FREE YOUR CELL PHONE

Use LineageOS to set your smartphone free

THERE’S A JOKE that circulates security circles: Android smartphones are really expensive abandoned Linux distributions. It hurts, but it’s true. Android is based on the Linux kernel, making Android (more or less) a form of Linux operating system, aka a distribution. Android smartphone manufacturers tend to bash out a device, build whatever the latest version of Android is, support it for the shortest amount of time they can get away with, then abandon the owners—vulnerable to whatever zero-day attack next raises its ugly head—running for the hills, waving their wads of cash.

Take the OnePlus Two. A fine Android phone, but OnePlus dropped support two years after release, just as the Krack vulnerability struck. Tough luck, suckers! This is standard practice in the Android world. But when people are carrying their entire lives around with them on a securityhole-riddled device, perhaps it’s time to rethink the situation. So, what can you do?

While you could say a failing of Android— contrasted with Apple iOS—is its easy-tobuild-and-forget open-source nature, it means any group can support any devices via the Android Open Source Program (AOSP). And people do. Most famously, there was Cyanogenmod, which blossomed into a huge project, creating builds of Android supporting hundreds of devices, with far more up-to-date releases. But the project closed in December 2016, when the corporate branch that had sprung up shut down the servers that hosted the images, source code, wiki, and so on. That’s where its spiritual and source code successor LineageOS rises phoenix-like from the server ashes to power your devices.

THAT’S THE POWER of open source—while one group might shut down development, another is free to pick things up and carry on where they left off. It took a few months through the start of 2017 for servers to be established, web sites to spin up, and development to pick up, but as we start 2018, LineageOS officially supports almost 200 devices, with many more through unofficial development. See the boxout opposite on how to find out what devices are supported, and what to consider when buying a device.

As with Cyanogenmod, LineageOS is built upon the AOSP; the devs take the latest release, which has all the Google software removed, add LineageOS’s own additions, create a build for specific devices, and roll out an image update. This means that when a zero-day is announced, such as the critical Krack and Blueborne vulnerabilities, LineageOS developers can roll out an update within days, rather than the weeks, months, or never-ever option bigname Android manufacturers can take, despite having weeks of embargoed warning.

So, who should consider flashing their phone with LineageOS? Probably not your grandmother. We don’t like being presumptuous, but it’s probably not for her. If your device is still under warranty, wait until it’s not. This type of activity voids any cover you might have, and that would be foolish. The process will likely have your phone out of action for at least half a day; if you’ve never done this type of thing before, more likely a full day—don’t forget, there’s an element of having to reinstall all your apps, tweak things, curse when something isn’t quite right, and start again. It all takes time.

If you’ve decided that flashing LineageOS on your phone is for you, first make sure your phone is supported; there’s not much use carrying on if it’s not! Head to https://wiki.lineageos.org/

devices, and see whether your device is on the official supported list. If it is, you’re golden; if it’s not, don’t give up hope just yet. Consider this list to be tier-one supported devices; because this is open source, less popular devices can often gain support via the https://f or um.xda

developers.com community. A Google search such as “xda developers <phone model> lineageos” will garner results. Read any returned forum threads to determine how good the support is—hopefully, people will report common bugs or issues. Common issues are the phone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or camera not working—these typically require proprietary binaries to work that may not have been merged into early builds. Other issues include locking up, poor battery life, and other quirks.

The former issues are likely to be dealbreakers, while you might decide you can live with the latter issues. Having used early builds on a number of devices, they usually work relatively well—as long as you have the basic cell phone radio operational. But you need to decide for yourself whether an “alpha” or “beta” build is going to be good enough.