I had reimaged my old Samsung on LineageOS as it seemed to be the only alternative that supported my model. It was fine until I installed OSMAnd, which couldn’t get a location. Shame on me for not noticing that I would need microG for that. Not feeling comfortable with all the rooting and flashing needed to shoehorn microG into an existing image, I figured I’d try LineageOS for microG.

Having loaded a lot onto this phone already, I wanted to try a dirty flash first, knowing full well it might not work. The first prerequisite is to use an image of LOS/µG that is dated higher than the image in the phone. I had just updated, so I needed to wait for the next one.

The docs say that LineageOS for microG will be updated “a couple of times a month”. But the latest LOS/µG image has remained at 11/2/23. This means I haven’t had an opportunity to try the dirty flash, but it’s also a security warning sign for me—LOS updates weekly like clockwork. Irregular and slower-than-promised updates make me a bit nervous for this aspect of device safety. It’s not just my model either; most of the images are backdated more than two weeks.

https://download.lineage.microg.org/

(Yes, I know my boot loader is unlocked, and no, Calyx and Graphene don’t support me, so I made my choice between physical insecurity and Google insecurity.)