CalyxOS 4.7.5 - Bugfix for March 2023 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update is now available for the Pixels and the Fairphone 4

Released to stable on Friday, 24 March.

Background

Google releases security updates every month, which are usually easy to integrate. However, every 3 months, they also released what’s called a Quarterly Platform Release (QPR).

That’s currently December, March, and June. Then in August / September we have the new Android version. These quarterly updates include a LOT of code changes. They’re also that month’s security update, meaning we have to get it all integrated quickly.

This led to a scenario where the first build of this month had a bunch of bugs that we couldn’t catch before the release, and we didn’t want to delay security updates either so we didn’t wait too long to test out every single thing.

We’re looking into ways to maintain stability while also not delaying security updates. See this GitLab issue for the existing discussion. We’ll post an update once we have something implemented.

Navigation

As noted in the changelog below, 2 button navigation has been dropped. It had a bug after Google’s March 2023 changes, wherein the recents menu (list of running apps) would only show on the homescreen.

Google never included 2 button navigation on devices newer than Pixel 4, and given that those are all no longer supported, this feature doesn’t get tested or fixed by them.

As such, given we had already kept it alive for years longer than Google did, we decided to drop it, because even if we fixed it now (which may have taken a lot of time), it could’ve broken again in the future. We’d much rather spend time on privacy and security related features.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.7.5
• Drop 2-button navigation. It will get switched to 3-button navigation automatically.
• Google hasn’t supported this in years, and recent bugs made it unusable.
• Chromium: Fix adblocking, update to 111.0.5563.115 (latest stable)
• Fix scramble pin
• Fix notifications for default SMS app (Messaging)
• Bring back Material You color themes, add more colors to it
• Fix status bar vibrate mode icon
• Improve theme of Settings -> System -> Other options -> Battery stats
• Improve theme of Settings -> System -> Status bar icons

Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a:

• Fix Safetynet attestation
• Switch back to source-built kernel

Pixel 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL

• Fix auto brightness

FP4

• Fix auto brightness

Note

CalyxOS 4.7 - March 2023 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update is now available for the Pixels and the Fairphone 4

We test all builds before release, however we cannot test every single thing on every single device, it’d take too much time. That’s why we release the builds to beta first, and then to stable afterwards.

Unfortunately, due to a mistake we accidentally released a buggy update to stable for Pixel 6 Pro. A fixed build has since been made available. Our apologies for the incovenience.

Releases and devices

4.7.0

• Initial 4.7 release for Pixel 3, 3a, 4a (5g), 5, 5a, 7, FP4
• Stable as of 17 March, Friday

4.7.1

• Initial 4.7 release for Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a
• Kept in beta for Pixel 6 and 6a due to the issues reported
• Accidentially released to stable for Pixel 6 Pro
• Fixed in 4.7.3

4.7.2

• Initial 4.7 release for Pixel 4
• Update kernel with some security patches for Pixel 3, 3a
• Stable as of 18 March, Saturday

4.7.3

• Fix video playback and recording for Pixel 6, 6 Pro and 6a
• Stable as of 18 March, Saturday

4.7.4

• March 2023 Security update for Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and 6a
• Google finally released the March 2023 Security update for these devices
• That has been integrated into this build
• Stable as of 20 March, Monday

Vulnerabilities

Exynos Modems

• Remote Code Execution exploits found in Exynos modems, including ones in Pixel 6 and 7
• For technical details see Multiple Internet to Baseband Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities in Exynos Modems

Pixel 7, 7 Pro

• Fixed
• CalyxOS 4.7.0 includes March 2023 Security update which contains the fix
• If you’re running an older version, please update

Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a

• Fixed
• CalyxOS 4.7.4 includes March 2023 Security update which contains the fix

All other devices

• Not vulnerable, since this only affects Exynos modems found in certain devices

Acropalypse

• Not Vulnerable
• A vulnerability in Pixel’s Markup tool lets you recover the original photo from an edited screenshot
• This only affects the propreitary Google Markup app, which CalyxOS has never included
• For details see linked tweet.

Changelog

Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a

• CalyxOS 4.7.4
• Google finally released the March 2023 Security update for these devices
• That has been integrated into this build

Pixel 4, 4 XL

• CalyxOS 4.7.2
• Initial 4.7 (March) release

Pixel 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL

• CalyxOS 4.7.2
• Update kernel with some security patches

All other devices

• Please see March update for full changelog

Note

CalyxOS 4.7.0 (and 4.7.1) - March 2023 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update is now available for the Pixels 3, 3a, 5 - 7, and the Fairphone 4

4.7.0 has been released to stable on 17 March, Friday.

4.7.1 for Pixel 6, 6 Pro and 6a is still on beta because of the known issue mentioned below.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.7.0
• March 2023 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update
• Add assisted GPS toggle in Settings -> Location
• Remove sensitive info from SUPL requests
• Chromium: 111.0.5563.57
• Add detailed battery usage stats. Settings -> System -> Other options -> Battery stats.
• Recovery: Show CalyxOS version

Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a

• CalyxOS 4.7.1
• Google hasn’t released the March update for this device yet
• We’re using the February beta proprietary files

Known issues:

• Video decoding / playback is broken across most apps.
• We’re working on fixing it, till then you can follow this temporary workaround.

Fairphone 4

• Set rollback index to match latest stock.
• This should make new installs easier.

Pixel 4, 4 XL

• A bug in Google’s March update has delayed this, working on fixing it.
• We will release a build with the fix as soon as it’s ready

Note

CalyxOS 4.6.0 - February 2023 Security update is now available for the Pixels 3 - 7, and the Fairphone 4

It was released on stable on Monday, 13 February.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.6.0
• February 2023 Security update
• Chromium 109.0.5414.117 (110 work in progress)
• Fix Firewall VPN handling, again
• Set “Play Store” as installer when installing from Aurora Store to make some apps work

Note

CalyxOS 4.5.1 - January 2023 Security update - Bugfixes and new features is now available for the Pixels 3 - 7, and the Fairphone 4

Released to stable on January 25

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.5.1
• January 2023 Security update
• Fix unresponsive black screen / apparent shutdown
• Camera: Replace the app with LineageOS Aperture - implements several missing features - https://lineageos.org/Changelog-27/#amazing-aperture
• Chromium 109.0.5414.86 (latest stable)
• microG: v0.2.27.223616
• Work profile: Fix apps missing from Recents in some cases
• Fix Firewall VPN handling, especially with split tunnels
• Settings: Fix possible TTS crash during language selection
• Bug reports vibrate noticeably, including after completion
• Launcher: Fix openining of wrong app from search
• Launcher: Themed icons option now available, they only show up on homescreen
• SeedVault: Mark Nextcloud as not recommended due to multiple issues reported. DAVx5 can be used for Nextcloud as well
• SeedVault: Warn before turning off backups
• SeedVault: Grant permission required for storage backups
• Settings -> System -> Other Options: No need for Developer Options for these!
  • Wi-Fi non-persistent MAC randomization
  • Bug reporting features
  • OEM Unlocking
• Update translations
• Update all included apps

Pixel 6, 6a, 7

• Allow unlocking phone via fingerprint without pressing power button, Settings -> Display -> Lock screen -> Long press on fingerprint sensor to unlock phone

Pixel 3, 3a

• Update kernel to Linux 4.9.336

Fairphone 4

• Update kernel to Linux 4.19.269
• Bluetooth: Fix some A2DP issues

Note

CalyxOS 4.5.0 - January 2023 Security update is now available for the Pixels 3 - 7, and the Fairphone 4

Released to stable as of Friday, January 6.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.5.0
• January 2023 Security update
• Potential fix for unresponsive screen / shutdown
• Calendar (Etar): Latest upstream version 1.0.33, contains bugfixes
• Work profile: Make new work profile creation faster.

Note

Happy Holidays!

CalyxOS 4.4.1 - December 2022 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update is now available for the Pixels 3 - 7, and the Fairphone 4

It was bumped to stable on Monday, January 2, 2023.

We’re still investigating the issues reported in 4.4.0, mainly the random shutdowns which seem to be happening for some people.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.4.1
• Bugfix release
• December 2022 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update
• Fix lockscreen clock font, revert to previous look (pre-December)
• Chromium: 108.0.5359.128 (Latest stable)
• Re-add double tap to sleep
• Fix reboot timeout not working correctly in some cases (such as when set to 2 hours)
• Remove cast quick settings tile (because it does not work on CalyxOS :()
• Fix toast messages in some apps in dark mode being unreadable
• Music (Eleven): Add a link to Equalizer (AudioFX) in Settings
• F-Droid: 1.15.4
• FP4: Update to FP4.FP4I.A.175.20221207

Note

CalyxOS 4.4.0 - December 2022 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update is now available for the Pixels 3 - 7, and the Fairphone 4

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.4.0
• December 2022 Quarterly Platform Release and Security update
• Clock: Fix alarms, remove PHONE permission. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
• Calendar (Etar): Fix crash when creating new event.
• Double tap to sleep is temporarily broken, will be available again in the next update
• Allow Chromium (and many other browsers) to use autofill
• Fix work profile apps occasionally missing in recents for profiles created going forward
• A fix for some of the existing work profiles with the same bug will be avaiable in the next update

Clock app

• In the previous build (4.3.1/4.3.2), we merged some improvements to the AOSP Clock app, which led to it asking for the PHONE permission, and crashing when not given.
• This also resulted in alarms being broken for those who didn’t open the app at all, or opened it and denied the permission. They worked fine for those who opened the app and gave the permission.
• For this build (4.4.0), we have reverted the changes entirely, thus taking away the PHONE permission. This should fix alarms.
• Going forward, we will take further care to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again. Both the permission, and alarms being broken.

Background

• The AOSP Clock app, like most other AOSP apps, doesn’t really receive any updates.
• LineageOS does a lot of improvements to this app, and thus we’ve been shipping with those to provide a better experience.
• The AOSP Clock app has always had the PHONE permission, however it was restricted to older Android versions.
• A recent update bumped the targetSdk of the Clock app to the latest, Android 13 / API 33. Part of this required making the PHONE permission required again.
• It was used to detect if a call is ongoing during an alarm, and if so, play a different, less loud tone. It wasn’t used for anything else at all. That can be reviewed in it’s removal below.
• If the permission was denied, the app crashed, thus making it unable to play the alarm
• Google’s proprietary Clock app somehow detects phone calls without needing this permission, however we haven’t been able to figure out how just yet.
• Going forward, we’ve decided to simply remove the permission.

Note

CalyxOS 4.3.2 is now available for all supported Pixels, and the Fairphone 4.

Bumped to stable as of Dec 7, 2022.

December update

• The December Security update is work in progress.
• It’s bigger than usual given that it’s one of the Quarterly Platform Releases, and thus it will take some time to fully integrate.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.3.2 - fixes random reboots that happened in the 4.3.1 beta
• New bootanimation, new default wallpaper!
• Old wallpaper, and one more new option is available.
• Launcher: Fix layout bug
• Camera: Potential fix for images disappearing
• SeedVault: Add a log option to “Expert Options” to help debug issues
• Calendar (Etar): Latest upstream update, bugfixes and improvements
• Gallery: Show correct location in image info
• Settings: Add System -> Other Options, to expose some commonly used Developer Options without needing it enabled.
• microG: Fix some cases where google account login with FIDO hardware key failed.
• Chromium: 108.0.5359.79 (latest stable)
• microG: v0.2.26.223616
• Work profile: Improve app layout, add some helpful text.
• microG: Remove entry from Settings -> System to avoid confusion. Launcher icon still present.
• Support creating a work profile on secondary users.
• Make status bar firewall icon (globe) more reliable
• General firewall / networking improvements
• Updates for all included apps
• Drop Tasks as an optionally included app (still available if you had it installed)
• Replace Weather (no longer being developed) with Geometric Weather as an optionally included app.
• Translation updates

All Pixels

• Use stock charging animation when powered off

Pixels 3a - 5, 6 - 6a (aka except 3, 3 XL, 5a, 7, 7 Pro):

• Fix SafetyNet attestation

Pixels 3a, 4a:

• Allow configuring multiple vibration levels, for real this time.
• Settings -> Sound and vibration -> Vibration and haptics

Pixels 3, 3a:

• Known issue: eSIM isn’t working, being looked into

FP4:

• Make wide-angle camera available to third party apps (OpenCamera, Google Camera, amongst others)

Note

CalyxOS 4.3.0 - Android 13 is now available for the Pixels 3 - 7, and the Fairphone 4

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.3.0 - Android 13 - Tiramisu
• November 2022 Security update (2022-11-05)
• Chromium 107.0.5304.91 (107.0.5304.105 available in the GitLab F-Droid repo)
• microG: Fix Google sign-in
• microG: Display correct version
• Translation updates

All Pixels

• Allow configuring multiple vibration levels
• Settings -> Sound and vibration -> Vibration and haptics

Pixel 6, 6a

• Fix random reboots / certain display related crashes

Pixel 4

• Fix squeeze functionality (Active Edge)

Pixel 3, 3a

• Fix SecureUI crashes
• Fix squeeze functionality (Active Edge)

Lock Screen bypass

• This update includes Google’s fix for the reported Lock Screen Bypass
• It was not an encryption bypass and you still have to enter your PIN after rebooting.
• Patches like this are why it’s important to provide some updates to devices when the vendor stops.
  • Google did not provide the November update for the Pixel 4. While they may provide one more update, it’s not available now
  • The Pixels 3 and 3a have stopped getting updates from Google completed, so they remain unpatched. We cannot update the proprietary components, but at least we can provide patches for issues like this.

Note

CalyxOS 4.2.7 - Android 13 is now available for the Pixels 3 - 7, and also the Fairphone 4.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.2.7 - Android 13 - Tiramisu
• Fix VPN issues with mobile data on certain carriers
• microG: v0.2.25.223616
• microG: FIDO Support - allows using U2F and Fido devices via USB or NFC with supported Browsers (Chromium and Firefox) and to sign into your Google Account in microG.
• microG: FIDO Support - Note that some devices are still not fully supported.
• SeedVault: Fix “Backup now” being greyed out when storing backups on Nextcloud / DAVx5
• Settings: Add toggle for Connectivity check. Settings -> Network and internet -> Connectivity check
• Allow using Bromite System WebView again (Bromite 106 or higher required)

Changelog from 4.2.6 (It was briefly in beta, and then pulled due to the issues reported)

• microG: Fix notifications not working / toggle turning off
• Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a: Fix Night Light, Reading mode, and also the crashes due to that.

Devices

Pixel 7

• When Smooth Display is turned off, fingerprint doesn’t work reliably
• Face unlock is not available

Pixel 4 - 6a

• Should be fully working

Pixel 3, 3a

• LTE has been fixed. Thanks to LineageOS and PixelExperience
• Mobile data, calls (both incoming and outgoing), and texts work fine
• There were no other major issues reported with the previous tested builds

Fairphone 4

• Should be fully working

OnePlus

• This is next on our list now that the 3 and 3a are done, and we hope to be able to share an update soon.

CalyxOS 4.2 - Android 13 is now available for Pixel 7, 7 Pro and also the Fairphone 4.

Installation instructions and factory image links are available under Get CalyxOS.

Devices

Pixel 7

• CalyxOS 4.2.4 is now available as beta

Known issues

• When Smooth Display is turned off, fingerprint doesn’t work reliably
• Face unlock is not available

Fairphone 4

• CalyxOS 4.2.5 is now available.
• Factory images and our flasher are finally available

Known issues

• Wi-Fi Display isn’t working
• Wide angle camera not functional.

Pixel 4 - 6a

• New builds will be available soon

Pixel 3, 3a

• Still working on fixing LTE

OnePlus

• We haven’t forgotten about this, just haven’t had the time to revisit yet.

device-flasher

• 1.0.6, links available within the installation guides Install CalyxOS.
• Supports Fairphone 4, and Pixels 3 - 7
• Reproducible builds (for Linux and Darwin at least, Windows pending)
• More improvements to come later

Known issues

• Flashing gets stuck on M1 / M2 Macbooks
• FP4: After step 6, it can’t verify that the bootloader is locked due to the device rebooting.

CalyxOS 4.2 - Android 13 is now available for the Google supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 4 - 6a, and the Fairphone 4

It’s in the stable channel so all your devices should be getting the update. Factory image links are available under Get CalyxOS.

We will be supporting the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. We have started receiving phones, and are waiting for the source code.

Current status

Changelog for 4.2.3 for the Pixels

• CalyxOS 4.2.3 - Android 13 - Tiramisu
• Fix carrier configuration - should improve LTE / 5G / MMS functionality
• Chromium: 106.0.5249.79

Steps

Pixel 4 - 6a, stable

1. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
2. Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates”

FP4 - stable

1. This is only for users already running CalyxOS. For fresh installs, factory images will be available soon.
2. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
3. Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates”

Pixel 3 - 3a, testing

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0 - Factory images will be available later. If you’re on the previous test Tiramisu build, you can skip this step.
2. Go through the Known issues list above, and make sure you’re ok with that
3. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
4. Enable USB Debugging on your phone.
5. From your computer: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel thirteen
6. Then, on your phone: Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates

CalyxOS 4.2 - Android 13 is now available for the Google supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 4 - 6a

We had this in beta for a longer time than planned, however that has allowed us to ensure stability.

Thanks for all the testing, feedback and bugreports!

We also have some builds available for the FP4 and Pixel 3, and are working on them.

Current status

Changelog for 4.2

• CalyxOS 4.2 - Android 13 - Tiramisu
• October Security update (2022-10-05)
• Chromium: 106.0.5249.65
• Show Material You color picker (Long press Home Screen -> Home Settings)
• Re-add previous translations

Steps

Pixel 4 - 6a, stable

1. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
2. Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates”

Pixel 3 - 3a, testing

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0 - Factory images will be available later. If you’re on the previous test Tiramisu build, you can skip this step.
2. Go through the Known issues list above, and make sure you’re ok with that
3. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
4. Enable USB Debugging on your phone.
5. From your computer: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel thirteen
6. Then, on your phone: Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates

FP4, testing

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0. If you’re on the previous test Tiramisu build, please wait for the next update, this build won’t work.
2. Go through the Known issues list above, and make sure you’re ok with that
3. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
4. Enable USB Debugging on your phone. Note: This will not work if you’re already on Android 13 / 4.1.7
5. From your computer: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel thirteen
6. Then, on your phone: Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates

Fresh installs, factory images

See Install CalyxOS

Note: FP4 factory images will be available when stable

CalyxOS 4.1 - Android 13 has been available for testing and then later beta (for some devices) since September 15

Current status

General

• All features from Android 12 have been ported, and are mostly work well
• There are some UI bugs as the Launcher All apps page, but otherwise it’s all there

Next steps

• We hope to release it as stable soon as possible for most devices.
• For the devices having issues, we’re working on figuring out fixes for them, and will make new builds available for those ASAP.

Device Specific

Pixel 6a - 4.1.6

• Testing, given that the fingerprint reader is broken on upgrades. Fresh installs are fine, and thus factory images are available.

Pixel 6, 6 Pro - 4.1.6

• Beta, everything is fine for the most part
• There’s a UWB crashing on the Pixel 6 Pro under investigation

Pixel 5, 4a (5G), 5a - 4.1.6

• Beta, everything is fine for the most part

Pixel 4a - 4.1.8

• Beta, everything is fine for the most part

Pixel 4, 4 XL - 4.1.6

• Beta, everything is fine for the most part

Pixel 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL - 4.1.3

• Testing, LTE is broken, fine otherwise.

FP4 - 4.1.7

• Testing, everything is fine for the most part
• Some users are unable to boot the device after upgrading to 13. In that case it just falls back to Android 12 with your data kept intact. Investigating, but it’s a bit hard to debug since it doesn’t happen for everyone, only some.

Steps

Beta: OTA upgrades, from your existing CalyxOS install

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0. If you’re on the previous test Tiramisu build, you can skip this step.
2. Go through the Known issues list above, and make sure you’re ok with that
3. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
4. Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Release channel -> Beta
5. Then, tap the “Check for updates” button.

Testing: OTA upgrades, from your existing CalyxOS install

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0 - Factory images will be available later. If you’re on the previous test Tiramisu build, you can skip this step.
2. Go through the Known issues list above, and make sure you’re ok with that
3. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
4. Enable USB Debugging on your phone.
5. From your computer: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel thirteen
6. Then, on your phone: Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates

Fresh installs, factory images

1. Download the factory images from the links below.
2. Please follow the installation instructions at Install CalyxOS, but use the latest factory image you just downloaded instead of the one linked on that page.

Downloads

CalyxOS 4.1.6 - Android 13 is now available as a beta release for some devices.

Device status

Available as beta now

• Pixel 4, 4 XL, 4a
• Pixel 5, 4a (5G), 5a
• Pixel 6, 6 Pro

Pending

Pixel 6a

• Fingerprint not working on upgrades from 12. Fresh installs of 13 are ok.

Pixel 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL

• LTE is broken. It is under investigation.

FP4

• Test builds pending, work in progress.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.1.6 - Android 13 - Tiramisu
• September Security update (2022-09-05)
• Initial Android 13 release
• Google has brought lots of new features to Android in this release. Some of them are:
• Foreground Services (FGS) Task Manager - accessible from the status bar, to stop apps that have ongoing services.
• Share only the photos and videos you choose with certain apps; not your full library.
• To protect the information on your clipboard, you’ll get an alert when an app accesses it and your clipboard history will be cleared after a period of time to prevent unwanted access.
• Android 13 comes with a new media player that puts album artwork on full display and features a dancing playback bar.
• Assign different language settings to individual apps, so you can move fluidly between languages on your device, just like in real life.
• You’re in control of which apps can send you notifications—helping you limit distractions.

Known issues

• Launcher All apps screen is slightly cut off at the top, work in progress.

Steps

OTA upgrades, from your existing CalyxOS install

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0. If you’re on the previous test Tiramisu build, you can skip this step.
2. Go through the Known issues list above, and make sure you’re ok with that
3. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
4. Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Release channel -> Beta
5. Then, tap the “Check for updates” button.

Fresh installs, factory images

1. Download the factory images from the links below.
2. Please follow the installation instructions at Install CalyxOS, but use the latest factory image you just downloaded instead of the one linked on that page.

Downloads

CalyxOS 4.1 - Android 13 is now available for testing for all Google Pixels.

We’ve done some basic testing internally, and are also simultaneously doing more extensive testing. Based on that and the feedback from testers, we’ll bump it to beta and then eventually stable. Factory images will be available at that time.

Fairphone 4 Android 13 port is work in progress, we hope to be able to release it next week.

We will be revisiting OnePlus devices after that.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.1.3 - Pixel 3, 3XL, 3a, 3a XL
• CalyxOS 4.1.4 - Pixel 4, 4 XL, 4a, 4a (5G), 5, 5a,6, 6 Pro, 6a
• Chromium: 105.0.5195.136
• VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling fixed. If it worked on Android 12 for you it should work again now.
• Pixel 4a (5G), 5, 5a: Camera has been fixed

Known issues

Common

• Launcher All apps screen is slightly cut off at the top

Pixel 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL

• LTE is broken. It is under investigation

Pixel 4, 4 XL

• Front camera is not working. Will be fixed for the next build
• Face unlock is not working on new installs due to the above. Somehow it’s fine on upgrades.

Pixel 6a

• Fingerprint not working on upgrades. Fresh installs are ok

Steps

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0 - Factory images will be available later. If you’re on the previous test Tiramisu build, you can skip this step.
2. Go through the Known issues list above, and make sure you’re ok with that
3. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
4. Enable USB Debugging on your phone.
5. From your computer: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel thirteen
6. Then, on your phone: Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates

IMPORTANT

CalyxOS 4.1 - Android 13 is now avaiable for testing for the Google supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 4 - 6a

We’ve done some basic testing internally, and are also simultaneously doing more extensive testing. Based on that and the feedback from testers, we’ll bump it to beta and then eventually stable.

Pixel 3, 3a and Fairphone 4 are still under investigation, and we’ll try to post an update on their status ASAP.

We will also revisit OnePlus devices after that.

Steps

1. Make sure your phone is running the latest stable CalyxOS 3.9.0 - Factory images will be available later.
2. Backup your data - you can use SeedVault, the included Backup app.
3. Enable USB Debugging on your phone.
4. From your computer: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel thirteen
5. Then, on your phone: Settings -> System -> System update settings -> Check for updates

Changelog

• CalyxOS 4.1.0 - Pixel 4, 4 XL, 4a, 6, 6 Pro, 6a
• CalyxOS 4.1.1 - Pixel 4a (5G), 5a
• CalyxOS 4.1.2 - Pixel 5
• September 2022 Security update (2022-09-05)

• Chromium: 105.0.5195.124 (105.0.5195.136 available through F-Droid testing repo)

• More to be added here later

Known issues

Common

• Calling (VoLTE) broken on some carriers
• Launcher All apps screen is slightly cut off at the top

Pixel 4a (5G), 5, 5a

• Camera not working

Pixel 6a

• Fingerprint not working

IMPORTANT

CalyxOS 3.9.0 - Android 12L is now available for all supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 3 - 6a, and the Fairphone 4

Work on Android 13 continues!

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3.9.0 - Android 12L
• Android 13 port is progressing well
• September 2022 Security update (Partial, open source patches)
• Chromium: 105.0.5195.79 (Latest stable)
• No more “Intent Filter Verification service has crashed” dialogs
• Fix firewall backup
• Allow configuring SeedVault backup for all work profiles and secondary users
• Settings: Show confirmation dialog before hiding apps
• Settings: Add a new “Hidden apps” filter to easily see hidden apps
• Only visible if you’ve hidden an app. Settings -> Apps -> All apps -> All apps (yes, twice) -> Hidden apps
• Allow using Bromite System WebView

Pixel 3a:

• Linux 4.9.327
• Include Google’s latest September 2022 update

Android 13

Work is in progress and going well.

You can follow it at https://gitlab.com/groups/CalyxOS/-/epics/33

The aim is to get some builds out ASAP for the Google supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 4 - 6a, and then we will spend some time looking at the Pixel 3, 3a and Fairphone 4, see what is possible and post an update.

IMPORTANT

CalyxOS 3.8.0 - Android 12L is now available for all supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 3 - 6a, and the Fairphone 4

The previous build, 3.7.2 was only released as beta.

We will also be releasing the September Security update next week with Android 12L for these devices, just to have some builds out while we’re working on Android 13.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3.8.0 - Android 12L
• Android 13 Work in Progress!
• August 2022 Security update (Partial, open source patches)
• Chromium: 104.0.5112.97 (105 is being tested)
• Work profile creation has been fixed. Entirely reworked, now create them from the new “Work profile” app.
• Settings: Re-add AMOLED dark mode
• Dialer: Add Signal and WhatsApp option when dialing arbitrary numbers directly
• Calendar: Fix crashes
• SeedVault: Exclude backup provider from backup
• SeedVault: Screen reader improvements
• Settings: Allow user configurable fingerprint wake-and-unlock (for FP4)
• Fix Settings app crash
• Update all included apps.

Android 13

Work is in progress and going well.

You can follow it at https://gitlab.com/groups/CalyxOS/-/epics/33

The aim is to get some builds out ASAP for the Google supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 4 - 6a, and then we will spend some time looking at the Pixel 3, 3a and Fairphone 4, see what is possible and post an update.

IMPORTANT

Hello,

Google has released Android 13 to AOSP today, and stock builds for the Pixel 4 and above are now available.

The CalyxOS team is already working on it, we’re going through the source code and will start migrating our changes to 13 soon.

You can follow progress at https://gitlab.com/groups/CalyxOS/-/epics/33 - and we’ll keep posting updates here.

IMPORTANT

Google has posted a warning on their factory image, stating:

Warning: The Android 13 update for Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and the Pixel 6a contains a bootloader update that increments the anti-roll back version. After flashing an Android 13 build on these devices you will not be able to flash older Android 12 builds.

Please keep this in mind if you have a Pixel 6, 6 Pro or 6a. We will update this post if we find out more, but till then if you update to 13 at all, you should stick to it and avoid trying to downgrade.

CalyxOS 3.7.0 - Android 12L is now available for all supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 3 - Pixel 6

Newer Fairphone and OnePlus builds will be next week, with the security update and additional fixes based on feedback from testing.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3.7.0 - Android 12L
• July 2022 Security update (2022-07-05)
• Chromium: 103.0.5060.71 (latest stable)
• Chromium: Drop native autofill support for now
• Bluetooth timeout bugfixes
• Gallery: Take some unnecessary privileges away, allow disabling the app again
• Update all included apps.

Pixel 3a

• Linux 4.9.317

Pixel 3

• VoLTE roaming for many U.S and global carriers (Google’s June update)
• Linux 4.9.317

Fixed issues

• Chromium (and other Chromium based browsers) crash on video playback if microG is disabled.
  • Chromium should be fine now
  • For other browsers, it will start working once they’re based on Chromium 103

Known issues

• Creating new work profile quits midway - Will be fixed in next week’s build

CalyxOS test builds for the OnePlus 8T, 9 and 9 Pro have been shipping with the Android 11 firmware, since at the time the work to update custom ROMs to be based on that was still work in progress for some models, and for others full kernel source code was not available until recently.

However, now that full kernel source code is available, and a big chunk of the work needed is done, we started integrating those changes into the CalyxOS codebase and made some test builds.

Unfortunately, re-locking the bootloader with a custom ROM installed no longer works with the latest Android 12 firmware from OnePlus. :(

What you need to do

• We will be looking at everything and make another post with findings with next steps.

• For now, we’ll make updates with Android 11 firmware since we’ve already released test builds and would like to provide updates with at least the open source parts of the latest security patch and other general CalyxOS improvements.

• We have pulled the links to the existing builds till then while we figure this out.

Technical details

With the Android 12 update, OnePlus changed codebases to be more closely based on Oppo software, and the unification is going to continue.

This meant a lot of changes for custom ROMs all around - to the proprietary files, the kernel code, hardware code (such as fingerprint reader), and also the bootloader.

Sadly, based on our testing, it appears that re-locking the bootloader after installing a custom ROM (aka AVB Yellow state) is no longer working with OnePlus’ Android 12 bootloader (and associated proprietary components).

It is possible that we might be missing some change to make it work with OnePlus’ Android 12 bootloader, but we’ve tried a bunch of things without any luck.

We also tried reverting some components (mainly just the bootloader) to Android 11 while keeping the rest of the proprietary bits matching OnePlus Android 12, but that didn’t help either.

Relocking worked fine with the Android 11 bootloader (and associated proprietary components).

Our options

This means that we will not be able to merge the Android 12 changes into our codebase for now, given that an update with that included would lead to a non-functional device for anyone with a locked bootloader, which would have to be recovered with MsmDownloadTool

All of the possible ways have been listed below, while we evaulate them to decide on the future.

Best case scenario

• OnePlus re-adds this functionality, given that they’ve supported this on pretty much all of their previous devices
• This would mean we can simply make an update with the fix included and it would be entirely seamless.

Future (Android 13)

• We’ll keep trying all options, and keep posting updates here
• With all options there are some pretty significant cons making it hard to pick either

1. Continue with Android 11 bootloader and other proprietary components

Pros:

• Locked bootloader

Cons:

• No security patches to any proprietary components.
• Diverging from other custom ROMs
• Becomes harder and harder to get newer Android versions running

2. Update to Android 12 bootloader and other proprietary components

Pros:

• Security updates
• Same as other custom ROMs

Cons:

• Unlocked bootloader, all the benefits of Verified Boot are lost

3. Get a combination of Android 11 + 12 components working

Pros:

• Locked bootloader (if it works)
• Partial proprietary security updates (the components that are on 12)

Cons:

• Fragile
• Would still miss some security updates (the components that are on 11)

This is the first in a series of regular updates from the CalyxOS team.

It currently covers the things that we’re currently working on, and what we plan to work in the near future.

All of this development can be followed on our Gerrit instance

Known issues

• Work profile creation fails on 3.6.0
  • Fix almost ready for next update, update will be released as soon as this is done
• Chromium crashing when microG is disabled
  • Investigating
• Chromium native autofill
  • Work in progress

Chromium based on Bromite

• Latest stable is 103
  • Work in progress
  • First build will be available shortly in the GitLab testing F-Droid repo
• Will continue looking at bringing over more features
• Reliable updates for Trichrome outside of OS updates work in progress

SeedVault

• Testing a way to allow backing up more apps, see #165 #407
  • We’re hoping to release some test APKs soon to get more feedback and then decided how to best proceed with this

Devices

Pixel 3, 3a

• Microphone low volume fix ready for next update

Fairphone 4

• Working on June update with latest firmware plus other fixes
• Stock Android 12 status still unknown, would be super nice to have it before Android 13

OnePlus 8T

• Working on June update
• Android 12 firmware update is pending

OnePlus 9, 9 Pro

• Working on June update
• Android 12 firmware update is work in progress

Other new devices

• Nothing planned soon as of yet, we’ll keep posting updates

Future planning

• More updates, especially for new features / bugfixes
• AOSP Security updates are already merged monthly
• Setting up a schedule for various merges (Translation, LineageOS, other apps, etc) to make sure they’re always done in a timely manner rather than the current ad-hoc on demand system
• CI (integrated with Gerrit), likely using Jenkins.
• Android 13 rough plans, release is still months out

We’re hoping to make this either a monthly or fortnightly thing. Let us know any suggestions about things you’d like to see specifically, or anything really! You can reach us at Community

We’ve entirely reworked our Chromium fork to be based on Bromite

The stable version for Android, 102.0.5005.98 is now available in our F-Droid repo.

The previous version, 102.0.5005.78 is shipping in the June update, CalyxOS 3.6.0

Background

We’ve been shipping Chromium since day one, since on Android apart from being a full browser, it also provides the WebView (used by more apps than you’d think - changelog in our Updater, DuckDuckGo Browser, many Reddit apps, etc.)

Additionally, we also ship Tor Browser for protection against tracking, surveillance, and censorship.

Bromite has some very useful features, and scores well on privacy tests thanks to their extensive patches. Thus it was decided that we will start to ship a fork of Bromite as our version of Chromium.

We also used to ship DuckDuckGo Browser as the default, but we’ve dropped that in the June update.

• Having multiple browsers is confusing for users.
• With a Bromite fork now, we have built in adblocking.

What you need to do

Nothing!

If you’re already running CalyxOS, then you’ll get this directly with the June update, CalyxOS 3.6.0.

If you’re already using Bromite on CalyxOS - this does not affect that at all, it replaces the Chromium version we shipped.

We don’t plan on making these builds available for normal installation on other ROMs, you can simply install Bromite directly on those.

Features

• Built in AdBlocking, enabled by default.
  • Disable globally from Chromium -> Menu (top right) -> Settings -> AdBlock settings
  • Disable per-site from Chromium -> padblock (top left) -> Permissions -> Ads
  • automatically updated adblock filters
  • customizable adblock filters via user-provided URL (see www.bromite.org/custom-filters)
• Native Android autofill support
• Most if not all of Bromite’s privacy-related features are included.
• Some other features are also included, but not all of them, for now.

Differences

• We try to build everything we ship in the OS ourselves, and it also gets signed with our private keys.
• We’re starting with a smaller set of patches to keep the port manageable on our end.
• Additionally, we build a different variant than upstream to share some code between WebView and the browser given that we’re shipping both at the same time in the OS.
• The idea was that we can always add more later depending on how things go.

Known issues

• Chromium (and other Chromium based browsers) crash on video playback if microG is disabled. Looking into it.
• Enabling native autofill for incognito mode causes a crash, looking into it.

Future

Chromium version updates

Going forward, we will ensure that updates are timely.

As a first step towards this, we started on trying to port to 103 already, and opened a discussion with Bromite on how to proceed for this version and also going forward.

We will try and get the port done around the time the last/fourth beta is released, which is usually a week or so before the same release gets bumped up to stable.

Example: 102.0.5005.58: Beta -> May 19 2022, Stable -> May 24 2022

Delivering those updates to your phone

We’ve had patches in F-Droid to be able to update Chromium outside OS updates, and while for the most part it works, there have always been reports of some people not being able to update. We’ve tried a few fixes so far but nothing has been 100% reliable.

To end that once and for all, we’re testing a patch directly to the OS to allow updating this seamlessly. Hopefully that addresses it going forward.

Links:

• Bromite Website
• Bromite on GitHub
• Our fork on GitLab
• Prebuilt APKs

CalyxOS currently supports 12 Pixels (3 and newer), and we’ve got test builds available for 1 Fairphone and 3 OnePlus devices. That’s a total of 16 devices.

We’re also planning to add support for even more devices in the future, always trying to find more devices to which we can port CalyxOS.

We intend to provide high quality OS releases, where every single build is tested before release. This is not easy to scale, and takes a lot of time and effort. As such, sometimes we have to drop certain devices, especially when they’ve stopped receiving security updates given that we can only do so much.

Previously we’ve supported the Pixel 2, 2 XL and Mi A2. The last update for those was in February 2022.

General

We aim to support devices for as long as feasible, and provide monthly security updates

We will continue providing updates:

1. While we’re on the same Android version.
2. At least until the matching Linux Kernel LTS version is supported.
3. If we manage to port a newer Android version in time, we will continue supporting that device while we’re still maintaing that version for other devices.

Examples

1. Pixel 3 is still getting updates from us (including 12L), Google’s last update was February 2022.
2. Pixel 2 got dropped in February 2022, that’s when Linux 4.4 stopped getting updates.
3. Mi A2, CalyxOS was on Android 11, Xiaomi only provided Android 10 for it.

Device specific

Pixel 2, 2 XL

• Google’s last update was in Dec 2020, Android 11.
• We provided Android 11 builds till February 2022.
• Linux version 4.4 got its last update in February 2022.
• We’re aware of other ROMs making Android 12 available for this device, however the above factors still stand and thus we had to drop this device.

Mi A2

• Xiaomi’s last update was in August 2021, Android 10.
• We provided Android 11 builds till February 2022.
• Linux version 4.4 got its last update in January 2022.
• There were some promising ports of Linux 4.19 to the A2 early 2022, which is why we thought we could provide Android 12. However, upon closer inspection, it was found out that to get this fully working we’d have to use some leaked proprietary files - which we didn’t want.
• We’re aware of other ROMs making Android 12 available for this device, however the above factors still stand and thus we had to drop this device.

Pixel 3, 3 XL

• Google’s last update was in Feb 2022, Android 12
• We’re continuing to provide Android 12L builds till February 2023.
• Linux version 4.9 LTS is expected to end January 2023
• We will provide Android 12 builds till then at least. If we manage to port Android 13 before that, then we will provide builds for longer.

Pixel 3a, 3a XL

• Google’s last update is expected in May (or June/July) 2022, Android 12L
• We’ll continue providing Android 12L builds till February 2023.
• Linux version 4.9 LTS is expected to end January 2023.
• We will provide Android 12 builds till then at least. If we manage to port Android 13 before that, then we will provide builds for longer.

Pixel 4, 4XL, 4a

• Google will provide Android 13 for these devices.
• We’ll continue providing Android 13 builds till February 2024 at least.
• Linux version 4.14 LTS is expected to end January 2024.
• We will provide Android 13 builds till then at least. If we manage to port Android 14 before that, then we will provide builds for longer.

Pixel 5, 4a (5G), 5a

• Google will provide Android 14 for these devices.
• We’ll continue providing Android 14 builds till January 2025 at least.
• Linux version 4.19 LTS is expected to end December 2024.
• We will provide Android 14 builds till then at least. If we manage to port Android 15 before that, then we will provide builds for longer.

Pixel 6, 6 Pro

• Google will provide Android 15 for these devices.
• They have also promised to provide security updates for 2 more years after that, so we’ll evaluate things when we’re closer to that date.

Fairphone 4

• FairphoneOS is still on Android 11, CalyxOS is on Android 12
• They have promised software support until the end of 2025, including Android 12 and 13
• We will have to see what it takes to port Android 13 to this device (hopefully FairphoneOS Android 12 is out by then to make the port easier), and will re-evaluate later in 2022.

OnePlus

• OnePlus 8T, 9 and 9 Pro had to be dropped - please see OnePlus Android 12 relock issue for more details.

References:

• Google Pixel support dates
• Fairphone
• OnePlus Software maintenance schedule
• Linux kernel releases

CalyxOS 3.6.0 - Android 12L is now available for all supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 3 - Pixel 6

Newer Fairphone and OnePlus builds will be available later, with the security update and additional fixes based on feedback from testing.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3.6.0 - Android 12L
• June 2022 Security update & Feature drop (2022-06-05)
• Chromium: Switch to a Bromite fork with many features!
• Chromium: Adblocking built-in, ads are blocked by default. Control per-site by tapping the padlock, and then permissions.
• Chromium: 102.0.5005.78
• Camera: Add QR code Scanner, usable by launcher shortcut (long press icon)
• Also accessible by a Quick Settings Tile
• Exempt Bluetooth from location indicators
• Entirely redesigned SetupWizard, following Material You
• Switch to gesture navigation by default for new installs.
• Drop DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser. It’ll still be kept installed if you had it already.
• F-Droid: 1.15.2, switch to using APK signed by F-Droid (instead of us.)
• Update all included apps.

Pixel 4, 4a, 5, 4a 5g, 5a, 6, 6 Pro

• Support automatic high brightness mode

Known issues

• Chromium (and other Chromium based browsers) crash on video playback if microG is disabled. Looking into it.
• Chromium: Enabling native autofill for incognito mode causes a crash, looking into it.

CalyxOS 3.5.1 - Android 12L is now available for all supported devices, i.e. Pixel 3 - Pixel 6, and Fairphone 4, OnePlus 8T, 9 and 9 Pro

Going forward, we’ll be testing the releases even more and make sure things like this get caught early, especially before builds hit stable.

Changelog

• Fix “Phone Services” location indicator spam.
• This was merely a UI bug. A code change by Google this month made it so that the Phone app accessing cellular information like it always has got reported as location access.

Pixels 3a - 6

• microG SafetyNet Basic attestation is now working. Device Registration needs to be enabled.

Known issues

Common

• If you had hidden Gallery before this update, you cannot unhide. Workaround, run adb shell pm install-existing com.android.gallery3d from a computer.
• New icons don’t show up for all apps. Workaround: Change Icon Shape from Settings -> Display, and change it back.

Fairphone, OnePlus

• Default ringtone / notification / alarm reset. One time thing, we changed sounds for new devices

Fairphone 4

• For most users BT audio will now work, however if BT audio still isn’t working for you, then:
  1. Enable Developer Options
  2. Turn on “Disable Bluetooth A2DP hardware offload”
  3. Keep Developer Options enabled

CalyxOS 3.5.0 - Android 12L is now available for all supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 3 - Pixel 6

It is currently in the beta channel, and will be bumped to the stable channel later after additional testing and feedback. Factory images will be available at that time as well.

Newer Fairphone and OnePlus builds will be available soon, with the security update and additional fixes based on feedback from testing.

Changelog

• Minimize screen unlock delay
• Cross profile file sharing - copy files to work profile from the default Files app
• Seedvault: Allow storing work profile and secondary user backups on USB drives. Allows restore too!
• Switch Gallery app to LineageOS based on CAF - same as Android 11
• Dialer: Allow call recording in countries where legal without consent from both parties
• New icons for all system apps, from LineageOS
• Chromium: 100.0.4896.127 (version 101 work in progress)
• New sounds for UI effects (unlock, charging, etc.)
• New material sound options for Ringtone, Notification and Alarm
• Add 3 new languages: Asturian (Spain), Scottish Gaelic (UK), Welsh (UK), from LineageOS
• Firewall status bar indicator: Don’t show for launcher
• Status bar icons: Fix vibrate / mute / alarm
• USB detection fixes
• Use a thinner font for the lockscreen clock
• Fix addition of Emergency contacts
• AudioFX icon is now hidden by default, access from Music -> Any Song -> Menu -> Equalizer
• Clock: Material You redesign
• Keyboard: Material You redesign
• Launcher: Fix occasional crash
• Recorder: Bugfixes and improvements
• Enable hotspot VPN usage by default, to prevent leaks
• Show permission usage timeline for more permissions under Settings -> Privacy
• MozillaNlpBackend: Update to 1.5.0
• Remove some default included apps. They’ll still be kept installed if you had them already.
• Drop OpenKeychain - no longer actively developed
• Drop LocationPrivacy - hasn’t been updated in a while, not working properly on Android 12
• Drop YubicoAuthenticator - hasn’t been updated in a while
• Update all included apps.
• Update translations for all apps, and the OS.

Known issues

• “Phone Services” shows as using location. Working on it.
• If you had hidden Gallery before this update, you cannot unhide. Workaround, run adb shell pm install-existing com.android.gallery3d from a computer.

CalyxOS 3.5.0 - Android 12L is now available for Fairphone 4

These are still test builds and intended for testers. Please report any issues to the testers channel.

We’ve tried to test everthing we possibly can, for the most part things should be fine.

OnePlus 8T, 9 and 9 Pro builds have been pulled - please see OnePlus Android 12 relock issue for more details.

Testers channel

Path towards stable

Fairphone 4

• Updating device-flasher to support it.
• Website changes.

OnePlus 8T, 9, 9 Pro

• Please see OnePlus Android 12 relock issue for more details.

Changelog

Fairphone 4

• Change to new material sounds, please check your ringtone/notification/alarm from Settings -> Sounds
• Fix bluetooth audio
• Update to latest stock firmware

Common for all

• Minimize screen unlock delay
• Cross profile file sharing - copy files to work profile from the default Files app
• Seedvault: Allow storing work profile and secondary user backups on USB drives. Allows restore too!
• Switch Gallery app to LineageOS based on CAF - same as Android 11
• Dialer: Allow call recording in countries where legal without consent from both parties
• New icons for all system apps, from LineageOS
• Chromium: 100.0.4896.127 (version 101 work in progress)
• New sounds for UI effects (unlock, charging, etc.)
• New material sound options for Ringtone, Notification and Alarm
• Add 3 new languages: Asturian (Spain), Scottish Gaelic (UK), Welsh (UK), from LineageOS
• Firewall status bar indicator: Don’t show for launcher
• Status bar icons: Fix vibrate / mute / alarm
• USB detection fixes
• Use a thinner font for the lockscreen clock
• Fix addition of Emergency contacts
• AudioFX icon is now hidden by default, access from Music -> Any Song -> Menu -> Equalizer
• Clock: Material You redesign
• Keyboard: Material You redesign
• Launcher: Fix occasional crash
• Recorder: Bugfixes and improvements
• Enable hotspot VPN usage by default, to prevent leaks
• Show permission usage timeline for more permissions under Settings -> Privacy
• MozillaNlpBackend: Update to 1.5.0
• Remove some default included apps. They’ll still be kept installed if you had them already.
• Drop OpenKeychain - no longer actively developed
• Drop LocationPrivacy - hasn’t been updated in a while, not working properly on Android 12
• Drop YubicoAuthenticator - hasn’t been updated in a while
• Update all included apps.
• Update translations for all apps, and the OS.

Known issues

• “Phone Services” shows as using location. Working on it.
• If you had hidden Gallery before this update, you cannot unhide. Looking into it.
• Default ringtone / notification / alarm reset. One time thing, we changed sounds for new devices
• For most users BT audio will now work, however if BT audio still isn’t working for you, then:
  1. Enable Developer Options
  2. Turn on “Disable Bluetooth A2DP hardware offload”
  3. Keep Developer Options enabled

Downloads

• If you were already running the previous build, you will receive this as an OTA update
• For new installations, follow below steps:

Preparing your device

Fairphone 4 “FP4”

• Get code to enable unlocking from Fairphone, and follow their instructions
• Unlock the bootloader using
  1. fastboot flashing unlock_critical
  2. fastboot flashing unlock
• Follow installation steps below

CalyxOS Installation

• For now installation has to be performed manually, by downloading, unzipping, and then running either flash-all.bat on Windows, or flash-all.sh on Linux or MacOS. The latest version of fastboot needs to be installed
• Re-lock the bootloader using fastboot flashing lock
• DO NOT lock critical DO NOT

CalyxOS 3.4.0 - Android 12L is now available for all supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 3 - Pixel 6

Newer Fairphone and OnePlus builds will be available later, with the security update and additional fixes based on feedback from testing.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3.4.0 - Android 12L
• April 2022 Security update (2022-04-05)
• Chromium: 99.0.4844.88 (version 100 work in progress)
• Calendar: Update to latest upstream version (Etar)
• Add a firewall indicator to the status bar. Shows an icon when the current app is blocked by Datura firewall.
• Firewall indicator can be turned off from Settings -> System -> Status bar -> System icons
• Fix icon shape and fonts being reset on reboot or wallpaper change.
• Hide app feature: Fix for work profile by not requiring developer options to be enabled anymore to use this feature.

Known issues

• The firewall indicator icon is sometimes shown on the home screen - that’s because the default Launcher does not have internet access

CalyxOS 3.3.2 - Android 12L is now available for testing for the Fairphone 4, OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 9

These are test builds and intended for testers. Please report any issues to the testers channel.

We’ve tried to test everthing we possibly can, for the most part things should be fine.

Bootloader can be re-locked on all 3 devices, and OTA updates work. This should mean any other issues if found can be fixed via an OTA :)

See May 2022 Security update - Fairphone 4, OnePlus 8T, 9, 9 Pro for latest builds

CalyxOS 3.3.1 - Android 12L is now avilable for Pixel 6

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3.3.1 - Android 12L
• March 2022 Security update (2022-03-05)
• Fix “NFC/eSE/eSIM firmware updater” crash
• Updates from Google’s March update for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro

Pixel 6 Pro:

• Fix touchscreen issues

Known issues

• Custom icon shape and fonts get reset on wallpaper change / reboot - will be fixed in next build.
• Home screen layout gets reset on upgrade when using a custom grid size.

Mi A2

• We’re still going to be looking into trying to provide Android 12 builds for the A2.

Fairphone 4, OnePlus 8T, 9

• We’ve been working on this, it got sidetracked due to 12L, however with that out of the way we’re back on it.

CalyxOS 3.3.0 - Android 12L is now available for all supported Pixels, i.e. Pixel 3 - Pixel 6

Along with all the improvements Google did for 12L (open sourcing the Monet theme engine, finally), this update also contains some features we’ve been working on in the past few months, as well as bug fixes for report issues.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3.3.0 - Android 12L
• March 2022 Security update (2022-03-05)
• Dynamic colour: Change your wallpaper and your entire Android experience changes to match.
• Using advanced colour extraction algorithms you can easily personalise the look and feel of your entire phone, including notifications, settings, widgets and even select apps.
• Fix USB issues - including detection of USB accessories such as flash drives, as well as detection by computers for file transfer.
• Chromium: 99.0.4844.58
• Improve Google camera performance on certain devices.
• microG: Push notification fixes, especially for apps such as Signal and Telegram.
• Add long press power for torch. Settings -> System -> Buttons -> Long press for torch
• Add double tap status bar (or lockscreen) to sleep gesture. Settings -> Display -> Tap to sleep
• Add quick settings pull down with one finger. Settings -> System -> Status bar -> Quick pulldown
• Allow enabling cross profile sharing. Settings -> Passwords & accounts -> Work -> Work profile settings -> Cross-profile sharing
• Firewall: Restore Android 11 VPN toggle behavior, aka you can keep Wi-Fi and mobile data toggles off for an app and only leave VPN on - and it will still work, and only use the VPN.
• Hotspot “Allow clients to use VPN”: Always use the VPN running the main user, and not the work profile VPN.
• Add AudioFX app from LineageOS - Equalizer
• Avoid showing location indicator for microG and UnifiedNLP.
• Disable cross profile contact search and calendar by default.
• Firewall: Background network access fixes.
• Hide app feature - Temporarily hide an app, preserving all app data. Needs developer options enabled.
• Hide app by long pressing app and then tapping App info, or Settings -> Apps -> App name -> “Hide / Unhide”.
• Re-add Global cleartext restriction developer option.
• Developer options: Turn off location indicator entirely, “Status bar location indicator”
• Users: SetupWizard improvements - microG setup, Seedvault restore.
• Update all included apps.
• Update translations for all apps, and the OS.

Known issues

All devices

• Custom icon shape and fonts get reset on wallpaper change / reboot - will be fixed in next build.
• Home screen layout gets reset on upgrade when using a custom grid size - looking into it.

Pixel 6, 6 Pro

• SIM Manager crashing - looking into it.

Mi A2

• We’re still going to be looking into trying to provide Android 12 builds for the A2.

Fairphone 4, OnePlus 8T, 9

• We’ve been working on this, it got sidetracked due to 12L, however with that out of the way we’re back on it.

CalyxOS 3.2.2 - Pixel 6, and 6 Pro is now available directly in the stable channel. Beta also has the same build if you want to stay on that.

The Dirty Pipe Vulnerability

A vulnerability was found and patched in the Linux kernel.

This build includes the fix for the Dirty Pipe vulnerability.

There are no other changes, compared to 3.2.1

More details: https://dirtypipe.cm4all.com/

Affected devices

This vulnerability only affects Linux kernel version 5.8 and higher.

Pixel 6 and 6 Pro use Linux kernel 5.10, hence they were affected and updated.

All other older Pixels use an older Linux kernel version, hence they are not affected by this vulnerability

Timeline

All times in IST (Indian Standard Time, GMT +5:30), 7 March 2022.

Process

We push the code to Gerrit Code Review. In this case, not many changes, https://review.calyxos.org/q/topic:dirtypipe

The release process is tracked on GitLab - we use checklists to make sure no step is missed.

Also, no matter what, every single build is tested once before release to ensure a stable experience.

12L

We’re aware that Android 12L was just released, and are working on it. It may take some time given that it’s a larger than usual release. We’ll continue posting updates here.

We’ve seen the many reports of push notification delays, and experienced them ourselves as well.

We believe we’ve managed to fix the issue, and a test APK is now available.

You can get it from our test F-Droid repo, https://gitlab.com/CalyxOS/calyx-fdroid-repo

To add it, simply add this URL to F-Droid -> Settings -> Repositories -> Plus sign at the top right: https://calyxos.gitlab.io/calyx-fdroid-repo/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=C44D58B4547DE5096138CB0B34A1CC99DAB3B4274412ED753FCCBFC11DC1B7B6

Alternatively, you can scan the below QR code:

The changes included have all been sent to microG upstream for integration in the codebase so that everyone can benefit.

• https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/pull/1681

We will continue observing push notification behaviour, and update things as needed.

Technical

With all the push notification fixes we’ve done previously, push notifications were indeed working fine - microG was getting the messages on time from Google.

However the way Signal sets up push notifications with Google Cloud Messaging / microG is quite smart - it does not send any data at all through Google, just the fact that there is a notification.

Literally, AppData{key=notification, value=} is what it gets.

On receiving that, Signal contacts their own servers to get the encrypted notification content directly, and then decrypts it on device.

However, Android is very restrictive of what apps can do in the background to improve battery life, and as such that last part wasn’t working. microG does have the code to temporarily allow the app to do what’s needed when it gets a notification, however it wasn’t working on Android 12. The patch fixes that by using a new, different API to perform that on 12, thus preventing notification delays.

Background

One of the most common questions we get is: “Will CalyxOS run on my device?”

When choosing to support a device, we consider the following factors:

• How difficult is it for the latest major release of Android Open Source Project (AOSP) to run on the device?
• How difficult is it to unlock and re-lock the device?
• How long can we support the device?
• How affordable and globally available is the device?

We currently support Google Pixels 3 and above.

Pixel phones are the reference model that AOSP is designed around and Google provides all of the code needed to get AOSP running on the Pixels. This means that although we do make some changes, such as the handling of proprietary files, most of the work is already done by Google.

We also want to support devices for as long as possible. This reduces e-waste and makes CalyxOS more accessible to users who can’t afford to replace their phone every few years. Therefore, we try to pick recently released devices because it takes a long time to get them fully working, and because supporting devices with a full feature set and security updates beome harder, and sometimes impossible, the older they get.

We would like to support more affordable and widely available devices than just the Pixels, which are expensive and only sold in a select few countries.

We supported the Xiaomi Mi A2 because it was an Android One device, which meant that it received timely security updates from it’s release in July 2018 until manufacturer support ended in August 2021.

Planned devices, short term

In the coming months, we intend to support the following devices:

Fairphone 4

• Fairphone graciously sent us a FP4 device to help with development. Thanks for that!
• We have worked in cooperation with other Free and Open Source Android based projects to get this working
• /e/ OS already had Android 11 running on this device, which helped serve as a known good working base to get LineageOS 18.1 running, in collaboration with some other developers already working on porting LineageOS.
• Based on that, we were also able to get LineageOS 19 booting.
• All of the above means that a lot of the work needed to get an open source non-manufacturer ROM running on the device has already been done, and we’re able to utilize that as a base and work on top of that.
• We were able to install our build of CalyxOS 3 - Android 12 and re-lock the bootloader. It’s quite functional too, with only a few minor bugs remaining to be fixed, which we are working on.

OnePlus 8T, 9

• These devices are officially supported by LineageOS, thus basically all of the hard work is already done.
• We experimented with this in late 2021 just before Android 12 was released, however we ran out of time to release a build. We were able to get CalyxOS running, and re-lock the bootloader.
• Now that we’re done with the update to Android 12, we can revisit our OnePlus port.
• We’ll also look into supporting the 9R, 9 Pro, and perhaps 9RT if there’s demand for those.

Other devices

• These are the devices we’re initially focusing on, however they won’t be the only ones we add support for this year!
• We’ll support the new Pixels as they come out of course.
• We also want to support other devices, especially ones that are cheaper and globally available - however we will need to make some other changes for those based on our findings, stay tuned for more updates!

Unlikely to be supported

• We’re often asked about supporting the following OEMs / devices. Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to to be able to for the reasons listed below.

Fairphone 3

• It’s still on Android 10 officially, with old hardware not supported by Qualcomm any longer, and thus too old for us to support since we only support the latest Android release.

Samsung

• Samsung has been really good with updates lately, sometimes release them even before Google does!
• However, as far as we know they do not support re-locking the bootloader.
• In fact, some of their models don’t even let you unlock the bootloader in the first place.
• Additionally, due to all of these factors, there’s not much custom ROM development for these devices in general.
• All of this means we’re unlikely to support any Samsung devices.

Nokia

• Nokia devices mostly run Android One and receive timely monthly security updates.
• Sadly they don’t allow unlocking the bootloader at all on most of their phones which means you can’t install any custom ROMs on them.

Others

• It’s hard to make a blanket statement for all other devices, we will look at more devices in the next few months and post about them here.

Builds

• We plan to release test builds for these new devices as we can.
• You can join our testers channel if you’d like to help test those!

CalyxOS 3.2.1 - February 2022 Security update, take two, Pixel 6 and 6 Pro

Google released an update outside their normal schedule for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, containing security fixes from previous months. Due to how CalyxOS code is maintained, most of those security patches were already included in the previous build (3.2.0). This build only contains some minor changes to proprietary files, and translation updates for CalyxOS components.

It is a really tiny update, the incremental zip is only 6.1MB. Click here to see the code changes

CalyxOS 2.14.0 - Android 11, February 2022 Security update is now available for the Pixel 2, 2 XL and Mi A2.

Sadly, we will no longer be able to provide OS updates for the Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL. The Xiaomi Mi A2 should get Android 12 at a later date, if everything goes well.

Details

Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL

This is the final CalyxOS update for these devices. Google stopped updating the Pixel 2 series as of December 2020.

Up till now, we extended these phones useful lifetimes by patching the open source components: AOSP and the Linux kernel. Linux kernel 4.4 was a long-term support kernel, but has stopped receiving updates this month. ( see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_version_history )

Unfortunately due to the kernel dependency, it is also not feasible to have Android 12 fully working on these devices. There are various community efforts, but there’s no fully working port as far we know.

As such, we have decided to stop updating these devices. Applications such as Chromium and microG will still continue recieving updates.

Xiaomi Mi A2

This will be the final CalyxOS Android 11 build for this device. We’re currently working on getting CalyxOS Android 12 working, so far it looks quite promising. We’ll keep posting updates on our website.

Please note that Xiaomi has stopped providing updates for this devices. We’ve been keeping the open source components updated, and that’s included in this build.

Additionally, the proprietary firmware componets are from September 2020, since trying to upgrade to anything newer ends up factory resetting the device.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 2.14.0 - Android 11
• February 2022 Security update (2022-02-05)
• Linux: 4.4.302, final update for Linux 4.4, long term support has ended
• Chromium: 98.0.4758.87
• microG: v0.2.24.214816
• F-Droid: 1.14
• Update all included apps

CalyxOS 3.2.0 - February 2022 Security update

We’ve updated included apps, fixed UI bugs, brought back some beloved features from 11, and also added some highly requested features.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 3.2.0 - February 2022
• February 2022 Security update (2022-02-05)
• Chromium: 98.0.4758.87
• microG: v0.2.24.214816
• F-Droid: 1.14
• Multiple fixes all around for UI consistency
• Apply a green color palette to the OS, based on the default wallpaper
• Bring back font and icon shape customization. Settings -> Display
• Launcher: Visual improvements and bufixes
• Fix battery usage stats being reset
• Show vibration icon in status bar
• Add back saturated color mode
• Allow 3rd party apps to use fingerprint gestures
• Enable USB and skin temperature warnings
• Add High touch sensitivity / glove mode. Settings -> Display
• Add Reading mode (grayscale) quicksettings tile
• Navigation bar: Allow inverting layout. Settings -> System -> Buttons
• Navigation bar: Allow hiding gesture navigation hint. Settings -> System -> Gestures -> System navigation -> Gesture navigation settings
• Import translations for all CalyxOS components
• Update all included apps

Pixels 3 - 5

• Add Reading mode, color calibration and picture adjustment. Settings -> Display -> LiveDisplay

Pixel 5

• Reverse wireless charging support, powershare quicksettings tile

Pixel 6, 6 Pro

• Add Reading mode and color calibration. Settings -> Display -> LiveDisplay
• Enable multiple vibration strength levels
• Reverse wireless charging support, powershare quicksettings tile

Known issues

• Links not opening in apps - work in progress
• Location indicators are spammy, showing up for microG - will be fixed in next build
• VPN toggle in firewall not working the same as 11 - will be fixed in next build

Pixel 2, Mi A2

• We’re working on releasing the Android 11 February Security update for these soon
• We’ll also post more about Android 12 status when that’s released.

CalyxOS 3, Android 12 is now available for Pixel 3 and above. Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are supported.

We would like to thank everyone for being patient with us about the release.

A big thank you to all the testers who helped us identify issues.

The builds are now available in the stable channel. It will be just like any other OTA upgrade.

You can freely switch to the stable channel from beta or testing, and going forward you will get stable updates only.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 3 - Android 12

Highlights

• A smoother, more responsive UI!
• When an app accesses the microphone, camera, or your location, an icon appears in the status bar.
• You can disable camera and microphone access for all apps on the device, by pressing a single toggle option.
• Choose between giving apps access to your precise location or an approximate location instead.
• Clipboard access notifications.
• Privacy dashboard gives you a clear and comprehensive view of when apps access your location, camera or mic over the past 24 hours.
• Scrolling screenshots allow you to capture all the content on the page in one image.

CalyxOS features

• The firewall was entirely reworked, to make it work reliably and prevent leaks.
• SIP calling was removed by Google but has been re-added by us, work in progress, outgoing calls may have issues.
• Seedvault Backup:
  • Major improvements to the backup format, making it a lot faster to backup and restore.
  • Nextcloud backups should be much more reliable now.
  • Support DAVx5’s WebDAV backend as a backup location.

Missing features

• Material You - Dynamic theming - will be available in a future update.
• AMOLED Black theme - will be re-added in a future update.
• Accent color, icon shape and font changes - no longer available in AOSP.

CalyxOS 2.13.0 - Android 11, January 2022 Security update is now available for the Pixel 2, 2 XL and Mi A2. It also includes the December 2021 Security update patches.

Android 12 status

Pixel 2, 2 XL

• We’re aware of various builds of other ROMs available for the Pixel 2.
• However, as far as we know, they aren’t fully working due to missing BPF updates in the Linux kernel, needed for the networking features to work (traffic counting, firewall, etc)
• There is some work being done by other ROMs to port a newer kernel (4.14/4.19) to other devices with the same chipset, which should help.
• We will be looking into this in the coming days and week, and should have more info to post later this month.

Mi A2

• We are aware of some 12.0 builds available for the A2 with Linux kernel 4.19 - that looks very promising!
• We will be looking into it more in the coming days and week, and should have more info to post later this month.

Changelog

• CalyxOS 2.13.0 - Android 11
• January 2022 Security update (2022-01-05)
• Also includes December 2021 Security update
• Fix spellcheck when multiple languages are enabled
• Linux: 4.4.296
• Chromium: 95.0.4638.50
• Update all included apps
• Updated translations for all apps, and the OS.

CalyxOS 3.1.0 - Android 12, January 2022 Security update is now available for Pixel 3 and above.

CalyxOS 3.1.1 is now available for Pixel 6 and 6 Pro.

Thank you to everyone who tested and reported bugs, we’ve been able to fix most of them.

They’re in testing now, stable release will follow later this week if there are no major issues reported.

Testers channel

We created a new testers channel for those who’re interested in helping us test out the builds early.

Pixel 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL, 4, 4 XL, 4a, 5, 4a (5g), 5a (5g)

• The builds are now available for testing.
• After receiving feedback from the tests, we will bump them to beta, and then finally, stable.
• Once they’re in beta they can be installed from the phone directly.

Steps

• Backup data on your phone using Seedvault Backup, as a precautionary measure.
• All of your data will be kept intact, but better be safe than sorry.
• From a computer with adb setup, run: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel twelve
• Then, on the phone, go to Settings -> System -> System update settings and tap on “Check for updates”
• The update should begin downloading and installing.
• Kindly report any issues on the new Testers channel mentioned above.

Pixel 6, 6 Pro

• Mostly bug fixes, issues mentioned below
• Enable Smooth Display setting

Steps

• From a computer with adb setup, run: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel twelve
• Then, on the phone, go to Settings -> System -> System update settings and tap on “Check for updates”
• The update should begin downloading and installing.
• Kindly report any issues on the new Testers channel mentioned above.

Changelog

• Mostly bug fixes, issues mentioned below
• F-Droid: Fix installation for some apps (e.g. Signal)
• Don’t allow network access unintentionally when updating apps. Please verify from the Firewall app.
• Grey out networking toggles for apps without the Internet permission, as they can’t use it anyway.
• Seedvault: Support DAVx5’s WebDAV backend as a backup location
• Fix spellcheck when multiple languages are enabled
• Launcher: Fix colors of Personal/Work profile tab

Issues

• We have tried to fix most of the bugs reported in testing of 3.0.0
• We will continue fixing the rest

CalyxOS 3.0.0 - Android 12 is finally here, for Pixel 3 and above.

Pixel 6 and 6 Pro builds are available as well.

Thank you for your patience!

They’re in testing now, stable release will follow next week if there are no major issues reported.

Testers channel

We created a new testers channel for those who’re interested in helping us test out the builds early.

Pixel 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL, 4, 4 XL, 4a, 5, 4a (5g), 5a (5g)

• The builds are now available for testing.
• After receiving feedback from the tests, we will bump them to beta, and then finally, stable.
• Once they’re in beta they can be installed from the phone directly.

Steps

• Backup data on your phone using Seedvault Backup, as a precautionary measure.
• All of your data will be kept intact, but better be safe than sorry.
• From a computer with adb setup, run: adb shell setprop sys.update.channel twelve
• Then, on the phone, go to Settings -> System -> System update settings and tap on “Check for updates”
• The update should begin downloading and installing.
• Kindly report any issues on the new Testers channel mentioned above.

Pixel 6, 6 Pro

• Builds are now stable and available from the homepage

More info

These builds are currently on the December security patch, however we’re already working on the January patch and will have it out shortly, likely by the time the builds are ready for stable.

We’re still looking into trying to port 12 to the Pixel 2 and Mi A2. We will be releasing the January Android 11 security update for them soon either way.

We will also be starting to look at potentially support other devices this month - we’ve always wanted to support more and more devices, stay tuned for updates!

Changelog

• Coming soon

Known issues

• See 3.1.0 update for the latest

The Android 11 November Security update is finally here.

For users who can’t select the beta channel, that bug has been fixed in this update, and you’ll be able to select it again going forward.

Android 12:

• We’re working on the port. You can follow the progress on GitLab and Gerrit. We will continue posting more updates as the port progresses.
• Pixel 3 and newer will get the update first.
• For the Pixel 2 and Mi A2, we’re still looking into the feasiblity of porting Android 12.

Pixel 6, 6 Pro:

• We will be supporting it, but currently we’re working on the Android 12 port in general before we begin work specifically on the Pixel 6.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.11.0 - November 2021
• November Security update (2021-11-01)
• Updater: Fix beta channel
• microG: More push notification improvements, after extensive testing
• Chromium: 94.0.4606.85
• F-Droid: Remove opt-in push requests feature entirely
• Update all included apps

The October update included some push notification fixes, however it turned out that they didn’t work as well as expected for everyone.

We’ve done some more fixes, and a test APK is now available.

You need to be running the October build, CalyxOS 2.10.0 to be able to install this.

You can get it from our test F-Droid repo, https://gitlab.com/CalyxOS/calyx-fdroid-repo

To add it, simply add this URL to F-Droid -> Settings -> Repositories -> Plus sign at the top right: https://calyxos.gitlab.io/calyx-fdroid-repo/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=C44D58B4547DE5096138CB0B34A1CC99DAB3B4274412ED753FCCBFC11DC1B7B6

Alternatively, you can scan the below QR code:

The changes included have all been sent to microG upstream for integration in the codebase so that everyone can benefit.

• https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/pull/1483
• https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/pull/1582

This F-Droid repo also includes the GCam Photos Preview app to preview photos directly from Google Camera (without having to install Google Photos)

Note:

We’re in the middle of revamping our F-Droid repository setup, and this will change. In the future, we will be able to push out updates directly to the device without you having to add any custom repos

The October Security update is here. It also contains some bugfixes and minor features that we had been working on.

We’re also working on Android 12, for more details see Android 12 update plans

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.10.0 - October 2021
• October Security update (2021-10-01)
• microG: Major push notification improvements. Should work much more reliably now
• microG: Don’t log google account details
• Seedvault: 11-2.3
• Seedvault: Add expert settings with an option for unlimited quota
• Seedvault: Don’t backup on metered networks
• Seedvault: Disable spell-checker on recovery code input
• Seedvault: Ask for system authentication before storing a new recovery code
• Seedvault: Prevent screenshots of recovery code
• Seedvault: Allow launching restore through a dialer code ##RESTORE## aka ##7378673##
• Fix navigation bar arrows setting
• Fix global cleartext restriction (developer options) not working for some apps
• Always allow editing all APNs
• Settings: Show separate firmware and kernel security patch levels - For older devices (Pixel 2, A2) we may not be able to update everything.
• Hide “Google Play services is unavailable” notification for certain apps when you choose to disable microG.
• Stop granting location to Browser app by default
• Launcher: Add explanatory dialog to pause apps
• Chromium: 94.0.4606.61

Pixels except 5a:

• Make some changes to allow installation of Google Camera directly from Aurora Store
• You may have to logout and login from Aurora Store for this to take effect
• Latest Google Camera should be available, version 8.2.400
• You can install GCam Photos Preview to preview photos directly from Google Camera (without having to install Google Photos)

Pixel 2:

• Linux 4.4.283

Mi A2:

• Enable fingerprint swipe gesture
• Linux 4.4.283

Google has released Android 12 to AOSP. They are yet to release the Android 12 update for the Pixels though, stating that it’ll be available in the next few weeks.

We have started work on porting CalyxOS to Android 12. We can port the general OS changes we make (microG, work profiles, firewall to name a few) right now, and then wait for Google to release the update for the Pixels before we can start working on having builds ready.

• Pixel 3 and above: Will receive Android 12 update after Google releases it, and we port our changes.
• Pixel 2: Still looking into the feasibility of porting Android 12.
• Mi A2: Same, we’re still looking into it.
• Pixel 6: This will be supported, however it will take a while since it’s an entirely new device, and we’d also need to do the 12 port in general before we’re able to release Pixel 6 builds.
• Other devices: We’re looking into supporting more devices, however for now we’re prioritising the Google-supported Pixels for Android 12.

You can follow the progress on GitLab and Gerrit. We will continue posting more updates as the port progresses.

We’re also working on getting the October 2021 Security update (Android 11) out for all supported devices.

The Pixels have great cameras, and Google Camera works really well on them.

However, with recent versions, Google Photos has been required to view the pictures taken directly from the Camera.

We have created an app to avoid that, called GCam Photos Preview.

It’s a tiny app that you can install in lieu of Google Photos to be able to preview captured images directly from Google Camera

Steps:

1. Uninstall Google Photos (if you have it installed).
2. Download and install GCamPhotosPreview.apk.
3. Open Google Camera, try to view an image by tapping on the bottom right preview circle.
4. If you scroll past the first image, you may be asked to grant storage permissions. That’s required to view those images.

We’ll be working on adding more features to this, and making any fixes as needed. It’s open source, contributions welcome!

Also, while we’re talking about Google Camera, the upcoming CalyxOS update includes some changes that will let you install it directly from Aurora Store :)

The September Security update is here. It’s basically the last update (2.8.2/.3) with the September 2021 security patches applied on top.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.9.0 - Android 11
• September Security update (2021-09-05)
• Change build number to 202109290 (2021 September, CalyxOS 2.9.0) to work around an issue where latest Google Camera would crash when trying to use Night Sight
• Updates for all included apps

Pixel 5a:

• Fix fingerprint scanner / biometric usage in apps
• Add a file needed for Google Camera to work

CalyxOS 2.8.3 is now available for the Pixel 5a - codename barbet.

You can download it from:

and install it using our “device-flasher”, for instructions see Install

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.8.3 - Android 11
• August Security patch (2021-08-05)
• Vendor: June Security patch (2021-06-05)
• Initial build for Pixel 5a

The September 2021 Security update will be available later this week for the Pixel 5a as well as all other devices

The promised feature update is here. It will be last big update for Android 11, we will not be developing any more features and instead focusing on making an Android 11 build available for the Pixel 5a, and also preparing for Android 12.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.8.2 - Android 11
• August Security patch (2021-08-05)
• Datura firewall: Network access toggle (the main toggle next to the app name) now prevents apps being able to bypass network isolation through DNS requests
• Global VPN feature: Ability to use one VPN device-wide - in the main user, work profile as well as other users
• To enable, go to Settings -> Network & internet -> VPN -> Your VPN app -> Global VPN; in the main user
• Auto reboot feature: Configurable time interval after which the device will get automatically rebooted. Returns phone to BFU state. Settings -> Security -> Auto reboot
• Pause apps feature: Long press an app in the Launcher and tap “Pause app” (the hourglass icon) to pause an app. A paused app will not be able to start, its notifications will be hidden.
• Navigation bar arrows feature: Enable from Settings -> System -> Languages & input -> Show arrow keys while typing; to show left and right cursor keys when typing
• Increase maximum password length from 16 to 64
• Developer option: Airplane mode radios - Configure which radio to toggle when toggling Airplane Mode: Settings -> System -> Developer options -> Airplane mode radios
• Dialer: Add an option to enable Do-not-disturb during calls
• Dialer: Add options for in-call vibration
• Dialer: Fix bug where the WhatsApp call option would be shown even when it wasn’t installed
• Messaging: Allow selecting text inside a message
• Messaging: Hide quick reply options in notifications
• Enable permission auto-revoke for work profile apps
• Enable Setup Wizard for newly created work profiles, allowing enabling / disabling of microG depending on user preference
• Fix network traffic monitor preference showing incorrect values
• Disable bluetooth by default on new installs
• microG: v0.2.22.212658
• Chromium: 92.0.4515.15
• F-Droid: 1.13.1
• Etar: Merge upstream code changes
• Recorder: Upstream improvements
• Updates for all other included apps
• Updated translations for all apps, and the OS

Note: The Xiaomi Mi A2 proprietary firmware components are from September 2020, since trying to upgrade to anything newer ends up factory resetting the device.

Pixel 2:

• Update Linux kernel to 4.4.278
• Merge security patches
• Note: Google has stopped updating this device. This means that they will not provide any more updates to the closed-source components, such as the bootloader, modem firmware, and other firmware. However, updates to the open source OS code and the Linux kernel can still be merged by us, and are included in this build.

The August update is here. It’s mostly identical to the Special Pixel 4a release (2.7.1), with the only addition being the security updates.

We’re working on some features and another update will be released later this month.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.8.0 - Android 11
• August Security update (2021-08-05)
• Prevent hotspot devices from bypassing VPN when “Allow clients to use VPNs” is enabled
• Default to round icons, previous default was “Rounded Rectangle”
• Default to rounded corners
• Allow turning off microphone and camera status bar icons from Settings -> Status bar -> System icons
• Chromium: 91.0.4472.164
• Contacts: Don’t prompt to add Google Account when creating a contact for the first time
• microG: New icon for Settings -> System integration
• SeedVault: Restore: Always use F-Droid to install Nextcloud
• SetupWizard: Add button to setup eSIM on missing SIM page
• SetupWizard: Fix icons on app install page
• SetupWizard: Turn off OEM unlocking during initial setup if bootloader is locked
• Drop Conversations as a default included app.
• Updates for all other included apps.
• Updated translations for all apps, and the OS.

Pixel 2:

• Update Linux kernel to 4.4.276

Note: The A2 proprietary firmware components are from September 2020 since trying to upgrade to anything newer ends up factory reseting the device.

The official CalyxOS builds are signed with our private keys. Over-the-air (OTA) updates are also signed with the same keys, and once you install the OS, only updates signed with the same key can be installed.

The builds are made from signed git tags.

Starting July 2021, all CalyxOS factory images will be signed using minisign

Why minisign? It’s dead simple, easy to use, works well with large files, and can be easily integrated with device-flasher (which will be done in a future update)

Signatures:

You can now see a new Signature column next to the download link at Get CalyxOS

You need to download both the factory zip, and the signature file (.minisig) You’ll also need the public key, minisign.pub

Then, the signature can be verified by running:

minisign -Vm sunfish-factory-2.7.1.zip -p minisign.pub
# sunfish is Pixel 4a, replace with your device

It should output:

Signature and comment signature verified
Trusted comment: CalyxOS 2.7.1 - July 2021

For more detailed instructions, see Verifying CalyxOS builds

A small update is now available for the Pixel 4a (sunfish). It mostly contains bugfixes.

A feature update with all of these changes and new features will be available for all supported devices at a later date.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.7.1 - Android 11
• Prevent hotspot devices from bypassing VPN when “Allow clients to use VPNs” is enabled
• Default to round icons, previous default was “Rounded Rectangle”
• Default to rounded corners
• Allow turning off microphone and camera status bar icons from Settings -> Status bar -> System icons
• Chromium: 91.0.4472.164
• Contacts: Don’t prompt to add Google Account when creating a contact for the first time
• microG: New icon for Settings -> System integration
• SeedVault: Restore: Always use F-Droid to install Nextcloud
• SetupWizard: Add button to setup eSIM on missing SIM page
• SetupWizard: Fix icons on app install page
• SetupWizard: Turn off OEM unlocking during initial setup if bootloader is locked
• Drop Conversations as a default included app.
• Updates for all other included apps.
• Updated translations for all apps, and the OS.

The July update is here, with some new features and bug fixes all around the place.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.7.0 - Android 11
• July Security update (2021-07-05)
• Translation fixes: No more non-English text when your language is set to English!
• SeedVault: Experimental Storage backup feature - backup and restore all your photos, documents and files!
• Aurora Store 4.0.7: Fix app installation and updates
• microG: Fix Settings being reset
• microG: Include Cronet: Fixes apps such as Google Maps, and many more.
• microG: Update to v0.2.21.212158
• Work profile: Support setting a separate PIN/Password/Pattern
• Work profile: Fix support for biometrics in apps
• Datura Firewall: Fix toggles being reset, and other UI adjustments
• Datura Firewall: Store preferred sorting order
• Fix camera / microphone indicators
• Chromium: Update to 91.0.4472.134
• F-Droid: Update to 1.13
• SeedVault: Respect Settings theme, match colors
• Updates for all other included apps.
• Updated translations for all apps, and the OS.

Note: The A2 proprietary firmware components are from September 2020 since trying to upgrade to anything newer ends up factory reseting the device.

The June update is here, with even more features and bug fixes.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.6.1 - Android 11
• June Security update and Feature drop (2021-06-05)
• Work profile v2: Big improvements to work profile creation, resolving issues with certain essential system apps not being enabled in the profile, not being able to see work profile apps in the recent screen, and work needed to support future work profile features.
• For the best experience, we would recommend deleting any profiles you created in the May build and starting over with a fresh new profile.
• Enable SeedVault backups for work profile, from Settings (in the main user) -> System -> Backup -> Work. Do note that USB is not available in work profiles due as Android does not support that.
• Handle microG better in work profile, enabling / disabling all of it’s companion apps as needed.
• Firewall (Datura): Support work profile apps, improve icon and fix sorting of apps.
• AMOLED dark mode, aka pure black background for dark theme. Enable at Settings -> Display -> Dark theme -> Pure black
• Network traffic monitor feature, which shows network traffic indication in the status bar. Enable from Settings -> System -> Status bar -> Network traffic monitor
• Status bar icon configuration, allowing you to choose what to show. Configure in Settings -> System -> Status bar -> System icons
• Use rounded corners in the system where appropriate.
• Include a Maps app in the OS, Organic Maps. You can install it from F-Droid
• Bring in the Recorder app from LineageOS, allowing you to create sound recordings.
• F-Droid: Handle Trichrome updates better, fixing an issue with Trichrome Library updates where they would always show up as an update even after updating.
• Dialer: Use a restrictive WebView for Menu -> Helplines links, which clears it’s history when you’re done to avoid leaving any traces. Also add additional categories for the helplines.
• Panic trigger (Ripple): This will no longer show up as an update in Aurora Store
• Music (Eleven): Bug fixes and performance improvements
• You can also create screen recordings using the built-in recorder from the quick settings (what you see down the status bar)
• microG: Implement Font provider to support more applications, such as Google Fi
• microG: Update to v0.2.19.211515
• Chromium: Switch to 64-bit builds on all devices.
• Chromium: Update 91.0.4472.88
• Updates for all other included apps.
• Updated translations for all apps, and the OS.

Note: A2 Firmware is from September 2020 since upgrading to versions after that requires a factory reset.

CalyxOS Emulator images are now available, which can be used with the Emulator present in Android Studio.

They’re mostly meant for testing apps (especially system included apps such as Datura and Seedvault). They’re not meant for general usage.

URL: https://release.calyxinstitute.org/sys-img.xml

These images are userdebug which means you can use adb root.

Additionally, these aren’t separately signed, which means all the apps are signed using publicly available AOSP “test-keys”, meaning that you can easily test code changes to system apps.

x86 and x86_64 images are available currently. arm64 images appear to be currently broken in AOSP, however we’re trying to see if we can fix them. Those will be made available when ready.

Steps

This emulator image is meant for use with Android Studio

1. Launch Android Studio, and open Tools -> SDK Manager
2. Click on “SDK Update Sites”, and then tap the + plus icon on the left.
3. Type in the above url, i.e. https://release.calyxinstitute.org/sys-img.xml and under name enter “CalyxOS”
4. Make sure the checkbox to the left of “CalyxOS” is checked, and then hit Apply or OK.
5. You can now create an AVD with the CalyxOS image.
6. Open “Tools -> AVD Manager”
7. Click “Create Virtual Device” at the bottom, then select hardware.
8. Next, on the “System Image” selection page, click on “x86 Images”.
9. You should see the CalyxOS Images, they will show up as Target: Android 11 (CalyxOS Android System Image).
10. Click “Download” to download the system image, and then hit next.
11. You can now launch the AVD to run CalyxOS.

These images will get updated every month as we tag and release new builds.

sdkmanager installation

If you want to install these images using sdkmanager, the strings are:

• "system-images;android-30;calyx;x86"
• "system-images;android-30;calyx;x86_64"

Docker images

F-Droid has CI images which have the Android SDK pre-configured with our repos. They’re included in the docker image: registry.gitlab.com/fdroid/ci-images-client This means that this can be used to directly install the CalyxOS images and use it for testing / CI.

For more details see: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/ci-images-client

References:

• review.calyxos.org/q/topic:emulator
• source.android.com/setup/create/avd#sharing_avd_system_images_for_others_to_use_with_android_studio
• developer.android.com/studio/intro/update#adding-sites
• developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds#createavd

We have changed how the setup of the various communication channels over the last week.

Matrix will be the primary medium of communication going forward.

There are now Telegram groups for all 5 Matrix channels, bridged using t2bot.io

• On Matrix, Telegram messages will appear just like any other message.
• On Telegram, Matrix messages will appear to be sent by “Matrix Telegram Bridge” -> @matrix_t2bot

Additionally, the Matrix channels are also bridged to IRC on Libera.chat using Matterbridge

• On Matrix, IRC messages will appear to be sent by “SepalBot” -> @sepalbot:matrix.org
• On IRC, Matrix messages will appear to be sent by “SepalBot”

All channels, public and unencrypted

• calyxos: The main channel
  • Matrix: #CalyxOS:matrix.org, OR
  • Telegram: CalyxOSpublic, OR
  • IRC: #calyxos on Libera.chat
• calyxos-offtopic: For all off-topic conversations
  • Matrix: #calyxos-offtopic:matrix.org, OR
  • Telegram: CalyxOSOfftopic, OR
  • IRC: #calyxos-offtopic on Libera.chat
• calyxos-feeds: Live feed of code commits / gitlab activity / reddit posts
  • Matrix: #calyxos-feeds:matrix.org, OR
  • Telegram: CalyxOSFeeds, OR
  • IRC: #calyxos-feeds on Libera.chat
• calyxos-dev: For development related discussion
  • Matrix: #calyxos-dev:matrix.org, OR
  • Telegram: CalyxOSDev, OR
  • IRC: #calyxos-dev on Libera.chat
• calyxos-infra: For infrastructure related discussion
  • Matrix: #calyxos-infra:matrix.org, OR
  • Telegram: CalyxOSInfra, OR
  • IRC: #calyxos-infra on Libera.chat

Matrix Space

Matrix has a new spaces features, which lets you view all these rooms together.

We’ve created a CalyxOS space.

Monthly security updates are an important tool to keep users safe and protect their devices. CalyxOS provides timely monthly updates for all supported devices. Let’s walk through how the process works.

TL;DR: CalyxOS integrates monthly updates ASAP. If you have a Pixel 3 or newer, you get the full security update. If you have a Pixel 2 or Mi A2, we are unable to update some proprietary components, but all of the open source parts are kept up to date.

AOSP

Android Open Source Project - the base for CalyxOS.

Google usually releases the security update on the first Monday of each month, which means it was May 3rd this month. This is available in two parts, one are the new builds for all support Pixel devices (Pixel 3 and newer currently), and the other is source code updates to AOSP.

That is where it starts for CalyxOS - we wait for the source code to be released to AOSP, and then get started on merging the changes into CalyxOS.

Proprietary bits

All current devices need a good sprinkling of proprietary code to even boot and have full hardware functionality. We cannot make any changes ourselves to these files, and thus we have to rely on the manufacturer to provide updates. Google provides monthly updates for all supported devices, which currently means the Pixel 3 and newer devices.

The proprietary bits can be divided into two parts:

1. Blobs

The various proprietary drivers needed for the device to work. This includes the parts needed to make the camera work, eSIM, graphics, amongst other things.

2. Firmware / Bootloader

The other part of the proprietary components, responsible for booting the device and also controlling the various components such as the modem.

Device status

CalyxOS currently supports 12 devices, and some of them have their own device-specific quirks.

Pixels 4a (5G), 5, 4a, 4 XL, 4, 3a XL, 3a, 3 XL, 3

These devices are still supported by Google, meaning they get timely monthly security updates, and thus we are able to include all the various security fixes in our builds. All components, both proprietary and open source are kept up to date by Google and hence we’re able provide all of that in our releases.

Pixels 2 XL, 2

Google stopped updating this device late 2020, which means that it no longer gets any updates for the proprietary components.

What we can update:

• The OS code, as it common for all.
• The kernel, since it’s open source.

What we cannot update further:

• The proprietary bits, both the blobs and firmware / bootloader are stuck on the October 2020 version.

Xiaomi Mi A2

The A2 being an Android One device was a big part of why we chose to support it, since it’s still getting monthly updates. However, the monthly updates aren’t always on time, usually they’re released towards the end of the month, so it lags behind a bit compared to the rest.

What we can update:

• The OS code, common for all.
• The kernel, since it’s open source.

Delayed updates:

• Proprietary blobs

We update them as soon as the update is available, but this means that it lags behind by a month or two. i.e. The May update for the A2 is still using the proprietary blobs from March 2021 since Xiaomi’s April build was delayed / pulled due to an issue, and thus we didn’t have the updates available in time.

Complicated situation:

• Proprietary firmware / bootloader.

You might have read something about needing to install Stock Oreo 8.1 before installing CalyxOS on the Mi A2 - this was needed because newer versions wouldn’t let you relock the bootloader. We worked around this in April 2021, by including just the Oreo bootloader but newer firmware into our builds. However, the newer firmware had to be from September 2020, since due to a Xiaomi bug updating to any newer (October 2020 or March 2021, doesn’t matter) results in a factory reset. This happens with the stock OS too, if you update from September to October (or newer) it asks you to factory reset.

This covers the security update situation for all supported devices. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them on one of our chat channels.

The May update introduced a new Work Profile feature, allowing you to create a work profile directly from the Settings app without having to install any third party apps.

This feature is available under Settings -> System -> Multiple users - > Add user or profile -> Work profile

However, some of you may have noticed some crashes when trying to access certain functionality within the profile. We have identified the root cause and fixed it for new profiles going forward, till then you can run the following commands from your computer to fix it right away.

Run this from a computer where you have ‘adb’ installed:

adb shell pm list users

That will output something like:

Users:
        UserInfo{0:Owner:c13} running
        UserInfo{10:New Profile:1030} running
        UserInfo{11:Guest:404}

Note the 10 here, that is the user id of the Work profile.

Now, you can run the following commands to enable certain apps in the profile to fix some of the crashing. These apps are always required to be present in the profile but were missed due to an oversight which is what caused the crashes.

Replace 10 with the user id you saw above:

adb shell pm install-existing --user 10 com.android.contacts
adb shell pm install-existing --user 10 com.android.settings
adb shell pm install-existing --user 10 com.android.providers.downloads
adb shell pm install-existing --user 10 com.android.providers.downloads.ui
adb shell pm install-existing --user 10 com.android.documentsui

This is a one time fix and won’t be required in future builds.

Our apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you for understanding!

With May comes another security update packed to the brim with new features.

Changelog:

• May Security update (2021-05-05)
• Built-in Work profile support - create a new work profile directly from Settings without having to install any third party apps.
• Create a work profile from Settings -> System -> Multiple users -> Add user or profile -> Work profile
• You can select which apps to include in the profile, and also turn it on and off as you want. More to come in future updates!
• Integration of Aurora Services for Aurora Store - Supports installing updates in the background seamlessly. New installs still need confirmation.
• Enable from: Aurora Store -> Settings -> Installation -> Installation method -> “Aurora Services”
• Prevent certain apps from bypassing the firewall when network access is completely disabled for them (i.e. the main toggle next to each app in Datura)
• VoLTE and Wi-Fi Calling support fixes, should now work on all carriers supported on stock
• microG: Include ‘Alt sign in’ option to fix account login issues
• Include option to prevent toggling quick settings when on a secure lockscreen (i.e. PIN / Password / Pattern set) - prevents using them completely
• Settings -> Security -> “Gear icon” next to Screen lock -> Quick settings - default is allow toggling from lockscreen
• Seedvault: Backup and restore Datura Firewall settings
• Seedvault: Backup and restore additional settings added to CalyxOS
• Seedvault: Call log backup speed improvements, should be a lot faster for those with a long history of calls.
• Dialer: Allow disabling calling account selection dialog (Signal / WhatsApp calling option), from Dialer -> menu (top right) -> Settings -> Display options
• Allow disabling Presidential alerts, from Settings -> Apps and notifications -> Advanced -> Wireless emergency alerts
• Active Edge Gesture: Fix settings being reset
• Enable Doze for improved battery life when using microG
• Datura Firewall: Fix sorting bug
• Music (Eleven): Upstream updates and bugfixes
• Calendar (Etar): Upstream updates and bugfixes
• Chromium: 90.0.4430.91
• Updates for all other included apps.

A2:

• Qualcomm code updates.

Note: A2 Firmware is from September 2020 since upgrading to versions after that requires a factory reset.

CalyxOS includes microG by default, and you get three choices. You can either keep it enabled (the default), disable it, or login with a Google account.

The latter has been reported to have some issues. We tried to include a potential fix with the April build, but that didn’t work for everyone.

We have been testing a bunch of fixes and finally have something that should hopefully work for everyone. It’s based on code from Vanced microG, which from what we’ve heard seems to work for everyone.

It is now available for testing in our device-specific test F-Droid repos.

These F-Droid repositories get app updates as soon as they’re available, you can add this if you want to help us test them out.

To add it and install the update, simply add the right URL for your device to F-Droid -> Settings -> Repositories -> Plus sign at the top right

You can then try to sign-in to microG by launching it and tapping “Add Account”, and then choosing “Alt Sign in” - that will use this new method to login.

If you want to help, you can let us know what worked for you and what didn’t, through Reddit or Matrix. For more details, see Community.

F-Droid test repos:

Technical:

We enable device registration and cloud messaging for microG by default to make sure that notifications work out of the box.

The fix included in the [April build](/news/2021/04/08/big-april-update/ tried to disable those two before login, and then re-enable them after login. It seemed to work in some cases, not all.

At the same time, we had heard that Vanced microG had this Huawei login button which seemed to work for everyone. We had already looked at that code once, so we decided to try that approach.

At first, we tried to spoof just the ‘brand’ reported. AOSP sets it to Android, Google sets it to Google. Didn’t work.

Next, we thought it might be the fingerprint (which contains the build info). Both brand and fingerprint are usually spoofed on custom ROMs for Google Play compatiblity, so we thought that might be it. Tried, didn’t work.

After that we decided trying to spoof all of the device details like microG does, didn’t work.

Finally, we settled on just pulling in the full code from Vanced (something we wanted to do at first but decided to see if the other approaches worked.). This is what is being shipped in the APK now.

Note: If you take a brief look at the code, it may seem like microG is sending a lot of details about your device to Google. However, if you look closer, it spoofs a lot of that (it doesn’t even have access to things like the serial number), which means most of the data it sends to Google would match exactly with other devices, making it hard to pick you out.

Google released Chrome 90 (90.0.4430.66) yesterday, and we have updated our Chromium fork (and the patches applied on top) to pull in all the changes, and created a new build.

It is now available for testing in our test F-Droid repo, gitlab.com/CalyxOS/calyx-fdroid-repo

This F-Droid repository gets app updates as soon as they’re available, you can add this if you want to help us test them out.

To add it, simply add this URL to F-Droid -> Settings -> Repositories -> Plus sign at the top right: https://calyxos.gitlab.io/calyx-fdroid-repo/fdroid/repo?fingerprint=C44D58B4547DE5096138CB0B34A1CC99DAB3B4274412ED753FCCBFC11DC1B7B6

Alternatively, you can scan the below QR code:

Google usually does staged rollouts, where the new version will hit a small percentage of devices first, then some more, and so on.

We intend to do something similar, by adding it to this test repo first, and then later on adding it to an F-Droid repo hosted on our own servers which is already pre-added to your CalyxOS device.

Technical:

Google made a change in how they bundle Chrome since Android 10:

“Chrome is no longer used as a WebView implementation in Q+. We’ve moved to a new model for sharing common code between Chrome and WebView (called “Trichrome”) which gives the same benefits of reduced download and install size while having fewer weird special cases and bugs.”

However, the system handles this shared common code (called Trichrome Library) differently from a typical app, and as such F-Droid was not able to update it.

We submitted changes to F-Droid to allow updating of Trichrome, which have since been merged and are included in the April builds. That means we can know ship Chromium updates via F-Droid easily.

It turned out that F-Droid would have needed some system privileges to actually see the details about the “Trichrome Library” installation on the device so that it could actually update it. We didn’t want to grant any extra privileges to F-Droid itself, however we already have an F-Droid Privileged Extension which is meant exactly for something like this.

The changes:

• Client (the app): https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroidclient/-/merge_requests/967
• Privileged Extension (the component that allows automatic installs / background updates): https://gitlab.com/fdroid/privileged-extension/-/merge_requests/58

April is amongst us, and with it comes a security update, but wait, there’s more.

This update contains a lot of new features and bug fixes that we’ve been hard at work over the last few months. There’s even more coming in the upcoming builds, stay tuned!

Changelog:

• April Security update (2021-04-05)
• VoLTE and Wi-Fi Calling support for a lot more carriers
• microG: Potential fix for google account login issue
• Introducing Datura Firewall - our new Firewall app
• Makes the existing Wi-Fi / Mobile / VPN / Background data toggle easily accessible. More features to come!
• Add a Global cleartext network traffic restriction toggle to prevent all non-TLS traffic from leaving the device (including the OS, system apps and installed apps) Settings -> System -> Developer Options -> Restrict cleartext network traffic
• Include a Sensitive Phone Numbers list, hiding them from the call log.
• Dialer also gets a new helpline contact list based on the above. (Dialer -> Menu -> Helpline) for easy access. Thanks LineageOS!
• Add feature to optionally scramble the lockscreen PIN. Settings -> Security -> Screen lock -> Scramble layout
• The “Background data” toggle is now able to restrict background network access completely (even when using Wi-Fi) and as such has been renamed
• Wi-Fi timeout feature - like our bluetooth timeout feature, now CalyxOS users have similar functionality to automatically turn off Wi-Fi after a certain time. Settings -> Network & Internet -> Wi-Fi -> Wi-Fi preferences -> Turn off Wi-Fi automatically
• microG: v0.2.18.204714
• Chromium: 89.0.4389.105
• Seedvault: Allow verifying and re-generating the 12 word recovery code
• Ability to install Chromium (Trichrome) updates via F-Droid
• Add caffeine, heads up, Sync, AmbientDisplay, USB Tether and AOD QS Tiles from LineageOS
• Fix TTS Engine crash
• Use Cloudflare DNS as the fallback in more places
• Updates for all other included apps.

A2:

• Merge Xiaomi’s March 2021 Security update
• Update Kernel to 4.4.261
• Include 10.0 Firmware (September 2020)

Note: A2 Firmware is from September since upgrading to versions after that requires a factory reset.

A new experimental build has been released for the Xiaomi Mi A2 which contains firmware from the stock 10.0 release.

You may recall flashing stock Oreo 8.1 before installing CalyxOS - we now have a way to avoid doing that, and this update contains the bits updating the firmware on your existing install from 8.1 to 10.0. For new installs, factory images will be available at a later date.

Changelog:

• Merge Xiaomi’s March 2021 Security update
• Update Kernel to 4.4.261
• Include 10.0 Firmware (September 2020)

For testing this build, you need to enable USB Debugging on your device, and then run:

adb shell setprop sys.update.channel a2ten

And then, Settings -> System -> Updates -> Check for updates. That will begin downloading and then install the build.

If that doesn’t work, you can also try running:

adb shell cmd jobscheduler run --force app.seamlessupdate.client 1

So far in our testing it works well, but additional testing is always helpful and appreciated.

If you can wait, it will hit the beta channel later, and then the stable channel after that, you won’t have to do anything, your device will get the update automatically.

Additional details:

The way this works is that we included the bootloader (abl) from stock Oreo 8.1, and the rest from stock Q 10.0. The old bootloader is needed because that’s the only version that supports Verified Boot with a custom OS like ours, however we can safely upgrade the rest, to an extent.

You may have noticed the September 2020 date above, unfortunately that is due to a bug with all Xiaomi firmware after that. Updating to those from any older build results in needing a factory reset - you simply cannot upgrade without wiping data. This is not desirable, and hence for now we’ve included the last working firmware where this wasn’t required.

A build with a charging fix for the Xiaomi Mi A2 has been released.

There are no other changes, which means it’s a very small update - only 609 Kb for the incremental OTA update.

The March Security update is now available for all supported devices.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.2.0 - Android 11
• March Security update (2021-03-05) and feature drop
• Chromium: 88.0.4324.181
• Updates for all other included apps.

The February Security update is now available for all supported devices.

Changelog:

• CalyxOS 2.2.0 - Android 11
• February Security update (2021-02-05)
• microG: v0.2.17.204714
• microG: Include Services Framework (GSF)
• Chromium: 88.0.4324.93
• Calendar (Etar): 1.0.24
• Keyboard: Remove non-functional proprietary gesture-typing preference.
• Aurora Store: Fix installation issues for new installs, to fix your current app kindly re-install the app from F-Droid
• Updates for all other included apps.

Pixel 2, 2 XL, 3, 3 XL, 3a, 3a XL, 4, 4 XL:

• Implement Active Edge support - squeeze phone to perform action
• Configure from Settings -> System -> Gestures -> Active Edge

The wait is over, we have builds available for the new Pixels!

These builds are Android 11 with the January 2021 Security update, and are fully working.

You can follow these instructions to install.

Do let us know if you face any issues or bugs.

Yippie! We have a new website. It is static generated and anyone can contribute through gerrit. See [[gitlab.com/CalyxOS/calyxos.org]] and https://review.calyxos.org/q/project:CalyxOS/calyxos.org.

In the coming weeks, we will be adding help documentation, tutorials, release change logs, and more. Stay tuned!

The April 2020 build of Calyxos (build 2020.04.07.17) did not include the OTA Updater due to a misconfiguration.

This means that it will not update to the May build by itself, you need to follow two quick manual steps:

1) Open F-Droid, pull down to refresh the repositories. After the refresh completes , check the updates list. You’ll see an update for “Seamless Update Client”, install that update.

2) Open the newly updated “Updater” app. It’ll ask you “Let app always run in background?”, please hit allow, and then it will start updating the system