You mean, *LineageOS devices.
I wouldn’t dream to use any stock android at this point. Been on LOS forever and each new phone I buy either check if Los is available or, in one case (my current phone) I ported Los for it myself.
How do you port it? Don’t you need access to the device tree files iirc?
You need to copy or grab or create the device tree files. Usually by cloning a similar device. Vendor files are extracted from stock rom. Kernels, you need an official release from vendor to start width.
How hard is it to port LOS? I’ve been wanting to do it for a couple obscure devices I have but I’ve read the documentation and felt overwhelmed.
Its hard but rewarding, and perfectly doable given you want to do it.
Note that there are a few mandatory requirements for a port to be feasible, like unlocked bootloader and vendor sources available for kernel.
As newby, you also want already existing ports to start from.
Also, some powerful hardware to build on (32+gb ram, 10+ cores, 100+GB storage).
Also older (up to A11) can be real bitches, after A12 things are improving a bit.
I was given an old Samsung S4 for use at work recently, for scanning QR codes with primarily.
I’m an iPhone guy, so am lost with Android, but the version it was locked to was ancient and massively out of date. I did a bit of research, and after a few hours of trial and error I’ve got it running on Lineage 14.1, with a few useful apps downloaded from F-Droid. It’s gone from an old hunk of trash to a perfectly usable device that won’t win any awards for its benchmarks, but is spot on for what i need it to do.
Only 14.1? Now granted, there’s so many different models that it might not apply to all of them, but the european/and qualcomm jfltexx for instance runs 18.1 just fine
(well, it’s showing its age with Android 11, but still very usable)
If we could fix the issue with non working Google Wallet/Google Pay, that would be great.
But it is also worrying that there there seems to be only Apple and Google Pay in Europe - no alternative solution for wireless paying.
Other than that, Lineage OS on my 9T feels great. Battery life got almost doubled and it feels great to use a device with all current security patched installed. Next step would be to use a completely degoogled version with only FOSS software installed - just for some app there are no real alternatives available: Banking app, Fitness watch app, Carsharing app etc
Fitness watch app
Check out Gadgetbridge!
Unfortunately it seems to suffer from the same problems that other custom ROMs like GrapheneOS have these days. The same goes for if you root your stock OS. Like all the normal Android stuff works (even better) but as soon as you want to for example use the tap-payment features or the ID stuff from your government it doesn’t work. Also good luck trying to use for example Samsung smartwatches
I have reasonable luck with magisk and root/unlock hiding plugins.
Many days it just feels like you aren’t allowed to own your own device and you have to make a choice whether you can use a device the way you like or use those apps. I wish PWA were more common because they meet many of my needs and has many of the security features that the anti root apps are looking for anyways.
I have no issues with Gpay on custom roms. You need the right moduls to make it works. Also, Zygisk is a thing.
What are the stats for Graphene and Calyx?
There isn’t a version of LineageOS available for my phone : (
Which phone? If there’s a will, there’s a way, if you want then find “manifest” file for your phone and compile recovery then compile lineage os and flash it, there’s instructions how to compile step by step and how to flash
I put lineage OS on devices that are too old to get updates on any other platform. Zombie devices basically. They’re doing great work. Delaying e-waste.
What if your device doesn’t officially supported? There are some “unofficial rom” on some forums but I don’t trust them.
