The last time we covered LineageOS, the most popular custom Android ROM, it started supporting a handful of new devices with Android 8.1 builds. The project published Changelog 19 yesterday, which goes over some recent changes to the ROM and the community supporting it. There are some leadership changes, more newly-supported devices, and a new custom recovery.

New features

Let's start with the recent general changes to LineageOS. There's a new 'Trust' interface in the Settings app, which includes all of the ROM's privacy and security features in one place (including Privacy Guard).

The data toggle in quick settings now shows data usage, much like it did in Android Nougat. Smaller improvements include customizable signal icons/carrier text, an optional black UI style, and an improved updater.

Lineage Recovery

Perhaps the most surprising announcement is that LineageOS is now developing its own custom recovery, like TWRP. Here's how it is described in the Changelog post:

A/B devices have the recovery image built in into the boot image (as those old Sony Xperia devices for those of you who remember). This means that there’s no recovery partition and recovery will have to be included at build time into the OS.

So we created the Lineage Recovery: our brand new recovery that supports both A/B and non A/B devices. It’s based upon AOSP recovery but with many improvements needed for the world of custom ROMs. It’s simple, light and secure: in Lineage Recovery, SELinux is in enforcing mode, limiting each process’ capabilities.

It's interesting to see the Lineage project develop its own custom recovery, especially since TWRP has been the only viable option for years now. This will hopefully allow LineageOS to better support A/B partition devices in the future. If you have an A/B partition device (full list here), you should definitely read the full post at the source link below, as there are new steps for installing mods like GApps.

New leadership

On an unrelated note, one of the nine Lineage project directors is stepping down. Abhisek Devkota, better known as 'ciwrl,' has worked on CyanogenMod/Lineage for roughly nine years now. Kevin Haggerty, known as 'haggertk' on XDA, has been voted in to take his place.

New devices

Finally, we come to the new devices. Since our last LineageOS post, a ton of Galaxy S5 variants have been updated from 14.1 to 15.1. That includes klte, kltechn, kltechnduoklteduoskltedvkltekdi, and kltekor. The Galaxy S5 Active (klteactivexx) is being supported for the first time.

Finally, the Lenovo P2 (kuntao) has been updated to LineageOS 15.1.


You can read the full LineageOS blog post at the source link below.

Source: Lineage