Volunteer Testers needed for all Supported devices

/e/OS Foundation & Community Announcements
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As you may be aware w/e/ support about 81 phones as of today. This list will grow as we add more and more devices and add support for Pie and at a later stage Q OS. That would mean support on 3 - 4 different OS versions at the same time !!!

We also get requests from users to add support for new devices. It is not always possible for us to purchase and maintain a physical device to build and test. Due to this, at times we build ‘blindly’ for some devices. Which means we build without an actual device and share those unofficial builds with our users. This should not be an issue since the source code is tested at the Lineage end on the same devices. All the same we want to resolve this ‘un-tested build’ issue and for that we need your help.

We are planning to come out with test builds which will be available OTA (over the air) and also available for manual download for a group of volunteer testers
The way the process will work is as under :

  • these test builds will go out first to this select group of volunteer testers

  • volunteer testers test the build on their device(s)

  • volunteer testers share their feedback on a telegram channel dedicated for testing

  • Based on the feedback we decide to Go - No Go ahead with the build

What information is need from the volunteer tester’s

  • /e/ email ID (required)
  • Telegram ID (required)
  • Device name (required)
  • Tester Name (optional)

( you can add multiple device if you have them with /e/ installed )

Where to send the details : testing@e.email

What to test

The basic functionality of the phone – I have given a table below of what sample activities you need to test. Most are basic functions users expect the phone to perform. You can add / remove items.

To Test:
Did the OTA update install the build as expected
If you manually flashed the phone did the process complete successfully
Is the Bliss Launcher working? Is the Main Screen with Icons visible or is it crashing
Can you add delete an /e/ account manually + test Gmail or other accounts
If you updated your phone OTA were the existing accounts migrated correctly
Are you able to add remove WiFi connections
If your mobile data working correctly
Are you able to call and receive phone calls
Are you able to send receive text messages. We are not checking for MMS only text messages
Is the camera working as before
Are the Notes showing up in the app when you add an /e/ account
Are you able to send receive emails
Is the Search, install view functions of AppStore working correctly – as before in previous build if testing on a OTA update
Is the weather app working
Are you able to browse using the Browser

Where do I report the issues

We will start a telegram channel exclusively for testing. Your ID’s will be added to that channel. You can report issues on this channel

What happens if I find an error

If there are show-stopper issues like the build sends the phone into a bootloop or Blisslauncher crashes as soon as the phone boots …

Then you report the same – if this issue is found across devices we will stop the build from going out to all users . In case of issue on select devices we will hold release for those devices. Fix the issues and then release the build after retesting.

  • If everything is Ok then we release the build to all users a day or two later.

  • There will be bugs which are already there in various apps in Oreo or Nougat OS on Gitlab – for testing purpose report on the telegram channel and if required add to Gitlab.

Do I need to test all the points described above?
Not necessary. Think of what you would want running on your device. Use those apps, test out that functionality.

Do I have to report which of these tests passed or failed at the end of testing?
Again not required. If everything works great. If there are particular features that are not working , report those on the testing telegram channel. We will announce the formation of the channel later.

What if I want to return to my normal build and stop getting these test builds would that be possible

Yes you can switch back to the standard build. Let us know you do not want to test and we will remove your name from the list of testers. You will get the standard builds on your phone

What happens if no one is available for testing a device. Will support for that device be stopped

We would prefer to have a tester but even in case no one is available to test we will continue to support all devices as before.

Any comments ,suggestions or feedback is welcome. Sorry for the long post :slight_smile:

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

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This means an /e/ account is needed. Any other e-mail address is not sufficient, right?

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Im in!..

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I understand that you have a Xiaomi Mi A1, would you like more testers for that device. I currently use it with /e/ a my sole phone.

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All devices on the support list will need testers. No issues if there are more than one testers on a device. Please send your details to testing@e.email and your name will be added to the list.
Thanks for volunteering.

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Ich mache mit SonyZ5

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Update:

As you may remember some months back we had announced …in this thread… plans to start a testing team comprising of volunteer users.

:mega: We are happy of announce that as of this week we have started testing of the /e/ build with a group of volunteer testers. :mega:
Previously the testing was done by the development team only.
At present we have a small team of about 10 users and support team members who test the build and share their feedback.

  • The build is a test build with fixes from Sprint 1.
  • Based on the all - clear from this team the build will go out as a dev build and be released to all users.
  • Bugs that do not clear this testing are back with the developers :frowning:

Thanks to the users who volunteered with the testing.

Since this is an ongoing process …If you are interested in volunteering as a tester please note the following:

  • Testing is of officially supported smartphone builds only
    …which means no unofficial or test builds will be tested.
  • Volunteer testers will have to download the test build and manually flash it on their device to run the test
  • the details of issues to be tested is shared with the testing team. For now we do not have OTA testing builds.
  • Apply only if you have the official builds on your phone and preferably you are not using the phone as your primary phone.

Want to be a volunteer tester please send the following detail about your self

  • /e/ email ID (optional)…
  • Telegram ID (required) … to add your name to a testing telegram channel. send the @name format of the telegram ID and not the phone number
  • Device name (required)… device on which you will be testing
  • Gitlab ID (required)… to add your name to a gitlab project so that you can access the test builds… if you don’t have an ID you can get it by registering here https://gitlab.e.foundation
  • Tester Name (optional)

Please send these detail on this email ID

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online servicesphone

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According to the makers of LineageOS, there were about 800,000 devices with official LineageOS team builds in use by December 2018.

The LineageOS-Team has an average of two maintainers working on one device (some devices have three maintainers working on them, some have only one. Several devices are handled by one and the same maintainer). The community of supporters is huge, and the feedback is correspondingly large. This means that the LineageOS Project has several hundred dedicated users working together.

¹That’s really a small team for about 92 smartphones and 2 laptaps.

This is the way to go. The testing community should be much larger. I applied for several devices as testers today.

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Thanks got your mail…will be adding your name to the testing team.

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No reply to my tester application for polaris yet. I couldn’t agree more with @archje that community testing is the only way to go here. An email application and obviously long response times is not exactly encouraging that and especially won’t scale to 100s of thousands. That needs a leaner process without application. Let’s do this! @Manoj

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Hi @c1e2Ha69hihnroj6zyzc polaris is not in the list of upgrade devices in the next set. I have your details and will be contacting you when we have the device in the upgrade list.

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I understand your disappointment. I, too, am full of data. Like you, I still have to wait for my favourite devices to be tested.

Our /e/ community leader responded promptly to my application because I’ve the right test device available at the right time.

It’s important that enough test manpower is available when a new /e/ tranche of devices is called for testing.

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Understandable. What I’m saying is: let’s change the process to make this scale.

Sub-site for testers showing available & upcoming test build, sorted by device. “Klick to apply for tester” via e-account. Sth along these lines.

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i think this is a great idea

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It is not that simple there are multiple systems that a tester needs access to. A click here to get access unfortunately does not work. We ( read I) learnt it the hard way with the Easy installer testers. Had to write about 90 emails in a single day to the team to get different bits of information.
For now the process will remain the same as mentioned here

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Hi Manoj, Please add my name as a tester. I already tried to send report for mido. 0.9pie/e/os for mido.
I will be doing whatever is possible by me.
Please guide me.
Thanks

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I have already answer your question by mail and on this forum twice. We are not taking any more testers for upgrade testing for devices. The upgrade builds can be flashed by any user and they can share the feedback with us. If we add these pie builds on the supported list then we can add volunteers to the testing. For some devices we already have a surplus of testers especially mido.

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Yes im talking about Pie build for mido.
Anyways for Mido im there always.

Thanks