Week 27 2024: Development and Testing Updates

/e/OS Smartphone Operating System Development Updates
1

Summary of weekly development and testing activities by /e/OS developers and volunteers. Updated content has the :new: emoji.

Release

v2.2

Status: Testing

Issues to be fixed

ETA: July Second week

Upcoming milestones information

Ongoing development tasks 
- A web based version of Easy Installer to be released replacing the existing desktop version. At present the team is working on the development and testing of this tool. Will share ETA for release.

Murena 2 specific information

  • The camera out of focus issue reported by some users, has been identified as a hardware issue. We do not have spare parts for replacements. Request you to send in your invoice details to the helpdesk@e.email ID and the team will offer a refund with discount vouchers for future purchases.
  • Back covers have been sent to users who had pre ordered. The website will be updated for those who want to order.
  • The Murena 2 saw heavy demand and is now fully sold out. We are working hard to create a new and even better model in our Murena line for our users.

Previous 5 releases & user feedback

Device specific

  • Team is working on the /e/OS U or Android 14 :fire:

  • ETA for device upgrade to /e/OS U will be shared as also the list of device to be upgraded to /e/OS U.

  • S7/ 7+ will get OTA OS upgrade builds from R to S along with v2.2 build :fire:

  • S8/ 8+ OTA OS upgrade build release timeline to be confirmed

  • ASUS devices will have a warning in the Smartphone Selector mentioning non availability of official unlock methods.

  • EasyInstaller v0.21 released

To be marked as legacy

X00P , X01AD , X01BD , YTX703F , YTX703L , a5y17lte , a7y17lte , addison , ahannah , albus ,cedric , d800 ,d801 ,d802 , d803, d850 , d851, d852 , d855, ether , f400 , ginkgo , hannah , hlte , hltechn , hltekor , hltetmo , jactivelte , jasmine_sprout , jason ,jflteatt, jfltespr , jfltevzw , jfltexx , jfvelte , klte ,klteactivexx , klteaio, kltechn , kltechnduo , klteduos, kltedv , kltekdi , kltekor , lavender ,lithium , ls990 , montana , obiwan ,oneplus3, platina , rhannah , s3ve3gds , s3ve3gjv , s3ve3gxx ,scorpio ,shamu, sirius ,suzuran ,twolip ,victara ,vs985 , wayne ,whyred ,x2, z3, z3c , zl1

What legacy would mean

  • No further official builds. Users with ROM building skills can build on their own.

  • Legacy /e/OS versions:

  • R - or Android 11

  • Q - or Android 10

  • P - or Android 9

  • O - or Android 8

  • N - or Android 7

:point_right: Decision on continued support for FP2 pending.

/e/OS R or previous OS support drop reasons Google has stopped security patches. LineageOS has also dropping support. For most of the older devices vendors would also have stopped vendor patches.We would not be able to continue support as it would require backporting security patches which will require dedicated resources and is not a viable long term solution. Users are advised to upgrade to newer OS and builds where available.

 

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

Murena cloud Next Cloud 27.1.8.3

Self Hosting current version

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 Login ā€“ Murena >> 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 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 \U0001f610 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

  • Download available here

    • Sources available here
    • version is /e/OS Q (A10)

    :point_right: The v1.17 GSI build is the last build and is on /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

Completed

  • Fairphone: FP4 : S (A12) T (A13)

  • Samsung: S9/9+ : R(A11) S(A12)

  • 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 ā€˜herolteā€™ ā€˜hero2lteā€™: Q ( A10) R (A11)

  • Google Pixel ā€˜redfinā€™: 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
  • Samsung: S7/7+ : R(A11) S(A12)
    • ETA v2.2
  • Samsung: S8/8+ : R(A11) S(A12)
    • ETA v2.2 :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

 

 

Misc information

Read Gael 's roadmap for 2024

Device and Vendor specific Announcements

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.

/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

10 Likes
2

Hi @Manoj , Android U refers to Android 14 and Android V (Vanilla Ice Cream) to Android 15.

Cheers

1 Like
3

shouldnā€™t the v2.2 ETA be changed at this info?:thinking:

1 Like
4

Hi @Manoj,

for drop of support, no way to keep some phones (a5y17lte) ? Because that would mean I have to put 2 phones to garbage :frowning:
Or is it that phones with R are given up next month ?

5

:slight_smile: Thanks corrected it to A14

1 Like
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/e/OS R is set for the legacy tag. Unless some ROM Maintainers step forward and take up the building and debugging. With support from LOS and Google for R dropped, it will not be viable in the long term.

1 Like
7

For the S8/S8+ I am awaiting an ETA. The earlier plan was to release with 2.2 and have a confirmation for the S7/s7+. Waiting for the S8/S8+ ETA from the team.

2 Likes
8

ok bad bad news for me and I guess for some other onesā€¦
When the list of supported device for U would be available? in order to choose a new phone supported at least the 3-4 next years ?
That will reduce a lot the number of devices supported by /e/OS too unfortunately

9

Indeed, and something I mentioned in the internal team discussions. Unfortunately, we do not have much of a choice.

2 Likes
10

Do you see a way to make the ā€œlegacy devices listā€ more visible ?
For now it very maskedā€¦

11

We will add a text to the supported device list table. That way the a user can see in the initial screen itself.

1 Like
12

Hello,
Are there device names you can share, a schedule ?

13

As yet I do not have the list. Will share once we have created it.

3 Likes
14

AOSP 14 ā€œUā€ does not offer any major advantages over AOSP 13 ā€œTā€ (/e/OS-T). On the contrary, due to the massive changes made by Google to the requirements for AOSP 14 (QPR2 and QPR3 issues), custom ROM developers will have to solve various problems and older devices in particular will no longer be able to be supported with /e/OS-U.

15

It could help me make an estimate of whether there are any good devices to buy that will be usable for longer that I experienced with /e/ and Murena (according to my needs).

16

Manoj will inform us all as soon as he has the information.

17

Iā€™m anything but a Google fan, but the Pixel hardware has been very straightforward to use so far. On all previous Pixels (in my case from Pixel 2 onwards), the bootloader can be locked again after flashing a custom ROM, so that Verfied-Boot is also possible. However, this also requires that the custom ROM supports re-locking (AVB key).

/e/OS-T only supports very few devices on which the bootloader can be relocked, other CustomROM distributions support significantly more, e.g. GrapheneOS.

Long story short: The investment in the current Google Pixel hardware is a safe one, especially in the Pixel 8a hardware and the Pixel 9, which will be released in August 2024.

Google is offering seven years of Android version and security updates, i.e. until at least May and August 2031 respectively. Android will then probably bear the number 21 (in words: twenty thirty-one). In addition, the Pixel hardware will be easier to repair and it will be easier to replace the battery.

1 Like
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I bought a Pixel 4a with the same logic but the built quality has issues (probably because of the Gorilla Glass 3) so I donā€™t trust Google for sure. I still thought about Pixels anyway recently then I saw this video Can You Trust Google?, and I agree with some arguments.
Google Pixel phones have a purpose and it is about helping Google to make cash whatever it takes.

PS: Just for fun: killedbygoogle.com (which includes Nexus phones)

2 Likes
19

Hi, when you said this (see above) are you saying that you are working on something like a Murena3 ?
I bought an early Murena2 and after some pbms, I only keep ā€¦ the protective case !
Do you think that the new and better model could use the murena2 protective case ?

20

Yes, we are working on a Murena 3. Not aware of its specifications as yet. We will share more details once we have them.

2 Likes