Changelog 24 - Tenacious Ten, Rad Recovery, Witty Wiki, and Terrific Themes!

Written on April 1, 2020 by Nolen Johnson (npjohnson)

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Hello, LineageOS 17.1

We have been working extremely hard since Android 10’s release last August to port our features to this new version of Android. Thanks to massive refactoring done in some parts of AOSP, we had to work harder than anticipated to bring some features forward, and in some cases, introduced implementations similar to some of our features into AOSP (but we’ll get to that later).

First, let’s talk about naming versioning - you may be thinking “Shouldn’t this be 17.0, as AOSP is on 10, and not 10.1?”. and given our previous versioning, you’d be correct. When the December Android Security Bulletin (ASB) dropped, we rebased on the more feature filled Google Pixel 4/4 XL tag of AOSP. We decided that, in the future, if we decide for any reason to rebase a large number of repos on a different tag, we will uprev our subversion, eg. 17.0 -> 17.1. As per this migration, on March 4th, we locked all lineage-17.0 branches and abandoned existing 17.0 changes. Not to fear, you can always cherry-pick your changes to 17.1, even via the Gerrit UI if you’d like!

New Features!

  • A new partial screenshot UI was implemented that lets you hand select smaller parts of your screen and edit the screenshots. So, feel free to go give it a “shot”!
  • We know many of you have been waiting for news on themes since the CyanogenMod Theme Engine’s deprecation in CyanogenMod 13.0, and those of you in this boat are in for a treat!
    • AOSP’s new ThemePicker app was adapted to have the range of accents you’ve become used to with our old implementation, Styles.
    • We also opted to enable support for font change, icon shape (both QuickSettings and Launcher) and icon style changes (eg. changing the style of the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth icons).
  • Trebuchet has long been able to hide apps from the Launcher and protect them with a passcode/password, but now you can also use your biometric sensor to authenticate as well!
  • October, November, December 2019 and January, February, March 2020 security patches have been merged.
    • Builds are currently based on the android-10.0.0_r31 tag, which is the Pixel 4/4 XL’s tag.
  • Wi-Fi display is available once again.
  • Support for on-screen fingerprint sensors (FOD) has been added.
  • Support for pop-up and rotating cameras has been added.
  • Support for Australian English, Lithuanian, Latvian, Dutch, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian and Turkish spell checking has been added to AOSP keyboard.
  • AOSP keyboard available emojis have been updated to Emoji 12.0.
  • WebView has been updated to Chromium 80.0.3987.132.

Lineage Recovery

Lineage Recovery is now the defacto install solution for LineageOS. It will be built by default for all official devices. This was done purely to streamline the process and prevent having to coordinate releases. This is not at all to speak ill of other custom recoveries, they’re great! Several of them even contributed to Lineage Recovery in one way or another. Maintainers will, as always, be able to specify an alternative recovery on their device’s Wiki page, so long as they provide full instructions for its usage.

Deprecations

  • The Styles API, is now deprecated in favor of the aforementioned ThemePicker app.
    • There is complete feature parity between the two, with ThemePicker now more fully featured!
  • PrivacyGuard has been superseded by AOSP’s new PermissionHub. It is almost equivalent in feature parity and directly conflicted with all attempts to forward-port Privacy Guard.
    • As a byproduct of this, our usual provided AddonSU zip to enable root access for the user is no longer feasible.
    • You’re still welcome to use 3rd party root solutions, and we even have Lineage representatives in regular contact with heads of 3rd party root solutions to help maintain compatibility.
      • Please note that this does not mean that we support said solutions, and if you’d like to report a bug, we still need to know what 3rd party addons you’re using on the ticket, and your problem may stem from said 3rd party addon.
    • For developers fretting this - no worries, ADB root is still available at the same old location.
  • Expanded Desktop has been dropped in favor of the new AOSP navigation gestures.
    • Expanded Desktop API conflicted with AOSP gestures implementation now, and the framework part was hard to port due to big code refactor in AOSP.
    • Furthermore, the original implementation had a lot of issues in the past 2 android versions, for example tapping the power button or double tapping the screen did not wake up the device when Expanded Desktop was enabled, soft-key buttons did not appear when opening the keyboard and probably more.

On the whole, we feel that the 17.1 branch has reached feature and stability parity with 16.0 and is ready for initial release. With 17.1 being the most recent and most actively developed branch, on April 1st, 2020 it will begin receiving nightly builds and 16.0 will be moved to weekly builds.

LineageOS 17.1 will launch building for a small selection of devices, with additional devices to come as they are marked as both Charter compliant and ready for builds by their maintainer.

Upgrading to LineageOS 17.1

To upgrade, please follow the upgrade guide for your device found here.

If you’re coming from an unofficial build, you need to follow the good ole’ install guide for your device, just like anyone else looking to install LineageOS for the first time. These can be found here.

Please note that if you’re currently on an official build, you DO NOT need to wipe your device.

If you are installing from an unofficial build, you MUST wipe data from recovery before installing.

Importance of the Wiki

Though the LineageOS Wiki has existed since our inception, we’d like to take this time to remind users to follow instructions on their device’s respective Wiki Page, as given the complexity that AOSP changes like System-As-Root, A/B Partition Scheme, and the forthcoming Dynamic Partitions found on the Pixel 4/4 XL, the instructions many of you are used to following from memory are either no longer valid or are missing very critical steps. As of 17.1, maintainers will be expected to run through the full instructions, and verify they work on their devices. The LineageOS Wiki was recently extended, and maintainers given significantly more options to customize their device’s individual installation, update, and upgrade instructions.

Developers, Developers, Developers

Or, in this case, maintainers, maintainers, maintainers. We want your device submissions!

If you’re a developer and would like to submit your device for officials, it’s easier than ever. Just follow the instructions here.

The above also applies to people looking to bring back devices which were at one point official, but no longer supported.

After you submit, within generally a few weeks, but in most cases a week, you’ll receive some feedback on your device submission, and if it’s up to par, invited to our communications instances, and your device forked to LineageOS’s official repos.

Don’t have the knowledge to maintain a device, but want to contribute to the platform? Gerrit is always open for submissions! Once you’ve contributed a few things, send an email to devrel(at)lineageos.org detailing them, and we’ll get you in the loop.

Translations

Bilingual? Trilingual? Anything-lingual?

If you think you can help translate LineageOS to a different language, jump over to our wiki and have a go! If your language is not supported natively in Android, reach us out on Crowdin and we’ll take necessary steps to include your language. For instance, LineageOS is the first Android custom distribution that has complete support for the Welsh (Cymraeg) language thanks to its community of translators.

Please, contribute to translations only if you are reasonably literate in the target language; poor translations waste both our time and yours.

LineageOS 16.0 changelog

  • Wi-Fi display is available once again.
  • You may now route the hotspot connections through the device’s VPN.
  • Support for on-screen fingerprint sensors (FOD) has been added.
  • Support for pop-up and rotating cameras has been added.
  • Support for Australian English, Lithuanian, Latvian, Dutch, Romanian, Slovenian, Serbian and Turkish spell checking has been added to AOSP keyboard.
  • It is now possible to compile LineageOS 16.0 on macOS.
  • It is now possible to compile LineageOS 16.0 in the zsh shell.
  • July, August, September, October, November, December 2019 and January, February, March 2020 security patches have been merged.
  • WebView has been updated to Chromium 80.0.3987.132.

Build roster

Added 17.1 devices

Device name Wiki Maintainers Moved from
Asus Zenfone 6 (ZS630KL) I01WD luca020400, OrdenKrieger 16.0
Fairphone FP2 FP2 chrmhoffmann 16.0
HTC One 2014 m8 bgcngm 16.0
HTC One 2014 (Dual-SIM) m8d bgcngm 16.0
LG G2 (AT&T) d800 YoDevil 16.0
LG G2 (Canada) d803 YoDevil 16.0
LG G2 (International) d802 YoDevil 16.0
LG G2 (T-Mobile) d801 YoDevil 16.0
LG G3 (AT&T) d850 firebird11, HardStyl3r 16.0
LG G3 (Canada) d852 firebird11, HardStyl3r 16.0
LG G3 (International) d855 firebird11, HardStyl3r 16.0
LG G3 (Korea) f400 firebird11, HardStyl3r 16.0
LG G3 (T-Mobile) d851 firebird11, HardStyl3r 16.0
LG G3 (Verizon) vs985 firebird11, HardStyl3r 16.0
LG G5 (Global) rs988 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG G5 (International) h850 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG G5 (T-Mobile) h830 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG V20 (AT&T) h910 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG V20 (Global) h990 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG V20 (Sprint) ls997 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG V20 (T-Mobile) h918 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG V20 (US Unlocked) us996 npjohnson, x86cpu  
LG V20 (Verizon) vs995 npjohnson, x86cpu  
Moto G6 Plus (XT1926-2/3/5/6/7/8/9) evert Jleeblanch  
Moto G7 river erfanoabdi, npjohnson, SyberHexen 16.0
Moto G7 Plus (XT1965-2/3/6) lake Jleeblanch  
Moto X4 payton erfanoabdi 16.0
Moto Z griffin erfanoabdi 16.0
Moto Z2 Force (XT1789-02/3/4/5/6/7) nash npjohnson, erfanoabdi 16.0
Motorola One Power (XT1942-1/2) chef Hasaber8  
OnePlus 3/3T oneplus3 dianlujitao 16.0
OnePlus 6 enchilada luca020400, LuK1337 16.0
OnePlus 6T fajita LuK1337 16.0
OnePlus 7 Pro guacamole LuK1337, Tortel 16.0
Razer Phone cheryl mikeioannina 16.0
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active (GT-I9295) jactivelte arco, npjohnson, side 16.0
Samsung Galaxy S4 (SGH-I337) jflteatt arco, npjohnson, side 16.0
Samsung Galaxy S4 (SCH-R970/C/X, SPH-L720) jfltespr arco, npjohnson, side 16.0
Samsung Galaxy S4 Value Edition (GT-I9515/L) jfvelte arco, npjohnson, side 16.0
Samsung Galaxy S4 (SCH-I545) jfltevzw arco, npjohnson, side 16.0
Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505/G, SGH-I337M, SGH-M919) jfltexx arco, npjohnson, side 16.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Wi-Fi (SM-T720) gts4lvwifi bgcngm, LuK1337  
Sony Xperia XA2 pioneer cdesai, LuK1337, Stricted 16.0
Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra discovery LuK1337 16.0
Sony Xperia 10 kirin LuK1337  
Sony Xperia 10 Plus mermaid LuK1337  
Xiaomi Poco F1 beryllium bgcngm, warabhishek 16.0
Xiaomi Mi 6 sagit ArianK16a, Elektroschmock 16.0
Xiaomi Mi 8 dipper infrag 16.0
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 chiron mikeioannina, wight554 16.0
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S polaris bgcngm 16.0
ZUK Z2 Plus z2_plus DD3Boh 16.0

Added 16.0 devices

Device name Wiki Maintainers Moved from
Asus Zenfone 3 (ZE520KL, ZE552KL) zenfone3 makorn645  
Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 X00TD SagarMakhar 15.1
Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 X01BD Bauuuuu, kubersharma001  
BQ Aquaris X2 zangya eloimuns, Kra1o5, Team aquaris-dev  
BQ Aquaris X2 Pro zangyapro eloimuns, Kra1o5, Team aquaris-dev  
HTC One 2014 m8 bgcngm 14.1
HTC One 2014 Dual-SIM m8d bgcngm 14.1
LeEco Le 2 s2 codeworkx, Rk585 15.1
LG G3 (Sprint) ls990 firebird11, HardStyl3r 16.0
Moto X 2014 (XT1092/3/5/6/7) victara linckandrea, Tortel 14.1
Nubia Z17 nx563j BeYkeRYkt  
Realme 3 Pro RMX1851 darshan1205, karthick111, nibaji  
Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 (SM-A310F/M/N0/Y) a3xelte danwood76, Stricted  
Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 (SM-A510F/M/Y/K/L/S/8) a5xelte danwood76, Stricted  
Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 (SM-A520F/DS/W) a5y17lte filiprrs, raymanfx 14.1
Samsung Galaxy A7 2017 (SM-A720F/DS) a7y17lte filiprrs, raymanfx 14.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N9005/P) hlte haggertk, npjohnson 14.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N9008V) hltechn haggertk, npjohnson 14.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900K/L/S) hltekor haggertk, npjohnson 14.1
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900T/V/W8) hltetmo haggertk, npjohnson 14.1
Samsung Galaxy S III Neo Dual-SIM (GT-I9300I) s3ve3gds fcuzzocrea, PythonLimited  
Samsung Galaxy S III Neo Samsung Camera(GT-I9301I/Q) s3ve3gjv fcuzzocrea, PythonLimited  
Samsung Galaxy S III Neo Sony Camera (GT-I9300I/Q) s3ve3gxx fcuzzocrea, PythonLimited  
Sony Xperia Z3 (D6603) z3 Myself5, Tom1000  
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (D5803/D5833) z3c ArianK16a  
Xiaomi Redmi 3S/X land Isaac Chen 15.1
Xiaomi Redmi 4/X santoni Isaac Chen 15.1
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 mido aryankedare 15.1
Yandex Phone Amber HighwayStar, vm03  

Removed 16.0 devices

Device name Wiki
Wilefox Storm kipper
Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro violet
Yu Yuphoria lettuce