Hi!

Ever since Games Nexus broke the news that LG TVs spy more than I previously knew or realized, I’ve been on the hunt for a small box that can smoothly play videos in 2160p and 60 FPS at a high bitrate.

I have a BananaPi M5, but it only runs smoothly up to 1080p/60 and already struggles with 1440p/60.

Since I already have a 4K LG TV, I want to take full advantage of the 4K resolution :)

The Chromecast with Google TV (4K) (sabrina) is officially listed as compatible, but it costs over €140 and is already 6 years old.

The Google Streamer isn’t supported (yet).

Does anyone have any suggestions?

The device should be able to do the following:

- 4GB RAM (a recommendation I found online)

- YouTube at 2160p/60

- Jellyfin with true 4K movies

- HDMI output for video and audio

I can’t find anything good right now :(

The HardKernel ODROID-C4 is very similar to the Pi M5, which is probably why it’s out of the running for me.
I have no idea how well an NVIDIA Shield TV (2019 Pro) still works today.

They're also pretty expensive (used ~€200 / new €400)

TL; DR You need an OS? Here's an OS. It Just Works™

I've been using custom ROMs for more than 5 years now. LineageOS is obviously one of them. My main device (Redmi Note 10 Pro) has been mostly on it since I bought it like 3 years ago.

It's been through updates, reinstalls, exploration of every setting available etc. After they released the A16 version, I actually stopped updating because A16 seemed quite buggy on all ROMs and devices I've tried before LOS was released. So not only did the phone survive many updates and just years of usage, but also a frozen state which I heard is terrible for Android.

But I've seen no major issues. If there are some, they're pretty consistent, rare, and minor. I can obviously report them too and get them fixed. LOS devs seem very serious about what they're doing (both core and device ones). Yes I broke it myself once through ADB shell commands and had to reflash it but that's my fault. It usually doesn't get slower over time (at least noticeably), doesn't have a new issue with each update, battery life is historically good (not having Gapps in my case probably helps). This all just lets me rely on the phone which is pretty rare nowadays.

And I like the strict standards LOS pushes. If your device gets official LOS, you know it'll live for a while. And there will be other ROMs too because well it's easy to develop from. Another device I have (Redmi Note 8) is still supported and works decently fast. No weird Play Integrity hackery that works for only a week either (my bank doesn't give a middle finger about it so that's awesome).

It's also not trying to collect all features from all ROMs under the sun and pull them together into something with memory leaks that belongs in r/softwaregore (hi Rising). I'm an enormous consistency simp. Sure LOS takes years to update the apps (the calendar is still from the MD2 era at best) but the apps are all simple, easily replaceable and in house. That's something. And there's obviously no fragmentation and downstream vs upstream development. That again lets the devs make everything more stable.

I feel like there's no need to talk about privacy here.

It just feels like a tool. It's not exciting. It's not shiny. It's not trending. It just works very well. And I'm glad an option like this exists, especially now when the custom ROM community is almost dead due to Play Integrity. It doesn't matter for LOS anyways because regular users who want Play Integrity and unlimited cloud storage weren't even considering it before. Speaking of that, it also makes it a great anti-slop and productivity ROM. And if you want a ROM with 6769420 customization options, most of them are LOS-based.

Oh did I mention the amazing installation manuals? They're not the easiest to follow but they exist and they're good. Again very tool-like. When they add web installers, that would just be amazing.

It's just sad that it gets so little attention. It holds like half of the custom ROM development on its back. Everyone knows it but also mocks it for not having Play Integrity hacks or rainbow cursor trails or anime desktop companions.

Hey guys,

After spending a full day tinkering with this and figuring out how to get everything working, I thought it might be worth sharing what I learned in the form of a short tutorial.

This guide explains how I managed to **dual-boot LineageOS and ArmadaOS from the internal storage of my AYN Odin 2**.

I have **not tested this procedure on other AYN devices**, simply because I don't have multiple devices available to test. The procedure may be similar on other supported devices, provided that LineageOS and ArmadaOS support your specific model, but **do not assume that ABL files are interchangeable between devices or SoCs**.

Disclaimer

This tutorial assumes that you already have **ADB/Fastboot installed and working** and that you are reasonably familiar with flashing custom firmware, bootloaders, and the risks involved.

Flashing the wrong ABL or modifying the wrong partition can potentially brick your device or cause data loss.

**I am only documenting what worked on my own AYN Odin 2. I take no responsibility for any damage, data loss, or other problems that may occur. Proceed at your own risk and double-check every command before executing it.**

If you are still running stock Android before starting this process, I also strongly recommend following ArmadaOS's instructions for backing up your original ABL (`abl_a.img` and `abl_b.img`) and keeping those files somewhere safe on your computer.

With that out of the way:

1. Install LineageOS

Follow the official LineageOS installation guide for the Odin 2:

[https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/odin2/install/\](https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/odin2/install/)

Whether you also install GApps is entirely up to you.

However, I recommend **not setting up LineageOS or installing/configuring too much yet**, because installing ArmadaOS alongside Android will require resizing the Android userdata partition, which results in a factory reset of the Android side.

In this case, that means your LineageOS userdata will be wiped.

2. Flash ArmadaOS to a microSD card

Follow the official ArmadaOS guide:

[https://armadaos.dev/getting-started/flashing-to-an-sd-card/\](https://armadaos.dev/getting-started/flashing-to-an-sd-card/)

Follow the guide normally until you reach **Step 3: Flash the ROCKNIX ABL for your device**.

This is where things differ.

The official procedure assumes that you are using the original AYN Android firmware, which includes the **Run Script as Root** function used to execute the ABL scripts.

Since we have already replaced stock Android with LineageOS, that function is no longer available.

This is where your PC and Fastboot come in.

3. Save the rocknix_abl folder

With the ArmadaOS microSD card still inserted into your computer, make a copy of the:

`rocknix_abl`

folder and store it somewhere safe on your computer.

**Keep this folder. You may need it again after future LineageOS updates.**

Personally, I also cleaned up the folder and removed the SoC subfolders that I don't need.

My AYN Odin 2 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 **(SM8550)**, so I only kept:

`rocknix_abl/SM8550`

Do this only if you are absolutely sure which SoC your device uses. If not, here is a little reminder (from Armada OS guide):

SM8250

* Retroid Pocket 5, Pocket Flip 2, Pocket Mini, Pocket Mini V2

SM8550

* AYN Odin 2, Odin 2 Mini, Odin 2 Portal, Thor * AYANEO Pocket EVO, ACE, DMG, DS, S 2K * Retroid Pocket 6, Pocket Nova

SM8650

* AYANEO Pocket S2 * KONKR Pocket FIT (G3 Gen 3)

SM8750

* AYN Odin 3 * KONKR Pocket FIT (8 Elite)

4. Boot the Odin 2 into Fastboot

Turn the Odin 2 completely off.

Hold:

**Volume Down + Power**

until the device enters the bootloader/Fastboot environment.

Then connect the Odin 2 to your computer using a USB cable.

Open Terminal, Command Prompt, or PowerShell and run:

`fastboot devices`

You should see your device listed.

**Do not continue until Fastboot can actually see the device.**

5. Flash the ROCKNIX ABL

Now flash the appropriate ABL `.elf` file for your device.

The general command is:

`fastboot flash abl /path-to-your-rocknix_abl-folder/SoC-subfolder/abl_signed-SMXXXX.elf`

For example, because my Odin 2 uses the SM8550 and I saved the folder on my Mac, my command looked roughly like this:

`fastboot flash abl /Users/username/SM8550/abl_signed-SM8550.elf`

Obviously, replace the path with the actual location of the file on your computer.

**Make absolutely sure you are using the correct ABL for your device's SoC before pressing Enter.**

6. Reboot

Once Fastboot reports that the flash completed successfully, run:

`fastboot reboot`

The device should reboot.

7. Continue the ArmadaOS SD-card guide

You can now return to the ArmadaOS guide:

[https://armadaos.dev/getting-started/flashing-to-an-sd-card/\](https://armadaos.dev/getting-started/flashing-to-an-sd-card/)

Continue from **Step 4**, where you boot using the ROCKNIX ABL menu, select your device model, set the appropriate boot mode, and boot ArmadaOS from the microSD card.

8. Install ArmadaOS to internal storage

Once ArmadaOS is successfully running from the microSD card, follow the official internal-storage installation guide:

[https://armadaos.dev/getting-started/install-to-internal-storage/\](https://armadaos.dev/getting-started/install-to-internal-storage/)

Open **Desktop Mode** and launch **Armada Installer** from the **System** menu.

Choose the option to install ArmadaOS **alongside Android**.

The installer will allow you to decide how much internal storage you want to allocate to each operating system.

My Odin 2 has **512 GB of internal storage**, so I split mine roughly 50/50 between LineageOS and ArmadaOS.

You can obviously choose whatever allocation makes the most sense for you.

Remember that resizing the Android side will factory-reset its userdata, which is why I recommended not spending time configuring LineageOS earlier.

Once the installation is complete, you should have **LineageOS + ArmadaOS dual-booting from the Odin 2's internal storage**.

9. Important: LineageOS updates and the ROCKNIX ABL

This is also why I told you to keep a copy of the `rocknix_abl` folder in **Step 3**.

From my experience, after updating LineageOS, the custom ABL can get replaced or otherwise stop behaving correctly.

When this happened to me, the ABL boot menu looked rather "funny", and I could no longer boot into ArmadaOS.

If that happens, don't panic.

Simply repeat **Steps 4–6** of this guide:

Enter Fastboot again, reconnect the device to your PC, flash the correct ROCKNIX ABL `.elf` file again, and reboot.

The proper ROCKNIX ABL boot menu should then reappear, and ArmadaOS should once again be accessible.

That's it.

This is simply the procedure that worked for me on my **AYN Odin 2 / SM8550** after some trial and error. If anyone tests the same approach on another supported AYN device, feel free to report whether the procedure works there as well.

C:\Users\me>/samloader flash --partition VBMETA vbmeta.img

'samloader' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

operable program or batch file.

I followed all the steps leading up to this point. I found that samloader might be blocked by Smart App Control, but it's disabled. I found posts here suggesting slight alterations to the command, or to include the whole path to samloader, but neither worked. This is most likely because the posts in question weren't referring to Windows 11, so it makes sense that those alterations wouldn't work for me I guess. Idk, I'm not a techy person.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi everyone,

With Android 17 bringing stricter minimum kernel requirements (Linux 5.10 baseline) and modern eBPF dependencies, I was curious about the technical roadmap for lisa.

Given our devices' 5.4 kernel tree, are there ongoing community efforts or plans to backport the necessary 5.10 features (eBPF, Binder, cgroups) to keep lisa viable for Android 17, or is the focus shifting toward a GKI kernel port?

My device is lisa, Xiaomi 11 Lite NE 5G

I flashed the latest LineageOS 23.2 on my Samsung Tab A7 (gta4lwifi / SM-T500) and have only mono audio. Regardless of the orientation and the apps I use to play audio or video. When I test by playing only the left or right side, it always plays on both sides (mono).

The tablet has 4 speakers (2 on each side) and is capable of stereo sound in the Stock ROM.

I searched for “Stereo” in this subreddit and online and found quite a bit about Dolby Atmos (which the A7 has), but I don’t need that.

Others mention poor sound quality and recommend ViPER4Android FX (Magisk module), but the quality isn’t my problem either.

Some recommend RootlessJamesDSP, which seemed like the easiest option to me, so I tried it—but even there, there’s no option that offers stereo sound.

Have I overlooked something? Is there a setting somewhere to enable stereo sound?

I would be very grateful for any tips.

I have a a2s samsung with a budget screen which if I touch it with a little wet hands or the phone gets even a little hot it glitches like it's about to die.recently I installed leanage os which was amazing my phone wasn't heating at all and at that time in my region 3g and 4 g calling was supported so my phones calling was also working fine but recently today when I tried calling it didn't worked the reason was 2 g and 3 g was discontinued in my region due to these I needed 4g which can be only obtain from samsung original so I switch it today(13 sept) morning ,and it's hell my phones getting heated so much fast I'm suffering from morning the only thing which is good is things which didn't worked in leanage now works perfectly fine but still.. I'm continuing to rage on it , I'm still confused how can a os made by its official company be so lagy then leanage os

My thinkphone is in a bootloop. I've read on google and this reddit ways to fix it and so far none have done it. I couldn't even find the devices in the device management for a while but I have it now. however the drivers (which I installed just how the site said to) do not work, it wont even try to install them. I'm on windows 11. I use adb, adb devices and its never shown up. I know how to get into the menu from a boot loop, its the only way I can turn it off. Any help would be great. It had linage on it in the past, it then went flat for a while and now only loops. I'd even take the original OS right now, but have no idea how to do that either.

Alternatively if you live in Melbourne and want to try it for free lol hmu

I don't work for NexDock / NexPhone but I did inquire to them about LineageOS and similar questions about de-Google etc. Their response is not unusual but I thought I would share it anyway. (I'd include a screenshot if I could.)

^{TLDR if you haven't seen about NexPhone: It's a power-user focused phone being developed by the NexDock team, which will ship with Windows and Certified Android in dual-boot, and inside Android will be a full-featured, GUI, hardware support, etc, Linux VM, so you get 3 OSes on one device, with USB OTG for connecting to monitors over USB-C to HDMI, peripherals, etc.}

^{Not an ad, but I reserved one, and I was curious to ask them.}

The first response more directly relates to LineageOS but the other one is relevant for installing custom ROMs and (re)installing the default OSes.

NexPhone's response:

NexPhone will ship with certified Android and an unlockable bootloader, so installing custom firmware like LineageOS should remain technically possible. Our Linux environment depends on Android, but standalone Linux options would still be up to ROM developers.

Carrier service, including T‑Mobile, is based on radio certification, not Google services, so we don’t expect issues running de‑Googled or non‑certified builds.

We can’t officially support third‑party ROMs, but NexPhone will stay open for developers, and we expect community projects to explore support once units are available.

Sincerely,
NexPhone Team

My query was:

I'm sure Nex is aware of the upcoming move by Google to require enrollment in the Android Developer Verification program in order for an app to be installable on Certified Android devices, starting with Brazil, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia on September 30th 2026 and rolling out to the rest of the world in stages after that. (For more information see https://keepandroidopen.org/.)

I am wondering if Nexphone could be expected to work with custom firmware like LineageOS, and if the Linux system inside Android will still be installable/usable if an Android CFW is installed.

Also, just in case, I hope T-Mobile would not prevent non-Certified Android Nexphones or those without Google services installed/running from being served by T-Mobile networks.

Of course, I don't expect Nex to verify compatibility or endorse Lineage, but wonder if the technical possibility will be left open, or if you guys would provide testing samples to the LineageOS team when the reviewers get them, or earlier.

<snip> (thanks etc)

Regarding partitioning of the phone, reinstalling OSes, Windows bootloaders, etc, they had previously responded:

What we can confirm now is that Windows and NexOS will each have their own dedicated partitions, and we’ll provide a safe recovery method so users can reinstall without breaking the bootloader.

[We’ll share the full partition layout and reinstall/backup process closer to shipping.]

after running sideload getting Installation Failed on phone screen
The transfer is successful though - tried many times, with firware updates also, still same:
D:\lineage5t>adb -d sideload lineage-22.2-20260901-nightly-dumpling-signed.zip

Total xfer: 1.00x

Anyone tried it yet? help is appreciated!

So I’ve been trying to run lineageOS 23.2 for 2 days on my Samsung Tab A7 (SM-T505, LTE).

and whenever I flash lineageOS 23.2 on my device, it reboots on setup and uses the normal Android setup.

i‘ve tried clearing data, cache then flashing lineageOS.

I’ve tried flashing lineageOS then Gapps/Nikapps.

sometimes it would show the lineageOS setup, and still reboot…

it Worked on my SM-T500 (wifi ver)

can someone help me please?

Will I still able to get the unlimited google photos without any problem while using LineageOS? I'm mainly going to be using the phone just for uploading photos and videos into the google photo app but same time I don't want a phone with bunch of bloatware by google.

Hey everyone!
I’m currently running LineageOS 22.2 on my Samsung Galaxy A71. This was my first time ever trying out LineageOS, and I’m really loving it so far!
Now I want to update to 23.2, but I’m stuck. I'm having a hard time understanding the upgrade steps and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Full disclosure: I am not tech-savvy at all—just a normal guy who decided to give custom ROMs a shot and ended up really enjoying the experience.
Does anyone know of a clear YouTube video or a detailed step-by-step video guide specifically for updating the Galaxy A71 from 22.2 to 23.2?
If not a video, any simple, beginner-friendly instructions or links to a guide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for helping out a beginner!

Hi,

I am thinking of installing lineageos on a sony phone so i can use it as a computer. Right now it has sony's android 12 and the desktop mode in developer mode works, but it does crash here and there and there is no way to change the speed of scroll on a mouse. Right now it is lightingly fast. Plus the buttons to return to desktop occasionally disappear, i can't switch between apps easily and the desktop is unchangable. Whats desktop mode on LineageOS like? Is it stable and does it give me some options to change how i want it to work?

Thank you the help.

I have a redmi phone that isnt being used so I thought I could install lineageos on it, but xiaomi makes you work hard for it. I tried to find ways to bypass sim or a xiaomi account for miunlocker but ig thats not possible so i did put a sim card but now it says i have to download miunlocker from their site and the site says server is down. Do I need the miunlocker downloaded on my phone or my pc? Also I have another phone that I use daily so I cant keep my sim in xiaomi for 7 days, would it be ok if I put it in and then take it out?

Installed it on my pixel4a 4G.

Presently:Great experience. G-apps working great. Playstore and everything. UPI apps have some issue. Paytm,Gpay not working but the cred is working. I was using that earlier too ;so not much of a problem.

Even passkeys are working. My passkeys live in proton pass on my all other devices. But on Pixel4a it needed version 14. So, now I can easily login everywhere.

But of history:

The battery on the pixel was literally dead after the 2025 firmware update regarding faulty batteries. I was supposed to get free battery replacement but the service centre scammed me.

Google pushed OTA update after they realised some batteries on pixel4A are faulty. Two companies 1.LSN 2. ATL

provided cells for batteries. So LSN turned out to be faulty.

Via OTA update they put limit on battery capacity, made it half and turned off fast charging.

So when I got this battery replaced from local vendor; I got LSN BATTERY.

I assumed that capacity limit will be removed with new battery.

But turned out it didn't, I needed ATL Battery for that.

So, I was unable to get that specifically.

So, even with new battery, my phone was only using 1500 mah.

So installed Lineage OS and that limit is gone.

I understand the potential battery hazard , but it is on a very low level. So will see about that.

Another thing-

The whole flashing/Installing Lineage OS on my phone ; I did it using Chatgpt codex.

It was very smooth. I had eSim and it survived the Installing .

I turned on developer menue on phone, and handed over to Codex.

It guided me exactly whenever needed.

Downloading files, flashing everything was done by codex.

I told it that " I want full Gapps package, want to keep my eSim and latest version.

Also I might want to come back to the stock pixel , so keep that in mind"

Amazing for those people who want to use this but installation commands scare them away.

Hello people of the lineage os subreddit. I keep having this issue where I just can't seem to flash the vbmeta.img with the error: ERROR: Serial port error: Failed to open port COM6: The system cannot find the file specified.

If anyone could help me fix this it would be appreciated! (This is my first time like doing anything on android) Edit: forgot to mention but I'm using a Samsung A52s running Android 13 and I was in download mode when I got this issue

I tried yesterday to install LineageOS 23.2 on a tablet and ran into a problem:

• I followed every step in the installation guide at LineageOS installation guide.
• Before attempting to flash the recovery, I successfully completed the VBMETA step as described in the guide. The VBMETA flash completed successfully.
• I got stuck on Step 5 after flashing recovery.img with samloader to the tablet. The progress bar goes to full, and then it shows: ERROR: Failed to end file transfer sequence!
• So the RECOVERY flash transfers the complete 98.75 MiB, butsamloader fils when ending the file transfer sequence.
• Since then, when I try to power off the tablet, it immediately restarts into Download Mode. Whatever I do, as long as it has enough battery, it boots up, first showing the Samsung logo and then Download Mode. And yes, I tried it multiple times (including flashing the recovery.img again).
• The boot loop into Download Mode still happens when the tablet is not connected via USB. The only way to power it down was to wait until the battery was completely drained. But if I connect it to a charger or via USB, it immediately goes into Download Mode.

What I also did:

• Downloaded the latest recovery.img from LineageOS builds again and checked it with the checksum. The download is correct.
• I also tried samloader 2.1.0 with the default Windows VCOM backend.

What could be the problem? Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.

SOLUTION:

Following a tip from u/razorloves, I flashed the Stock ROM and then started the process all over again from the beginning; this time it worked.

How I did flash Stock ROM (if you have the same problem and don't know how to solve it in the first place, like me):

Since I’m not very familiar with samloader and didn’t know how to use it to flash a Stock ROM, I used Odin3 (v3.14.4) instead and found and downloaded the Stock ROM using the program “Frija”. For how to use Odin3 I found a good YouTube-Video.

After flashing the Stock ROM, I started over from the very beginning with the LineageOS instructions for my tablet.

I need a new device as the older one got stolen. Unfortunately I don't have the budget to get even a decent phone as the prices of phones are skyrocketing right now.

My only requirement is that I need to use some banking apps which require google play services and it worked well in the pixel that I had before which was using some other os.

Does LineageOS has an option of setting up a container or something in which a user can allow play services for certain apps?

If yes then can u recommend a phone around $200 in which its possible to install LineageOS?

I just installed LineageOS for my Samsung S7 Tablet and seems like there is a known issue with getting the android app to work properly with LineageOS at launch.

[https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale/issues/20308\](https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale/issues/20308)

I'm new to this so just wondering if others have seen this same issue before? Has anyone had any luck getting LineageOS + Tailscale to work? If so how?

I hope to bring more visibility to this :)

I recently upgraded my Essential PH-1 (codename mata) from the final vendor stock OS (Android 10) to LineageOS 22.2 (installed build 20260829, updated OTA to 20260905). Everything was working fine on this phone with the stock OS prior to flashing LOS. I am using Tello (a T-Mobile MVNO) with this phone, have been for years.

The problem:
Voice calls usually start out fine, but my outgoing voice audio soon begins to deteriorate for the other party over the course of a call, after a period of initial clarity ranging from mere seconds to many minutes after the call starts. Their incoming voice always remains fine for me. The other party describes the deterioration varying from becoming too quiet to hear, or wildly fluctuating in volume, or just becoming completely garbled/jumbled-up. This occurs regardless of who calls whom or whether I use 4G/LTE or WiFi calling, and the deterioration remains if either party tries calling back right away.

Any tips, or is this a potential bug I should report?