LineageOS 18.1 Official Release for Pro1

[Slion 1,201]

2 hours ago, Hook said:

Again, if it makes a difference, I never have used Trebuchet.  I use Nova sometimes and Launch Time sometimes (can't make up my mind which I like better because, since I rarely use my Pro1 in portrait, it really doesn't make much difference)

Does it or does it not make a difference I'm not sure. I recall that the task switcher is implemented by the built-in Home app, not the default one, in our case Trebuchet. Then there was possibly a trick to enable third party Home app to provide their own task switcher but I'm not sure what's the current status of all that in Android 12.

[Slion 1,201]

Anyway, it looks like that task switcher bug is not an issue anymore since there is an easy workaround for it.

However there is still that horizontal empty bar issue:
https://gitlab.com/LineageOS/issues/android/-/issues/3874

I thought that was caused by the nav bar however after switching from aosp keyboard to gboard it looks different, it's black instead of the current background color, therefore I'm thinking it could be caused by the current virtual keyboard while still being a system issue somehow.

I'm also surprised such a bug has not been spotted or tracked down earlier as it is such an obvious issue, so maybe there is also an easy workaround for it too.

[Slion 1,201]

It has definitely something to do with virtual keyboard. That band is not there with SwiftKey for instance. However as you select a text input field on your Web page with keyboard open SwiftKey flashes up and closes. But then it's gone for good however on other text fields it remains on screen even though the keyboard is open. There is something fishy there. 

[Slion 1,201]

SwiftKey is definitely better for now, it shows a bar with suggestions but at leat you can close it. 
I had to disable the following option though to prevent it to flash or still pop-up:

[Slion 1,201]

Is there no way to prevent the SwiftKey prediction bar popping up?

Edited August 23, 2021 by Slion

[Slion 1,201]

30 minutes ago, Slion said:

Is there no way to prevent the SwiftKey prediction bar popping up?

Regardless it looks like using SwiftKeys is an acceptable workaround for that keyboard bug.

Here is what I need to sort out next to get Lineage OS to a level where it could replace my stock daily driver:

• Get smart case screen lock working. I started porting Fx Service and it looks like it could work, however it still does not, more debug needed I guess. 
• Get SafetyNet and Google Play certification sorted.
• Improve keyboard layout so that it can do international characters. Also alt tabbing using the right Fn key should be made to work at some point, modifying the driver may be needed. Well basically porting Fx Qwerty.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Slion

[Slion 1,201]

1 hour ago, Slion said:

Is there no way to prevent the SwiftKey prediction bar popping up?

Apparently not:

https://support.swiftkey.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000474549-How-do-I-remove-the-prediction-bar-from-SwiftKey-You-can-t-?page=4#community_comment_4406168654874

[EskeRahn 5,471]

2 hours ago, Slion said:

I'm also surprised such a bug has not been spotted or tracked down earlier as it is such an obvious issue, so maybe there is also an easy workaround for it too.

I think what you see is the bar that swiftkey uses for word suggestions.

[Slion 1,201]

1 hour ago, Slion said:

Regardless it looks like using SwiftKeys is an acceptable workaround for that keyboard bug.

AnySoftKeyboard also does not exhibit that bug and does not have that annoying suggestion bar popup either. Sounds like the best and so far only option to use your full vertical screen real estate with keyboard open and gesture navigation without hindrance.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

1 hour ago, Slion said:

Is there no way to prevent the SwiftKey prediction bar popping up?

If there is, please tell, I have been looking for that for a long time...

BTW for examples of input fields, refer to the search field in settings, as everyone got that one 🙂

[Slion 1,201]

2 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

BTW for examples of input fields, refer to the search field in settings, as everyone got that one 🙂

However not all text fields are equal, not sure if that settings search field is affected by this bug.

[Slion 1,201]

5 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

If there is, please tell, I have been looking for that for a long time...

No it isn't possible, see above post with link to SwiftKey forums. Major fail from SwiftKey if you ask me.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Slion

[Slion 1,201]

16 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

I think what you see is the bar that swiftkey uses for word suggestions.

Yes, something similar anyway, I think since there is not navigation bar because gesture navigation, it is somehow still trying to show that keyboard icon that's usually shown in nav bar but fails and end up showing some vestigial nav bar.

[Rob. S. 1,664]

37 minutes ago, Slion said:

43 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

If there is, please tell, I have been looking for that for a long time...

No it isn't possible, see above post with link to SwiftKey forums. Major fail from SwiftKey if you ask me.

Bummer. That's the one thing I don't like with SwiftKey, either...

[EskeRahn 5,471]

One of the things (apart from the certification) that holds me back, is that @Slion's nice tool "Fx services" for going into sleep mode when the magnet in a flip case hit the 'magic' spot, does not work on Lineage. (I use an ancient version 0.4 with almost only that functionality, it can now do a lot of other stuff less relevant for me)

[Slion 1,201]

11 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

One of the things (apart from the certification) that holds me back, is that @Slion's nice tool "Fx services" for going into sleep mode when the magnet in a flip case hit the 'magic' spot, does not work on Lineage. (I use an ancient version 0.4 with almost only that functionality, it can now do a lot of other stuff less relevant for me)

As mentioned above it should be doable as I can see the key events coming in. Just need to debug it to see what's the hiccup. I got Fx Service working already but that one feature is still not there yet.

Btw maybe we should communicate with FxTec to tell them we want that to work better on the Pro1X I mean it looks like they are working on drivers at the moment. The issue is that on the Pro1 I could not see a proper sensor to use for that. Instead we had to rely on those magic key events. Since they are still there in LOS I'm assuming this is part of the blob of closed source drivers.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Slion

[EskeRahn 5,471]

18 minutes ago, Rob. S. said:

Bummer. That's the one thing I don't like with SwiftKey, either...

BUT It works better on LOS than on stock! If you after starting to type, tap the 'down' it actually STAYS down during typing!!
So we really only need some hot key-combo that can do this back/down soft-key action....

[Slion 1,201]

2 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

One of the things (apart from the certification) that holds me back, is that @Slion's nice tool "Fx services" for going into sleep mode when the magnet in a flip case hit the 'magic' spot, does not work on Lineage.

That should do it:

 

[VaZso 1,998]

Just now, Slion said:

I'm not surprised, it may be that the only way forward is to modify the keyboard driver.

Right. Basically in a way to expose it to the system like it was on stock OS.

I don't think it is a dramatic modification but something which would be necessary for practical use of its keyboard.
It seems to be a simple difference but its impact is huge.

Anyway, do you have knowledge about how this kind of development works on Android?
I mean how could I update the kernel of an OS for testing, can I go back to the "stock" solution and what can I do in case of a failed attempt.

The another part is the software environment for compiling under Linux and which is the actual source code and where are the blobs if it does not include them.
...or if keyboard driver is part of some kind of module, then the appropriate gcc version would be needed...

I don't know if the keyboard driver part will be different in Pro1-X but I assume it will be the same... as it seems LineageOS may be its main OS, it would be also good to solve this problem for the later devices...

[Slion 1,201]

3 minutes ago, VaZso said:

Anyway, do you have knowledge about how this kind of development works on Android?

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/pro1/build

That link is the extent of my knowledge.

[VaZso 1,998]

29 minutes ago, Slion said:

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/pro1/build

That link is the extent of my knowledge.

Thank you, that seems to be a relatively complete description.

However, that builds the whole system which can not be tested on a daily driver in any ways.
I also don't know the current partition layout and current working principle of loading the OS.

There is a bootloader which I hope unrelated to the kernel.
There are A and B slots on Pro1 which I think should be the place of the kernel and there is at least a system parition and there should be a data partition.

However, if a new kernel is installed on a working LineageOS, I am afraid it won't boot because of other security-related things, so it is definitively not a process for a daily driver. 😞
Otherwise slot-A / slot-B model may still allow booting.

(I also don't want to throw my second Pro1 agains the wall as I hate even thinking of it.)

[claude0001 1,352]

10 hours ago, Slion said:

https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/pro1/build

That link is the extent of my knowledge.

I can confirm that the description is very good. I've been using it to build my own LineageOS 16.0 for some time now, and it worked at the first try! Even if you have some Linux machine around already, I recommend to set-up a dedicated VM with the latest Ubuntu LTS, so as to stick to the recommended building environment as closely as possible.

9 hours ago, VaZso said:

However, that builds the whole system which can not be tested on a daily driver in any ways.
I also don't know the current partition layout and current working principle of loading the OS.

There is a bootloader which I hope unrelated to the kernel.
There are A and B slots on Pro1 which I think should be the place of the kernel and there is at least a system parition and there should be a data partition.

However, if a new kernel is installed on a working LineageOS, I am afraid it won't boot because of other security-related things, so it is definitively not a process for a daily driver.

Indeed, because the code is signed, I do not think that replacing only parts of the system is easily feasible if you are currently using an official Lineage build.

To replace your official LOS 18.1 with your self-built experimental versions (without wiping data), you would have to migrate from "official" to "testing" signing keys. There are various methods to achieve that. I followed the procedure described in the Lineage wiki under

https://wiki.lineageos.org/signing_builds.html#using-a-script

to change keys from "official" to "unofficial" using the script provided there. Note that this will render your presently installed (official) build non-functional, as critical system apps (system settings, SIM management ...) will not be able to run anymore. However, once you flash your own (unofficial) build, things will work again.

Start by building the unmodified official LOS 18.1 sources and migrate to that build. Then do your local modifications to the code from that safe starting point, and test-flash your modified images. The A/B scheme is actually there to help recover from an "unlucky" flash, though I never needed to use that. Once you are on your own "testing"-signed distribution, re-flashing your last working boot and system images should always be possible without loosing data.

Of course, experimenting with a phone you rely on for your daily work, will always be risky. But unless you manage to get a second device, I fear that will be the only way if you want to develop yourselves on the OS level ...

Edited August 24, 2021 by claude0001

[VaZso 1,998]

Thank you.

I don't know how hard it is to go back to official LineageOS and Android system after that.

However, I don't like playing with my daily driver and that is why I have not installed LineageOS earlier although I would have been drop stock OS because of the lot of problems it has, especially when it has started its soft-reboot loops the second time.

The only thing made me to remain on stock was a basically working environment and especially the working keyboard.
Now I have a working environment but without a properly working keyboard which I feel very uncomfortable.

[claude0001 1,352]

8 minutes ago, VaZso said:

I don't know how hard it is to go back to official LineageOS and Android system after that.

Going back without wiping should be possible by following the key-migration procedure "backwards", as also described under

https://wiki.lineageos.org/signing_builds.html#using-a-script,

followed by re-flashing the official recovery and system. Never did that though.

[VaZso 1,998]

5 minutes ago, claude0001 said:

Going back without wiping should be possible by following the key-migration procedure "backwards", as also described under

https://wiki.lineageos.org/signing_builds.html#using-a-script,

followed by re-flashing the official recovery and system. Never did that though.

Thanks.

For doing this, I should have some time digging into LineageOS development tools, settings, looking where the actual sources related to Pro1 are (I saw there is a config but codes should be somewhere at GitHub), find a way of doing a pull request if modification works and find another Pro1 to work on, but mostly need time time and time.

As I am not in LineageOS developmnet, it is much longer in time to reach even a working environment. 😞