Upgrading to android U : is going back to stock rom necessay?

[jabsu]

hello peeps !

I’m getting ready to upgrade my pixel 7a lynx to the latest upgrade, v2.6.3, which is a major android upgrade
As my device only has a community build, I’ll have to manually do the upgrade.

On the instal doc, they say :

Before following these instructions please ensure that the device is on the latest Android 14 firmware.

Do I have to go back to stock android and upgrade to android 14 before reinstalling /e/os 2.6 ? Or is it fine to directly jump from e/os 2.5-t to 2.6-u ?

Thanx in advance for your advices !

EDIT: some more people seem to be wondering the same here :

Upgrading to a new Android Version

Hello community, I wish to upgrade my Samsung Galaxy A52 from e/OS 1.17 with Android 12 to the new 2.6.3 with Android 14. I have done some reading, but still I don’t feel fully confident to get it all correct. A dirty upgrade seems not to be possible. Here is what I understand that I need to do. Can you please correct me where I am wrong? Backup everything Factory reset Install latest official Android 14 Firmware Boot it at least once Unlock Bootloader (I guess it is getting relocked on facto…

[Jets]

Do I have to go back to stock android and upgrade to android 14 before reinstalling /e/os 2.6 ? Or is it fine to directly jump from e/os 2.5-t to 2.6-u ?

Answer: NO
Or at least I have gone from eOS 11 to 12 and 12 to 13. I also read you can skip version like 11 to 13.

[aibd]

Treating the upgrade as a new install will ensure for certain a clean install.

lynx is a 2023 phone where Android development is active demonstrated by the fact that stock Android 15 was available since October 2024.

Before deciding check out the Devices | LineageOS Wiki pages for your device.
The install page Install LineageOS on lynx | LineageOS Wiki also includes

Warning: Before following these instructions please ensure that the device is currently using Android 14 firmware.

… but the Upgrade page Upgrade to a higher version of LineageOS (e.g. lineage-20 → lineage-21) includes

Note: Following these instructions will not wipe your data. It is, however, recommended to save important data before doing so, anyway!

One more thing to check before you decide, does e-2.6.3-u-20241218455571-community-lynx.zip contain vendor proprietary blobs?

We can inspect with payload-dumper-go

:~/TEMP-lynx$ ./payload-dumper-go e-2.6.3-u-20241218455571-community-lynx.zip
Please wait while extracting payload.bin from the archive.
payload.bin: /tmp/payload_569834417.bin
Payload Version: 2
Payload Manifest Length: 115414
Payload Manifest Signature Length: 267
Found partitions:
abl (1.6 MB), bl1 (12 kB), bl2 (537 kB), bl31 (98 kB), boot (67 MB), dtbo (17 MB), gsa (348 kB), init_boot (8.4 MB), ldfw (2.4 MB), modem (82 MB), pbl (41 kB), product (954 MB), pvmfw (1.0 MB), system (1.6 GB), system_dlkm (348 kB), system_ext (432 MB), tzsw (7.0 MB), vbmeta (8.2 kB), vbmeta_system (4.1 kB), vbmeta_vendor (4.1 kB), vendor (777 MB), vendor_boot (67 MB), vendor_dlkm (54 MB), vendor_kernel_boot (67 MB)
Number of workers: 4
bl1 (12 kB)                 [============================================] 100 %
abl (1.6 MB)                [============================================] 100 %
bl31 (98 kB)                [============================================] 100 %
boot (67 MB)                [============================================] 100 %
gsa (348 kB)                [============================================] 100 %
dtbo (17 MB)                [============================================] 100 %
init_boot (8.4 MB)          [============================================] 100 %
ldfw (2.4 MB)               [============================================] 100 %
modem (82 MB)               [============================================] 100 %
pbl (41 kB)                 [============================================] 100 %
product (954 MB)            [============================================] 100 %
pvmfw (1.0 MB)              [============================================] 100 %
system (1.6 GB)             [============================================] 100 %
system_dlkm (348 kB)        [============================================] 100 %
system_ext (432 MB)         [============================================] 100 %
tzsw (7.0 MB)               [============================================] 100 %
vbmeta (8.2 kB)             [============================================] 100 %
vbmeta_system (4.1 kB)      [============================================] 100 %
vbmeta_vendor (4.1 kB)      [============================================] 100 %
vendor (777 MB)             [============================================] 100 %
vendor_boot (67 MB)         [============================================] 100 %
vendor_dlkm (54 MB)         [============================================] 100 %
vendor_kernel_boot (67 MB)  [============================================] 100 %

So … yes it does.

You would require a backup of essentials but following the Lineage upgrade page above would seem reasonable.

However you do still risk the possibility that the more complex /e/OS ROM will not behave exactly the same way as LineageOS.

Around this time in the development cycle of Android 13 (T) /e/ produced Upgrade pages. They were withdrawn after while, the reason given was that users has bricked certain devices by following the page method.

[jabsu]

So in the end I took the time to follow the instruction mentioned by @aibd in this post : Upgrade LineageOS on lynx | LineageOS Wiki .

Everything worked perfectly, i had no data loss and didnt have to use my backup data. The download of my recovery image was very fast, and the install took all in all 10 minutes. I only had to enter 2 command lines.

I’m very impressed, as I dreaded it a bit. All is well in the best of all possible worlds, and i’m very happy with Murena. Cheers to all !