Official LineageOS 17.1 for Fairphone 3/Fairphone 3+

[lklaus]

@juri.gagarin.ii

preserve the keys from Exposure Notification (I use the German Corona Warn App from f-droid)

i did ask the developer for that… answer is, if you can backup and restore the exposure.db, you can migrate your data to a new installation (using the de.corona.tracing, the clone of the official app). Only cosmetic problems the first 14 days in the message (Risikoermittelung war für x der letzten 14 Tage aktiv). you can see your keys in the settings)

[kinjiru]

@dk1978 thanks for all the work on LOS 17.1!

I just got my new FP3+ this week coming from FPOOS on FP2, looking forward to install LOS+MicroG.

@dk1978

If you use the Micro-G patches (I do) then I would wait for the LineageOS + Micro-G-build here

Will there be a microG build directly on the official LOS website or should I use the fork from the MicroG download page? (as soon as a 17.1 build is available there)

[helios]

@dk1978

That is a good question. What you do depends on your needs and your experience. If you are a casual user or always need a working phone + data and apps, then I recommend you wait for the official LineageOS build, signed with LineageOS keys. If you use the Micro-G patches (I do) then I would wait for the LineageOS + Micro-G-build here . Either way, the normal OTA updates should then be pointing at valid servers and you can get updates without the fastboot + adb manual flashing hastle. Using an official build will also eliminate the nagging warning about using the default developer keys to sign the build (you could sign your own build if you want ).

If you are into building yourself, then you are free to use anything you like. My own unofficial builds were only meant for early testing and I will not do anything to maintain continuity there.

Dear dk1978. Many thanks for your detailed answer which gives me a clear picture. As I like this Fairphone 3+ to be my main handy for private use I’d rather go with the official image. I intend to play around with Plasma Mobile some day, but that would be on another (used) phone.

I think I go without MicroG, as I am not sure in what use case it would actually benefit me. Okay, may be that Conversations can go with push messages then, but as far as I understood its just the client implementation that is free software with MicroG and it would still be using Google services. And I do not like Google to know when there are new XMPP messages waiting for me. So I am willing to go with a slightly higher battery usage.

I will also go without rooting the device and like lock the bootloader again, once I flashed the official image.

Thank you very much for your work.

[helios]

@dk1978

Whatever route you chose, I guess it is better to choose early and stick with it to avoid wasted time and lost data. Many things can go wrong and the Android world is constantly changing.
Backing up data is still an issue. I have yet to see a working Seedvault backup. Using TWRP backup and recover does 90% of the job, but there are some apps, e.g. Signal Messenger or andOTP that rely on the Android Strongbox keystore. Those keys are stored in a trusted hardware component and cannot be recovered (by design) if you wipe the system.

Ah, about this one, I intend to just setup accounts with AndOTP on the new Fairphone 3+ manually again, logging in with the old AndOTP and FreeOTP+ accounts on the Fairphone 2 I used before.

I believe I should be able to export SMS from Silence, I have been using it before. I never heard about SeedVault backup. I think I did a kind of a backup with adb some time. At least Nextcloud client already stores my photos and contacts on my Nextcloud. I don’t think there is much more critical stuff on the Fairphone 2 and I likely have the opportunity to keep both phones for a while, so I can still copy things over in case I miss anything.

Have a happy, peaceful, healthy and abundant new year everyone!

[dk1978]

@helios

Ah, about this one, I intend to just setup accounts with AndOTP on the new Fairphone 3+ manually again, logging in with the old AndOTP and FreeOTP+ accounts on the Fairphone 2 I used before.

AndOTP actually defaults to not using then Android Keystore, and does not recommend it. My guess is that if you use the other method labelled “Password / PIN”, then you will be able to restore the tokens from a backup. No experience with this yet.

[kinjiru]

@helios

I think I go without MicroG, as I am not sure in what use case it would actually benefit me.

Actually, now that I read this, I remembered I don’t use full microG right now
I just use the standalone microG UnifiedNLP for a faster location fix (offline backend)

So I guess the best approach for me is to get the official LOS17.1 as soon as it’s available and install UnifiedNLP (No GApps) on that.

I’ve seen this howto and an older FP forum topic about this.
Anyone knows whether this adb method is still necessary for system registration, or does the current 17.1 build support UnifiedNLP installation in userspace from F-Droid?

[f4354]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks a lot for your work towards LOS 17.1 for Fairphone 3+! It’s very much appreciated! Can’t wait until it’s officially released. Hopefully on Monday?

I saw your discussion about backup of AndOTP. I faced the same issue and actually came up with the following solution: Using KeePassDX instead (which also supports OTP) and synchronizing the KeePass DB via Syncthing (of course also works with Nextcloud etc.).
Maybe this helps

[MadSpeeder]

@kinjiru

Will there be a microG build directly on the official LOS website or should I use the fork from the MicroG download page ? (as soon as a 17.1 build is available there)

I’m 99,9% sure that there will never be a MIcroG-enabled ROM on the official LOS page due to the reasons described by MicroG.

[r.m]

@Micka

FYI, in the meantime I have built my own LOS version (based on the official version), that:

• is signed with my own keys (instead of the google test keys)
• enables verity mode (disabled in LOS)
• creates a ‘user’ build (instead of ‘userdebug’)

Works like a charm, all with locked boot loader!

This sounds very interesting.
Are there any limitations by running a ‘user’ build on FP3?
Does a locked bootloader still allow sideload updates or how do i update private builds?
Could a ‘user’ build be updated to a ‘userdebug’ if needed for some reasons in future?

[Micka]

@r.m

Are there any limitations by running a ‘user’ build on FP3?

I am not aware of any limitations (other than the ‘desired limitations’ of not being able to run adb as root, and adb being disabled by default).

Since LOS officially only tests/supports userdebug builds, in theory there is a risk that some things might not work - but I have not encountered any problems so far.

See also https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/8co63o/to_user_or_to_userdebug/

@r.m

Does a locked bootloader still allow sideload updates or how do i update private builds?

Yes, adb sideloading is still possible in recovery. To update, I reboot into recovery, and sideload my private builds there.

@r.m

Could a ‘user’ build be updated to a ‘userdebug’ if needed for some reasons in future?

I haven’t tried this, but I believe you can easily switch between the two - sideloading a ‘userdebug’ build to update a ‘user’ build should work.

[Carnauba]

Hi,

i have a bug when using a sdcard.
When the card is inserted the phone (FP3+) boots normal, but after unlocking the screen there is this overlay saying “phone is starting” and after a short time it reboots.
There is data on the card.

[HolosericaCaligo]

Hi & welcome here in our community
Are you using LOS 16.1 or LOS 17.1?
Have you formatted the sd card as external or internal
storage?
Android sometimes has some troubles handling sd cards as internal storage. And since sd cards can go corrupt, there’s a high risk of data loss.
This might be the case here, too. Have you tried it with a different sd card?

[Carnauba]

Thank you.
I’m using LOS17.1.
Installed as external.
Did not try using another card. So I will try to reformat the card and start with an empty card.
I will report back if this helps.

After reformatting the sdcard it seems to work. Maybe there have been problems with the amount of data being on the sdcard (~55gb/64gb).

Thanks for your help!

[dk1978]

@Carnauba

i have a bug when using a sdcard.
When the card is inserted the phone (FP3+) boots normal, but after unlocking the screen there is this overlay saying “phone is starting” and after a short time it reboots.
There is data on the card.

Hi and welcome! The bug with the sdcard is very “interesting” - it would have been very nice to have an adb logcat dump of what happened there or be able to reproduce this somehow.

[maba007]

@dk1978

I unlocked my phone in spring, at that time the bootloader did not need an unlocking code.

@dk1978: From a security perspective, it would make sense to relock the bootloader after installing LineageOS. Does this also make sense from a LineageOS perspective in your opinion?

SecureBoot currently seems disabled on FP3.

[dk1978]

@maba007

From a security perspective, it would make sense to relock the bootloader after installing LineageOS. Does this also make sense from a LineageOS perspective in your opinion?

Sure, it makes sense and people have done it successfully, see above.

You are referring to Android Verified Boot? That is normally disabled so that people can install OpenGapps after installing LineageOS.

[maba007]

@dk1978

You are referring to Android Verified Boot? That is normally disabled so that people can install OpenGapps after installing LineageOS.

When you boot into the bootloader, you see the text at the bottom “SECURE BOOT - disabled” This is what I was referring to.

[Carnauba]

I’ll try to reproduce this by copying nearly the same amount of data, as I cannot restore the same.
If the bug occurs again I get back.

[t_aus_m]

There it is: https://download.lineageos.org/FP3 \o/

Do we need to update the vendor partition or anything? Or can I just update from 16.0?

Can’t wait for the microG build to be available.
Thanks @dk1978 for putting so much work into this!

[juri.gagarin.ii]

Yes, thanks @dk1978!
I am also waiting for the build with microG and then install asap.