Week 23 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 has the :new: emoji.

Release

v2.1

Status :green_circle: To be released

Release notes will show up here

ETA: 5 June to 10 June - Stagerred release

Some users on old builds reporting no internet connectivity post v2.0 release

  • Some users still on old builds like v0.23 have reported loss of internet connectivity post the v2.0 update.
  • The issue resolves if the user upgrades the device to newer build versions. This could in some cases require manual flashing after backing up data.
  • Some hacks to continue working with older versions have been posted on this forum. The development team does not recommend using any hacks to continue using older builds.
  • The recommendation is to upgrade your device to latest builds as available.
  • By continuing to use older builds you are missing out on newer security patches
  • Follow the thread on the forum

Upcoming milestones information

Ongoing development tasks 
- Easy Installer to be updated to flash /e/OS T builds. ETA to be planned

Murena 2 specific information

  • Back cover’s received from vendor. Sending out the same first to the crowdfunding backers.Back covers for users in France sent out. Out of France orders were sent starting on Thursday 30 May. The option to purchase the backcover to be added to the website.
  • User facing issues with the camera focus can send in the details to the helpdesk@e.email ID for a resolution.

Previous 5 releases & user feedback

Documentation

Recent updates
Official builds not available for

  • 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
Support dropped for

  • Galaxy M20 m20lte - No dedicated maintainer upstream or with /e/OS

  • 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

  • Galaxy M20 m20lte

    • Build issues. No dedicated maintainers available.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Devices with MINIMAL APPS builds
  • Moto E5 Plus ahannah
  • Moto E5 Plus hannah
  • Moto E5 Plus rhannah
  • Moto G5 cedric
  • Moto G5S montana
    All devices ran into out of space error while building. Issue was resolved using the MINIMAL_APPS build
What MINIMAL_APPS flag means

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. In the case of certain devices we are unable to build with even the minimal /e/OS build.

 

: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

Murena cloud NextCloud version upgraded

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

 

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
  • Samsung: S9/9+ : R(A11) → S(A12)
    • Testing in progress
To Plan
  • Samsung: S7/7+ : R(A11) → S(A12)
  • Samsung: S8/8+ : R(A11) → S(A12)

    • ETA

    • For devices with community builds on R we will move them to S but that will require the users to manually install it. This may involve data loss and backups should be taken if required. Official or stable builds get OTA OS upgrades

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

 

No more multiple OS versions
  • Support for /e/OS Q is being dropped for most of the devices.
  • 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.

 

Misc information

Read Gael 's roadmap for 2024

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

14 Likes
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Hi @Manoj , can you please confirm FP4 will get an upgrade to A13 with e/os/ 2.1?
Thanks

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Yes. The upgrade build to /e/OS T will be released with v 2.1

9 Likes
4

From the release notes:

We now provide our own backend location services to take over Mozilla Location Services ending on June 12th

@Manoj can you either elaborate or link to some issue/doc how this is implemented? Just out of curiosity, thx :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes
5

Will ask the developers to elaborate on this point.

1 Like
6

It may be a stupid question but why have the S9 and S9+ been updated to A12 (thanks for that) and not A13 on stable if dev is on A13 for some time already? Would it not be easier to support only one version? And will stable be updated to A13 one day?

2 Likes
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The OS OTA builds need to go one OS version at a time. Jumping multiple OS versions can have unpredictable issues, which we would like to avoid.

5 Likes
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Ah, thanks. I only recalled the upgrade A8 → A10 a few years ago so I thought that it is possible. Maybe you learned that it is possible but you do not want to repeat that.

Then I hope that everything works smoothly such that the upgrade to A13 comes before Google decides that A12 sould not get any updates anymore.

As always: thanks for all the work!

9

Peace to you all.
The forum just remembered me that I’ve been around in this community for 4 years.
Thank you so much to everyone in this forum.
I can’t even think about going back to bloated Android.
Thank you @Manoj and Dev Team for keeping /e/os running in my Fairphone.
Please keep up the good work! :clap:t3:

P.S. Anxious to upgrade my FP4 to Android 13

6 Likes
10

Even before the first and last official release of /e/OS-T-spacewar, the fantastic @ronnz98 proved that the Nothing Phone (1) with /e/OS-T is definitely suitable as a daily driver. Other /e/OS builds also have one or two small bugs.

What @ronnz98 has done for the diverse distribution of /eOS-T, -S, -R, -Q and -Pie is incomparable and impressive. He deserves our utmost respect and a never-ending thank you :clap:

5 Likes
11

:white_check_mark: First I tried a Local update like here but this time (from V2.0 to V2.1) it worked right away :sparkle: