[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] phxchristian:
Here's my interpretation, feel free to let me know if anything is out of order...

Installing Lineage OS on Essential Phone

1.	Make sure your computer has adb and fastboot. Setup instructions can be found at

https://wiki.lineageos.org/adb_fastboot_guide.html

2.	Download the Windows zip from Google https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools-latest-windows.zip

3.	Extract it somewhere - for example, %USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot

4.	Open the Start menu, and type “advanced system settings”

5.	Select “View advanced system settings”

6.	Click on the Advanced tab

7.	Open the “Environment Variables” window

8.	Select the Path variable under “System Variables” and click the “Edit” button

9.	Click the “Edit Text” button

10.	Append

;%USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot\platform-tools

to the end of the existing Path definition (the semi-colon separates each path entry, not sure if that semi colon is necessary...)

11.	Install the universal adb driver (https://adb.clockworkmod.com/), and reboot.

Setting up adb

To use adb with your device, you’ll need to enable developer options and USB debugging:

1.	Open Settings, and select “About”.

2.	Tap on “Build number” seven times. (If developer options are not enabled).

3.	Go back, and select “Developer options”.

4.	Scroll down, and check the “Android debugging” or “USB debugging” entry under “Debugging”.

5.	Plug your device into your computer.

6.	On the computer, open up a terminal/command prompt and type

adb devices

.

7.	A dialog should show on your device, asking you to allow usb debugging. Check “always allow”, and choose “OK”.

8.	Congratulations! adb is now ready to use with your device.

Popular adb commands

adb shell

- launches a shell on the device

adb push <local> <remote>

- pushes the file <local> to <remote>

adb pull <remote> [<local>]

- pulls the file <remote> to <local>. If <local> isn’t specified, it will pull to the current folder.

adb logcat

- allows you to view the device log in real-time. You can use

adb logcat -b radio

to view radio logs, and

adb logcat -C

to view logs in colour

adb install <file>

- installs the given .apk file to your device

Setting up fastboot

Using fastboot (if your device supports it) should simply involve rebooting to fastboot mode. While in fastboot mode, you can type

fastboot devices

to verify that your device is being detected.

Unlocking the bootloader

NOTE: The steps below only need to be run once per device.

WARNING: Unlocking the bootloader will erase all data on your device! Before proceeding, ensure the data you would like to retain is backed up to your PC and/or your Google account, or equivalent.

1.	Enable OEM unlock in the Developer options under device Settings, if present.

2.	Connect the device to your PC via USB.

3.	On the computer, open a command prompt (on Windows) or terminal (on Linux or macOS) window, and type:

adb reboot bootloader

4.	You can also boot into fastboot mode via a key combination:

With the device powered off, hold Volume Down + Power.

5.	Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC finds it by typing:

fastboot devices

6.	Now type the following command to unlock the bootloader:

fastboot flashing unlock_critical

7.	If the device doesn’t automatically reboot, reboot it. It should now be unlocked.

8.	Since the device resets completely, you will need to re-enable USB debugging to continue.

Temporarily booting a custom recovery using fastboot

Download a custom recovery - you can download one at https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=6006931924117938176

Connect your device to your PC via USB.

On the computer, open a command prompt (on Windows) or terminal (on Linux or macOS) window, and type:

adb reboot bootloader

You can also boot into fastboot mode via a key combination:

With the device powered off, hold Volume Down + Power.

Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC finds it by typing:

fastboot devices

Temporarily flash a recovery on your device by typing:

fastboot set_active a
fastboot flash boot_a twrp-mata_11.img

NOTE: On Windows systems, thanks to a bug in fastboot, you must first swap to slot a with

fastboot set_active a

, then specify slot a when flashing images, e.g.

fastboot flash boot_a <recovery_filename>.img

TIP: The file may not be named identically to what stands in this command, so adjust accordingly.

Installing LineageOS from recovery

1.	Download the LineageOS installation package that you would like to install or build the package yourself. https://mirrorbits.lineageos.org/full/mata/20191119/lineage-16.0-20191119-nightly-mata-signed.zip

2.	If you are not in recovery, reboot into recovery:

With the device powered off, hold Volume Up + Power.

3.	Now tap Wipe.

4.	Now tap Format Data and continue with the formatting process. This will remove encryption and delete all files stored in the internal storage.

5.	Return to the previous menu and tap Advanced Wipe, then select the System partition and then Swipe to Wipe.

Sideload the LineageOS .zip package:

1.	On the device, select “Advanced”, “ADB Sideload”, then swipe to begin sideload.

2.	On the host machine, sideload the package using:

adb sideload lineage-16.0-20191119-nightly-mata-signed.zip

3.	(Optionally): If you want to install any additional add-ons, run

adb reboot sideload

, then

adb sideload filename.zip

those packages in sequence. See next…

4.	Copy the Google apps zipfile to /sdcard/ (MindTheGapps-9.0.0-arm64-20190615_031441.zip)

Using adb:

adb push MindTheGapps-9.0.0-arm64-20190615_031441.zip /sdcard/

Load Extras after flashed

1.	Optionally, download additional application packages such as Google Apps (use the arm64 architecture http://downloads.codefi.re/jdcteam/javelinanddart/gapps/MindTheGapps-9.0.0-arm64-20190615_031441.zip

2.	Google apps should be installed via recovery immediately after installing LineageOS. Exact steps vary, but the process is similar to that of installing LineageOS:

IMPORTANT: If you rebooted into LineageOS before installing Google apps, you must factory reset and then install them, otherwise expect crashes.

1.	Reminder: after installing LineageOS, choose “install zip” or “Apply update” in recovery, and navigate to the zipfile loaded earlier on the SD partition.

2.	(Optional) Root your device by installing https://download.lineageos.org/extras (Lineage AddonSU, use the arm64 package) or by using any other method you prefer.

3.	Reboot to system (i.e. LineageOS).

adb reboot

WARNING: Depending on which recovery you use, you may be prompted to install additional apps and services. We strongly advise you to opt out of installing these, as they may cause your device to bootloop, as well as attempt to access or corrupt your data.

Should be it. I'm going to try later on, but want to have someone double check all the steps I have before I proceed because last thing I want is a bricked Essential Phone. It's my main phone. Thanks so much!

---------- Post added at 01:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:42 AM ----------

I might not do it then, but see if my guide above is any good... I may hold off until that's fixed (if it's fixable).