Week 3, 2023: Development and Testing Updates

/e/OS Smartphone Operating System Development Updates
1

Releases

v1.7

Status : :green_circle: Released

  • This is a staggered release. Device builds will be released over the next couple of days - a few devices at a time.

Update 19 Jan The v1.7 rollout has been a bit slow. We had some issues with some of the builds which made the team delay the process. Expect the rollout to take the whole of the coming week :frowning:
Thanks for your patience.

Release Notes

Share your feedback and vote on v1.7

Please note v1.7 has still not rolled out for all devices. This process may take the whole of this week to complete.

Previous releases & user feedback

Upcoming Releases

  • Milestones
    • The list will have multiple entries for a build
    • Check for the RC (release candiate) build for that version
    • The tentative ETA for the public release of a build would be usually a week after the final rc build

GSI

v1.7

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

12 Likes
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Hi @Manoj,

The release note link doesn’t go for the v1.7 but v1.6 instead :wink:.

Bonne journĂŠe

1 Like
3

:slight_smile: Thanks for pointing that out.
The team is working on some issues with the builds. Once resolved, we will continue the roll out and update the Release notes.

4 Likes
4

@manoj, this really makes sense, but do you have any rough time frame for putting this in place?
I guess, this is a thing that will happen on a regular basis in the future. It would be cool, to announce this 3 months ahead. No clue if this is realistic form your side.

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While I fully understand the reason for this decision, upgrading manually seems not always be appropriate for “non-techies” – at least when you want to avoid reinstalling everything from scratch (by keeping the data partition or restoring a backup after the upgrade).

For example, I did an upgrade attempt recently on my FP2 which resulted in constant crashes after unlocking the screen, see my report in the forum.

Are there plans for step-by-step procedures for manual upgrades? Apparently, in my case I probably should better have removed the lock pattern before upgrading. Not sure whether this is a general recommendation or just applies to the FP2, though.

Kind regards
Ingolf

1 Like
6

Manoj’s link at the top now leads to the 1.7 release notes. :+1:
Nice detail from those:

Replace Google play app with fdroid app if the app is available in both sources

Very good e.g. for (perhaps not just) Fairphone users who want to install Fairphone Checkup – the Play Store version is older and very buggy, the F-Droid version is fully functional.

And 1.7-dev is now available for the FP3 as well (OTA and https://images.ecloud.global/dev/FP3/). :slight_smile:

4 Likes
7

At present this is under discussion. Will share dates and timeline once I have more concrete information.

4 Likes
8

Hi @Manoj ,

I see that OP8T (kebab) 1.7 S update just landed on /e/ image ROM Downlaod. I try to get it on OTA on my device but no update found. I can install the update manually but I don’t find it practical for each update.

I check for the update again after disabling Connect to /e/ OS test channel in Developer menu but no update was found.

Best regards,
HL

9

Let me check with the team if there is an issue with OTA updates - will get back with the response.

10

The team is not seeing any issues on the OTA updates side. Have you checked after disabling Test channel. Also, try rebooting the device after disabling Test channel.

11

How can users check whether an OTA update should be on offer to quickly determine whether there could be an issue on their phone if they don’t see the update?

https://ota.ecloud.global/api/v1/kebab/dev only offers kebab updates up to 1.6-s-20221201239247-dev-kebab currently (and there are no stable releases).
Is the updater using a different API URL in this case?

1 Like
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Hello, I have a FP3. I installed e/OS about 2 years ago. I’m now on the latest version
of Q : /e/OS 1.5-20221031230909
I see that the stable version of e/OS had the OS OTA upgrade from Q to R.
Will the dev version also get an OS OTA upgrade from Q to R (or maybe S)?
I guess this also an official build version?

13

Yes, I tried the both steps. But no update after refreshing. Weird !

14

When replacing the 1.6-s-20221201239247-dev-kebab.zip by e-1.7-s-20230111250406-dev-kebab.zip in the API url, it points to the right file but the new update 1.7S doesn’t have an API new record entry.

15

That’s my point.
You can get the install file, it’s released, as you’ve seen yourself.

But in case the updater doesn’t offer an update which should be out, how do you check the updater works correctly, and the update is really not on offer via the updater at this point?
If the updater on kebab indeed uses https://ota.ecloud.global/api/v1/kebab/dev, then the update is not on offer currently and the updater works correctly. But I would want to know for sure.

16

It is. Doesn’t matter in this case.

17

I agree with you on this point.

It is true that the API link you submitted above does not contain the 1.7 S update.

18

Installed 1.7 on my OnePlus 7T today and after installing it none of my Microsoft apps will sync with my Microsoft accounts. Is there a way to go back to 1.6?

19

Now, I can see the 1.7 S update when refreshing. Since yesterday, the 1.7S update has been added to the OTA entries.

PS: I disabled the /e/ OS test channel to see the update.

1 Like
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Of course, reinstall it using recovery !
It should be under /data/lineageos_updates.