We left the M release builds in the oven longer than we thought, but nothing a little graham cracker and chocolate can’t make that much better. CM13.0 brings Android 6.0.1 (r17) goodies such as the battery saving ‘doze’ functionality and new permissions model, alongside the CM features you’d expect.
This is the first non-nightly release for CM13, which means this will the first step many of you take into the world of Marshmallow. M brings along a handful of items that will pose issues if you are caught unaware, so in the interest of saving you some potential heartburn, we’re going to highlight that there are a couple of different update scenarios applicable.
Update scenario 1: CM 12.1 release or nightly user + Googley bits
Update steps: Update to the latest TWRP image available for your device. Download CM13.0 (if available for your device) and your Googley bits of choice for M. Reboot to recovery, and flash CM13.0 and the Googley bits one after another. If you reboot in between CM and the extra package, you will have a bad time due to how the permissions model works in M. Reboot out of recovery only after you have flashed both packages.
If you trigger an assert violation (radio, bootloader, etc), fulfill the requirement it complains about. These asserts are in place to make sure your firmware matches what CM13/Android 6.0.1 needs and you can actually use your device/phone as a device/phone.
Update scenario 2: CM 12.1 release or nightly user + No Google apps
Update steps: Update to the latest recovery available for your device (CM recovery or TWRP). Download CM13.0. Reboot to recovery and flash CM13.0. Done, easy as that.
If you trigger an assert violation (radio, bootloader, etc), fulfill the requirement it complains about. These asserts are in place to make sure your firmware matches what CM13/Android 6.0.1 needs and you can actually use your device/phone as a device/phone.
Update scenario 3: CM 13.0 nightly user
Update steps: Stop. Step away from the phone. Do not flash these builds, you are already on a newer codebase (Android 6.0.1_r22). Attempting to flash these release builds will result in crashes due to attempted database downgrades. Don’t do it.
If you want to swap off nightlies and stick to our release channel, you will have to wipe to take these builds.
Update scenario 4: Nexus 6P (angler), Nexus 5X (bullhead), Nexus 9 (flounder) users
Update steps: Pick scenarios 1 or 2 (based on your usage) but with one added (and very important extra step). Nexus devices now ship with a large portion of their proprietary code in a vendor partition on the device itself. This is not something CM’s installation will update for you. If your vendor partition doesn’t match with the CM build, you will be met with an error on boot up that the system is potentially corrupted. To prevent this message (and ensure things like camera function), you should make sure you are on the latest available vendor image for your device. Vendor images can be found in the stock Nexus factory images provided by Google here. Extract the latest available zip and flash the vendor image through your bootloader with ‘fastboot flash vendor vendor.img’.
CM13 Changelog (the big stuff):
A delta between 12.1 and 13.0 will show thousands of changes (Google’s, Qualcomms’s, Linux Foundation, CM Community’s, etc), but let’s take a look at the ones that you are likely to notice:
- Whisperpush capability (encrypted SMS) – removed
- Removed from CM software globally, no replacement
- Settings > About phone > Advanced mode – removed.
- New behavior is to show all settings at all times.
- Settings > Notification Drawer > Quick Settings – removed
- New behavior is to control layout and options directly via QS panel via ‘edit’ tile or long-press of settings gear in the pull down area
- QS panel configuration items such as ‘enlarge first row’ and ‘show weather’ now present on leftmost QS pane while in edit mode.
- ‘Advanced location settings’ renamed to ‘Tri-state location’
- Settings > Status bar
- New controls for ‘Status bar icons’ (repurposing of SystemUI tuner from AOSP)
- Settings > Lockscreen > Quick unlock – removed
- No replacement; security constraint due to Android Gatekeeper
- Settings > Sim Cards > manual provisioning switch (Multisim) – removed
- Reliant on Qualcomm extphone. Currently no replacement.
- Settings > About phone > Build date
- Triple tap to access demo mode (developer/marketing feature to standardize renders).
- Settings > Lock screen > Owner info – replaced
- Replaced with ‘Lock screen message’ (AOSP change)
- Settings > Memory
- New screen (AOSP) to show memory usage over a selected period of time
- Device specific implementations of double-tap-to-wake replaced by AOSP implementation
- No major user impact
- CM implementation of silent mode replaced by AOSP implementation
- CM Protected apps
- New folder UX for viewing protected content
- Fingerprint support for accessing protected content
- Enhanced ability to prevent access while retaining usability
- A protected app can no longer be launched via Play Store
- App notifications and services are not hampered by protection status
- Power menu ability to swap System Profiles – removed
- Engineering constraint – QS panel tile for System Profiles as functional replacement
- New SMS/MMS Application
- We have switched off of the Qualcomm based messaging application (Mms-caf) to the AOSP one (Messaging). Notable features such as ‘Quick reply’ are available, but there may be slight variations in UI/UX.
- Permissions
- Due to new permission model API in M, Privacy guard has been re-engineered to be compliant with this new environment. Primary permission request for ‘Normal’ security level permissions will be handled by our package manager for non Google users, or Google’s manager for those that opt for Googley bits.
- Users retain ability to control fine-grained permissions via Settings > Privacy > Privacy Guard
- Due to new permission model API in M, Privacy guard has been re-engineered to be compliant with this new environment. Primary permission request for ‘Normal’ security level permissions will be handled by our package manager for non Google users, or Google’s manager for those that opt for Googley bits.
- Snap Camera
- Some devices now ship with an enhanced camera app based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon camera. For devices that do not support the Snap app, you will retain the Camera2 app as in 12.1.
- Cyanogen Apps pack
- A CM13.0 compliant C-Apps is not yet available, but should be coming in a week or so. Keep your eyes out if this is something you rely on.
Finally, this is the build roster for this evening:
acclaim
angler
bacon
bullhead
cancro
crackling
d800
d801
d802
d803
deb
find7
find7s
flo
flounder
g2m
ham
hammerhead
jag3gds
jagnm
kipper
kltechn
kltechnduo
klteduos
mako
manta
maserati
otus
r7plus
serrano3gxx
serranoltexx
shamu
sprout4
sprout8
spyder
targa
umts_spyder
w5
w7
Builds are queued up on the Jenkins instance and will pop out as they complete.
Happy Flashing!
– The CyanogenMod Team