LineageOS 14 (Nougat)

I decided to try LineageOS 14.1 (Android Nougat 7.1) on my aging Galaxy S3. Since acquiring a used S3 about two years ago, I had been running CyanogenMod 12 (Android Lollipop). I wanted security and feature updates.

Tools currently used:

• TWRP recovery (TeamWin Recovery Project). This is a handy way to make backups of operating systems, applications and application data. It does not backup SDCard contents. It can use USB On-The-Go (OTG) and can generally read encrypted data volumes, using the same unlock as regular boot.
• TitaniumBackup. This product is an excellent way to make backups of current applications with data and is a virtual requirement to restore a phone to its prior usability after a major OS upgrade.
• I keep a stock operating system copy for PRL updates. I backup the live OS, restore this, perform a PRL update, then restore the live OS.

To complete the upgrade, I performed a backup with TitaniumBackup, a separate OS backup with TWRP, then copied all that to another machine for safekeeping.

Then I wiped /data, /system, and installed LineageOS 14 and Google Apps using TWRP. After booting and restoring connection to my Google account, I installed TitaniumBackup and restored my applications with data. At that point, I did have to rebuild my home screen and tweak options with Nougat to reduce battery consumption and data usage.

Finally I chose to encrypt. I'd been putting that off for some time, but decided to take the plunge. It worked fine. It encrypts only the internal /data, since I chose to keep the SDCard as a separate volume. It does require an extra step at boot, but is otherwise unnoticeable. I detect no degradation of performance and my S3 is still great, five years after its introduction and running a current operating system that is nine major releases past what shipped with it (counting the three separate Jelly Bean and two Lollipop released), much better than the manufacturer and original carrier would have offered.

Dirty Flashing CyanogenMod

It's not what you likely think it is.

"Dirty flashing" refers to installing an OS update, in this case an Android phone update, without wiping data first (which has attendant hassle of restoring apps and their data).

My aging Android phone is one of those officially supported by Cyanogenmod. Since I acquired it, I've been running CM11, which tracks the official "KitKat" (Google version 4.4). In the meantime, CM12 (Lollipop) and CM13 (Marshmallow) have been released. I had been resisting upgrading, because the device install instructions recommend wiping data and a brief attempt to install CM13 led to a continual crash loop.

Since then I read an official Cyanogenmod blog post inviting people to dirty flash. I decided to try again, but this time with CM12, which has an officially stable release for my phone ("snapshot"), while CM13 is still in test/development/experimental releases ("nightlies").

I followed the instructions for downloading the CM12 bundle, Google Apps, and updated the recovery manager I had installed already. I made a fresh backup of the running OS, copied that to another machine for safekeeping (also I keep a backup of the stock (factory) OS KitKat image, in case I have to run through any activation steps with my phone provider), put my phone in airplane mode, disabled XPrivacy (with its fine-grained application permission settings), and booted into recovery. Then I wiped Dalvik (the Java runtime cache) and Cache (the rest of the operating system cache) and flashed CM12 and Google Apps. And rebooted. And waited. Upwards of an hour later, my phone had finished booting and updating application caches.

And everything works, though the settings have moved around a bit and I'm still getting it set up as I like it. Still, my apps, my data, my home screen setup, all there without trouble.

I'm going to try CM's Privacy Guard feature for a while instead of XPrivacy, because it's less intrusive. XPrivacy was constantly asking for permissions and it became tiresome.

Next up, CM13 after a snapshot release is posted for my phone.

Pie Day

It's Pi Day. And Pie Day. Breakfast, lunch and supper will include something pie-like.

And hopefully the end of a PRL update adventure.

My phone is on Ting, which is partly a CDMA MVNO (virtual network provider) who resells their access to one of the big carrier's networks. CDMA mobile networks have a Preferred Roaming List (PRL), which is basically a condensed list of towers that are on the provider's network and those that are available for roaming. (GSM networks don't have to do this kind of update.) Normally this is just a menu option away, but I run alternate OS on my phone, specifically Cyanogenmod, which doesn't include PRL update functionality.

Performing a PRL update thus requires flashing a stock OS image, executing the update, then restoring the normal OS. I did this two days ago, but didn't test calling and texting afterward. It turns out my phone no longer believed it was active on the mobile network. And my SD card wasn't behaving correctly.

I've backed up the card via a desktop, reformatted it, restored it, and also redone the PRL update. Now everything is working again.