looking for one image that supports multiple devices look for AOSP treble rom.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    If you mean the XDA developers AOSP roms, then they are most definitely NOT pure AOSP - Those guys are incapable of just building a rom from AOSP without adding their own cruft. Not to mention that the XDA Developers site is impossible to navigate.
    - snazz 8y ago
      Lineage at least feels like a legit project. I can’t feel too sure downloading random ROMs (with closed-source additions) from XDA considering how shady the entire thing feels. 'jcs sums it up nicely: https://mobile.twitter.com/jcs/status/1069346105069092864 https://mobile.twitter.com/jcs/status/1069346105069092864
      - IshKebab 8y ago
        I think the forum software (phpBB and its clones) must be partly to blame. I don't think I've ever been to a phpBB-style forum that wasn't like that. Contrast it with StackOverflow for example.
niftylettuce 8y ago
Really excited to see this! My Google-free Android Setup with LineageOS and a Nexus 5X (includes all the apps/Google-alternatives I use): https://niftylettuce.com/posts/google-free-android-setup/ https://niftylettuce.com/posts/google-free-android-setup/
- 0xADEADBEE 8y ago
  I did the Google-free Android thing (until yesterday in fact!) with MicroG and while the functionality was fine, the updates never worked properly and I'd have to format each time and reload everything. I enjoyed CopperheadOS until that imploded, and updating was seamless so I know it's not impossible to get right (manual usage of TWRP for an update is one of the funnier jokes of a modern Android variant I think) but I grew weary and moved to Apple. I don't care for them particularly, but I'm happy to (hopefully) not have to wade through Android nonsense every few months and any data I can keep from Google, I'm all for!
  - commoner 8y ago
    Did you use the prebuilt LineageOS for microG? https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ I've personally never had issues with automatic over-the-air updates using microG's builds, but I haven't tested every supported device.
lostmsu 8y ago
Nexus 6 is listed as supported, but the builds page only has 15.1
- michielr 8y ago
  The builds are running (and some are failing) right now. https://builds.lineageos.org https://builds.lineageos.org
jabberthemutt 8y ago
I put lineageos onto several devices in the past year and they exhibited some mysterious slowness and reduced battery time. I checked everything I could imagine, CPU usage, I/O, but nothing was significant enough to explain this. I love lineageos, what can I do to find out what strains and drains my hardware?
- genpfault 8y ago
  Turn off AudioFX. That was holding wakelocks a bunch on my Moto G4 Play and a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 with LineageOS 14.1. Used BetterBatteryStats[1] to track it down. [1]: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809 https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
dstola 8y ago
I have been using LineageOS 14 on my now very old original Nexus 5, and its fantastic, really gave it a new life line after my 6p broke. A little sad that its not supported for v16.
JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
One thing I've tried to find for a few years but couldn't was a version of Android that focuses on being offline as much as possible. A stable build that allows the installation of APKs and can receive calls but has no wifi and (to the greatest extent possible) is incapable of internet access. A phone with no wifi and no built in browser would probably suffice, you could then control which apps you can access by which ones you have installed. You've things like that Punkt phone that cost $200 when (presumably) an android mod could achieve the same results.
- stereographic 8y ago
  Could you not just disable wifi on any android phone? Turn it off and keep it off? I do this pretty regularly just to save battery life
- slezyr 8y ago
  Just install AFWall+ or NetGuard from F-Droid and set that only whitelisted apps allowed to connect. I don't see a need to create separate mod for this.
  - JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
    I haven't used these, but the problem here being that the user who can set up a whitelist will (presumably) be just as easily able to edit the whitelist. Along with that I've had issues in the past with whitelists where I disabled something where the IP address wound up being a dependency for something else I was using.
    - slezyr 8y ago
      You whitelist apps in those firewalls, not IPs. But I think I saw there some IP lists also.
- igetspam 8y ago
  You can do it. I've built custom ROMs from the lineage code base that stripped out Bluetooth, GPS, phone, messaging, etc. It's not that hard, just time consuming.
paulcarroty 8y ago
Why I switched out LineageOS: * privacy - LOS still use Google DNS and servers for internet checking, not sure about telemetry * app shutdown impossible without devtools * root access needs to flash another zip archive It's a paradox: I'm Linux user, but don't like Android.
- Iolaum 8y ago
  Out of curiosity, did you switch to something that has those things, and if so what is it?
  - supuun 8y ago
    iphone, maybe?
    - Iolaum 8y ago
      Iphones allow flashing zips?
  - paulcarroty 8y ago
    iphone then dumbphone.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
  Android isn't GNU/Linux. That it happens to share a kernel is irrelevant as the SDK completely hides that. It might not share a kernel in the future.
- commoner 8y ago
  With root access, you can change the server Android uses for checking internet connectivity: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/134963/change-the-server-that-android-uses-for-an-internet-connectivity-check https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/134963/change-th... To override the default Google DNS, Cloudflare offers an app for their 1.1.1.1 DNS service. You can also use the VPN of your choice to override the default DNS server. Firefox for Android users have the additional option of setting the DNS over HTTPS server used in the browser. https://1.1.1.1 https://1.1.1.1 https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn https://www.ghacks.net/2018/04/02/configure-dns-over-https-in-firefox/ https://www.ghacks.net/2018/04/02/configure-dns-over-https-i... In the developer options of the Settings app on LineageOS, you can enable "Kill app back button" which kills the foreground app when you long-press the back button. There are also 2 free and open source apps (requiring root access) that may be of interest to you: OS Monitor is a task manager that can kill apps on demand, and Drowser automatically kills the apps of your choice when the screen turns off: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.eolwral.osmonitor/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.eolwral.osmonitor/ https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/drowser https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/drowser Finally, although you need to flash the su add-on to enable root access, you only have to do it one time, and the add-on persists across updates (until you flash another file to remove it). https://download.lineageos.org/extras https://download.lineageos.org/extras
kuon 8y ago
I was using lineage 15 for a while, but when I bought my oneplus 6 I switched to omnirom because they had support for android 9. Lineage 16 still doesn't seem to support my oneplus 6, I wonder if they will.

190 points by commoner 8y ago

What's the deal with their lack of support for the Pixel 2 and 3?

I have 15.1 on my OP3 right now, I highly recommend the Google camera, it is sooo much better than the lineage stock camera. So much so that I will first investigate if Google camera is already ported to 16 before switching. Chrome casting my screen never worked sadly so I do feel compelled to upgrade...

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
I use an app called Manual Camera DLSR which has served me very well. Agreed that the LOS camera app is garbage.
- teekert 8y ago
  The thing with Google Camera is that is starts an optimization process of a couple of seconds and it lifts the picture quality by a very large degree (nicer colors, slight hdr affect, without overdoing it), is that also with Manual Camera DLSR?

captn3m0 8y ago

How can I get notified once my device is supported?

commoner 8y ago
The LineageOS blog has an RSS feed, but they don't post updates on a regular schedule: https://lineageos.org/feed.xml https://lineageos.org/feed.xml A site called LineageOS Changelog tracks device support, but you'll have to check manually: https://www.lineageoslog.com/ https://www.lineageoslog.com/ You can also find the XDA Developers forum for your device, and follow the LineageOS thread for updates: https://forum.xda-developers.com/ https://forum.xda-developers.com/ Finally, for real-time updates, you can view the commits to the LineageOS repositories themselves: https://review.lineageos.org https://review.lineageos.org https://github.com/LineageOS https://github.com/LineageOS
- glglwty 8y ago
  I find it hard to believe that an open source project doesn't even have a mail list
  - commoner 8y ago
    There's no mailing list, I'm afraid. https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/9ulb17/is_there_a_mailing_list_for_lineageos/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/9ulb17/is_there_... https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/an1fo9/whats_holding_back_the_los16_release/efr5rc4/ https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/an1fo9/whats_hol... The LineageOS subreddit is another news source, as development team members do comment there.

kbenson 8y ago

So, if I wanted to buy a good middle of the road (or even somewhat cheap) phone that has good LineageOS support, what would the community (of LineageOS or HN) recommend? I looked on /r/LineageOS and found some older posts (a year plus) that claim to give some insight on this. Those might still be fairly accurate, but the same conditions that would cause me to need a guide also mean I wouldn't know if one is still accurate after a year. :/ I would consider putting it on my current phone since it's close to end of life with the shipped Android (Samsung S6, getting slow), but it only seems to support 14.1, which just went unsupported earlier this month.

IloveHN84 8y ago
You can go for a Wileyfox or a Motorola G series. My gf had a G2 with Android 6 but it ran LineageOS beautifully up to the latest version without any issue
- OJFord 8y ago
  Wileyfox is in administration, any hardware sold is old stock and not supported.
voltagex_ 8y ago
I'm trying to work out why the S6 is unsupported. Funnily enough, I just helped a friend put 14.1 on their G920i, but I didn't realise it was so far out of support. I also don't know why a faulty / for parts S6 still goes for ~$150 here in Australia.
- mesaframe 8y ago
  Probably because S6 has Exynos and not Snapdragon SOC.
_bxg1 8y ago
OnePlus seems to be a favored line for Lineage. You'll notice that the One, a 5(!) year old phone, is still on the initial-adopters list for 16.0. The 3T, two years old, has 6GB ram and still stands with the latest flagships in terms of raw power. The whole line is known for being really easy to put ROMs onto and being a great bang for your buck, and in theory any concerns about Chinese software would go away given that you're putting a new OS on there.

IloveHN84 8y ago

I would like to see a commercial phone with LineageOS in Europe, that's fairly cheap. But vendors are pushing now for 2000€ phones none needs because they can fold

ptman 8y ago
I have high hopes for cheaper Nokia (HMD) phones. Like 6.1, https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6_1-8972.php https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6_1-8972.php . LineageOS doesn't seem to support it yet, but aosp does: https://downloads.aospextended.com/PL2 https://downloads.aospextended.com/PL2
- joelthelion 8y ago
  I think OP would like a phone sold with Lineage. That's what I'd like as well: officially supported, on warranty, with guaranteed updates.
- trissi 8y ago
  Nokia has no bootloader unlocking, except for the Nokia 8 and the have publicly stated they don't plan to add new devices to the unlock program. Some older devices are supported through some weird unofficial sites where you have to send in your IMEI, which is obviously shady... Also they don't update their kernel sources in a timely manner at all. Which makes developing custom ROMs WAY harder.. So sadly, Nokia sucks if you wan't custom ROMs, I ditched my Nokia 8 for a Poco F1 for this reason.
ynottry 8y ago
https://wileyfox.com/ https://wileyfox.com/ The older models used Cyanogen and then moved over to Lineagos Cheap and cheerful.

voltagex_ 8y ago

I don't understand the device support - what makes the Galaxy S5 eligible for an upgrade where the S6 is stuck on 14.1?

commoner 8y ago
Most devices have different maintainers, and all of them work on device support at their own pace. At the moment, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S6 lacks a maintainer: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/zerofltexx/ https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/zerofltexx/ Maintainers are volunteers, so there's little you can do besides volunteer yourself if you're able to help.
- _bxg1 8y ago
  It also depends on what devices people have donated for them to test with. If they don't have an S6 on hand, it's harder to target.
blihp 8y ago
It could be as simple as one of the maintainers still using the S5 as their primary device (or is being sponsored to support it) but none of them are using an S6. Or there could be a driver issue with the S6. Or something else entirely. The major brands don't really care all that much about unofficial builds like LineageOS and really wish they'd just go away which often makes life more difficult for maintainers. (they should be careful of what they wish for: the momentum to support many of these devices seems to be waning as people move the the up and coming manufacturers) If the S6 is still on 14.1, it's not likely it's going to get 16.0 support... I'm in the same boat with my older Nexus devices.

snvzz 8y ago

Hopefully with no April Fools antifeatures this time around?

yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
What antifeatures happened in the past?
- commoner 8y ago
  Last year, LineageOS bundled a prank app that showed a persistent notification for April Fools' Day, but the timing was off: https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/04/05/dont-freak-lineageos-bad-late-april-fools-joke-latest-builds/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/04/05/dont-freak-lineageo... They promised to "do better" this year: https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/ https://lineageos.org/An-April-Apology/

Scene_Cast2 8y ago

Somewhat tangential, but is there a guide to a complete and full list of steps needed to make a lineage-flashed phone physically secure? As in - stopping access to data if someone has unlimited physical access and <$1MM in equipment / funding. E.g. do I need to put a lock on recovery? Disable ADB? Disable root? Disable developer mode? Enable encryption? etc.

fulafel 8y ago
Unlimited physical access is a "game over" scenario for phones. Consider supply chain attacks - just pwn the device before the user gets it. You might swap in a digitizer that logs all input (also works later). Etc.
yjftsjthsd-h 8y ago
Enable encryption. ...I think that's all you need to protect against a stolen device being compromised. It doesn't protect you against evil maid attacks. Basically the same situation as on a laptop that doesn't have secure boot.
resoluteteeth 8y ago
The biggest problem is that in general you need to unlock the bootloader to install custom firmware. On some phones it might be possible to relock the bootloader after you flash the firmware, but I think most phones won't let you do this with a custom firmware. Once the bootloader is unlocked, anyone with physical access to the phone can reboot the phone into custom software and run arbitrary code, read data etc. I guess you can still use encryption in case your phone is stolen, but anyone who temporarily gets access to your phone could backdoor it.

Dunedan 8y ago

What's really a shame is that with each new version of LineageOS a lot of devices are dropped from being supported. I have some perfectly functioning devices (including a 2014 flagship device from Samsung), which will very likely stay stuck on LineageOS 14.1.

lsh 8y ago
the new (and cheap) Xiaomi Note 5 Pro (Whyred) was dropped in October last year after about a year of support. I bought the phone specifically because it was supported. It sucks, but they depend on volunteers to keep the builds happening. There are plenty of unofficial builds now happening but nobody appears to have stepped up for official status. The phone was originally marketed to India and gets a lot of usage there. I still think Lineage and this hackable phone are fantastic
- Arkanosis 8y ago
  I bought the same phone… I think it hasn't even been supported for one year, maybe six months, maybe even less. I'm willing to build Lineage myself for it when I find the time for it (the amount of stuff you have to download to build an Android distro is completely crazy), but I'm just wondering… why aren't unofficial builds official? Is there anything that makes it difficult, or do people just not care?
  - muks 8y ago
    I can give you a link to download my build if you want (which is a pristine unofficial build with Android security patches till February 5, 2019), but in the end, it depends on whether you'll trust a binary build from some random person: https://mukund.org/tmp/lineage-15.1-20190214-UNOFFICIAL-whyred.zip https://mukund.org/tmp/lineage-15.1-20190214-UNOFFICIAL-whyr... It is neither difficult nor very slow to build it from source, but it can do with a fast internet link (~fiber speeds) as the build process initially clones from several git repositories (but later syncs just fetch the changes which is very fast). Unfortunately not everyone has access to fiber. With fiber, the clone and build ought to complete in about a day depending on your machine's performance. I recommend that you build your own (let the initial build run in the background even if it takes more than a day to finish). If you do it once and use the built OS, you'll not search again.

doorbellguy 8y ago

I've been using v14.1 for about a couple years on a 2013 Samsung. That phone was paperweight but this OS brought it back to life.

fro0116 8y ago

I'd personally love to see a ROM that focuses less on customizations and adding their own "flavor" to Android, and just attempts to track AOSP as closely as possible while supporting as many devices as possible, so users whose devices are no longer supported by their manufactures (or who just don't like the customizations the manufacturers have made to the UX) can continue enjoying the latest Android improvements in UX & security. LineageOS is great, and already supports a wide range of devices, but all the features/changes it has accumulated over bare Android means it necessarily has a much harder time porting to the latest versions of Android, and supporting new devices compared a ROM without those customizations. If a ROM like that already exists, I'd love to hear about it.

ascii_only 8y ago
It's called AOSP. Community makes AOSP images for a bunch different devices. If you are looking for one image that supports multiple devices look for AOSP treble rom.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  If you mean the XDA developers AOSP roms, then they are most definitely NOT pure AOSP - Those guys are incapable of just building a rom from AOSP without adding their own cruft. Not to mention that the XDA Developers site is impossible to navigate.
  - snazz 8y ago
    Lineage at least feels like a legit project. I can’t feel too sure downloading random ROMs (with closed-source additions) from XDA considering how shady the entire thing feels. 'jcs sums it up nicely: https://mobile.twitter.com/jcs/status/1069346105069092864 https://mobile.twitter.com/jcs/status/1069346105069092864
    - IshKebab 8y ago
      I think the forum software (phpBB and its clones) must be partly to blame. I don't think I've ever been to a phpBB-style forum that wasn't like that. Contrast it with StackOverflow for example.

niftylettuce 8y ago

Really excited to see this! My Google-free Android Setup with LineageOS and a Nexus 5X (includes all the apps/Google-alternatives I use): https://niftylettuce.com/posts/google-free-android-setup/ https://niftylettuce.com/posts/google-free-android-setup/

0xADEADBEE 8y ago
I did the Google-free Android thing (until yesterday in fact!) with MicroG and while the functionality was fine, the updates never worked properly and I'd have to format each time and reload everything. I enjoyed CopperheadOS until that imploded, and updating was seamless so I know it's not impossible to get right (manual usage of TWRP for an update is one of the funnier jokes of a modern Android variant I think) but I grew weary and moved to Apple. I don't care for them particularly, but I'm happy to (hopefully) not have to wade through Android nonsense every few months and any data I can keep from Google, I'm all for!
- commoner 8y ago
  Did you use the prebuilt LineageOS for microG? https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/ I've personally never had issues with automatic over-the-air updates using microG's builds, but I haven't tested every supported device.

lostmsu 8y ago

Nexus 6 is listed as supported, but the builds page only has 15.1

michielr 8y ago
The builds are running (and some are failing) right now. https://builds.lineageos.org https://builds.lineageos.org

jabberthemutt 8y ago

I put lineageos onto several devices in the past year and they exhibited some mysterious slowness and reduced battery time. I checked everything I could imagine, CPU usage, I/O, but nothing was significant enough to explain this. I love lineageos, what can I do to find out what strains and drains my hardware?

genpfault 8y ago
Turn off AudioFX. That was holding wakelocks a bunch on my Moto G4 Play and a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 with LineageOS 14.1. Used BetterBatteryStats[1] to track it down. [1]: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809 https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809

dstola 8y ago

I have been using LineageOS 14 on my now very old original Nexus 5, and its fantastic, really gave it a new life line after my 6p broke. A little sad that its not supported for v16.

JansjoFromIkea 8y ago

One thing I've tried to find for a few years but couldn't was a version of Android that focuses on being offline as much as possible. A stable build that allows the installation of APKs and can receive calls but has no wifi and (to the greatest extent possible) is incapable of internet access. A phone with no wifi and no built in browser would probably suffice, you could then control which apps you can access by which ones you have installed. You've things like that Punkt phone that cost $200 when (presumably) an android mod could achieve the same results.

stereographic 8y ago
Could you not just disable wifi on any android phone? Turn it off and keep it off? I do this pretty regularly just to save battery life
slezyr 8y ago
Just install AFWall+ or NetGuard from F-Droid and set that only whitelisted apps allowed to connect. I don't see a need to create separate mod for this.
- JansjoFromIkea 8y ago
  I haven't used these, but the problem here being that the user who can set up a whitelist will (presumably) be just as easily able to edit the whitelist. Along with that I've had issues in the past with whitelists where I disabled something where the IP address wound up being a dependency for something else I was using.
  - slezyr 8y ago
    You whitelist apps in those firewalls, not IPs. But I think I saw there some IP lists also.
igetspam 8y ago
You can do it. I've built custom ROMs from the lineage code base that stripped out Bluetooth, GPS, phone, messaging, etc. It's not that hard, just time consuming.

paulcarroty 8y ago

Why I switched out LineageOS: * privacy - LOS still use Google DNS and servers for internet checking, not sure about telemetry * app shutdown impossible without devtools * root access needs to flash another zip archive It's a paradox: I'm Linux user, but don't like Android.

Iolaum 8y ago
Out of curiosity, did you switch to something that has those things, and if so what is it?
- supuun 8y ago
  iphone, maybe?
  - Iolaum 8y ago
    Iphones allow flashing zips?
- paulcarroty 8y ago
  iphone then dumbphone.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
Android isn't GNU/Linux. That it happens to share a kernel is irrelevant as the SDK completely hides that. It might not share a kernel in the future.
commoner 8y ago
With root access, you can change the server Android uses for checking internet connectivity: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/134963/change-the-server-that-android-uses-for-an-internet-connectivity-check https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/134963/change-th... To override the default Google DNS, Cloudflare offers an app for their 1.1.1.1 DNS service. You can also use the VPN of your choice to override the default DNS server. Firefox for Android users have the additional option of setting the DNS over HTTPS server used in the browser. https://1.1.1.1 https://1.1.1.1 https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn https://github.com/schwabe/ics-openvpn https://www.ghacks.net/2018/04/02/configure-dns-over-https-in-firefox/ https://www.ghacks.net/2018/04/02/configure-dns-over-https-i... In the developer options of the Settings app on LineageOS, you can enable "Kill app back button" which kills the foreground app when you long-press the back button. There are also 2 free and open source apps (requiring root access) that may be of interest to you: OS Monitor is a task manager that can kill apps on demand, and Drowser automatically kills the apps of your choice when the screen turns off: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.eolwral.osmonitor/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.eolwral.osmonitor/ https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/drowser https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/drowser Finally, although you need to flash the su add-on to enable root access, you only have to do it one time, and the add-on persists across updates (until you flash another file to remove it). https://download.lineageos.org/extras https://download.lineageos.org/extras

kuon 8y ago

I was using lineage 15 for a while, but when I bought my oneplus 6 I switched to omnirom because they had support for android 9. Lineage 16 still doesn't seem to support my oneplus 6, I wonder if they will.