
LineageOS Android Distribution - void_nill
https://lineageos.org/
======
wongarsu
LineageOS is great, my one complaint is that it is almost never available for
the phones I own. You basically have to get phones according to their
popularity in a certain subgroup: for example currently one HTC model and two
LG models are supported, but close to everything from OnePlus.

I know I can get unofficial builds, put apart from the sometimes quite severe
missing features (calling or camera not or only partially working) I don't
want to trust random people on a forum to provide a build of an OS without
including malware. It just looks like a prime target for all the intelligence
services of the world, and a nice target for hackers. With official builds
there's at least some accountability somewhere to mitigate this.

~~~
gregmac
> I don't want to trust random people on a forum to provide a build of an OS
> without including malware

Why is it some communities still work like this? With Android dev, sometimes
there's even some source on GitHub, but still a forum post is the main place
to find the latest version, with the actual download from some questionable-
looking download site. If you're lucky they include sha hashes at least.

I've installed a handful of custom ROMs on 3 or 4 devices - most recently
resurrecting my old TF101 to run modern Firefox - but I don't think I've ever
seen anything like an automated build for one of these. Really, many don't
even post source code.

Is there anyone doing this type of Android dev in a "modern" best practices
way like most other open source (public git, CI, maybe issue tracker and pull
requests)? Why doesn't this catch on more?

~~~
phh
Becauses the cost of doing a CI of Android is astronomical. (Especially for
students)

For my own ROM [1] I spent days and a hundred of euros optimizing the cost of
building by trying various cloud providers (fwiw my current best spot is
scaleway GP instance with 600GB local SSD). As of today, I'm still at 6€ per
builds (For standard ROM devs, that should be cut down to 2€ I'd say). There
is simply no way I can afford a CI. (well if someone wants to give me money
for that, please do!) I do my best to isolate components and have at least
some kind of CI where I can, but that's hard work (And doing CI is my day job,
and I consider myself rather good in it)

Even android's own CI is very far from what you'd call a modern CI. They
basically just build master once every hour and pray for the best, and let the
build cop fix that. They do have a mechanism where they try to build CLs in
batches, but "try" is the keyword.

[1]
[https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/wiki](https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/wiki)

~~~
StavrosK
What's the expensive bit? Can't you rent a server and build on that?

~~~
Avamander
Sure you can, for 20+€/mo if you want your builds take less than a day. That's
still astronomical for the enthusiasts compared to struggling to build on
their own PCs.

~~~
StavrosK
Ah, I see, that's too bad.

------
Jemm
Been using lineageOS 16 on my OnePlus phone for years.

LineageOS has allowed me to use my perfectly fine phone much much longer than
the normal upgrade cycle. And this has saved me money.

More importantly my phone remains in use rather than being thrown away and a
new one purchased saving about 4 phones from landfill (my guess based on a 2
year upgrade cycle).

Apple with all their environmental goodness claims locks their phones down
from both custom rooms and from re-use after donation. Most donated phones
have an iCloud lock with no way to contact the previous owner to request an
unlock,

~~~
zozbot234
> LineageOS has allowed me to use my perfectly fine phone much much longer
> than the normal upgrade cycle. And this has saved me money.

OnePlus actually does a pretty fine job of supporting even their "older"
models. The OP3 and OP3T were running up-to-date "stock" OS's not too long
ago.

~~~
OJFord
The third OnePlus model is an old one now?

I remember the first one coming out (and haven't kept track of how many there
have been) but I honestly don't think I do anything that needs more than what
the first one would give me.

(I actually have a Motorola One, which is on the 'Android One' mostly-stock
long-term upgrade committment, and was about £150 new 18mo ago? £100 phone or
less would be plenty powerful enpugh, I just paid a bit more to know I'd get
the upgrades, and thought the fingerprint reader might be useful. (It is.))

~~~
wazoox
I still have my OnePlus One as a spare phone. I can confirm the only missing
feature is a fingerprint reader. Photo and video quality are fine, power is
more than necessary, battery lasts long enough...

~~~
anotherevan
I'm still using my OnePlus One as my phone. A fingerprint reader is really the
only thing that tempts me to move.

------
giomasce
LineageOS is very nice, also because it gives you the same experience of
different devices. You know that it will be easy to have root, you know you
won't have to learn again where every menu is, you don't expect too many
surprises.

I had a Fairphone 2 before and I used LineageOS on it. Then I decided to
change it, got a second hand OnePlus 5, installed again LineageOS and it's
just the same thing, except the phone is faster and doesn't have a few
hardware bugs.

I actually choose the OnePlus also because all OnePlus models seem to be well
supported by LineageOS, which is probably related to the fact the OnePlus
releases quite a lot of things as open source[1] (another good reason for the
choice). On top of that, it seems to have a good quality/price ratio. I am
quite happy of the choice.

[1] [https://github.com/OnePlusOSS](https://github.com/OnePlusOSS)

~~~
aesh2Xa1
A significant aspect of the Lineage OS support on OnePlus devices is the
vendor support for development.

------
datalist
I have used CyanogenMod, and later LineageOS, for quite some time and was
pretty pleased with it.

The problem is it seems to be past its prime. It dropped support for
mainstream phones more and more and is currenly limited to either very old
handsets or rather exotic manufacturers.

The most recent Samsung S series they support is from 2014, almost six years
ago. CM and LOS were also popular on the Nexus 4 and 5, these were completely
dropped as well and even the successors do not have a recent Android version
at this point.

All of this coupled with long delays of moving to the most recent Android
version. Many phone were still on Nougat LOS, when there was already Pie.

~~~
xrisk
I think that's just because stock ROMS have become good enough that we don't
need custom ROMS; except for purposes like de-Googling your phone or removing
stuff installed by your OEM.

~~~
aynawn
Custom supported roms will continue to get security updates whereas oem roms
get updates for maximum 3 years since phone release.

From a security perspective, custom roms are still worth it.

~~~
izacus
Except that a huge chunk of Android CVEs I've seen are related to vendor code
which does not get updated in custom ROMs either.

And those are the painful ones, since drivers have kernel access. The security
situation on Android is really less than ideal :/

~~~
aaron_m04
That's concerning if true. Do you have a source?

------
lol768
LineageOS was great a few years ago when I used it with my older Nexus
devices, but it doesn't seem as maintained nowadays. There's no images for the
newer Pixel devices and no Android 10 support, which is a huge shame.

Magisk/stock is what I've been using of late.

~~~
throwaway77384
I'm running LOS 17, which is Android 10 on a Sony XPeria Z3 Compact (!!)
without issues (though it requires open g apps nano for GPS to work) :)

~~~
williamvds
Had a similar issue with GPS on LineageOS 16. Setting the GPS mode to 'Device
only' fixed it for me. My guess is the other settings have a hidden dependency
on Google Play Services, causing GPS to silently stop working if Play services
isn't available.

------
bythckr
I just wish that LineageOS just picks couple of devices that they can support.
So, me as a "not highly technical" user can just buy that specific device. The
current at [https://download.lineageos.org/](https://download.lineageos.org/)
where they list every device is confusing and hard to track which is the phone
most are working on. Pick one and work on it. With enough people using it,
hardware makers will have a strong case to sell device that is "Lineage OS
compliant" even if it's shipped with Android.

Like how GrapheneOS has focused on Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.

~~~
as1mov
Oh for the love of god please no. Please don't narrow down the focus on 1 or 2
high end devices and neglect the rest just because a small percentage of
people can't be arsed to read the documentation.

LineageOS is an hacker/enthusiast thing, it will always remain niche
regardless of how easy to use you make it.

------
jumbopapa
I currently use a Galaxy S8+ and it still works perfectly fine. However, it
isn't compatible with LineageOS. I know that the next phone I purchase
LineageOS compatibility will be a prerequisite.

------
dejawu
I adore LineageOS and official support has now become my #1 factor in choosing
a new phone. I've been running it on my Oneplus 5T which was already two
generations behind when I bought it and there hasn't been a single day in over
a year of ownership when I thought it wasn't fast or responsive enough. It's
incredibly stable, there's no bloatware, and I get updates every night, which
means I'm always on the latest security version.

If this thing ever breaks or dies I'll probably get a Zenfone 6 (I recall Asus
actually openly distributed kernel sources with the express purpose of helping
out the open source ROM community) and I'm excited to see how LineageOS runs
on that.

------
paulcarroty
Samsung S5 and... nothing newest?

Also from my past experience: LineageOS don't care about privacy, Google DNS &
internet connectivity checks points to Google servers; probably the telemetry
works too.

About quality: very different results, highly depends from device. In mostly
cases - camera apps quality is horrible 'cause vendors doesn't provide any
code.

~~~
_bxg1
At some point Samsung started locking down their bootloaders I think. Device
support is based on whether/how many people volunteer to own that branch, so
it's based on general demand. Last I checked OnePlus made the best Lineage
devices, although with all the recent China stuff you can decide whether
you're comfortable with having even firmware from a Chinese company.

I don't know about the DNS, but Gapps don't come preinstalled, so I'd be
surprised if it sent telemetry to Google by default. Either way, I'm sure it's
possible to disable/redirect those things.

As for privacy in general, they offer a pretty unique feature that allows you
to forcibly block granular app permissions after the fact, after granting them
for the install. Because this isn't iOS it'll break some apps that don't
handle it gracefully, but it's nice to have the option.

But yes, if you're trying to run Android in a privacy-minded way at all,
you'll be making some sacrifices.

------
bonsai80
I remember a ROM distribution similar to this, where the maintainer/company
also sold used phones with it preinstalled. I thought it was LineageOS, but
looking at the LineageOS site I'm definitely remembering that wrong. Does
anyone know the name for what I'm describing?

~~~
callahad
You may also be thinking of CopperheadOS
([https://copperhead.co/](https://copperhead.co/)).

------
gnufx
Also check out /e/ for other device support and better privacy. The device
list is at
[https://doc.e.foundation/devices/](https://doc.e.foundation/devices/)

------
xwvvvvwx
iPhone user here. Increasingly curious about Android. If I installed LineageOS
on a pixel3a, how much information would be going to google by default? How
easy is it to avoid google altogether?

~~~
correct_horse
If you want to have a working phone, you need google apps (Google Maps, Google
Play Services (used for many apps' notifications, location, analytics, etc.),
Google Play Store, YouTube app). The Open Gapps project packages these nicely
for use with LineageOS, but installation is janky (download a .zip file,
install it using TWRP). note: despite being called "open", Open Gapps are
proprietary, but packaged using open source software. Using LineageOS in this
way is the sane/easy default that most LineageOS users probably choose. Using
this method, you must sign in to google play services to install or update
apps through the play store. Google play services includes a google analytics
api, a a device registration program that generates an advertising id (so does
iOS), Google also collects location data associating Wi-Fi hotspot with GPS
coordinates (so does iOS). I'm not sure of the full extent of what info google
collects, but it is probably substantial, and most probably happens through
google play services. You could dodge this tracking by not logging in to
Google Play Services and using a play store replacement like Aurora Store or
Yalp (play backwards).

Another option is to use microG, a derivative of LineageOS that re implements
parts of google play services with open source and throws out the rest. YMMV,
but I have used it and my phone worked, excepting some apps' notifications
because they use google cloud messaging. I never signed in anywhere with a
google account, but I did have google maps installed (I haven't found a good
replacement on Android). Google probably got rather little info from me, but
they did get my location sometimes.

~~~
qplex
Or you could just install F-Droid.

I agree that most people probably need Google Play because the apps they use
aren't available anywhere else.

But then again most people probably don't have the skills to install LineageOS
to begin with.

