Official LineageOS 17.1 for Fairphone 3/Fairphone 3+

Fantastic, kudos to everyone involved in bringing LineageOS to FP3! :tada:

Hello,

I have installed the MicroG version. It was quite complicated to me, due to my inexperience with some steps and because I started by following the Lineage installation instructions which cannot still be followed. I reproduce here the main problems I had so it may be useful for others in a similar situation.

  • Firstly, I was lazy to understand the whole process before starting it, so I didn’t follow the expected order and did unneeded things (so just don’t use my comments to understand the procedure).
  • It is good to mention that almost any problem I faced was someway linked or answered from some thread in this forum, which was nice. However, that led me to confusion too.
  • There are several sources of instructions. I started by following the Lineage instructions but they cannot be currently used due to the current lack of the LineageOS recovery. The best choice would have been to follow the steps in the previous “unofficial LineageOS” thread in this forum using TWRP.
  • It was a unneeded step, but to access the recovery menu was very complicated by following the official Fairphone instructions. I didn’t understand the timing to press/release the buttons from the fastboot mode.
  • In addition, I forgot about unlocking the bootloader before doing a factory reset. From that state, I read that that is expected to be done from the default OS, so I installed the factory ROM (just booting the phone) and tried to follow the procedure, but it always failed: never mind if I was connected to the internet, I set a PIN code or debug mode was enabled; after introducing the unlock code the system failed to unlock it (reported with a temporary message in the bottom of the screen). I didn’t understand the reason. Then I found the alternative process using fastboot by looking in the forum.
  • When doing that I was not able to guess (even if it is clearly stated in the Lineage installation instructions) that to use the fastboot command I needed to have the phone in fastboot mode, so at any time, fastboot didn’t recognize my device while adb could. Finally I guessed the reason, but all my attempts to understand the issue looking on the internet were unsuccessful.
  • The Lineage instructions (LineageOS for MicroG redirects to them) point to “temporally boot a custom recovery” which at that moment did not exist, probably because the Lineage built is not currently compiled (while the MicroG version is) at the time of writing this. Then I read about TWRP and followed it. Previous complications would have been avoided if I would have started from that point.
  • I never used TWRP before, so I didn’t understand its whole point. However, instructions were clear in the header of the previous unofficial LOS thread in the forum, so I was able to follow them around the TWRP interface after booting it.

And that’s all, everything worked after that.

Edit: Making clear that TWRP method is simpler at the moment and I followed unnecessary steps.

Edit 2: Minor corrections/typos.

11 Likes

Great news!

Is it possible to relock the phone after installing LineageOS?

I know that generally is not recommended, but since Fairphone 3 comes with secure boot disabled [1], it probably does not care about verifying the installed ROM, even if locked - see [2].

Why still lock the bootloader then? Well, it does seem to increase security a bit, as a not-too-sophisticated attacker would not be able to load a new ROM without wiping all user data.

[1] Fairphone 3 unbricking
[2] https://community.fxtec.com/topic/2606-rom-ungoogled-stock/?do=findComment&comment=42849

I read yesterday some threads in the forum reporting problems when locking not default ROMs. Probably you can find there some answers.

Hurrah !
Finally an official build is available :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:
Awesome, congratulations to @dk1978 and all the other contributors

10 Likes

Great news !

Does this rom fix some problems with the default system, for example the “too high minimum britghness” described here ? Lowest brightness is too bright

I don’t think the Lineage OS build has a problem with the brightness. I checked the file /sys/devices/platform/soc/1a00000.qcom,mdss_mdp/1a00000.qcom,mdss_mdp:qcom,mdss_fb_primary/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness. Adjusting the settings slider for the brightness changes the values between 0 and 255 which is likely the best that is possible. The linked forum entry reported that the slider there was only able to get the brightness value down to 10.

2 Likes

That’s what i expected :slight_smile: Thanks for this precision.

I have no FP for the moment, but the availability of LineageOS (especially future 17.1 release) could lead me to buy a FP3 (i quite never take photos and have no interest in new modules).

I would like to ask: can I backup data (partition) from LOS 17.1 GSI and restore it to this ROM?

Hello and thank you for your great work, I have been lurking for months and was very eager to have this ROM running on my FP3.

I would like to share with you my experience with the LOS+MicroG rom: the installation process went smooth and I have found no issues in particular with that.

That being said (as with the Unofficial ROM with MicroG) I often experience random touches/swipes in the upper part of the screen. I have not had this issue with the stock ROM, it just has appeared after I had flashed LOS. I have heard (don’t remember where though) that the root cause of this issue is in the firmware or something, and that the fix will come from Fairphone themselves. Is this statement correct?

Another issue I am experiencing is with voice messages in whatsapp: when I play one of them, and I put the phone next to my ear (or a finger gets close to the proximity sensor), the audio freezes and can’t be played again. Only a restart of Whatsapp allows to play again the recording. Is this issue independent from LOS?

When I play to Andor’s Trail, when I load a savegame, often the app crashes. If I load the savegame as the first thing I do when I launch the app, it works. But in other circumstances the app crashes almost always. This did not happen with the stock ROM.

Trust tells me that the vendor security patch is out of date. Is this to be expected? Would my vendor sec. patch be updated if I reverted to FP OS, install the OTA updates, and then flash agian LOS?

Eventually: I have flashed Magisk and the updater tells me there is a 662MB update dated 12 November 2020. When I try to install the OTA update, after the restart the phone does not boot. The LOS logo appears, and loads forever. If I restart the phone during this process, the phone boots and apparently no update is installed.
The procedure I have followed is:

  • uninstall Magisk

  • install the LOS’ OTA update

  • re-install Magisk in the inactive slot

Thank you for what you are doing, you are much appreciated.

I doubt that will work, since you would be downgrading. Might be better to wait until we can release our 17.1 version.

3 Likes

I will examine how and why this message appears. I found this interesting discussion about it. One thing is certain: it will not help you to flash stock images, then reflash LOS, because you would simply be overwriting the vendor partition with the LOS stuff again.

I cannot help you with any problems with apps. From my own experience, you will find apps that misbehave, even when using micro-g. What you can do is examine logs with adb logcat while a crash occurs and see if you get hints as to what is going on.

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Thank you. I guess 17.1 official is not to be expected anytime soon, right?

A curiosity question, concerning a possible future port for FP3+. Is there a dedicated build to make for FP3+, or once the required modifications are done the official LineageOS image will be compatible with both FP3 and FP3+? :smiley:

I think the changes needed for FP3+ concern the vendor partition only, not the kernel. Fairphone does not appear to provide separate builds for FP3/FP3+. Our Lineage OS 17.1 release should handle both, but I will need to get my hands on one of the new camera modules for tests.

3 Likes

Hello,
I tried to prepare my phone for the installation of the lineage image (from stock).
I face two issues:

  1. I installed ADB ´, the adb drivers (Windows) and rebooted with “adb reboot bootloader”. After the restart and waiting for windows to install the device again, I typed in “fastboot devices”. No device showed up.
    What am I doing wrong?
    EDIT: I tried it again and now it shows up. I didn’t change anything, so I guess the device installation too longer than I thought.

  2. in the Wiki on the lineage site, there is a link to the bootloader unlock:
    https://www.fairphone.com/en/bootloader-unlocking-code-for-fairphone-3/
    This did not do much for me (it kep on displaying the message processing). After a longer waiting time, I simple rebooted and nothing had changed.
    In google I found the following instruction:
    https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048646311-Manage-the-bootloader-of-your-FP3-FP3-
    It is much longer and actually tells you to factory reset and includes many more steps.
    Which one would be correct?

Many regards

Do you have a rough time frame for a release?

Hem. With LineageOs or other developments, the rule is… “never ask for an estimated time of arrival” :slight_smile:

7 Likes

I strongly agree, I was just interested whether it is going to be a matter of weeks or of months or something like that.

I wouldn’t know, I didn’t write the Fairphone support articles. :slightly_smiling_face:
If the longer instructions work for you, then they are better right? I unlocked my phone in spring, at that time the bootloader did not need an unlocking code.

I will consider updating the Lineage OS Wiki link to point to the longer instructions if we don’t run into other problems.