Week 49, 2022: Development and Testing Updates

Releases

v1.6

Status : :green_circle: Release started

  • Release notes

  • As you may remember, in the last couple of updates we had mentioned a Bug cleanup exercise. Fixes will be spread across v1.6 and v1.7

  • v1.6 will be released ASAP (December 2022)

Update 6 Dec v1.6 builds are being released :new:

  • we will be releasing it OTA a few devices at a time starting from today.

Previous releases

v1.5

Status : :green_circle: Released

Release notes

Feedback on v1.5

  • Share your feedback and vote on v1.5

GSI

v1.5

Status: :green_circle: Released

  • Download here
    • Sources available here
    • version is /e/OS Q
    • S and R version of GSI to be planned based on availability of a developer

OS OTA upgrades

Status: :green_circle: Ongoing

Completed

  • FP3 Q to R stable
  • OnePlus Nord Q to R (stable build)
  • Samsung s7/ s7+
  • Samsung s9 / s9+

Upcoming

  • Samsung s8 /s8+ ( with v1.6 :crossed_fingers: )
    • Pie to S OTA upgrade
    • 2 critical issues were detected with the build. There is an issue around this but it marked internal by the team. Unless resolved, we will not be able to release this build. For now the team is working on resolving these issues.
    • ETA : To be announced :crossed_fingers:
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.

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

16 Likes

Quicker than originally estimated! :+1:

1 Like

The original idea of skipping 2 months was not exactly practical. Given that security patches get releases monthly, issues are getting raised and fixed. Going out with a big bang set of issues has its own associated problems…what if that build creates problems during testing - do we then delay the release further and so on. Always good to break up the release into manageable chunks.

15 Likes

What a surprise when I found V1.6 (dev) for the pixel 5 on Saturday!

@Manoj : Is it possible to release GmsCore in version 0.2.25.223616?

1 Like

v0.2.25 GmsCore should be available in v0.16 when it is released.
For v0.17 the version 0.2.26 of GmsCore should be available.

Can we expect a stable S build for FP3 soon?

The team is working on upgrading all devices possible. ETAs are not available. Will share the updates in these weekly posts.

1 Like

Thanks for the answer. The device is already upgraded though since the dev build exists, but I guess it’s still lots of work for the team anyway :slightly_smiling_face:

We now see the number of supported devices on this counter drop to 209.

This reflects dropping the “legacy” devices supported generally before /e/ version 1.0 at Android versions Nougat, Oreo and Pie. A large portion of these devices were no longer officially supported by LineageOS [1] or might have had other build issues.

At first sight the legacy devices are not found by visually scanning the list or on a PC by clicking twice CTRL + F to Find. I required expert help to discover that legacy devices are found:

legacy devices do show up in the Smartphone Selector. You can search for it by typing bacon in the box or click the ‘Searching for …’ and it will display a list of options to filter. One of them is show Legacy devices.

Perhaps it could be considered to add this to the weekly update “End of official support for Nougat, Oreo and Pie” ?

Other useful filters include Removable battery, SIM slots and Device Type, Smartphone / Tablet.

Thanks @Manoj and other members of the Documentation team.

[1] Unofficial Lineage support may still exist in some cases.

1 Like

Hi, did you manage to install it directly from the Updater in the settings ?
Mine does not work I get an install error.

I have 1.5-20221031230909 Android 10, build e_FP3-user 10 QQ3A.200805.001 eng.root.20221031.174702 dev-keys,dev-release

on a Fairphone 3.

Not seeing 1.6 update at the moment - have previously OTA updated to 1.4 and 1.5.

Should I be seeing it?

Thanks

Warren

No, there’s no 1.6-q-dev build for FP3 out there at the moment.

https://images.ecloud.global/dev/FP3/
https://ota.ecloud.global/api/v1/FP3/dev