December QPR and Security update
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
targetSdkof 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
- Over-the-air(OTA) Updates: Starting from CalyxOS 7.2.2.0, CalyxOS updates resume automatically over the air. No manual install of updates needed. However, if you would like to manually update your CalyxOS device, see our OTA installation instructions.
- Security Updates for Pixel devices: The Pixel 9a, 9 Pro Fold, 9 Pro XL, 9 Pro, 9, 8a, 8 Pro, 8, Fold, Tablet, 7a, 7 Pro, 7, 6a, 6 Pro, and 6 stock OSes follow a monthly release schedule in direct alignment with the AOSP security bulletin. However, Google has stopped publishing the source code for AOSP QPR1 and QPR3 releases. As a result, CalyxOS is not able to timely include updates of the proprietary components, such as the bootloader, modem, and vendor firmware, for versions based on those specific QPR branches. The CalyxOS releases for the above models only contain the latest fixes to the open-source components, such as the operating system and the Linux kernel. Proprietary components get updates as soon as the corresponding AOSP source code becomes available.
- Security Updates for non-Pixel devices: The Fairphone 5, 4, Motorola moto g 5G 2024, moto g84 5G, moto g34 / g45 5G, and SHIFTphone 8 stock OSes follow a different security update release schedule, which is usually behind AOSP updates by a month or two. The CalyxOS releases for these devices only contain the latest fixes to the open-source components. Proprietary components get updates as soon as the stock OS update becomes available.
- End-of-life: The Motorola moto g52, moto g42, moto g32, Pixel 5a (5G), 4a (5G), and 5 are no longer being updated by the manufacturer, the CalyxOS updates for these devices only contain the fixes to the open-source components. Proprietary components no longer get updated.