LineageOS 15.1 based on Android 8.1 Oreo has been officially announced

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Following the demise of CyanogenMod at the end of 2016, its successor, LineageOS, has seen a meteoric rise in popularity. The project grew to support over 180 devices reaching over 1.8 million users thanks to the help of 700+ contributors. Now, the team is ready to move on to its next big milestone: re-basing on Android 8.1 Oreo. After teasing us back in December, the team has today announced that LineageOS 15.1 is ready.

The most widely-installed Android custom ROM now offers all of the features that Android 8.0 and Android 8.1 Oreo bring to the table. That means notification channels and snoozing, picture-in-picture mode, support for the Autofill Framework, better background app and service limitations for improved memory performance/battery, smart text selection, and much, much more. Not to mention, there are also all of the features that LineageOS offers on top such as Privacy Guard, Live Display, and more which you can read about in our accompanying article.

LineageOS 15.1 Feature List Overview

With the introduction of LineageOS 15.1, the team also has another major announcement. They are officially introducing the Device Support Requirements Charter, a document which outlines all of the requirements that a build of LineageOS and its maintainer must meet in order for a build to be deemed “official.” This is a crucial step forward for the team as it clearly demonstrates the team’s commitment to quality. The document itself isn’t too long, but in general it ensures that an official build of LineageOS 15.1 supports all basic hardware as is possible as well as receives patches against all high profile security vulnerabilities.

Now, on to the actual devices that were announced to support LineageOS 15.1. Currently, the list isn’t that large in the first go-around, but given time more developers are likely to add to this list as they complete the device bring-up and meet the requirements laid out in the Device Support Requirements Charter. Specifically, we’re told that several devices are unable to receive LOS 15.1 due to a lack of support for a working HAL1 camera recorder, but they’re working on it. Also, though LOS 15.1 was announced today, the nightly builds won’t be ready until Monday when their build server starts making them.

List of Devices with Initial Official LineageOS 15.1 Support

Installation

Before you can install any of these builds (once they go live), you will need to unlock the bootloader of your device and also flash a custom recovery such as TWRP.

As usual, official LineageOS builds do not ship with superuser binaries pre-installed. Instead, you will need to also install one of the files listed here depending on your phone’s SoC architecture. Alternatively, you can install Magisk or SuperSU as well.

As for Google apps, they don’t come pre-installed on LineageOS 15.1 builds. Open Gapps currently doesn’t offer Android 8.1 Gapps (specifically, the SetupWizard APK is still 8.0), so the team recommends you grab them from MindTheGapps right here.

Finally, before you go flashing any of these builds, it is always recommended that you make a backup of your apps and data. The most recommended way is to use an app such as Titanium Backup or a free alternative like oandbackup. Both require root access to function.

Now, to actually install the build, that depends on what you currently have installed.

If you are running an OFFICIAL build of LineageOS 14.1, then you can follow these steps without wiping data.

Download the update either from the links above or through the built-in updater app. If you download it from the updater app, you’ll need to use the “export” option in the menu to save the build to your internal storage. Download the Gapps package and one of the superuser packages linked above. Boot into recovery. Format system partition. Flash the LineageOS 15.1 build, and then the Gapps and superuser package. Reboot.

If you are NOT running an official build of LineageOS 14.1 (ie. anything else), then you follow the same set of above instructions except that you must wipe data before flashing.

Hands On + Features

Interested in checking out what LineageOS 15.1 has to offer before installation? Check out Miles’ hands-on video over on our YouTube channel! Also be sure to check out our accompanying article which goes over nearly all of the features that LOS 15.1 has to offer! It even has screenshots for everything and a video to walk you through it!

A Note on Unofficial Builds

Just because your device is not one of the ones listed above doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy LineageOS! Since the project is open source, that means any independent developer can build a custom ROM based off of its source code. However, the quality can wildly vary, so don’t be surprised if you flash an unofficial build and some things break. On the other hand, some unofficial builds are fairly close to being stable and are perfectly acceptable to flash onto your device.

There are many unofficial builds of LineageOS on our forums, and what works or doesn’t work is largely device-dependent. Please read over the original post in any forum thread before you proceed with flashing a custom ROM on your device—it’ll save you a lot of headache!

New Wallpapers

With a new release come a new set of wallpapers! These wallpapers are all sourced from Unsplash. You can take a look at the wallpapers below in case you’re interested in using them on a non-LineageOS build. You can also download them below. Take note that we’re providing the raw wallpapers that are not rotated, so they’re also perfect for your desktop monitor!

Download LineageOS 15.1 Official Wallpapers

Support LineageOS

The developers who work on this do so in their spare time and without pay, so please consider supporting the project in whatever way you can. You can show them support by following them on all of their official social media channels listed below, or by donating to them below.