The company Cyanogen announced last December the development of CyanogenMod, one of the best ROM for Android smartphones. This was bad news for all those people who made use of this operating system. Fortunately, CyanogenMod has not died permanently.
In fact, its development has continued under the name of Lineage OS, and in this guide, we will see how to install Lineage OS on all Android devices.
Lineage OS is available for many Android smartphones already compatible with the CM 14.1 or CM 13. The progress of the work is still in an embryonic phase, so there are still many devices that do not support. However, the development is proceeding very rapidly and new smartphones are being made compatible day after day. If you are interested in trying out this operating system, in this guide I will show you how to install Lineage OS on all Android devices.
The method shown below is compatible with all Android devices, so you should not have any problems whatever your smartphone. Before proceeding, I suggest you check on the official website of the Lineage OS if a ROM compatible with your smartphone is available. If it is not present, I suggest you check back in a few weeks.
Install Lineage OS on all Android devices
1. Bootloader unlocking
Many Android smartphones are sold with the bootloader locked. This means that it is not possible to make any kind of modification. Fortunately, there are many methods that allow it to be unlocked. However, this operation invalidates the guarantee of the device.
In order to install the Lineage OS, the bootloader must be unlocked. This is not required on some devices such as Samsung smartphones. So my advice is to inform you if your particular model requires unlocking or not.
Unblocking the bootloader is not a universal operation, so you will need to find the most suitable guide for your model. You can find a series of guides for different smartphones by doing a search on Teknologya.
Once you have ascertained whether the bootloader needs to be unlocked on your device and after having performed the procedure, then you can proceed with the rest of the guide.
2. Installation of a custom recovery (TWRP)
The next step to unlocking the bootloader is the installation of a custom recovery. Currently, the best in circulation is TWRP and it is the one you will install on your device.
Here are the instructions to install the TWRP on an Android smartphone.
- On your smartphone go to Settings -> Developer Options and enable the USB debugging item. If the Developer Options item is not available, go to Settings-> Device Info and click repeatedly to Build Number 7 times.
- Download the ADB & Fastboot drivers to your PC and extract the archive to a folder.
- Download the TWRP compatible for your smartphone and rename it TWRP.img.
- Transfer the newly renamed file to the adb-and-fastboot folder.
- Within the adb-and-fastboot folder, hold down the Shift key, right click on an empty space in the folder and select Open Command Window here …. The Windows command prompt will open.
- Connect your Android smartphone to your PC.
- Type the following command prompt command and hit enter:
adb reboot bootloader
- Finally enter the last command and press enter:
fastboot flash recovery TWRP.img
Wait for the TWRP installation to complete on your Android device. At the end of the operation, verify the correct operation of the recovery. To do this, log in to it. This operation varies from device to device.
In general, simply turn off the smartphone completely and then hold down the Volume Down + Power keys. On Samsung devices instead it is necessary to hold down the Volume Down + Home + Power keys. If you can access TWRP recovery, then you can proceed with the next step.
3. Install the Lineage OS
In these last steps I will show you how to install the Lineage OS on your Android smartphone. Know that this operation will completely format the device, so I recommend you make a full backup.
To do this, I suggest you follow our guide on how to make a full backup of your Android smartphone.
- Access the official website of Lineage OS and download the latest version of the operating system compatible with your smartphone.
- Now download the compatible Gapps for your smartphone. Select the architecture of your device (you can easily see it through the free Droid Hardware Info app you can download from the Google Play Store), the operating system (select the latest version of the operating system present) and under Variant leave selected Stock.
- Transfer both files to the internal memory of your device. Both the Lineage OS and Gapps files must have a .zip extension.
- Now start the smartphone in the TWRP mode previously installed.
- Moving with the volume keys and confirming with the Power button, select the Wipe menu item and then swipe to swipe to factory reset. This operation will format the device except the internal memory.
- Now go back and select the Install item.
- Select the previously downloaded Lineage OS zip file and then confirm it to start the installation.
- At the end of the operation, select Install again and then open the Gapps file previously transferred. Confirm and wait for the operation to complete.
That’s all. At the end of the last operation you can restart the smartphone.
The first reboot after installation is quite long. All normal, do not worry. At the end of all the installation operations, proceed with the configuration of the operating system. Congratulations, the Lineage OS is perfectly installed on your Android smartphone.