Unofficial builds for Google Pixel devices

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Unofficial 5.8 builds are now available for

Not tested by me, but apparently the bonito build works: see this post

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Unofficial iodéOS v5.8 and v5.9 builds are now available for:

Preferably you will first install the boot / recovery image using fastboot, then in Recovery Mode use adb sideload to install the actual image.

I only own bonito so only it is verified to install correctly, but hopefully the others will work fine. Please let me know if you have any issues with them.

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Cool!
I own a mint Pixel 3 XL that I was planning to degoogle it for quite some time. Right now I’m to decide between official /e/ or unofficial iode.
Though the phone might not become my main one as it only has 1 SIM (and also no 3.5 mm jack).

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Sounds like an excellent device to try /e/ or iodé on! If you are comfortable flashing then you can relatively easily try both.

Note that on /e/ it is only a “community” build, meaning that it is not supported by /e/ itself, even though they do provide the (often untested) builds and OTA updates.

For our iodé builds, being able to provide OTA updates is something we would like to be able to do. There are some ongoing discussions with the iodé team on how to do this for such unofficial / community builds, but nothing to share just yet.

Personally, I was using /e/ off and on for 3 years (mostly “on” :-). But I was frustrated by some of their technical underpinnings and have found that iodé has a much better approach, again only in my opinion.

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Unofficial iodéOS v6.0 (Lineage 22.1 / Android 15 base) builds are now available for:

To install, preferably you will first install the boot / recovery image using fastboot, then in Recovery Mode use adb sideload to install the actual image.

For more guidance, you can follow the LineageOS install instructions for your device.

I only own bonito so only it is verified to install correctly, but hopefully the others will work fine. Please let me know if you have any issues with them.

We are keeping the iodé v5.9 (Lineage 21 / Android 14 base) builds available as well in case the newer base gives you any hardware issues. Note that if you need to downgrade you will need to do a clean install, so make sure to backup your data first.

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Hi rik!
I’ve been using /e/ OS on many phones (close to 20) for more than 3 years and before them a Ubports phone and also a few mircog Lineage ones more recently.
Right now on my main phone (Sony Xperia XZ2 premium) I use an unofficial Iode build (by petefoth… God bless him!).
Both /e/ and iode have their advantages and small disadvantages. For now I would incline towards iode.
I have only briefly used/tested the 3XL on stock ROM. I wanted to de-google a Google phone. On the same vein I’m going to put a Linux distro on a Microsoft Surface laptop one day :slight_smile:
Thank you for building these unofficial images!
If 6.0 works fine on your phone I’ll probably put the future 6.1 on my crosshatch.

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I wrote a wiki page a while ago, comparing los4microg, IodéOS, and /e/OS. IT might help with your decision making

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I tried a few Linux distros a while back, when re-purposing my old work MacBook Pro, After trying Xubuntu and Pop!_OS, I settled on Linux Mint. For me it has just worked, with no real issues. I would definitely recommend it

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Nice comparison… Thanks!
I like the KISS philosophy so that is why I incline more towards iode than /e/ . I also don’t care about the “ecosystem”.
On my laptops I use either Bodhi Linux (awesome) or Zorin OS (convenient). I’m writing ROMs on phones using a laptop with Zorin… no issues from the OS… Mint is quite nice too… sorry for the slight off-topic…

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Interestingly I was also an Ubuntu Touch user and minor contributor for some years until the demise of 3G here in the USA some years back, and sadly UT still doesn’t have a usable VoLTE solution. I also played around with Droidian, postmarketOS, Pinephone w/ Mobian, Arch, etc. but then moved to /e/ and Lineage4microG as I needed more reliable call functions from my phone :slight_smile:

Where /e/ left me disappointed was in their hard forks of apps that then didn’t remain updated but made it hard to use the upstream alternatives at the same time. I attempted some contributions to their forks, but it was not easy to do with their structure (no ability to submit a PR for example). I feel they don’t have the capacity to be good stewards of the forks.

Similarly, their nextcloud implementation still remains offline nearly 6 months after going down due to hardware monitoring neglect. I guess I should also note frustrations and limitations I had with their bliss launcher, and the slow upgrade cycle meaning they just now are to an Android 14 base with their “U” series just coming out recently, whereas iodé is already releasing A15 based builds.

So, the “KISS” philosophy sort of broke down when I was realizing, “i want a working notes solution”, “a working nextcloud solution”, “a working app store”, and “an updated system”. Adding those things to /e/ made it more complicated than having an cleaner slate that I could add my preferred options on top of. Using iodé means I get a more technically sound foundation, the upstream apps so I can directly support their development and use, and I can add my own data solutions on top (I use selfhosted immich for photos, jellyfin for audio, etc) without having to shoehorn it into a KISS system that in the end was wasn’t so KISS (again my opinions only) when technical shortcomings left it as a half solution.

PS: I do run Mobian on a Surface Go 2, it is really good and is my daily portable productivity device. Phosh seemed the best of all DEs that can quickly switch between “attached keyboard mode” and “touch only mode” (detached keyboard). But of course give some tries to different distros and DEs to find what fits you best.

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@petefoth
Thank you for the linked text. I read it all the way through. I have a few questions because I’m in a very similar situation. I use a Pixel 3 as my main phone. At the moment I’m still on DivestOS. So I need to switch to a new OS soon.
I will be using iodéOS or LineageOS.
Pro for iodéOS: It supports closing the bootloader.
Pro for LineageOS: Updates are about 2 weeks earlier than for iodéOS.
As I don’t have an evil maid, I tend to prefer LineageOS.

What do you see as an advantage of microG for LineagOS over LineageOS? (since LineagOS finally supports signature spoofing). I would go for LineageOS because I expect updates to be a bit faster.

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First thing, let me declare an interest: for the past 18 months, I have effectively been the sole maintainer of the LineageOS for microG project (L4M). That has now changed and we have a new recruit to the project team and will be able to share the (not very heavy) load of keeping the monthly builds ticking over.

LineageOS (LOS) only ‘supports’ microG in the sense that they no longer prevent users from installing microG. But they don’t provide any meaningful user support for microG in their support channels on Reddit, irc, and Discord. (All of those support channels are fairly toxic in my experience: many users there only ever seem to post sarcastic and mocking responses to users who are asking for help.)

The main advantage of LineageOS for microG (L4M) is that it comes with

  • microG pre-installed and pre-configured, to work ‘out of the box’
  • F-Droid pre-installed and configured to pick up updates to microG components from microG’s F-Droid repository.

L4M is also ‘friendlier’ to

  • users of older devices, no longer officially supported by LOS. L4M recently did a run of builds for devices which are ‘stuck’ on version 18.1 or 19.1, and which were effectively ‘broken’ by the signature checking changes Google made to their apps recently. That issue is fixed in the latest 18.1 & 19.1 L4M builds which will be kept available for download for as long as there is sufficient space on the L4M download server (i.e pretty much indefinitely). By contrast LOS have not made any 18.1 builds to fix the Google signature checking issue. And their 18.1 & 19.1 builds are no longer available for download from their servers.
  • other custom ROMs. On their download server, L4M host unofficial builds of IodéOS for Sony and Google Pixel devices, (with maybe others in future). They also host unofficial builds of L4M for devices which have never been officially supported by LOS. The L4M project is working with the makers of those builds to make updates available ‘Over The Air’.
  • users asking for help, in the L4M issue trackers and the dedicated XDA Forum thread. You won’t encounter sarcasm, mockery, unfriendliness and lack on professionalism there: certainly not to the same extent as in LOS support channels, and hopefully not at all.

L4M builds usually happen once a month, which I think is often enough and fast enough. If critical problems occur - e,g a recent problem where builds for some devices were ‘bootlooping’ - then they will get fixed as a matter of urgency. For the bootlooping problem, the project ‘dropped everything’ and suspended their normal builds until fixed builds were available for the affected devices.

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Thanks for the long answer Petefoth.

Just some thoughts on updates at L4M: As you start the build cycle on the 1st of the month - you will have the security updates from the month before. So if the new updates come out on the 20th. (for a late phone in the build cycle) you will have security updates about 50 days late.
If you would start the build cycle on, say
15th of the month, the LineageOS ASB (security update, see https://archive.ph/divestos.org/pages/patch_history) are usually already merged. So on the 5th of the new month (15 + 20 (days for building) = 35 = 5) the new released update would only be 35 days late - so the security updates would normally come about 15 days earlier.
I hope I have made myself clear.

Is it possible to lock the bootloader on L4M (Pixel 3)?

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This has been suggested previously, in this issue in the L4M issue tracker:

I have copied your suggestion, and responded to it there rather than here. Let’s keep this forum on the topic of IOdéOS (mostly :smile:)

EDIT:
I also added a new comment to that issue:

Another (final?) point: since the restructuring of the build scripts lats September, repo sync is now called for each device, so the build will use the most up-to-date source (including the mos recent security patches

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Unofficial iodéOS v6.1 (Lineage 22.1 / Android 15 base) builds are now available for:

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That’s so cool… Thank you.
Please share if everything is OK with your bonito.

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Yes, all seems well with bonito on the 6.1 build. GPS, Mobile Data, Wifi, etc. all working. I flashed using adb sideload from recovery). If you install, let us know how it goes.

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Thanks for answering. Do you use only the default iode camera app? Have you been able to use Pixel Cam or Google cam on your bonito?

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I haven’t tried before, I have been happy with Aperture (default iodé / lineage camera app). But I did give a test on my spare bonito, with a clean iodé 6.1 install.

  • Pixel Camera: Aurora said that it was unavailable for my device. In Aurora settings, I then changed the spoofing manager value from a Pixel 3a XL (my actual device) to a Pixel 7a. This then allowed Pixel Camera to install. It immediately closed when trying to open. I then granted all permissions to it, and also disabled the iode blocker. After a restart the Pixel Camera app still immediately closes when tapping on it. My guess is that this hardware isn’t supported by Pixel Camera. They do say that Android 14 is required for it, and Google long since gave up on bonito meaning they don’t officially acknowledge that Android 14 is installable for this “old” device.

  • Google Camera: Not finding it in Aurora store: Update: I think that Pixel Camera is just the new name for Google Camera, am I right?

  • GCamera / Gcam: Installs, wouldn’t start until I manually gave it permissions, then loaded and seems to work fine. Not sure if you were interested in that option.

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e/OS doesn’t have an official build for the 3 XL, it’s a community build:
Google Pixel 3 XL “crosshatch” * U Community

e/OS is actually only officially supported on around 20 devices, but they lead you to believe it’s around 200 more: Smartphone Selector If you pay close attention, you find out that community builds are NOT ready for production at all.

For official builds for crosshatch, check out calyxOS or LineageOS