Versie 23 van LineageOS is beschikbaar gekomen. LineageOS is de opvolger van CyanogenMod en een opensourcebesturingssysteem voor smartphones en tablets. Het is gebaseerd op een kale versie van Android en voegt extra functionaliteit toe, waaronder snelkoppelingen in de notificatiebalk, een uitgebreid lockscreen en verschillende thema's voor de interface. Verder zijn er vaak prestatieverbeteringen waar te nemen ten opzichte van de software die een fabrikant zelf meelevert. LineageOS versie 23 is gebaseerd op Android 16 en de releasenotes voor deze uitgave zien er als volgt uit:
23 - Primetime ReleaseThis last year has been a whirlwind to say the least, but we have remained dedicated to bringing an updated LineageOS based on Android 16 to the masses! We’ve been hard at work rebasing all of our changes and features since Android 16’s release in June. Android 16’s first release mainly contained iterative improvements and some UI/UX refinements, but due to our previous efforts adapting to Google’s UI-centric adjustments in Android 12 through 14, we were able to rebase onto Android 16’s code-base faster than anticipated. Yes you read that right: We’re early this year! Other components have complicated our release and security patching efforts, but we’ll get to that shortly. Google’s Patch Cadence, and LineageOS Going Forward.
Firstly, what even is an ASB? Or a QPR?Okay, why are you telling me this?
- ASB (Android Security Bulletin) – Google’s monthly roundup of newly fixed security vulnerabilities across the Android ecosystem. Distributed as a list of patches and security branch updates for older but still supported Android versions, with the current version tagged monthly. These updates let projects like ours and OEMs stay aligned with Google’s security baseline.
- QPR (Quarterly Platform Release) – Mid-cycle updates to a given Android version, landing every few months. QPRs bring not just security fixes but also bug fixes, performance improvements, and feature changes (like Material 3 Expressive in 16 QPR1).
You’ll notice we are choosing to release LineageOS 23.0, and not 23.1. That’s because it’s based on Android 16’s initial release (what we’ll call QPR0), even though QPR1 has already rolled out to Pixels. The catch? Google never pushed QPR1’s source to AOSP. They’ve said it’ll come “in the coming weeks” (source), but right now only contracted partners have access. And to answer the immediate question, the likelihood that any custom ROM will ever be a contracted Google partner is near 0.
On top of that, Google’s handling of ASBs has shifted (source). July was empty for the first time since the program began, August had a single patch, and September omitted patches for several listed vulnerabilities, with fixes shared privately to partners under embargo. The result is that AOSP security updates are no longer released in full on a monthly basis. Instead, only vulnerabilities deemed “high risk” (i.e. actively exploited in the wild) will be published by Google in the monthly ASBs, and even then, the underlying patches are often not made public immediately.
On a quarterly cadence, Google now issues larger security bulletins that include patches for vulnerabilities originally discovered in prior months. These quarterly bulletins coincide with QPRs (Quarterly Platform Releases), which bundles those security fixes together with feature updates, but have so far not been pushed to AOSP at the time of release. This is why you’ve seen the LineageOS 22.2 security patch level remain reflective of August well into September. In short: this cadence is now the norm, and we need to adapt.
And I heard that Google stopped pushing Pixel source?Yes, Google has pulled back here too. Pixel kernels are now only offered as history-stripped tarballs, available privately on request, with no device trees, HALs, or configs. Thanks to projects like CalyxOS, Pixels will likely remain well supported, but they’re no longer guaranteed “day one” devices for LineageOS. Pixel devices are now effectively no easier to support than any other OEM’s devices. In short, this just makes things harder, not impossible.
How does this affect LineageOS? And me?It means we adapt. Instead of waiting indefinitely for QPR1’s source, we’re shipping 23.0 now on “QPR0”, with the publicly available ASB patches applied, and we’ll only attest to a security patch level once we have access to all of its fixes. When QPR1 (and future QPRs) eventually land in AOSP, we’ll merge or rebase as appropriate. This does mean some features (like Material 3 Expressive) aren’t here yet. But it ensures users get timely builds, the most complete security fixes we can legally access, and a clear path forward without being stuck in limbo. This will likely be the expected norm for Android 17 and beyond, so expect more
TL;DR:.0releases in the future!Legacy Devices
- Google no longer pushes monthly tags and patches to AOSP; and most fixes/security patches are now pushed quarterly, if at all.
- Security patch levels may occasionally lag: we only increment them once all patches are public.
- LineageOS 23.0 is based on Android 16 “QPR0” because QPR1’s source isn’t public yet.
- Because of this some headline features (like Material 3 Expressive) will come later, once sources drop.
- Pixel support continues, but with reduced source access, they’re no longer guaranteed, let alone on day one.
The bad news extends a bit further here, though it’s less surprising than the earlier sections. Google’s increased reliance on newer eBPF features has made supporting devices with older Linux kernels increasingly difficult. Android 16 “QPR0” “requires Linux 5.4 and above, and at the time of writing, the necessary features have only been properly backported as far back as
4.14.Unfortunately, LineageOS 22.2 still supports many devices running
Back to the Good Stuff!4.4and4.9. As of now, no complete backports of the required features exist for these kernels. The silver lining is that, unlike the massive device loss we saw moving off LineageOS 18.1, these versions could be salvaged if someone were to take on the work of adapting the backports. If you do succeed, please reach out to devrel(at)lineageos.org, we’d be happy to review it! We’re currently targeting only shipping kernels that have 1:1 eBPF backports to make them feature equivalent to Linux 5.4 from here on out to avoid compatibility issues.Application Updates
- Security patches from September 2024 to August 2025 have been merged to LineageOS 20 through 23.0.
- SeedVault and Etar have both been updated to their newest respective upstream version, with multiple fixes having been sent back to the relevant upstream repos!
- WebView has been updated to Chromium 140.0.7339.51.
- Contributor demon000 (Cosmin Tanislav) has started work on an awesome set of tools to assist maintainers in device bringups from scratch! They’re still in-progress, but are staged to make a lot of our efforts significantly easier and more streamlined - so stay tuned! Maybe a rare non-yearly blog post? ;)
- Contributor 0xCAFEBABE has extended support for various VirtIO configurations (QEMU/crosvm/UTM/libvirt, etc.) targets! Though these aren’t supported officially, there is an awesome, comprehensive guide for building and utilizing these targets on the Wiki. There is even a newer one allowing you to run LineageOS in a UTM virtual machine on an Apple Silicon Mac!
- Contributor 0xCAFEBABE has added support for Cuttlefish targets!
- Contributor 0xCAFEBABE has extended support for devices booting Android on the mainline Linux kernel! This will allow us to in theory boot LineageOS on almost all devices supported by the Linux kernel. It’s in early phases, but very promising, with several successful device ports already available on the LineageOS GitHub organization! Check the search term “mainline” on the organization’s search bar.
- LineageOS is now nearly
Android.mkfree! Google announced their move frommaketosoongmany years ago, pushing developers to migrate from Android.mk to Android.bp, and has started blocking Android.mk in many locations of the source tree.
- While converting these is a seemingly simple task - in practice it involved countless hours of converting conditional checks, regression testing, and thousands of individual patches. As of this writing, LineageOS introduces less than 10 Android.mk files at a platform level, and many of these are in the process of being converted. In short - we’re ready for when Google kills support for Android.mk.
- 0xCAFEBABE also created a build target for converting from mk to bp, a WIP feature to assist developers in migrating to soong!
- Both the Charging Control, and Fast Charge Control features have received many updates and improvements.
- A new set of ringtones and alarms from Plasma Mobile have been included.
LineageOS isn’t just about the OS itself: our suite of core apps continues to evolve as well. This cycle brings some major improvements:
Aperture (Camera)Our camera app, Aperture, has been rewritten from the ground up. The rewrite makes the app much easier to maintain, while also bringing new features:
- Support for JPEG Ultra HDR, RAW, and simultaneous RAW+JPEG capture.
- A redesigned notification island with dynamic colors, and new indicators (JPEG Ultra HDR, RAW, battery, thermal throttling).
Keep your system updated (or keep updating the app if you’re using the app standalone), since we plan to introduce more features and improvements over time (believe it or not, nowadays the only obstacle is Google’s CameraX library, which has slowed down the development of certain components which we use in Aperture). We do have some plans to overcome this though.
Twelve (Music Player)Our music player, Twelve, didn’t need a full overhaul this year, but it did get some polish and some new features:
New App, Again?
- Added a “Play random songs” button for quicker library playback.
- Updated the Now Playing screen with playback statistics (for the nerds and audiophiles out there).
- Added the ability to rescan the local media store, so newly added music shows up without needing a reboot.
- Expanded Jellyfin integration, including suggestions, favorites, and better thumbnail handling.
- Added MIDI playback support.
We’re excited to debut Catapult, our brand-new custom launcher for Android TV. Catapult is built with the same principles we bring to the rest of LineageOS: clean, simple, functional design, with thoughtful user experience at its core. Why build a new launcher? For years, Android TV and Google TV users have been stuck with preloaded launchers that aggressively push advertising and recommendations users can’t control. Catapult changes that. It strips away the clutter, gives you back your home screen, and lets you decide what belongs front and center.
With Catapult, you get a fast, intuitive interface that focuses on your apps and your content: no forced feeds, no “sponsored” rows, just a launcher that works the way you expect. We’re also planning to add more features in the future, you’ll see them appear as you keep your device up to date, stay tuned!
Extended QEMU-Based Virtual Machine SupportLineageOS has long been a favorite for developers and tinkerers, and with 23.0 we’ve expanded support for virtualized environments. Thanks to extended QEMU integration spearheaded by developer 0xCAFEBABE, it’s now easier than ever to run LineageOS in VMs for testing, debugging, or just exploration. This means developers can spin up consistent environments on their desktops without needing dedicated hardware, and testers can reproduce tricky issues with greater reliability. Whether you’re validating patches or just curious to see how LineageOS runs under the hood, the tooling is smoother and more accessible.
If interested, take a look on the Wiki. You can run LineageOS via libvirt on Linux/Windows, and on an Apple Silicon Mac with UTM. Additionally, LineageOS now supports Cuttlefish build configurations, which are similar to the
Mainline Kernel Supportemulatorfamily of targets, but has extra emulated peripherals, so as to act more like a real device! You can view a list of all the differences here.Another big milestone in 23.0 is our improved support for devices running Linux mainline kernels. While Android has historically relied on heavily modified vendor kernels, the ecosystem is shifting toward mainline for long-term stability and maintainability.
With 23.0, developer 0xCAFEBABE has spearheaded an effort to extend compatibility for devices capable of booting the mainline Linux kernel, and we’ve made it easier for maintainers to bring their devices closer to upstream with inheritable common trees. The end result? For now, nothing, but in the future, we will hopefully be able to boot Android on almost any device that is supported by the mainline Linux kernel.
This effort should help keep devices alive well past the point where their proprietary components stop working with newer Android releases. See the following repos if interested! (1, 2, 3, 4)
Careful CommonizationSeveral of our developers have worked hard on SoC-specific common kernels to base on that can be merged on a somewhat regular basis to pull in the latest features/security patches to save maintainers additional effort. Go check them out and consider basing your device kernels on them!
Supported SoCs right now are:
SoC (system-on-chip) Kernel Version Android Version Qualcomm MSM8998/MSM8996 4.4 13, 14, 15 Qualcomm MSM8953 4.9 13, 14, 15 Qualcomm SDM845 4.9 13, 14, 15 Qualcomm SM8150 4.14 13, 14, 15, 16 Qualcomm SDM660 4.19 13, 14, 15, 16 Qualcomm SM8250 4.19 13, 14, 15, 16 Qualcomm SM8350 5.4 13, 14, 15, 16 Qualcomm SM8450 5.10 13, 14, 15, 16 Qualcomm SM8550 5.15 13, 14, 15, 16 Qualcomm SM8650 6.1 14, 15, 16 Qualcomm SM8750 6.6 15, 16 Moreover, many legacy devices require interpolating libraries that we colloquially refer to as “shims” - these have long been device and maintainer managed, but this cycle we have decided to commonize them to make the effort easier on everyone and not duplicate effort! You can check it out here and contribute shims that you think other devices may need or add additional components to additional shims and compatibility layers provided via Gerrit!
DeprecationsOverall, we feel that the 23.0 branch has reached feature and stability parity with 22.2 and is ready for initial release. We will allow new LineageOS 21 submissions to be forked to the organization, but we will no longer allow newly submitted LineageOS 21 devices to ship. LineageOS 23.0 will launch building for a decent selection of devices, with additional devices to come as they meet the requirements specified by the Charter and are made ready for builds by their maintainer.
Upgrading to LineageOS 23.0To upgrade, please follow the upgrade guide for your device by clicking on it here and then on “Upgrade to a higher version of LineageOS”. If you’re coming from an unofficial build, you need to follow the good ole’ install guide for your device, just like anyone else looking to install LineageOS for the first time. These can be found at the same place here by clicking on your device and then on “Installation”.
Please note that if you’re currently on an official build, you DO NOT need to wipe your device, unless your device’s wiki page specifically dictates otherwise, as is needed for some devices with massive changes, such as a repartition.
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