[Moto G 2015 Android Development] MSe1969:
Welcome back!

This thread is dedicated to provide Lineage-OS 16.0 builds for the Motorola Moto G 2015 (Osprey) with current security patches.

You can consider this thread as kind of a successor of my LineageOS 14.1 Osprey thread

Well, and as well also a 'successor' of my LineageOS 17.1 Osprey thread !

Sounds weird? Well, here comes the explanation:

In May 2020, I have created this thread as a successor of my LineageOS 14.1 builds. Until December 2020, I used to provide two build flavors, one for Standard LineageOS and one with my hardened microG build. From January 2021 onwards, I have provided my hardened microG build flavor with LineageOS 17.1 in above linked thread, whilst I had asked the users of the "Standard" flavor to simply switch to the official LineageOS 17.1 builds.

It has turned out, that indeed Android 10 is the boundary, of what can be done with this old device.

Especially the hardening measures ask for a stronger hardware, so the builds were "still okay", but not really as agile as the 16.0 builds (especially on an 8GB device). Based on own experience and user feedback in my 17.1 thread, I have finally decided to go back to Android 9 / LineageOS 16.0 - so here we are.

I have decided to re-enable this thread instead of creating a new one, to allow you to better search for any answers and issues.

Until December 2020, There were two build flavors available, both signed (see further below). Both builds have aimed at providing stable and reliable "daily-driver" builds. The last "Standard LineageOS 16.0" build can still be downloaded here - I will however not offer this build flavor any more.

The build flavor, which I offer now again in this thread is my

Security hardened microG build

The latest build can be downloaded here.

It is mainly based on the work of chil360 and the main features are:

Fork of Hybrid-X kernel with frequently applied security patches

Encryption fully functional

Enforcing SE Policy

OTA support

Pre-installed microG and F-Droid like the LineageOS for microG project (own fork)

Pre-installed AuroraStore

eSpeak TTS engine (FOSS TTS solution)

Backported Audio balance (accessibility settings) from Android 10

Additional security hardening features listed below

Access to /proc/net blocked for user apps

Bundled netmonitor app to allow network monitoring

Enhanced Privacy Guard: Switches for motion sensors and other sensors

Cloudflare as default DNS (instead of Google)

Privacy-preferred default settings

Optional blocking of Facebook- and Google-Tracking

Optional disable captive portal detection

Firewall UI

Increased max. password length of 64

No submission of IMSI/phone number to Google/Sony when GPS is in use

Default hosts file with many blocked ad/tracking sites

Privacy-enhanced Bromite SystemWebView Mulch Webview

Additional restriction options for secondary users

Constified JNI method tables

Current release levels

Custom build release: 2024-07-01

Security string: 2022-01-05

AOSP tag: 9.0.0_r46

Mulch Webview: M126

Source-code and build instructions

Kernel: https://github.com/lin16-microg/android_kernel_motorola_msm8916/tree/mse_v1

Build manifest: https://github.com/lin16-microg/local_manifests

Installation Instructions

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE SOLELY YOURSELF FOR ANY ACTIONS YOU DO WITH YOUR DEVICE !!!

Please note - I won't explain any single aspect (e.g. how to install 'fastboot' on your PC or troubleshoot USB connectivity issues under Windows). Search the net and consult the search engine of your choice or look here in XDA, there is plenty information available.

Pre-Requisites

Get familiar with the hardware keys of the Motorola Moto G 2015 (osprey) device, especially how to enter fastboot mode (switch phone off hold power + volume down together for about 3 seconds) and recovery mode (in fastboot mode, switch with volume key to the reboot recovery option and select with power key)

Activate the Developer options (Settings, about phone: tap 7 times on the build number), get into the new menu Developer options and activate, if available, the option "OEM unlocking")

Have fastboot and adb installed on your PC and make sure, you can connect via USB to your device in fastboot mode and via adb

Download the most current .ZIP file of this ROM and place it to your phone's internal memory or SD card

Only valid for the "standard build flavor":

If you wish to install Google apps (GApps), please refer to the GApps section further below

An unlocked bootloader (read the warnings carefully and backup your data!)

Install TWRP recovery

If you come from stock ROM and have just unlocked your boot loader, this is the next thing to do. If you have already a working custom recovery on your device, there is no necessity to replace it. However - I recommend to use the official TWRP recovery from the TWRP site (recommended to use version 3.4.0 and

not

the most recent one). The following instructions are based on TWRP.

To install TWRP, download the TWRP.img file (Note: replace "TWRP.img" in the following instructions with the real file name) from this section to your PC, connect the phone via USB to your PC, get it into 'fastboot mode' and enter the following command on your PC:

fastboot flash recovery TWRP.img

Afterwards, directly boot into 'recovery mode' (enter fastboot reboot on your PC and use the right hardware keys to get into recovery mode) - I recommend not to boot the phone's Android system after having flashed TWRP. Once TWRP has been launched, you may decide to reboot your phone and install the ROM at any time later. But the first boot after flashing TWRP should be TWRP in recovery mode.

Advanced Wipe

ONLY perform the steps described here, if you come from Stock ROM or a different Custom ROM!

Boot into recovery mode. In TWRP, choose "Wipe", "Advanced" and spefify "Dalvik", "System", "Cache" and "Data" to be wiped. Make sure NOT to wipe "Internal memory" or "SD Card". Swipe to confirm the deletion and get back into the main menu.

GApps

DO NOT

attempt to flash GApps on the "microG" build variant!

For the "Standard" variant (if you really want to flash the "historic" build from December 2020), the following applies:

You do not need to install GApps, but you may wish to do so. In that case, download GApps from here and put the .ZIP also to the SD card or Internal memory of your device. Choose ARM as platform, Android 9.0 and the flavor of your choice. I recommend "pico", as this leaves you the most freedom to only install, what you really need; you can later still install all the Google products you want and do not need to live with pre-installed Google applications you have no use for.

(To be more precise, I EXPLICITLY DO NOT RECOMMEND any Gapps variant larger than "nano"!)

Install the ROM

In the TWRP main menu, choose "Install". A file manager appears to let you navigate to your internal memory (path /sdcard) or your SD card (path /external_sd). Choose the .ZIP file of the ROM and swipe to flash.

If you update from a previous version of the ROM, you don't need to perform a wipe. If you had GApps already installed before the update, there is no need to flash them again. They will be automatically restored during the flash process. (Note: If you wish to get rid of GApps, navigate to TWRP's file manager in the Advanced section of the main menu, go to path /system/addon.d and delete the file 70-gapps.sh, before flashing the ROM update)

If you come from a different ROM (or stock firmware), make sure that you have performed the Wipe steps above. If you wish to install GApps, select the respective .ZIP file directly afterwards, do not boot into Android before having flashed GApps.

When finished flashing, return to the main menu, choose "Reboot" and then "System", which will cause your phone to boot into our Lineage OS 16.0 - be patient, the first boot after flashing a new ROM takes quite long!

microG

Only valid for the "microG" build variant: After the first installation of this ROM, you need to setup microG.

Please read the instructions given on the LineageOS for microG site, section "Post Install - UnifiedNlp"

Dealing with signed builds

Please note, that my builds are

signed with an own key

. When you come from a different build, you cannot directly "dirty-flash" this build. You either have to perform a "clean flash" (recommended), or flash "interim-wise" one of my migration builds.

If you don't want to perform a "clean flash" (which means, you will loose your data), you can work with my prepared "Migration Builds". Simply flash the respective Migration Build flavor (A or B) over your existing build. If you had Gapps before, make sure to also flash the respective Gapps (correct android version!) on top before rebooting and wipe cache and dalvik.

A migration build resets the package signatures during each boot and thus supports "dirty-flashing" from a different build.

If you choose to go that path, make sure to immediately perform the OTA update, which will be offered by the Updater app - stay on the migration build as short as possible and

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES

install or update any app! (if you e.g. had Gapps installed before, deactivate auto-updates).

The migration builds are foreseen to support the following scenarios only:

My Lineage 14.1 (Nougat) Osprey build variant A => my LineageOS 16.0 standard build >> use migration build A

Any Lineage 15.1 (Oreo) LineageOS build => my LineageOS 16.0 standard build >> use migration build A

Any Lineage 16.0 (Pie) LineageOS build => my LineageOS 16.0 standard build >> use migration build A

My Lineage 14.1 (Nougat) Osprey build variant B or C => my LineageOS 16.0 microG build >> use migration build B

One of my previous LineageOS 16.0 microG test builds => my LineageOS 16.0 microG build >> use migration build B

In case you come from my LineageOS 14.1 Osprey builds, please read the detail migration instructions in this thread.

Download sources:

Migration Build A

Migration Build B

Bug reports:

If you have a problem please create a post with these information:

Original Kernel shipped with this rom:

Build Date:

And try to get log as described here

Credits

Android Open Source project (AOSP)

LineageOS project

chil360

squid2

microG project

csagan5 (Bromite)

Whyorean (AuroraStore)

XDA:DevDB Information

[ROM][Unofficial][9.0.0][signed]LineageOS 16.0 for Osprey, ROM for the Moto G 2015

Contributors

MSe1969

Source Code: https://github.com/lin16-microg/local_manifests

ROM OS Version: 9.x Pie

ROM Kernel: Linux 3.10.x

Based On: LineageOS

Version Information

Status: Stable

Stable Release Date: 2024-07-17

Created 2020-05-06

Last Updated 2024-07-18