[ROM][11.0][UNOFFICIAL] LineageOS 18.1 for Unihertz Atom L and XL [Alpha] [2024-02-18]

[a-dead-trousers]

* Your warranty is now void.
*
* I am not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards,
* thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please
* do some research if you have any concerns about features included in this ROM
* before flashing it! YOU are choosing to make these modifications, and if
* you point the finger at me for messing up your device, I will laugh at you.

This is a LineageOS 18.1 ROM for the Helios P60 based Atom L (Atom_L) and Atom XL (Atom_XL), two rugged Android phones released by Unihertz in July 2020.

This ROM supports both devices as well as both regional variants!
You need to make sure which device and variant you need!

LineageOS is a free, community built, aftermarket firmware distribution of Android 10.0 (Q), which is designed to increase performance and reliability over stock Android for your device.

LineageOS is based on the Android Open Source Project with extra contributions from many people within the Android community. It can be used without any need to have any Google application installed. LineageOS does still include various hardware-specific code, which is also slowly being open-sourced anyway.

All the source code for LineageOS is available in the LineageOS Github repo. And if you would like to contribute to LineageOS, please visit our Gerrit Code Review. You can also view the changelog for a full list of changes & features.

Working (but not as one would expect)

• VoLTE has some issus with SELinux in enforcing mode
• DMR needs "USB audio routing" deactivated in the developer settings
• Bluetooth audio channel is set to use the fallback instead of A2DP

Not Working

• LiveDisplay is not working (and probably never will)
• You tell me

Releases
Atom L EEA (european union)
Atom XL EEA (european union)
Atom L TEE (non-european union)
Atom XL TEE (non-european union)

How to install
How to update
How to upgrade

Links
TWRP
Common device tree
Device tree Atom L (model)
Device tree Atom XL (model)
Device tree Atom L EEA (european union)
Device tree Atom XL EEA (european union)
Device tree Atom L TEE (non-european union)
Device tree Atom XL TEE (non-european union)
Bug reporting

Spoiler: Changelog

2024-02-18
* February security updates included
2024-01-19
* January security updates included
2023-12-14
* December security updates included
2023-11-15
* November security updates included
2923-10-11
* October security updates included
* HardwareKeyMapper now features a toggle flashlight action
2023-09-18
* September security updates included
2023-08-20
* August security updates included
2023-07-12
* July security updates included
* Use apns-conf.xml from 2022/2023 stock rom
2023-06-12
* June security updates included
* Possible fix for VoLTE
2023-05-14
* May security updates included
* Updated HardwareKeyMapper to only rely on AccessibilityService
2023-04-20
* April security updates included
2023-03-23
* March security updates included
2023-02-18
* February security updates included
2023-01-12
* January security updates included
2022-12-12
* December security updates included
2022-11-14
* November security updates included
2022-10-09
* October security updates included
* Workaround for bluetooth audio not working with A2DP
2022-09-22
* September security updates included
2022-08-22
* August security updates included
* Switched from NavButtonRemap to HardwareKeyMapper for PTT integration
2022-07-15
* Switched to LOS 18.1
* July 2021 vendor updates included (needs vendor to be upgraded manually)
* July security updates included
2022-04-21
* April security updates included
* Extended apn list included
2022-03-27
* March security updates included
2022-02-16
* February security updates included
* Updated apns-conf.xml with stock entries
2022-01-31 (Only for Atom L TEE)
* Fixing a mixup of the prebuilt kernel
2022-01-22
* January security updates included
2021-12-16
* December security updates included
2021-11-14
* November security updates included
2021-10-10
* October security updates included
2021-09-16
* New icon for NavButtonRemap
* LineageOS OTA updates enabled
* September security updates included
2021-08-10
* August security updates included
2021-07-14
* July security updates included
2021-06-16
* May vendor updates included (needs vendor to be upgraded manually)
* June security updates included
* FMRadio is working now
* Nav Button Remap included
2021-05-10
* May security updates included
2021-04-15 2021-04-21
* April security updates included
* FMRadio is working now, without sound
* Raised the size of the system and product partition to support bigger gapps installs
* Combining the work for the Atom L and XL
2021-03-09
* March security patches included
* Built for the first time using a combined Atom L/XL device tree
2021-02-11
* February security patches included
* Notification LED is working now
* Included FMRadio app (but not working)
2021-01-24
* Intercom DMR is working now
* Audio Jack fixed
* Wifi Hotspot and USB Tethering are enabled
2021-01-16
* January security patches included
* Switched to TWRP recovery
2020-12-19
* December security patches included
* Updated for stock release 2020-11-04 (announced 2020-12-03), needs vendor to be updated separately
* !!! untested (for now) !!!
2020-11-10
* Rom build variant is "user" and is signed with release keys
* Recovery is still build variant "userdebug" and signed with test keys
* November security patches included
* Intercom doesn't crash anymore (but still doesn't work either)
* Some apps and sepolicies included from stock rom
2020-10-01
* Initial Alpha build released

Help from other developers is certainly welcome. Currently only myself is working on this ROM.

Credit and Thanks

• LineageOS team
• @PeterCxy for starting the work on the Atom L

Enjoy!

XDA:DevDB Information
LineageOS 18.1 for Unihertz Atom L and XL, ROM for the Android General

Contributors
a-dead-trousers
Source Code: https://github.com/ADeadTrousers/android_device_Unihertz_Atom_LXL

ROM OS Version: Android 11
ROM Kernel: Linux 4.x
Based On: LineageOS

Version Information
Status: Alpha

Created 2020-10-02
Last Updated 2024-02-18

 

[SepticFuddy]

Thanks for taking this up. I look forward to future developments. I'm not yet ready to try it in its current state since my XL is my daily driver and music player, but if the radio information is something I can grab for you without too much trouble, I'm willing to try. I'll need clear instructions though, as I'm not deeply familiar with Android development. I managed to root the old Atom and install Magisk, etc. after a day's effort, at least, so I'm not entirely incompetent :silly:

 

[a-dead-trousers]

Thanks for taking this up. I look forward to future developments. I'm not yet ready to try it in its current state since my XL is my daily driver and music player, but if the radio information is something I can grab for you without too much trouble, I'm willing to try. I'll need clear instructions though, as I'm not deeply familiar with Android development. I managed to root the old Atom and install Magisk, etc. after a day's effort, at least, so I'm not entirely incompetent :silly:

That's great news that I'm not alone on this
I understand that you don't want to give it a try yet.
There are quite some issues still present: https://github.com/ADeadTrousers/android_device_Unihertz_Atom_XL/issues

But maybe you could help me figure out at least one of them:
The phone is also my daily driver so I don't have the patients to go back and forth between Stock and Lineage multiple times, just to find out that I'm still missing some bits and pieces.
So I need someone with Stock to look up some information, so I can integrate it into Lineage.
Just for clarification because I never really used it and switched to Lineage right away: "Intercom" is in fact the app used for the amateur radio, or is it not?
If it is indeed then I need to know what service is running on port 9980 in Stock.
See also https://github.com/ADeadTrousers/android_device_Unihertz_Atom_XL/issues/1

wkr ADT

 

[SepticFuddy]

Just for clarification because I never really used it and switched to Lineage right away: "Intercom" is in fact the app used for the amateur radio, or is it not?
If it is indeed then I need to know what service is running on port 9980 in Stock.
See also {GitHub URL}

"Intercom" is indeed the radio app. There's another stock app called "Toolbox" which is also handy, since it has levels, protractors, heart rate monitor, underwater camera, and a bunch of other things. May be worthwhile to try to port that over as well.
Check GitHub, I tried getting that info on 9980 but ran into a hitch.

 

[a-dead-trousers]

Check GitHub, I tried getting that info on 9980 but ran into a hitch.

Thanks. I already did and also replied there.

There's another stock app called "Toolbox" which is also handy, since it has levels, protractors, heart rate monitor, underwater camera, and a bunch of other things. May be worthwhile to try to port that over as well.

During my research of the downloadable stock rom I found various mentions of the built-in sensors. The problem is that these informations are spread out quite heavily all over the rom: one init here, one sepolicy there, some so-drivers in another place. I will look into this a little bit late but it could take me some time to figure everything out. Currently I want to fix the problems that trouble me the most: gapps integration, intercom, the audio jack not working and doing a signed user build.
The last one actually broke my current build (boot loop) and I had to revert to a previous state so I need to figure out what I did wrong.

 

[tapa_t]

Hello, a-dead-trousers,
I am not really into LineageOS but I came across this thread while searching for a stock ROM.
Did you extract the stock ROM from your own device? If so, how?
I tried to readback using SP Flash Tool v5.2036, but only get an error saying "memory is HW_STORAGE_UFS, not HW_STORAGE_EMMC". I made an empty scatter using Wwr MTK tool v2.51, but only choices are either EMMC or NAND and there is no UFS option.

Or, did you download the stock ROM from somewhere? If so, where?
I found couple links online and downloaded one so far, but the downloaded scatter indicates that the memory is of the type HW_STORAGE_EMMC, which SP Flash Tool told me my device is not. So, I am not certain of the authenticity of the downloaded file.

My AXL is still on the stock ROM, obviously, and I can help you with what you questions.
Can you help me with backing up my stock ROM or show me a link to a known authentic stock?

 

[tapa_t]

Another question to anyone who might know:
Does Atom XL lose any functionality by unlocking bootloader?
Like those licensed image-enhancing engines on Sony Xperia devices?
I have been trying to root the device by flashing a magisk_patched boot image using SP Flash Tool.
It flashes OK but goes into boot loop every time.
None of the MTK devices I played with in the past required unlocking bootloader for flashing anything (magisk boot, twrp) as long as using SP tool and I was hoping that's the case again.
I don't mind unlocking at all if I am not losing anything, but I thought I check with other users first.
Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[a-dead-trousers]

Hello, a-dead-trousers,
I am not really into LineageOS but I came across this thread while searching for a stock ROM.
Did you extract the stock ROM from your own device? If so, how?

This is the official download link for Unihertz stock roms:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0By1nhWOmuw2KdDhTUlFOZHpXQjg?sort=13&direction=a

 

[a-dead-trousers]

Another question to anyone who might know:
Does Atom XL lose any functionality by unlocking bootloader?
Like those licensed image-enhancing engines on Sony Xperia devices?
I have been trying to root the device by flashing a magisk_patched boot image using SP Flash Tool.
It flashes OK but goes into boot loop every time.
None of the MTK devices I played with in the past required unlocking bootloader for flashing anything (magisk boot, twrp) as long as using SP tool and I was hoping that's the case again.
I don't mind unlocking at all if I am not losing anything, but I thought I check with other users first.
Thanks in advance for any info!

I'm not sure, but I think you will definitely loose SafetyNet credibility amongst other security related checks (banking apps and so on).
The SPFlash flashing should work though. Unless the "new" super partition layout is not supported by magisk or there is a problem with the checksums and avb. Best to ask the developers of magisk. They should know the pitfalls.

 

[a-dead-trousers]

It seems that they are currently working on the avb (dm-verity) problem:
https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/commit/d0b6318b90dc8f1c315b1a2a0eda03d1f9e38027

 

[tapa_t]

I'm not sure, but I think you will definitely loose SafetyNet credibility amongst other security related checks (banking apps and so on).
The SPFlash flashing should work though. Unless the "new" super partition layout is not supported by magisk or there is a problem with the checksums and avb. Best to ask the developers of magisk. They should know the pitfalls.

Thank you for the info.
I unlocked the bootloader, but flashing the magisk boot either by SP tool or by fastboot still gives a boot loop, which can easily be fixed by flashing back the stock boot.
Both unlocking and relocking bootloader "factory data resets" the device (that's what the device says in the process).
I don't find any loss in functionality by unlocking, but the process is probably still unnecessary if using SP tool.
I head over to the magisk support thread to see if there's anything to solve it.
Thanks again!

 

[a-dead-trousers]

There's another stock app called "Toolbox" which is also handy, since it has levels, protractors, heart rate monitor, underwater camera, and a bunch of other things. May be worthwhile to try to port that over as well.

The "toolbox" I found in the rom is an internal service and part of LineageOS itself. So I tried to find an "apk" with that name but had no luck either. There are several possible candidates but to figure out the right one I need the package name (e.g. com.agold. ...).

 

[SepticFuddy]

The "toolbox" I found in the rom is an internal service and part of LineageOS itself. So I tried to find an "apk" with that name but had no luck either. There are several possible candidates but to figure out the right one I need the package name (e.g. com.agold. ...).

Opening up the app starts com.agui.toolbox. Since it feels like a shorcut launcher, I tried starting some of the functions inside it to see if I could catch any other app names in the log, but nothing came up. So I think it's all contained within Toolbox, despite that one or two of the functions is broken for me.

EDIT: In the same vein, there are a few other baked-in apps, should you choose to port them over. Some may be standard in Android 10 and/or covered by LineageOS, I wouldn't know-

• com.tiqiaa.remote - ZazaRemote, for the IR emitter
• com.agui.newsos - SOS app
• com.agui.studentmodel - "Student Mode"
• com.agui.nfc - NFC Emulator
• com.mediatek.notebook - Notebook app... for notes
• com.mediatek.cellbroadcastreceiver - Emergency Alert app
• com.android.soundrecorder - Sound Recorder
• com.android.fmradio - FM Radio
• com.google.android.apps.wellbeing - Digital Wellbeing

 

[a-dead-trousers]

Opening up the app starts com.agui.toolbox. Since it feels like a shorcut launcher, I tried starting some of the functions inside it to see if I could catch any other app names in the log, but nothing came up. So I think it's all contained within Toolbox, despite that one or two of the functions is broken for me.

EDIT: In the same vein, there are a few other baked-in apps, should you choose to port them over. Some may be standard in Android 10 and/or covered by LineageOS, I wouldn't know-

• com.tiqiaa.remote - ZazaRemote, for the IR emitter
• com.agui.newsos - SOS app
• com.agui.studentmodel - "Student Mode"
• com.agui.nfc - NFC Emulator
• com.mediatek.notebook - Notebook app... for notes
• com.mediatek.cellbroadcastreceiver - Emergency Alert app
• com.android.soundrecorder - Sound Recorder
• com.android.fmradio - FM Radio
• com.google.android.apps.wellbeing - Digital Wellbeing

I can't find com.agui.toolbox. I decompiled every apk on "system" and "vendor" but none of them has this package name. I'm at my wits end.
com.tiqiaa.remote is on "vendor" but doesn't get automatically installed. Without "su" I get a permission denied, so that's maybe the reason why. Need to figure out a way to get past this. I always wanted a universial remote.
com.agui.newsos could be handy, will look into it.
com.agui.studentmodel what's that for?
com.agui.nfc could be handy, will look into it.
com.mediatek.notebook This looks like a copy of google notes to get the AOSP "sign of approval". I prefer to use the original not a cloned version with potential security issues. Sorry no inclusion.
com.mediatek.cellbroadcastreceiver honestly, the cell broadcasts I received with my old phone where quite useless, but maybe that's dependent of your carrier. So that's a big maybe.
com.android.soundrecorder this is the AOSP version, lineage brings it's own built-in. So no need for a inclusion from stock.
com.android.fmradio should be the AOSP version, found no source but a fairly recent apk on apkmirrors. A Maybe for inclusion.
com.google.android.apps.wellbeing that's part of gapps. So no need for a inclusion from stock.

Generally:
com.agui. looks like to be an local chinese manufacturer of addon chips (thermal, barometric, nfc and stuff)
com.mediateki. is of course the manufacturer of the board. They are using AOSP mostly but some things they need to "clone" when legally necessary (like the trump-us-ban on technology)
com.android. is AOSP, so mostly open source.
com.google.android. is Google itself, so mostly closed source or "rebranded" open source. (like "Firefox" is a trademark and can't be changed, but the sourcecode is available for everyone to use and alter you re not allowed to name it "Firefox" though)

 

[a-dead-trousers]

Found it! Some of the apps were on "product".

 

[SepticFuddy]

I can't find com.agui.toolbox. I decompiled every apk on "system" and "vendor" but none of them has this package name. I'm at my wits end.
com.tiqiaa.remote is on "vendor" but doesn't get automatically installed. Without "su" I get a permission denied, so that's maybe the reason why. Need to figure out a way to get past this. I always wanted a universial remote.
com.agui.newsos could be handy, will look into it.
com.agui.studentmodel what's that for?
com.agui.nfc could be handy, will look into it.
com.mediatek.notebook This looks like a copy of google notes to get the AOSP "sign of approval". I prefer to use the original not a cloned version with potential security issues. Sorry no inclusion.
com.mediatek.cellbroadcastreceiver honestly, the cell broadcasts I received with my old phone where quite useless, but maybe that's dependent of your carrier. So that's a big maybe.
com.android.soundrecorder this is the AOSP version, lineage brings it's own built-in. So no need for a inclusion from stock.
com.android.fmradio should be the AOSP version, found no source but a fairly recent apk on apkmirrors. A Maybe for inclusion.
com.google.android.apps.wellbeing that's part of gapps. So no need for a inclusion from stock.

Generally:
com.agui. looks like to be an local chinese manufacturer of addon chips (thermal, barometric, nfc and stuff)
com.mediateki. is of course the manufacturer of the board. They are using AOSP mostly but some things they need to "clone" when legally necessary (like the trump-us-ban on technology)
com.android. is AOSP, so mostly open source.
com.google.android. is Google itself, so mostly closed source or "rebranded" open source. (like "Firefox" is a trademark and can't be changed, but the sourcecode is available for everyone to use and alter you re not allowed to name it "Firefox" though)

That's about what I figured. Nice job on finding it.

I personally couldn't care less about WEAS alerts, but they are legally mandated in the US... not that I care about that either. People who want storm warnings, kidnapping alerts, and/or Presidential alerts would.

Student Mode appears to be a restricted mode for the device. So it's PIN locked, has an application whitelist/scheduler, network disabler and site restrictions. Useful for parental controls I suppose, but probably not high on the priority list for a LOS device.

 

[magnetosphere]

Hey OP, I have the XL with the stock ROM. Don't need a lot of handholding with app or firmware extraction, but I'm very interested in fixing the few broken items on LOS. The stock ROM is on the March 2020 security update (way too old) and has a bunch of bloatware and unremovable old apps, not to mention possible spyware. The manufacturer's lack of support or security updates is inexcusable, obviously, but this phone is frankly a miracle and I can't find anything that comes close to competing, so I'm down to help bring it up on LOS.

The radio is the primary peripheral I care about preserving. IR blaster and VoLTE are also important. As I understand it, the radio is essentially a 400-480MHz SDR wired directly to the main USB2 (or USB3?) bus. What do you need to proceed?

 

[a-dead-trousers]

hi @magnetosphere.
Currently I'm struggeling with configuring LineageOS to best cooperate with the stock vendor partition. In my opinion Unihertz (or Mediatek) did a very poor job in seperating system and vendor which is essential for project treble (main focus of Android 10 and 11) to work. Many parts that are clearly vendor specific (extmodule for intercom, various logging tools) should have been put into the vendor partition from the start. Therefore there are quite a few problems with SELinux which forces you to separate. Of course if you know the bits and pieces you could manipulate it but it's not my intention to heavily change LineageOS's internals.
I'm more or less a bloody beginner in Android development (it feels more like configuring than programming to me) and my only source of information right now are other device trees and how they solved the various problems. So I need to do many things on a trial and error basis.
So, yeah I appreciate every help I can get, but I cannot give many advices on how to do things. Essentially in the current state I would need someone who knows his or her way around in a device tree and can give me good advices on how best to do things.
One little bit on the the security situation:
The vendor patch lavel cannot be raised for now because it is essentialy the version of the kernel, which is currently at 4.14.141. To change this we would need the source code of the kernel and the modifications done by Mediatek which are essentially closed source (you need to pay to get them).

 

[a-dead-trousers]

A little update on my progress:
I tried to reverse engineer the whole stock system.img into the lineage system.img to rule out any missing system libraries, binaries or sepolicies but that resulted in various bootloops and bootcrashes.
Now I'm waiting for the latest stock rom to be released on Google Drive because in the release notes unihertz mentioned that they cleand out not used libraries. Maybe that will reduce my modification footprint and helps me figuring out what is REALLY missing and what is just bloatware that's not needed.
If that's not working I'm fearing that I also need to rebuild the vendor.img but that's a last resort.
The problem here is (I think) that the vendor.img needs some tinkering and additions to work with lineage which also has some parts (libraries, apps, binaries) that normally would go in there.

 

[sparkst]

Thank you for the info.
I unlocked the bootloader, but flashing the magisk boot either by SP tool or by fastboot still gives a boot loop, which can easily be fixed by flashing back the stock boot.
Both unlocking and relocking bootloader "factory data resets" the device (that's what the device says in the process).
I don't find any loss in functionality by unlocking, but the process is probably still unnecessary if using SP tool.
I head over to the magisk support thread to see if there's anything to solve it.
Thanks again!

Do you have any advice on how to flash after a botched boot partition flash? When I try to boot into bootloader/fastboot/recovery by holding power and volume up, it just reboots endlessly.

 

[magnetosphere]

hi @magnetosphere.
Currently I'm struggeling with configuring LineageOS to best cooperate with the stock vendor partition. In my opinion Unihertz (or Mediatek) did a very poor job in seperating system and vendor which is essential for project treble (main focus of Android 10 and 11) to work. Many parts that are clearly vendor specific (extmodule for intercom, various logging tools) should have been put into the vendor partition from the start. Therefore there are quite a few problems with SELinux which forces you to separate. Of course if you know the bits and pieces you could manipulate it but it's not my intention to heavily change LineageOS's internals.
I'm more or less a bloody beginner in Android development (it feels more like configuring than programming to me) and my only source of information right now are other device trees and how they solved the various problems. So I need to do many things on a trial and error basis.
So, yeah I appreciate every help I can get, but I cannot give many advices on how to do things. Essentially in the current state I would need someone who knows his or her way around in a device tree and can give me good advices on how best to do things.
One little bit on the the security situation:
The vendor patch lavel cannot be raised for now because it is essentialy the version of the kernel, which is currently at 4.14.141. To change this we would need the source code of the kernel and the modifications done by Mediatek which are essentially closed source (you need to pay to get them).

Finally this thread is back on the forums. I will have to look around the SELinux parameters for the default OS.