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LineageOS 19

lineageos.org

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Re: LineageOS 19

#81
post #3

Have been on Cynogen/Lineage since 2012. Love the idea and the philosophy. Recently have been coming across safetynet issue. Will 19 address that? Also wondering what is the future of AOSP development, now that big companies are poaching developers (and effectively killing good projects like Magisk)

Safety net can be worked around using Magisk (including v24.3) by enabling Zygisk, downloading UniversalSafetyNetFix and MagiskHidePropsConfig, running the "props" binary from adb shell and selecting a known factory device fingerprint. and then adding the apps to the "DenyList".

You also need to clear the data of Google Play Services and Google Play Store, and of the apps that detected root.

Re: LineageOS 19

#82
I just switched to LineageOS 18 w/ MicroG and oh my lord is this stuff still complicated. I'm fairly familiar with this stuff and yet still it took me many hours to set everything up correctly. To be clear, this is not the fault of LineageOS, this is simply the state of the FOSS Android environment and the fact that Google has no interest in supporting this setup whatsoever, to put it mildly. Not only is it complicated, it also seems to change pretty much every year.

First the question is how to transfer all your application data, for which there still seems to be no surefire way. I settled on "Neo Backup", which mostly worked fine, except for Signal (of course...), and the darned Microsoft Authenticator.

So first unlock the bootloader (good luck), then you need to find the correct TWRP for your phone (and careful with 32/64 bit) and flash it via fastboot.

Then I flashed LineageOS, which worked fine. Luckily I found an image which already had the signature spoofing patch included, so I didn't have to worry about that. How do you get root? SuperSU? XPosed? Magisk? OK it seems everybody's using Magisk nowadays. OK, flashing worked fine, but now, how do you get MicroG on it? If you look at the MicroG homepage, you might think you can just install it with F-Droid, and you actually can, but many things won't work (like FCM notifications). It needs to be a system app. I tried using the F-Droid Priviliged Extension, flashed it via TWRP, which seemed to work fine but actually wasn't installed and not working at all. Now what? There's a multitude of information in forums what to do. Some say to flash NanoDroid, but the last release was in January 2021, it seems it's not updated anymore? I settled on the "MicroG installer revived" Magisk module, which worked fine (btw, there's no curated Magisk module repo anymore, you have to search the web and hope you find something that's not malicious).

Of course my banking apps refuse to run because "U ROOTED UR PHONE", I search for Magisk Hide, it doesn't exist anymore, now you need to configure a "Zygisk deny list", whatever that is. Then I also need to hide the Magisk app, my banking works now thank you very much. FCM notifications also work after I uninstall and reinstall my apps which need it...

To be clear: I'm eternally grateful to all the developers who make this possible in their spare time. This is not their fault.

Re: LineageOS 19

#83

I'm still pissed at Google for locking the bootloader on my Pixel 2. I bought the phone unlocked directly from Google, specifically so that I could install a custom ROM once Google stopped supporting it. But I sent the phone in to repair a broken USB port, and apparently it was Google's policy to send back a phone with a locked bootloader any time you get a repair. I can't even get a response from Google's support ab…

The same thing happened to me, and I wrote an angry blog post about it[0] It is not OK for Google to lock me out of a phone that I own!

LineageOS (running on a different device) has changed the game for me. It has been a smoother, more accessible Android experience, and I'm so grateful to the developers who make it happen.

[0] https://jacobhall.net/2022/01/29/000177

Re: LineageOS 19

#84

I installed LineageOS on my old Samsung Galaxy S3 back in the day. It's currently only used as a fancy alarm clock, I got an app that requires me to solve math problems to disable alarm. Just yesterday I was wondering if it was still supported by LineageOS, and I see that it is not. What are the chances that a new version will work on this "ancient" device? And even if I do, would it be safe enough to use or does the…

Depends what you want to use the phone for. If there's no network access intended, then obsolete software doesn't matter as much as the device has a much lower attack surface.

It just got me thinking if the device could be used as a primary driver with updated software, or if that would be too risky due to hardware issues.

Re: LineageOS 19

#85

Is there a list of supported hardware models in conventional (non-codename) format? I am eager to find a model which isn't going to be expensive/rare (like Google Pixel) nor obsolete (pre-LTE). This is rather hard with the old LineageOS versions HCLs.

You could get a pixel 4 on ebay for $100-$250. It'll run lineageos, calyx and grapheneos.

Alternatively, you could look to see what resellers such as these people stock.

https://privatephoneshop.com/

(No affiliation, I've never heard of them, and they're not cheap.)

Re: LineageOS 19

#86

I'm still pissed at Google for locking the bootloader on my Pixel 2. I bought the phone unlocked directly from Google, specifically so that I could install a custom ROM once Google stopped supporting it. But I sent the phone in to repair a broken USB port, and apparently it was Google's policy to send back a phone with a locked bootloader any time you get a repair. I can't even get a response from Google's support ab…

When you run out of uses for your smart phone you can always convert it to a wifi LAN camera using IP Webcam by Pavel Khlebovich and consume the output in VLC. I have been using an old phone for this purpose successfully for years.

Is it running 24/7? How is the camera (sensor) holding on? Is the image quality still ok?

I had the same plans, but I was always afraid that running the camera for a long(-er) time will degrade the sensor fast, so te phones are collecting dust in a drawer now :)

Re: LineageOS 19

#87

How similar do the devices have to be? I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Lite. LineageOS supports Galaxy Note10, Galaxy Note10+, and Galaxy Note10+ 5G. Might one of those builds work on my Galaxy Note 10 Lite?

In general, it has to be exact. There are some exceptions (e.g., the same build works on the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T), but that's rare, and it will be very clearly indicated if that's the case. Unfortunately, your phone does not appear to have such an exception.

Re: LineageOS 19

#88

I'm curious how secure LineageOS is. It doesn't seem to have the resources of Apple/Google to respond to vulnerabilities. I haven't even found anything on this topic at their website. Googling "lineageos security response policy" haven't found anything useful, either. How does it compare to flagship Samsungs/Pixels/iPhones? Is it usable in, say, corporate settings that do have some security standards in the vein of "…

Lineage actively and knowingly break the Android Security Model in order to achieve widespread compatibility and reduce e-waste. Security is not their top competency, nor mission. Check out the pages on GrapheneOS.org, definitely seems they're who you're after.

> Lineage actively and knowingly break the Android Security Model

Can you provide evidence for this?

Re: LineageOS 19

#89
post #10

I wish that LineageOS could accept the "signature spoofing" patch that is needed for microg (possibly with a toggle switch that would be "off" by default), so that we could avoid the need for the less-frequently-updated https://lineage.microg.org/ and properly install apps from Play Store without the Google Service Framework (that essentially give root access to Google on your smartphone). (and actually I also wish t…

I believe the reason Lineage doesn't do this (along with things like SafetyNet spoofing/passing) is to stay on the right side of Google et al. This way there's never a threat of a legal shutdown à la Vanced. If Lineage was backed by big foundations/folks with deep pockets that could change.

I have no idea why GrapheneOS takes this risk, but am grateful to them nevertheless for the code.

Re: LineageOS 19

#90

I'm curious how secure LineageOS is. It doesn't seem to have the resources of Apple/Google to respond to vulnerabilities. I haven't even found anything on this topic at their website. Googling "lineageos security response policy" haven't found anything useful, either. How does it compare to flagship Samsungs/Pixels/iPhones? Is it usable in, say, corporate settings that do have some security standards in the vein of "…

Since LineageOS tracks AOSP, they get to piggyback off of Google's security efforts. They tend to release the monthly Android security patches faster than most phone vendors do for their stock ROMs.
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