[Samsung Galaxy S7 (Exynos) ROMs, Kernels, Recoveri] netra3441:
Hello forum,

the fact that I can use my Samsung Galaxy S7, built in 2016, today with the latest Android in the form of LineageOS 20.0 (Android 13) and with great satisfaction, is to @Ivan_Meler's credit, and to the credit of all those, who make it possible, that LOS works - credit, because I am a severely disabled pensioner who urgently needs to use his smartphone for health reasons dependent, but cannot afford a new device.

:)(y)

So my thanks go to Ivan and to everyone, who is working on this project, including you creators of XDA and of course the users here in the forum!

What I describe below should also be of help to beginners.

Since I urgently need my S7, I bought a second used S7 as a kind of test device, so that I can safely practice, learn and test on this second S7, which is hardly possible even with a smartphone that is used every day.

I tried pretty much everything with my test S7, including rooting with Magisk and various root-only apps - only to find that at least I didn't need to root at all. This, because in LOS there are no pre-installed apps to be removed, and since I never do online banking or online orders on mobile devices, it is not necessary in my case to massively protect the smartphone with root and then firewall etc.

Using an identical second smartphone as a testing unit helps really to learn how to do!

Then I found out that it makes a lot of sense, not least because of the small internal memory of the S7 (32 GB), to only install GApps as "Core", i.e. with the lowest Google technology pre-installation, so that you can then choose for yourself what you want to install from the Google universe and what you better leave out.

This also meant that I no longer have to worry about the fact that from Android 13 or LineageOS 20.0 you can no longer format an SD card as internal memory. This, because although I have everything I need on the S7 installed, I currently still have 22 GB of free internal memory under LOS 20.0 (!). With the previously fully installed Google universe, I only had 10 GB of internal memory left under LOS 19.1 from the 32 GB of the S7. So, I run the 128 GB SD card, I use, now in LOS 20.0 as only mobile memory, and that works fine.

Of course you can also operate your smartphone with LOS without Google technology. In my case, that didn't work because I use apps for which there are unfortunately no alternatives in the F-Droid repository, which is highly recommended by the way, so I couldn't leave out Google because some of these apps are purchased, need the GSF and Google Pay does not work with the Aurora store.

All in all, it pays off very well for older people like me, who are not programmers and who will no longer acquire the very complex knowledge of smartphones and their operating systems, in addition to the older smartphone, which can be operated with the latest Android thanks to LOS, to have an identical second smartphone as a test device to learn how to use TWRP, LOS and so on safely and without worries, and whether everything runs smoothly.

LOS 20.0 runs completely smooth, unlike LOS 19.1, it is very amazing.

Everything is working fine. When telephoning I have no echoes, neither what I hear nor what the other party hears. I also have the impression that the WLAN runs better under LOS 20.0 and has fewer dropouts, which is actually a known error in the S7 hardware.

All in all, the upgrade from LOS 19.1 to 20.0 was very worthwhile for me and my Samsung Galaxy S7, I am very satisfied.

Finally, many thanks again to the doers of TWRP and LOS, to @Ivan_Meler as maintainer, and to everyone who also works to ensure that we users can continue to operate our old devices. Many thanks also to XDA and the forum and you users here!

😘🖖👍