[Device Roadmap] Android 9 (Pie) & 10 (Q) : The plan

tve · August 13, 2020, 6:07pm

I’m dumbfounded by the lack of GSI support… I have a non-supported device (pixel3a) that could work great with a GSI. I’ve tried some community member built custom GSI and while they work, there are issues (that don’t seem to be related to the fact that they’re GSI builds). Is there a technical reason for /e/ not to be pushing GSI? It seems very, very puzzling that /e/ is working on dozens of device specific builds and not a GSI…

petefoth · August 13, 2020, 6:22pm

I would much prefer a device-specific build to a GSI. A GSI cannot take advantage of some of the features of my device (e.g. the dedicated camera button on my Sony Xperia devices. GSI is always going to be ‘second best’ compared to a device specific build. /e/ should provide one, and as far as I know they are planning to, but getting good quality device specific seems to be - correctly in my view - the higher priority.

tve · August 14, 2020, 12:11am

I’m not sure that what you state is true. I don’t see why the code in the vendor partition couldn’t support the dedicated button and launch the appropriate actions when you press it. I understand that in your case this doesn’t work, so it may be a moot distinction for you, but not in principle. Reading some of your GSI threads (thanks for posting!) it may have to do with the fact that there’s no proper/official Android 10 vendor implementation available if I understand correctly. So it seems to me that:

if proper binary/proprietary/… blobs are available then a custom build can be stable and make all special functions of the device available
if a proper vendor partition is available then a GSI build can be equivalent in functionality to a good custom build
if neither is available then… YMMV!

NB: I’m not trying to dismiss your concern, I’m trying to understand how all this stuff works…

petefoth · August 14, 2020, 6:25am

Fair points. As you say, my views are shaped by my experiences so far, and the GSIs I have used are still ‘work in progress’. It would be great if GSIs were able to make use of device-specific functionality.

ajostergaard · August 15, 2020, 3:05pm

Does Sony Xperia Z3 include the Z3+, by any chance?

Anonyme · August 15, 2020, 4:11pm

Welcome in the forum

No, the Z3+ (ivy) is only supported by LineageOS on Nougat and not on Pie or Android 10, that’s why it’s not in the list. You can find an unofficial build on Nougat for this device here.

geothermal · August 17, 2020, 2:40pm

Hi, this is a long post so I may have missed something. It seems like the official lists above have dropped the S7? If this is the case, then this is a bit disappointing as I bought 3x S7 devices for the family as it was an official device being sold by /e/ and therefore assumed to be supported for security updates for some time to come. It is now past mid-Agust and I keep checking for official updates, yet the phone suggests that there are none since the March 2020 build? Is the S7 really being officially dropped? I’m not really bothered what Android version is available for the S7. Its more about the security patches I’m worried about. Or is it that because Google is not supporting Android 7 there are no security updates? I guess this is what @Manoj us saying in the next post?

Manoj · August 17, 2020, 2:46pm

S7 should get a Oreo build this Wednesday on the dev channel. Users will have to flash the build manually the first time and subsequent builds will be OTA.

geothermal · August 17, 2020, 3:20pm

Excellent! Thanks @Manoj

I just popped over to the download page and selected “Samsung” and “2016”. It shows my S7 Edge device (hero2lte) and points me to the Easy Installer, which I never used. No problem, I can try it. But it says “Exynos” only so I assume I can only use the Easy Installer if my Edge has a Exynos processor? How do I work this out?

EDIT: Seems like I found the answer to my question here: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/150397/galaxy-s7-how-can-i-check-which-cpu-chipset-do-i-have

nottolino · August 18, 2020, 9:20am

I see that for
Samsung Galaxy S III (International) i9300
the official support will end.

But yesterday I followed the directions here https://doc.e.foundation/devices/i9300/install and flashed a 10 version on two i9300s which seem to work properly.

Is this phone going to be supported or not ?

geothermal · August 19, 2020, 4:06pm

Hi @Manoj , installed easy-installer on my Debain Buster machine via Snap as per instructions but I can’t even find icon/command to launch the installer. Is this documented somewhere?

I even tried whereis easy-installer and I get nothing. Suggestions?

Thanks

georgie_abitbol · August 19, 2020, 5:20pm

We are wednesday !!!
Kidding…

Manoj · August 19, 2020, 11:31pm

It should be released today - thursday - the documentation still needs to be merged. Sorry for the delay.

Manoj · August 19, 2020, 11:34pm

I had tested this on Ubuntu and the icon showed up in the list. No reason why it should not show up in Debian …will check with the developer and get back.

trefix · August 20, 2020, 4:18am

Hello.

@geothermal: did you install snapd package ?
Root (or sudo): apt install snapd

Then: what Desktop Environnemet on your Buster (GNOME, Xfce, Mate… )?

georgie_abitbol · August 20, 2020, 9:30am

Yes, here it is ! Oreo build is here for S7 ! Thanks a lot

claudiousse · August 20, 2020, 12:54pm

@georgie_abitbol Hello

Where can it be found? It is not in the download list on the e-foundation website.
Thanks

Manoj · August 20, 2020, 1:03pm

You can check for the devices here

georgie_abitbol · August 20, 2020, 1:34pm

Here : https://images.ecloud.global/dev/herolte/

claudiousse · August 20, 2020, 2:48pm

Thank you for your answers. I didn’t click further for the S7 in the selection list because only the “Nougat” version of the OS is proposed. You have to click on “Install/Build” to see the “Oreo” proposal.
I still have to install it as soon as possible. Thanks to the whole team!