What options are available to have a google-free LOS 18.1 with unifiedNLP?

What options are available to have a google-free LOS 18.1 with unifiedNLP? Apparently it’s not possible to flash the “old” version, which was compatible to 17.1
I found this thread how to install microG, but it led to a fairly tricky system (e.g. had to install Whatsapp prior to flashing microG components, because otherwise it complained about Play Services being unavailable… without the components it just works).
Some other things were problematic as well. Maybe I should try to install the FULL microG suite, but I basically only want the unifiedNLP part and avoid anything that gets in touch with Google in the background.
Any suggestions/ideas?

LineageOS gets in touch with Google in the background quite a bit, as degoogling is not a priority of LineageOS.

Since it seems you don’t have anything against microG, you might want to have a look at /e/, a LineageOS fork which is available for the Fairphone 2, too, although it’s still at Android 10 at the moment … /e/OS product description - a pro-privacy mobile operating system and cloud services.
It gets degoogled as far as possible and has microG integrated.

Just FYI: beta testing of /e/ based on Android 11 is planned for next week.

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That’s what I ended up with yesterday to have everything up and running at least temporarily. I must admit, I’m pleasantly surprised by /e/, it works like charm. The only thing I’d like to change would be a launcher, that is capable of using widgets :smiley:

That’s a good hint… do you know if it is upgradable or would I have to re-install everything from scratch again?

As far as I know, major Android version upgrades are not possible as OTA but need to be done manually (with wipe I assume?).
Upgrading from one Android version to the next in a more user-friendly way is on their roadmap and IIRC currently being developed for the Samsung models (or just one?).

I don’t use /e/ so I have no first-hand experience.

Edit: here is a fresh announcement about the Android 11 roadmap for /e/

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I have had /e/ installed for quite a few months now, and am happy so far with it. Additionally to the /e/-app-store, I have also installed Aurora Store, because of a few apps that I only get there. In recent days, the Aurora Store wants me now to update the “Google Play Services”, that, of course, I have never installed. Probably a good thing to do would be to deinstall Aurora Store and to download the apps through evozi.com or apkpure.com ?

Thanks for a hint.

No.

Aurora Store offers this because microG uses the same package name as the Google Play Services, as microG mimics to be those Google Play Services so Google-dependent Apps feel fine with microG.

A good thing to do would be to use Aurora Store’s Blacklist manager to blacklist every App which you didn’t install via Aurora Store (yes, these are many) to not confuse the system, Aurora Store or yourself with updates which Aurora Store shouldn’t offer.

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Thanks for this, Another ELK!

Probably called “Sperrliste” in the German Version of Aurora Store.

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