[OFFICIAL] LineageOS 18.1 for the Moto G7 Plus

[cozxxxta]

Thank you for your suggestion koimr, I found out that the port of Moto Cam 2 that worked on my previous OS was made by Nemesis. So I looked for a version for Moto G7+ compatible with Android 11. Here it is https://sourceforge.net/projects/nemesisteam/files/MODs/Moto-Camera-2/List-N2/Android-11/ARM-64/ . I installed it via TWRP and it worked!

I've made some test shots with three cameras: Moto Cam 2, Pixel GCam you suggested and Open Cam. Moto Cam (which now does not offer a switch of HDR) and GCam (with HDR+ activated) give pretty close results in day light. Moto tends to render darker and punchier dark areas while GCam extends DRO for them so that shots get less contrasty and less colorful. Besides Moto files are 15-20% heavier than those by GCam, I think for keeping more color info in darker parts. Open Camera with HDR activated is another story. Sometimes it gives a pretty well balanced image while sometimes a lollypop HDR effect is too strong. In low light Open Camera renders too grainy image. My previous experience with Moto was positive. I could compare it to GCam later.

As for daylight shots, I attach unedited samples of two scenes. In both cases first comes Moto Cam 2 (default settings), then GCam (HDR+) and third Open Camera (HDR). You can see the variation.

There was a shocking moment in the first experience of GCam. I discovered that if you switch off the HDR+ mode, the app uses the second front camera, and you just have no choice to change it. I am unaware if this happens only with G7+ or it's a general feature. I tend to say it's a shame, as the image is limited to 1920 at its large side, and the quality of the oversharpened image is simply ridiculous. Welcome back to 1998. The last shot attached is an unedited GCam shot taken this way, with HDR+ off. I wonder if that could be fixed someway for G7+.

I'll attach some examples that I shot with it, you can take extremely detailed pictures with both back and front cameras.

 

[koimr]

I use Hypercam Raizen since Android 9, there's now a Android 11 versions, I already tested hundreds of different GCam apks, and this is the one that is perfectly optimized for our Moto G7 Plus, if you want it, I can send you the apk plus various XML files that I actually bought.

Please do!

 

[cozxxxta]

nope - you can try magisk but I doubt it'll work.

Yes, you can OTA just fine!

I was able to make Google Pay work and SafetyNet pass just fine

 

[npjohnson]

I was able to make Google Pay work and SafetyNet pass just fine

good to hear!

 

[cozxxxta]

Please do!

Here it is, put the Config folder inside the GCam folder on storage root.
To select the XML Config file inside the Hypercam, just click twice on the empty space between the shooter button and last taken photo.

 

[Adai0]

Does anyone know how I can upgrade firmware from recovery?

 

[Adai0]

OpenGApps has no official releases for Android 11 yet - they're all beta and various states of broken - just use MTG tbh.

Just to let anyone know: I've just upgraded from 17.1 to 18.1. Open GApps pico had been installed on 17.1. I upgraded with MindTheGapps. I did a "dirty" upgrade, so no data wipe. Anything seems to be working currently.

 

[mystiquerq]

Edit:see my follow-up replies, this rom is fine, I screwed up

Flashing this HARD BRICKED my phone!?
it's brand new unopened moto g7 plus XT1965-2
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE??
I just boot twrp, sideload the .zip(not corrupt, i verified hash) everything worked fine, i shutdown, try to get to bootloader to boot recovery again and install gapps, BUT THIS ROM BRICKED MY DEVICE COMPLETELY.

I unbricked my phone, very complicated PAINFUL PROCESS

https://xdaforums.com/t/ultimate-guide-how-to-unbrick-your-moto-g7-plus.3964746/

THEN all i did was "fastboot boot twrp..."
wipe system/cache/data of the stock rom because that's what the internet tell me to do
adb sideload the UNCORRUPTED OFFICIAL LINEAGOS ROM
And it hardbricked my phone again

 

[luspi]

This smells like a typical PEBMAC problem. I'd suggest actually following the official install instructions, there you can find the note:

"Note: If you want the Google Apps add-on on your device, you must follow this step before booting into LineageOS for the first time!"

 

[mystiquerq]

This smells like a typical PEBMAC problem. I'd suggest actually following the official install instructions, there you can find the note:

"Note: If you want the Google Apps add-on on your device, you must follow this step before booting into LineageOS for the first time!"

1) i don't want google apps.
2) it's a HARD BRICK, the device does not turn on. It doesn't even show the led light when charging. This is a complete brick, no fastboot, no bootloader, no screen, nothing. I thought that was clear and obvious.

Anyways, this is a "brand new" moto g7 plus XT1965-2, never opened since factory, possibly the south-american version, stock rom was android 9. I'm very curious why simply adb sideloading this rom completely bricks my device...

 

[luspi]

1) i don't want google apps.
2) it's a HARD BRICK, the device does not turn on. It doesn't even show the led light when charging. This is a complete brick, no fastboot, no bootloader, no screen, nothing. I thought that was clear and obvious.

1) You said you want to install gapps, what do you think that is?

2) Your posts are a little ambiguous to me as to when the hard brick occurs. Is it before or after you try to install gapps?

Anyways, this is a "brand new" moto g7 plus XT1965-2, never opened since factory, possibly the south-american version, stock rom was android 9. I'm very curious why simply adb sideloading this rom completely bricks my device...

I have the exact same model, it works just fine for me though. You could try installing it with the recommended Lineage Recovery instead of twrp. Iirc in the past there have been some issues with twrp and the partioning on newer android versions. I haven't followed closely enough what happened with that though.

 

[mystiquerq]

1) You said you want to install gapps, what do you think that is?

2) Your posts are a little ambiguous to me as to when the hard brick occurs. Is it before or after you try to install gapps?



I have the exact same model, it works just fine for me though. You could try installing it with the recommended Lineage Recovery instead of twrp. Iirc in the past there have been some issues with twrp and the partioning on newer android versions. I haven't followed closely enough what happened with that though.

after installation through adb sideload, the installer(or twrp itself maybe?) indicates that i have to reboot recovery to install further zips, i do not boot the actual system, i boot to boatloader in order to boot the recovery again and install gapps.
So to answer 2), "before" since i never even had the chance to install gapps anyway, device is already completely bricked after flashing lineagos.

I will try to use your advice about the lineagos recovery. It might be that twrp completely ruins the paritioning when flashing android 11 on a android 9 device? Will know more soon.

Edit:
"In some cases slot b can be unpopulated or contain much older firmware than slot a, leading to various issues including a potential hard-brick. We can ensure none of that will happen by copying the contents of slot a to slot b. This step is NOT optional."

Install LineageOS on lake | LineageOS Wiki

wiki.lineageos.org

*oh, hello, potential hard-brick? yes*

I guess for my future devices, i shouldn't just rely on "let's just boot TWRP and flash this image and everything should be fine"
=)

I didn't actually try these instructions, i simply let the stock rom update quite a lot and sideloaded it again and now things are not bricked, likely because now the stock rom is old enough to no longer cause these issue's again, hehehe.

There also aren't any documented cases of the issue I had anywhere on the internet because my case(buying a never opened/never used moto g7 plus off ebay, not updating the severely outdated stock rom and hoping twrp and sideload will work just fine) is rather... unique?

 

[pastorbob62]

after installation through adb sideload, the installer(or twrp itself maybe?) indicates that i have to reboot recovery to install further zips, i do not boot the actual system, i boot to boatloader in order to boot the recovery again and install gapps.
So to answer 2), "before" since i never even had the chance to install gapps anyway, device is already completely bricked after flashing lineagos.

I will try to use your advice about the lineagos recovery. It might be that twrp completely ruins the paritioning when flashing android 11 on a android 9 device? Will know more soon.

Edit:
"In some cases slot b can be unpopulated or contain much older firmware than slot a, leading to various issues including a potential hard-brick. We can ensure none of that will happen by copying the contents of slot a to slot b. This step is NOT optional."

Install LineageOS on lake | LineageOS Wiki

wiki.lineageos.org

*oh, hello, potential hard-brick? yes*

I guess for my future devices, i shouldn't just rely on "let's just boot TWRP and flash this image and everything should be fine"
=)

I didn't actually try these instructions, i simply let the stock rom update quite a lot and sideloaded it again and now things are not bricked, likely because now the stock rom is old enough to no longer cause these issue's again, hehehe.

There also aren't any documented cases of the issue I had anywhere on the internet because my case(buying a never opened/never used moto g7 plus off ebay, not updating the severely outdated stock rom and hoping twrp and sideload will work just fine) is rather... unique?

 

[pastorbob62]

Not sure what you mean by "Severely outdated stock rom" since I used the 3/2021 version of the stock rom to install Lineage, TWRP and Magisk without any issues following the procedures as outlined on 2 different phones of the same model. I suppose you could say a 3 month old rom is "severely outdated" but I guess it is a matter of semantics.

 

[mystiquerq]

Not sure what you mean by "Severely outdated stock rom" since I used the 3/2021 version of the stock rom to install Lineage, TWRP and Magisk without any issues following the procedures as outlined.

3/2021 isn't old..
it was a stock rom from 2019, the first ever stock rom that this device had. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/lake/install
As i have said before, the install instructions say "In some cases slot b can be unpopulated or contain much older firmware than slot a, leading to various issues including a potential hard-brick."
And that's likely exactly what happend here. Case closed.

 

[pastorbob62]

3/2021 isn't old..
it was a stock rom from 2019, the first ever stock rom that this device had. https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/lake/install
As i have said before, the install instructions say "In some cases slot b can be unpopulated or contain much older firmware than slot a, leading to various issues including a potential hard-brick."
And that's likely exactly what happend here. Case closed.

Soooo, basicly you didn't follow the instructions provided. I get it now.

"We can ensure none of that will happen by copying the contents of slot a to slot b. This step is NOT optional.
To do this, sideload the copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip package by doing the following:

1. Download the copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip file from here.
2. Sideload the copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip package:
   • On the device, select “Apply Update”, then “Apply from ADB” to begin sideload.
   • On the host machine, sideload the package using: adb sideload copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip"

 

[Z-Prime]

Edit: I forgot about the whole Safetynet thing. Its been a few years since Ive used Lineage. Back then it didnt exist lol. I don't know if the original post is worth leaving for those who don't know about this and are new to Custom OS's and Androids Play Store quirks

Just a quick question someone might be able to answer for me as I don't think I saw it mentioned in any prior posts-

Are there any issues with any apps like Amazon apps or Netflix not working with the Lineage Rom for the G7 plus? Cheers!

 

[Z-Prime]

Well that was a debarkle. I had nothing but issues trying to get this onto my phone.

Not because of the official instructions, but because the latest version of TWRP for the G7plus was giving me the 'touch input not working' issue. In the end I couldnt get any of the fixes for that problem in TWRP to work.

I gave up on trying to save a nandroid backup of my OEM G7plus software, and used Lineage Recovery to install LOS18.1.
Thankfully that worked smoothly. Part of me wishes I didn't waste all that time trying to get TWRP to work.

Biggest surprise of installing LOS was discovering the G7plus had a unused battery light! Now if we can get that speaker phone loudness fixed. I wish that was listed under bugs on the OP. I had no idea about that till going through all 6 pages of this thread.

 

[pastorbob62]

Well that was a debarkle. I had nothing but issues trying to get this onto my phone.

Not because of the official instructions, but because the latest version of TWRP for the G7plus was giving me the 'touch input not working' issue. In the end I couldnt get any of the fixes for that problem in TWRP to work.

I gave up on trying to save a nandroid backup of my OEM G7plus software, and used Lineage Recovery to install LOS18.1.
Thankfully that worked smoothly. Part of me wishes I didn't waste all that time trying to get TWRP to work.

Biggest surprise of installing LOS was discovering the G7plus had a unused battery light! Now if we can get that speaker phone loudness fixed. I wish that was listed under bugs on the OP. I had no idea about that till going through all 6 pages of this thread.

Can I ask what version of TWRP you tried to use? I have used twrp-3.5.0-lake-v2.img with every Android 11 custom rom and stock Android 10 I have tried and never had any issues.

The key is to boot it from fastboot mode then install it with twrp-installer-3.5.0-lake-v2.zip. Then reboot recovery to be sure it is working well. I've done it several times trying out different roms and updating my wife's phone with stock.

 

[Z-Prime]

Can I ask what version of TWRP you tried to use? I have used twrp-3.5.0-lake-v2.img with every Android 11 custom rom and stock Android 10 I have tried and never had any issues.

The key is to boot it from fastboot mode then install it with twrp-installer-3.5.0-lake-v2.zip. Then reboot recovery to be sure it is working well. I've done it several times trying out different roms and updating my wife's phone with stock.

I tried the latest version of TWRP twrp-3.5.2_9-0-lake and the version before twrp-3.5.1_9-0-lake.

I booted from fastboot, it would load up but all finger presses would not work. Looked at a lot of the XDA workarounds and those on reddit and nothing worked to get finger presses working including the sideloading commands via adb. Given all the literature said it should be working I don't honestly understand why it wasn't working for me.