Howto Upgrade LineageOS From 17.1 to 18.1

Recently a major update landed in LineageOS updater for my phone (Oneplus 6 - codename enchilada). Originally I put there Android 10 - LineageOS 17.1 and the newest is Android 11 - LineageOS 18.1.

As major updates cannot be automatically installed, I went to follow the upgrade guide and do it manually.

The update went smoothly and there were no problems.

Basically I followed the upgrade guide and searched for some additional stuff.

• application data (SMS, calls, …), data on an internal storage (Whatsapp stuff, downloaded files, …) and microSD card content survive the upgrade
• recovery update is not needed
• update to latest LineageOS 17.1
• install android-tools to have adb utility
• enable developer mode by tapping 7 times on phone info in settings and enable USB debugging and ADB only
• connect phone to the computer and select as connection type USB debugging and confirm the fingerprint
• now you should see your device in adb devices - might need to run as root
• download lineage from https://download.lineageos.org/enchilada
• download Google Apps if you want - MindTheGapps - I need them, because some application won’t work without them unfortunately (vendor lock-in ftw)
• run adb reboot sideload and wait until it boots into recovery
• upload new lineage with adb sideload ~/Downloads/lineage-18.1-20210504-nightly-enchilada-signed.zip and wait until it uploads and installs
• then click Advanced and Reboot to Recovery and after reboot Apply Update and Apply from ADB and then adb sideload ~/Downloads/MindTheGapps-11.0.0-arm64-20210412_124247.zip and wait until it uploads and installs
• reboot
• and it’s done!

Sources:

• https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/enchilada/upgrade
• https://www.xda-developers.com/lineageos-18-1/
• http://downloads.codefi.re/jdcteam/javelinanddart/gapps
• https://opengapps.org/