In this guide we will be talking about LineageOS 19 based on Android 12. LineageOS is very well known in the custom development world of Android. Before LineageOS, there was CyanogenMod.
Now the LineageOS custom ROM is known by a lot of users and extends to users of hundreds of devices. It basically provides enthusiastic Android users a chance to step out of the stock firmware of their devices and use a customizable Android skin without bloatware and with modifications.
Now, the LineageOS developer team has pushed out it’s new version, LineageOS 19 which is based on Android 12.
Why is it named LineageOS 19?
If you are familiar with LineageOS, you must be wondering that why this version of LineageOS is named 19 and not 19.0 or not 19.1. Initially, the unofficial builds of LineageOS were called 19.0 because of the obvious major Android OS update. When Android 12L was released, the build name changed to LineageOS 19.1.
After that, Google proceeded to the quarterly maintenance release model for Android. Giving a name for the subsequent version of LineageOS build would be confusing for users and to follow a proper system for the names for different versions of Android would have been difficult.
Keeping this in mind, the developers behind LineageOS decided to change their naming system for this build. The new version of LineageOS, is just called LineageOS 19. But, you will still be able to find references of 19.1 if you search for it in the ROM filename and codebase.
LineageOS 19 Features
With the latest version of LineageOS, the developers introduced a lot of new features:
- Security patches from March 2021 to April 2022 have been merged to LineageOS 16.0 through 19.
- 19 builds are currently based on the android-12.1.0_r4 tag, which is the Pixel 6 series tag.
- WebView has been updated to Chromium 100.0.4896.58.
- The team has completely redone the volume panel introduced in Android 12, and instead made it a side pop-out expanding panel.
- The fork of the AOSP Gallery app has seen a large number of fixes and improvements.
- The Updater app has seen a large number of bug-fixes and improvements.
- The LineageOS web browser, Jelly has seen a number of bug fixes and improvements.
- The team has contributed a number of changes and improvements back upstream to the FOSS Etar calendar app they integrated some time back.
- The team contributed a number of changes and improvements back upstream to the Seedvault backup app.
- The LineageOS Recorder app has seen numerous bug fixes, improvements, and features added.
- Android TV builds now ship with an ad-free Android TV launcher, unlike Google’s ad-enabled launcher.
- Android TV builds now ship with a key-handler that enables us to support custom-keys on a wide-array of bluetooth and IR remotes.
- The LineageOS adb_root service is no longer tied to the build type property.
- The project’s extract utilities now support extracting from most types of factory images/packed OTA images, simplifying device-bring up and blob-extraction greatly.
- Support for high-touch polling rate has been added to our SDK, allowing it to be enabled on supported devices.
- The AOSP Clang toolchain is now the default toolchain use to compile the LineageOS kernels.
- Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Camera has been dropped, and devices that used it previously will now use Camera2.
- Dark mode is now enabled by default.
- There is an entirely new Setup Wizard, with all new Android 12 styled icons, animations, and ton of new configurable pages.
- A brand new set of icons for almost all apps, even system ones.
In addition to the new improvements and features listed above, the changes mentioned below have also been implemented in the codebase of LineageOS 19 and the legacy 18.1 codebase.
- A whole new default wallpaper, and a full set of wallpapers to choose from. These wallpapers are designed with Android 12’s Monet theming features in mind.
- Wi-Fi display is available for all devices which choose to opt-in, via either the Qualcomm proprietary interface or the newly restored legacy Miracast interface!
- Support for custom charging sounds for different types of charging, cabled or wireless.
Other changes
Networking Restrictions
Apart from the improvements mentioned above, there were some other changes as well to improve the overall performance and usability of LineageOS.
The built-in firewall, per app data isolation and restricted networking mode have been rewritten so that they are now compatible with the new AOSP (Android Open Source Project) restricted networking mode and the BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) facility.
Further, the network isolation and the data restriction features have now been compiled into a single implementation.
eBPF over iptables
The AOSP now also features an Extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) loader and a library with the purpose of loading eBPF programs at the time of booting in order to achieve extended kernel functionality. What it has done, is shown disapproval to iptables and it is not possible to backport this feature to legacy Linux kernel variants.
The team has created a functional backport for devices with Linux kernel 4.4, but it is quite difficult to port the feature to devices with 3.18 or older. Moreover, restoring iptables in the AOSP codebase will surely prove trouble some.
This means that for devices running Linux kernel 3.18 or older, there will be no official support for LineageOS 19 unless a workaround for the BPF is found for these older kernel versions.
LineageOS 19 | Official builds for supported devices
The devices mentioned below are the devices for which the LineageOS 19 official builds are out:
| Sr. No. | Device and Forum Link | Device codename and Wiki Link | Maintainer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ASUS ZenFone 5Z | Z01R | rohanpurohit, Jackeagle, ThEMarD |
| 2. | ASUS ZenFone 8 | sake | ZVNexus, Demon000 |
| 3. | F(x)tec Pro1 | pro1 | BadDaemon, bgcngm, intervigil, mccreary, npjohnson, tdm |
| 4. | Google Pixel 2 | walleye | Eamo5 |
| 5. | Google Pixel 2 XL | taimen | Eamo5 |
| 6. | Google Pixel 3 | blueline | razorloves, cdesai, intervigil, mikeioannina |
| 7. | Google Pixel 3 XL | crosshatch | razorloves, cdesai, intervigil, mikeioannina |
| 8. | Google Pixel 3a | sargo | cdesai, mikeioannina, npjohnson |
| 9. | Google Pixel 3a XL | bonito | cdesai, mikeioannina, npjohnson |
| 10. | Google Pixel 4 | flame | cdesai, Eamo5, mikeioannina, npjohnson |
| 11. | Google Pixel 4 XL | coral | cdesai, Eamo5, mikeioannina, npjohnson |
| 12. | Google Pixel 4a | sunfish | PeterCxy, cdesai, mikeioannina |
| 13. | Google Pixel 4a 5G | bramble | aleasto, mikeioannina |
| 14. | Google Pixel 5 | redfin | aleasto, mikeioannina |
| 15. | Google Pixel 5a | barbet | aleasto, mikeioannina |
| 16. | Lenovo Z5 Pro GT | heart | themard, optionaltoast |
| 17. | Lenovo Z6 Pro | zippo | Lucchetto, themard |
| 18. | Moto G6 Plus | evert | Jleeblanch |
| 19. | Moto G7 | river | erfanoabdi, npjohnson, SyberHexen |
| 20. | Moto G7 Plus | lake | Jleeblanch, npjohnson |
| 21. | Moto G7 Power | ocean | SyberHexen, erfanoabdi, npjohnson |
| 22. | Moto X4 | payton | erfanoabdi, ThEMarD |
| 23. | Moto Z2 Force | nash | erfanoabdi, npjohnson |
| 24. | Moto Z3 Play | beckham | Jleeblanch |
| 25. | Motorola One Action | troika | Stricted, npjohnson |
| 26. | Motorola One Power | chef | Hasaber8 |
| 27. | Motorola One Vision/Motorola P50 | kane | Stricted, npjohnson |
| 28. | Nokia 6.1 (2018) | PL2 | npjohnson, theimpulson |
| 29. | Nokia 6.1 Plus | DRG | npjohnson, theimpulson |
| 30. | OnePlus 6 | enchilada | LuK1337 |
| 31. | OnePlus 6T | fajita | EdwinMoq |
| 32. | Razer Phone 2 | aura | mikeioannina, npjohnson |
| 33. | Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e (LTE) | gts4lv | bgcngm, LuK1337 |
| 34. | Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e (Wi-Fi) | gts4lvwifi | LuK1337, bgcngm |
| 35. | SHIFT SHIFT6mq | axolotl | amartinz, joey |
| 36. | Sony Xperia XA2 | pioneer | LuK1337, Stricted, cdesai |
| 37. | Sony Xperia XA2 Plus | voyager | LuK1337 |
| 38. | Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra | discovery | LuK1337 |
| 39. | Sony Xperia 10 | kirin | LuK1337 |
| 40. | Sony Xperia 10 Plus | mermaid | LuK1337 |
| 41. | Xiaomi POCO F1 | beryllium | bgcngm, warabhishek |
Keep in mind that these devices are those which have received official builds of LineageOS in the initial phase. Official builds for more devices will be available soon.
Generic Targets
Similar to the previous year’s release, the developer team behind LineageOS has provided support for the Android Virtual Device (AVD), which is the default emulator environment provided by Android Studio as a build target.
The LineageOS 19 also comes with support for Android Automotive build targets. Also, developers can build Generic System image (GSI) packages in mobile and Android TV configurations both. But keep in mind that the official download portal will not host any such pre-compiled builds.
How to upgrade to LineageOS 19 from an older version
If you are new to Android development and do not know how to upgrade to LineageOS 19 from an older version on your device. In order to upgrade to LineageOS 19, you will first need to unlock the bootloader on your device and install an updated custom recovery on your device. You can download recoveries such as LineageOS recovery or TWRP.
After the official build of LineageOS 19 is available for your device, you will have to install them through the custom recovery. Keep in mind that the installation process may be different for different devices, so it would be wise to check out the LineageOS wikihow page.
But note that the build will not have any Google applications, so you will have to download a GApps package and install it on your device.
So that was it from our side on the LineageOS 19 based on Android 12. We hope that you found this guide helpful. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
