[ROM][UNOFFICIAL][11][03/03/2021] LineageOS 18.1 for Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (lavender)

[1emrys1]

Don't upgrade. Multitasking is dead, at least on 3GB RAM version.

I'm honestly thinking about soldering the 4GB module to my device by hand, but I don't want to create unnecessary e-waste so I might not do it. ^^

True. My cousin has a Redmi Note 7. His phone was never rooted or unlocked. It is a 3/32 variant. And in last few months, it was lagging very badly on Miui. Launcher would reload every time he opened an app. Spotify would stop if he opened chrome or Twitter. It was terrible.

So I unlocked the bootloader. (Only took 10 minutes. Maybe because his Mi Account is old and was added to the device since long). Now i was looking for a rom. I wanted to install Los 17.1 but I would have to find the last official build in telegram groups because it's not available on Los site.
Also his firmware was the latest global stable rom. So i was worried that los 17.1 might not work properly.
So I finally flashed the latest Los 18.1 build. The phone feels totally new. Everything is smooth.

But multitasking is not good. Android footprint has grown a lot in the last 2 version. On a 3gb ram phone, android Oreo or Pie would only occupy 800 mb to 1 gb ram as system. But on Android 11, the system takes about 1.8-2 gb ram for itself.

And it doesn't make sense. On my 4gb Redmi Note 5 Pro, system also takes 1.8-2 gb. Why would it take the same amount on 3gb ram phone. It should scale down slightly.

I also have my uncle's Redmi 5a(riva) running Pixel Experience based on 8.1 Oreo. That phone has 2gb ram and system only takes up 800 mb. And i have no plans to update that phone to custom roms based on Android 10 or Android 11

So again, ram requirements have gone up, especially in android 11. And android used to occupy memory based on total ram available. But now Los 18.1 is taking the same 1.8-2 gb ram on 3gb ram phone as well 4gb ram phones. This affects multitasking quite a lot.

But at the end of the day, for my cousin, he is still extremely happy with his phone. He can at least have Spotify and Twitter running together. And his launcher doesn't reload when he swipes home. Everything feels fast and fluid. Only downwisde being that he can't open more than 2-3 apps at once. It's still 100 times better than miui.

 

[molnartibor]

what gapps are you using? in my experience memory usage and overall lagginess is significantly influenced by used gapps. maybe you should give GO editions a try

 

[olivi25]

hello, a new update

 

[steffan.herrmann]

Don't upgrade. Multitasking is dead, at least on 3GB RAM version.

I'm honestly thinking about soldering the 4GB module to my device by hand, but I don't want to create unnecessary e-waste so I might not do it. ^^

Yea, you were right. I flashed 18.1 with nik gapps after wiping everything. Its stable, but lagging when a few apps are running.
Whats even worse is the battery drain. Seems the battery lasts 30 - 50 % less.

Not sure if i should wait for a few more updates or downgrade back to 17 already. I dont see any advantage of android 11 that would be worth it.

Edit: its a 4/64 gb version

 

[k2r79]

Hi

I'm having some trouble with the GPS since I installed this ROM and OpenGApps Stock package.
It works correctly on GPS Status and I can get a quick lock but when I use an app such as GMaps or Strava it's slow and sometimes impossible to get a lock (Strava mostly).

I tried disabling the Google Location Accuracy but it didn't help so I decided to check with LogCat and found this trace :

07-26 10:06:35.101 20414 20468 W GCoreFlp: No location to return for getLastLocation()
07-26 10:06:35.123  1587  3612 W ActivityManager: Appop Denial: Accessing service com.google.android.gms/com.google.android.location.internal.server.GoogleLocationService from pid=20414, uid=10192 requires appop COARSE_LOCATION
07-26 10:06:35.104 20414 20468 W GCoreFlp: No location to return for getLastLocation()
07-26 10:06:35.123 20414 20468 W GCoreFlp: Unable to bind to GMS NLP
07-26 10:06:35.126 20414 20468 W GCoreFlp: Unable to bind to GMS NLP

I noticed that the access to the coarse location is denied, I guess Strava expects to get the coarse location quickly before trying to fine tune it, if not it just gives up and tells the user that no GPS lock is possible.

I read a thread about a similar permission issue on MicroG : https://github.com/microg/GmsCore/issues/986. It states that Google Play Services should have the permission to locate the user even in the background, which isn't the case on my phone and I cannot change it :/

Does someone have an idea ?

EDIT

I have managed to fix the issue by running these ADB commands :

./adb shell pm grant com.google.android.gms android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
./adb shell pm grant com.google.android.gms android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION

 

[MateUserHHTT]

My solution for multitasking problems/high RAM usage.
I'm using 256mb swap. Simple as that. Some websites still force music players getting killed, but IMO it's usable.

Note1: swap degrades your flash storage. So use the external SD card which is easily replaceable of broken (unlike internal storage) . create backups!!

Note2: I'm using microG.
Without those services tl(and GSF as well) RAM usage will be much lower. But for me it's not an option to remove microG.

Found this app to easily enable swap https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allakore.freeswapperforroot

Using a custom kernel and a custom kernel manager app to monitor if swap is used / working.

 

[1emrys1]

I have enabled now 2GB zram on my 4GB device, and it's fine - 1,2GB RAM are now free and around 800MB in zram, before only 100-200MB were free and oomkiller was killing a lot of apps while using them. So I think enabling zram would be an improvement.

Which app did you use to enable this? I would like to do it too on my 3gb ram device. And how much zram would you suggest for 3gb ram devices.

 

[shiatsu]

Hi,
Thanks for your work.

Ive installed Nik Gapps and the photos APP from Google os always crashing.

Also no fast charge.
Any solution?

Thanks

 

[aygul12345]

First of all,

Thanks for doing this!

But does this also work for the Mi 11 PRO / Ultra?

 

[NoGoodUserNamesLeft]

But does this also work for the Mi 11 PRO / Ultra?

No.
Overview of officially supported Xiaomi phones: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#xiaomi