Week 2, 2023: Development and Testing Updates

Releases

v1.7

Status : :green_circle: To be released

ETA : This week :crossed_fingers:

  • To find out what will be included in this release and in upcoming releases check the section marked ‘Upcoming Releases’

v1.6

Status : :green_circle: Released

Share your feedback and vote on v1.6

Previous releases & user feedback

Upcoming Releases

GSI

v1.6

Status: :green_circle: Released

  • Download here
    • Sources available here
    • version is /e/OS Q (A10)
    • S (A12) and R (A11) version of GSI yet to be planned. Awaiting developer availability

OS OTA upgrades

Status: :green_circle: Ongoing

Completed

  • FP4 >> R ( A11) to S (A12)
  • FP3 >> Q (A10) to R (A11) stable
  • OnePlus Nord >> Q ( A10) to R (A11) (stable build)
  • Samsung s7 / s7+ >> Nougat (A7) to Q (A10)
  • Samsung s9 / s9+ >> Oreo (A8) to Q (A10)

Upcoming

  • Samsung s8 /s8+ >> Pie (A9) to R (A11) OTA upgrade
    • ETA : To be announced :crossed_fingers:

Important information : Plan to drop support for multiple OS versions on the same device

:warning: Users are informed that we plan to drop support for multiple operating systems on the same device. To explain further, let us take an example. If a device has Pie or Android 9, Q ( A10) and R (A11) /e/OS versions showing up for download, we will be building and supporting the latest version only - in this case R (A11).

:point_right: Users are advised to upgrade to the latest version of the OS for their device to avoid being stuck on unmaintained OS versions. In most cases, this would be a manual upgrade which would require you to take a backup.

:nerd_face: Supporting multiple OS versions can causes issues of compatibility with applications as most only work correctly on the latest OS. Multiple OS builds also require storage space and consumes time and resources for maintenance.

:calendar: As yet we do not have a date for this activity and will update once we have a plan in place.


OS upgrade info specific to the FP3 The FP3 OTA OS update from Pie to Q/R is not possible as encryption method changed on FP3 between Pie and Q/R. It is not possible to change the method while updating. The team spent a great deal of time on this, but has not been able to resolve this problem. For now, the manual process is the only way to upgrade the FP3 from pie to other OS versions.
What we mean by OS OTA upgrade - Click to expand or close

:nerd_face: OTA OS upgrade means the upgrade to a higher OS level. Updates will be delivered Over the Air (OTA). The OTA upgrades are available on official builds only. Users who have unofficial or custom-builds will not get the notification to install the upgrade build. They will have to manually download and flash the Q builds once they are released, which may result in data loss.

  • Difference between /e/OS build types
  • Unofficial ROM build refer the section ROM Builders - Unofficial and Custom
Recent Documentation updates
ROM Builders - Unofficial and Custom
  • Pleas update your Docker image to tne latest image we released
  • Those building using traditional repo sync method refer android_prebuilts_prebuiltapks_lfs
  • You will have to install git-lfs (sudo apt-get install git-lfs)
  • After completing a repo sync, you will have to run repo forall -c ‘git lfs pull’

:nerd_face: Reason behind these changes:

Due to the large size of the android_prebuilts_prebuiltapks we have switched to using LFS, and now you will need to refer to android_prebuilts_prebuiltapks_lfs

End of official support for Nougat, Oreo and Pie 😞 For Pie, Oreo and Nougat the official /e/OS support draws to a close.

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.
  • Find details of what devices are available in which countries here eSolutions Shop.
  • In Australia we do not sell directly. You can purchase preflashed /e/OS devices from this site

:loudspeaker: Murena One released
A phone from Murena with /e/OS installed has been launched and is available for purchase. Check the device specs here

Expect more device releases from Murena in future :grinning:

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

/e/OS Links

Support

  • Facing issues with devices you purchased from us ? Send a mail with details to helpdesk@e.email

Websites

Telegram Channel

Social Media

Newsletters


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

13 Likes

Hello Manoj, did you get any response regarding the question if there would be any update to the Easy-Installer to help with manually upgrading from Pie to Q/R?

I had responded on the issues with FP3 in the last update. Unfortunately, an automated solution through Easy Installer is not possible at present.

1 Like

Oh I kinda missed that, thank you for clearing up.

So Easy installer works for the upgrade from pie(at least it did for me) but of cause data is lost.

That just made me aware like nothing before of the incredible job you and the dev team are doing for us! It is absolutely understandable that this decision was made and it is amazing what you have achieved so far.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! :heart_on_fire:

6 Likes

Is it not about time you answered the long lingering question about saving passwords?

You referenced gitlab in an earlier answer but it is logged there and fixed!!!

It it annoying that this fix is still not included in recent releases.

Dear Manoj,

I was wondering whether the issue I am having (see below), would likely be resolved by these releases?

Hi there,

Since last year, I have a Fairphone 3+ with /e/OS pre-installed. I am currently on /e/OS 1.4-2022092022045 (I have checked today and that is the latest update I can install).

I have installed apps using the App Lounge, but also using Aurora Store since I couldn’t install some apps via App Lounge. Since some latest updates via the Aurora Store, I can’t seem to use the QR Scan function on several apps (Dutch banking app, DigID app).

Perhaps it is also relevant here that on Aurora Store I can’t seem to update the Google Play Services App and I keep getting an error notice about a ‘conflicting packet existing’ and "INSTALL-FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE: Package com.google.android.gms signatures do not match previously installed version; ignoring.

My microG Services Core app is version 0.2.24.214816-48 (a1e6fe8)-noen.

Could you please help me resolve this issue, since it’s quite impractical that I can’t use these essential apps.

Thank you!
Chris

No, it’s not relevant. It was pointed out already in another answer to this elsewhere that it’s a non-issue.

Aurora Store mistakes microG for Google Play Services, which is exactly the point of microG, to pose as Google Play Services to unsuspecting Apps, making them work without actual Google Play Services.

As already suggested elsewhere, just use Aurora Store’s blacklist manager to blacklist this so that Aurora Store doesn’t try to update it. I would suggest blacklisting everything you didn’t install via Aurora Store to avoid such possible confusion (yes, that’s a lot of Apps to blacklist).

It was discussed allready true, Chris should have mentioned that he is missing the OS OTA upgrade from q stable 1.4 to R :blush:. The update might solve his issue with micro g.

@Manoj Hi Manoj,

First, I would like to thank you and the team for your great work. Keep it up in 2023 !

I have a question regarding the milestone in the GitLab. I never now what to click, as there are many different v1.7 (i.e beta, rc, etc…) versions. Can you help me identifuing how to use this info posted in your weekly report ?

Thanks !

Each build goes through various iterations of testing.
First, we plan a certain set of changes which would include bug fixes and optimization tasks to be in a particular build.
When we make the first build the beta build, we add the code has been checked in by the developers at that time. At times, not all that we have identified makes it to a beta build. There can also be some extra code or bug that gets completed and is added to a build. The security patch or vendor patch if available are all added at this time.
As part of testing, some code will be accepted and others rejected. What is rejected will be removed from the code. GitLab thankfully handles the complexity of compartmentalizing these individual code chunks.
Sometimes we have to go through multiple iterations of each stage…for example, you may see rc1, rc2 (rc = release candidate) builds.
Finally, when the internal and user testing teams give us the go ahead, we push out the final build version. This build is then published on to the image servers and makes its way OTA or manually on to the user devices.

1 Like

Can someone please tell me where exactly I can find the changes in 1.7 in the link? I can’t really get through it.

I think the release plan is a bit changed this year(?), and is spread over 5 days :

2 Likes