LineageOS 19 Based On Android 12 Officially Released

About half a year after the release of Android 12, the LineageOS open source community presents LineageOS 19 — based on Android 12 and its design language “Material You”. The free alternative to Google’s mobile operating system also includes the latest update for the security level from April.

Since the release of Android 12 in October, the team has been working extremely hard to port LineageOS features to the new Android version. The LineageOS team explains in a blog entry that the preparatory work on the release of LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11) made it possible to switch the current release to Android 12 much more efficiently and also had time to develop new features. In addition, Google’s new Material You Design has been adapted to the needs of LineageOS 19.

In the new version, instead of the new volume control panel proposed in Android 12, LineageOS 19 has its own completely redesigned panel that slides out from the side.

In addition, Dark Mode has been activated by default and a new icon set has been integrated for many apps. Android TV builds would now ship with an ad-free Android TV launcher. Custom charging sounds for wired or wireless charging would also be supported.

In addition to the new functions, the developers have also improved the updater app, the lineage fork of the gallery app and the included browser. Security updates for the Chromium-based webview component that apps use to render web content and Android itself have also been included. The integrated firewall has also been rewritten and adapted to the new Android conditions with the change from iptables to eBPF.

“Bad news lies ahead, sadly,” write the developers at the end of their blog entry. They wanted to surprise users with LineageOS 19 support for a number of legacy devices. After that, however, it does not currently look like what is due to the above-mentioned change from iptables to eBPF. Such changes would normally be ported back to older kernels, but this is very difficult in this case due to the extensive commits and structural changes.

A backport is in the works for a kernel like version 4.4, but devices with kernels version 3.18 or earlier may end their support. LineageOS 17.1 (Android 10) was also discontinued in January. A number of devices have therefore been updated to LineageOS 18.1 (Android 11) , but support for a number of devices has also been discontinued.

LineageOS, which is the successor of CyanogenMod, encompasses literally hundreds of devices, providing the enthusiast community with a way out of bloated and heavy systems and an immersion in mods for those with minimal skins.