It has been years since I have installed a custom rom on my device.
Today, I successfully installed Lineage OS on my Xiaomi phone. The rom is no longer maintained by Lineage, so I had difficulty finding the ROM file since the team removed it from their website. I searched through some websites and I was able to finally find the .zip file. I also had difficulty in unlocking the bootloader because the Xiaomi unlocking tool would not send the OTP to my device. But I was able to fix the problem by using an updated version of the tool.
Flashing the rom was super easy. The instructions on Lineage OS website is really good and helpful. I had also watched a video on the process. Initially, I was hesitant to install the rom as the volume buttons don’t really work properly. With the help of ADB and a ball-pen to push the volume buttons, everything went well.
The main intention behind installing Lineage OS was to get rid of Xiaomi apps and spyware off my phone. But I still have gapps(nano) on my phone. Yes, I know about microg and magisk! The process of installing it seems really complex. Also, Aurora Droid no longer works, since google rate limited the anonymous accounts.
I like only use three closed source and non free apps. The rest are from F-droid.
TLDR: I installed Lineageos on my phone with gapps. The installation process went surprisingly well. I did not expect flashing the rom to be this easy.
Installing Lineage OS (or most custom ROMs) isn’t hard. It’s getting the phone to the state to accept custom ROMs that might be tricky.
I think Xiaomi’s process is actually quite painless, once you get the boot unlocker working. I remember they make people wait to get the unlock going, did that happen to you?
I personally preferred the Twrp custom recovery route for loading ROMs, it makes it pretty quick and easy. Also good if you like trying out ROMs!
