Week 17 2024: Development and Testing Updates

/e/OS Smartphone Operating System Development Updates
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Summary of weekly development and testing activities by /e/OS developers and volunteers. Updated content have the :new: emoji.

Release

v2.0 :fire: :new:

Status :green_circle: Testing

The next release will be v2.0

  • Issues and fixes
  • Bliss Launcher v3
  • UI and Wallpaper updates
  • Fix for the issue where /e/OS users required to login to use Notes app

ETA: To be shared - testing still in progress

Not coming as part of v2.0:

  • Fairphone: FP4 : S (A12) → T (A13) OS OTA upgrade build

  • Motorola Moto G5 ‘cedric’

    • Wifi and bluettoth not available issue in gitlab
    • No ETA available for now.

  • Shift6mq axolotl - script based installation - lockable bootloader- dedicated maintainer

    • ETA v2.1

Upcoming milestones information

Ongoing development tasks
  • A tablet with /e/OS T. Tablet name will be shared once we have the go ahead from build team. The release is tied with the launch of the updated Bliss launcher. Tablet launch planned early 2024 :crossed_fingers:
  • Easy Installer to be updated to flash /e/OS T builds. ETA to be planned

Previous 5 releases & user feedback

Links to the last 5 releases click here

Documentation :new:

Recent updates

  • A guide on how users can bypass spam filtering on Murena Cloud. This is a workaround as we have received a few complaints from users that their regular emails were being marked as spam.

    • Following the instructions from this guide the user can bypass the Murena webmail spam filters
    • The guide is accessible from:

  • The Supported devices table now displays the Safetynet and Rootbeer status for all devices in the list. For devices which show a :question: we would request users to run a test and share the feedback with us. The forum post on this is here.

  • Stable builds are now referred to as Official and dev builds are Community. This change will be visible in our Supported device list.

  • Official / Stable support dropped for these devices

    • Easy Installer will flash the community or previously known as dev build for these devices
      • Google Pixel 4a sunfish
      • Google Pixel 4a 5G bramble
      • Google Pixel 4 XL coral
      • Google Pixel 4 flame
      • OnePlus 7 Pro guacamole
      • OnePlus 7T hotdogb
      • OnePlus 8 instantnoodle
      • OnePlus 8 Pro instantnoodlep

  • Transfer data from iPhone and iCloud to /e/OS and Murena Cloud guide

  • How to backup and restore and /e/OS device

  • Users may have noticed a difference in the internal storage size on fresh installations. We have created a guide to explain this.

  • Upgrade guides have been removed from the Documentation site. The recommended method to install is first flash the stock ROM (where required as per the guides) and then a clean install of /e/OS. This process will format the device and will include data loss. Users are advised to take a backup before proceeding with the format.

 

:warning: Posting information on test builds

  • Please do not post information or links to /e/OS test builds on the forum.
  • These builds are as yet untested and under development and may in some cases cause user devices to soft brick.
  • Such information can confuse other users who do not see these builds in the updater.
  • Remember not all users who come to this forum are experts in installing and formatting custom ROMs and can end up seriously damaging their devices by trying out these test builds
  • If you are genuinely interested in helping with the testing activities and also understand how to fix and do some minor level of testing on custom ROMS, you are welcome to join the testing team
  • As part of the testing team you can share your comments on the dedicated testing telegram channel.

 

Murena Cloud and Self hosting :new:

Murena cloud NextCloud version upgraded :fire:

Murena cloud current version

:point_right: Murena cloud Next Cloud 27.1.8.3

Self Hosting current version

:point_right: Self hosting Murena cloud v 26.0.8

 

How to check the NextCloud version click here 🤓 You can find the complete documentation and current NC version under https://murena.io/settings/help >> NextCloud xx user documentation. The xx should show the latest version. - Another way to check the current version is to check the [NextCloud scan link](https://scan.nextcloud.com) and input https://murena.io this should display the current version number as well as the security level. > Please note if MurenaCloud patch number is not the same as the NC patch number, the rating would show up as bad 😐 This is not exactly a problem. We do not immediately jump to the next NC patch as soon as it is released. We first test it and then set out with the deployment.

GSI

Current GSI version click here

v1.17

  • Download available here
    • Sources available here
    • version is /e/OS Q (A10)
  • :point_right: The Q v1.17 GSI build is the last build in /e/OS Q
  • :point_right: GSI OS version will next move to T or A13 skipping the R and S versions. Dates for development will be shared

 

OS OTA Related information :new:

Completed

  • Gigaset: GS290 : Q (A10)→ Android 11 (R)

  • Oneplus: avicii : A12

  • OnePlus : avicii : Q ( A10) → R (A11)

  • Fairphone: FP4 : R ( A11) → S (A12)

  • Fairphone:FP3 : R (A11) → S (A12)

  • Fairphone:FP3 : Q (A10) → R (A11)

  • Samsung: s7 / s7+ : Nougat (A7) → Q (A10)

  • Samsung: s9 / s9+ : Oreo (A8) → Q (A10)

  • Samsung: Galaxy S9/9+ : Q (A10)→ R(A11)

  • Samsung: s8 / s8+ : Pie (A9) → R (A11)

  • Teracube: 2e / zirconia: Q (A10) to R (A11)

  • Teracube: emerald & zirconia : R (A11) to S (A12)

  • Samsung: S7 ‘herolte’ ‘hero2lte’: Q ( A10) → R (A11)

  • Google Pixel ‘redfin’: S(A12) → T(A13)

  • Gigaset: GS290: R(A11) → S (A12)

  • Fairphone: FP3 : S (A12) → T (A13)

    • All OTA OS upgrades are on stable builds
Testing
  • Fairphone: FP4 : S (A12) → T (A13)
    • ETA v2.1
To Plan

  • Samsung: S9/9+ : R(A11) → S(A12)

  • Samsung: S8/8+ : R(A11) → S(A12)

    • ETA - probably with v2.1 :crossed_fingers:
Our definition of an OS OTA upgrade

Usually for /e/OS ROMs to upgrade the OS you have to do the following

  • If available download the correct OS build from the supported device list
  • For some devices you also need to download the stock ROM from the vendor site.
  • Take a back up of your data
  • First install the Stock ROM
  • Next install the /e/OS ROM. Here you can take help of the install guides available on our documentation site.
  • If required apply the backups you downloaded before starting the whole process

An alternate to this tedious process is where we offer the user the option to upgrade the OS OTA. This option is available for stable device builds only.
This process is easy for the user but requires a lot of development and testing effort.

Different /e/OS build types

 

Support dropped for :new:

List of devices for which support has been dropped
  • Nothing Phone(1) Spacewar
    • Multiple bugs in the last build. No dedicated maintainer on /e/OS or LOS side.
  • Motorola Motorola Moto G7 Play channel
    • Partition space issues
  • Google Pixel XL marlin
    • Partition space issues
  • Google Pixel sailfish
    • Partition space issues
  • Google Nexus 7 2013 flox
    • Partition space issues
  • LG V30 (T-Mobile) ‘h932’
    • Build issues
  • LG v30 ‘joan’
    • Build issues
  • All Nokia devices

    • We have been unable to build builds for the device post v1.17 which was on /e/OS T.

    • Users with ROM building skills will be able to create customized builds of the channel if they so desire as the device trees will be available on our servers.

    • Partition space issues are reported for devices where we have been unable to build with even the minimal /e/OS build. Minimal build is a setting in /e/OS build which removes the following default applications (LibreOffice viewer, PDFViewer, Maps and Weather)from the source code and builds a smaller version of the ROM.

No more multiple OS versions

  • Support for /e/OS Q is being dropped for most of the devices.

  • Exception would be Samsung S7 / edge herolte and hero2lte which will be upgraded to /e/OS R or Android 11 :new:

  • Support of multiple OS versions on the same device has been stopped.

  • If you see multiple OS version builds on the download page, switch to the latest /e/OS version.

  • In most devices it would require a manual download and installation. Take a backup before proceeding.

  • We will add a text on the images server mentioning that older OS versions are no longer supported.

  • No longer supported will mean that build would not be made in the older OS.

  • It is always advised to switch to the newer OS versions as some of applications may not work correctly on older OS as application developer stop supporting older OS.

  • Nokia Devices
    • No dedicated maintainers
  • Huawei
    • Unable to unlock bootloader
  • ASUS
    • unlocking tool not working for last couple of months.

:nerd_face: As you may be aware the bootloader needs to be unlocked to flash a custom ROM like /e/OS.

:point_right: We have added a warning on the install pages for these devices to warn our users before they try to attempt to flash /e/OS.

 

Misc information

Roadmap for 2024

Read Gael 's roadmap for 2024

Where to buy the Murena Two and Murena One from?

A phone from Murena with /e/OS installed has been launched and is available for purchase. Check here. Select a country and check availablility and device specs

Expect more device releases from Murena in future :grinning:

:nerd_face: Murena is the brand name and /e/OS is the operating system.

Check real time availability of /e/OS and related services websites
End of official support for Nougat, Oreo and Pie 😞 Pie, Oreo and Nougat the official /e/OS support has ended.

Reasons for dropping official support are:

  • newly released applications like App Lounge, Advanced privacy code has not been customized for these OS versions.
  • lack of dedicated ROM Maintainers
  • no support upstream (Lineage dropped support for Pie sometime back)
  • device trees will continue to exist in the Gitlab and users with build skills can create custom ROMs on these builds
  • Security patches and vendor patches for the Pie, Oreo and Nougat code will be updated based on availability.

:nerd_face: Google stops security patches for OS after some time. Similarly, Vendors drop support for older models when they release newer models in the market. Then it depends on developers from various communities to backport the patches.

Device and Vendor specific Announcements

:loudspeaker: Gigaset GS290

  • We have stopped the sales of the Gigaset GS290 on the eSolutionsShop as the vendor has stopped production of the device. We will continue support for existing users.

:loudspeaker: Message being shared on the request of our vendor partners

  • Vendors whose phones we sell on our eSolutions Store do not directly sell /e/OS flashed devices.
  • The vendors only sell their devices with their own stock ROM.
  • To get pre flashed /e/OS phones, you have to purchase them from the eSolutions Shop.

:loudspeaker: /e/OS Pre flashed device sales

  • We sell directly in EU, US, Canada and Australia
  • Find details of what devices are available in which countries here Murena Shop.
/e/OS website and social media Links and Support

Support

  • Facing issues with devices you purchased from us ? For issues you would want support on from the /e/OS support team, send in the details using the contact form

Websites

Telegram Channel

Social Media

Newsletters

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

12 Likes
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The issue with the touch screen not working on the FP4 screen was noticed on only one of the test devices. This was when we were testing the /e/OS S >> /e/OS T upgrade build.
The issue was not replicated across other devices on which we were testing the upgrade build. The /e/OS T dev build does not have this issue.
v2.0 is a major release. The upgrade build release as mentioned has been pushed to v2.1 to avoid mixing these two important releases for the FP4. FP4 users who are on stable or official /e/OS S will not face this issue on v2.0.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for the details, but to me that still does not explain why for the same device the bug appears on stable and not on dev… I would guess that if such an important feature as touch screen were buggy it would have been seen on the dev branch.

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The bug showed up on only one device. The same build on different FP4 devices did not show the issue. We were unable to replicate it again, but for the sake of safety for all users decided to delay the release of the stable or official FP4 OS upgrade build.

2 Likes
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Oh ok it showed up for only one device…very sneaky. Thanks a lot for the information.

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This is the 5th or 6th straight release, though. It’s really quite disappointing that you keep pushing a device Murena is actually selling like this.

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Just to reply as the previous topic was closed. Considering the last update on F-Droid date all the way back to 2013, I doubt it is Trebuchet (as it is still maintained by LineageOS and get regular updates). From what I know “com.android.launcher3” is the base AOSP launcher, but this one looks like a very old build.

1 Like
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I think you’re correct. The version of Trebuchet running in the latest LineageOS 21.0 builds is v14. That and earlier versions can be obtained from APK Pure

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/lineageos/trebuchet-4/

1 Like
9

I gave a spin to the 2.0 beta build on my FP5.

Outside of long standing issues (sudden reboots, recent app view soft-locking), the new icons looks better than the old ones.
As for Bliss Launcher v3, if it feels a little more snappy, I didn’t see any visible improvement outside the redesigned widget page.
All the issues I had with V1 are still there. No way to reorder widget, or even move them to other places like showed in the sneak peak long ago, No way to quickly access an app parameters, no way to disable or hide apps you don’t use… I’m gonna stick de Kvaesitso for the time being.

10

@Manoj you mention that V2 will have “UI and wallpaper updates”. Can you answer the question I posted last week?
Does this mean version 2.0 will allow us to go to Wallpaper & Style in Settings and choose our own colors including Material You styles?

Also, last year @GaelDuval mentioned that the Advanced Privacy will be made available independently as an app. Is that available yet? If not, is there an ETA?

Thank you for all you and the devs do!

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On my FP5 the answer seem to be no. There is no such option in the settings app in the current v2 beta build.

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Also, last year @GaelDuval mentioned that the Advanced Privacy will be made available independently as an app. Is that available yet? If not, is there an ETA?

It’s not available and there is no ETA for it, since it’s a low internal priority compared to all other projects we have.

Porting this to a standalone app could also be a community thing, as it’s open source. We’d be very supportive of this.

5 Likes
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Material You is disabled in /e/OS and not expected to be enabled in future versions of builds.

3 Likes
14

If porting Advanced Privacy could happen, I’d be most grateful. Can’t run e/OS on all my devices. It’d also be great to be able to have the e/OS App Lounge available as a stand alone.
Not skilled enough to accomplish this myself, but e/OS has great appeal to me as I’ve despised “big tech” long before it was “cool” or even on the consumer radar.
For those concerned about Bliss Launcher, I don’t use it. I’m using Nova Launcher as it is way more flexible. Runs well on my P7 and P7Pro. I’ve got an old copy that doesn’t have the modern license verification scheme (keeps me from having to sign into google). Yes, my copy is legit, sadly google has gotten plenty of money from me in the past due to lack of choice.

15

That’s disappointing to hear. Hope you reconsider this in the future. Not sure how disabling it improves privacy but it sure takes away freedoms. I don’t intend to come across disrespectful as I indeed respect and appreciate all the hard work that goes into developing a privacy focused OS.

Thank you @Manoj for your reply and your hard work as well.

1 Like
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Thank you @GaelDuval for your support in that.

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The reason for disabling has more to do with it not matching our UI guidelines. The effort to customize it is too complex plus the amount of testing required will be time-consuming. Hence it has been disabled.

2 Likes
18

Thank you @Manoj for the detailed reply. My thought was since /e/ OS is based off Lineage OS that keeping those customization options in “Wallpaper and style” settings, that LOS has, was easier than taking the effort to remove them. However, as you mentioned it is more complex than that. Again, thank you for the detailed reply and explanation. :slight_smile:

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I wish there was at least a way to enable it using ADB like it used to before Android 12, even if it means it doesn’t match /e/ OS UI guidelines. But yes, thanks for the explanation anyway.

1 Like
20

Yes, please!!! That would be great. :sparkling_heart:

1 Like