r/LineageOS • u/niccolleen • 1d ago
Legacy devices and newer OS questions
I read in this sub about OS 23 and 24 and was wondering, why my Nokia 6.1 can only upgrade to 22.2.
I searched on the website and assume that the info found here under legacy etc. about 4.4 kernel applies to my case: https://lineageos.org/Changelog-32/
Can someone explain to a non-tech user what this means for me. Will my phone have its last update wirh 22.2 Android 15 due to security reasons even if it could have 24 on the phone due to its structure?
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u/BadDaemon87 Lineage Team Member 1d ago
Nobody said "due to security reasons". The text actually says:
"The legacy kernel versions and devices associated with them carry countless platform commits that are rather hacky and difficult to continue to pull forward to newer Android versions."
Whats unclear about it?
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u/Junior-Lecture7775 1d ago
Heyyy not tech person here. I dont get it. 🤧
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u/BadDaemon87 Lineage Team Member 19h ago
"difficult to continue to pull forward to newer Android versions"
Even if "pull forward" is too much, the rest gives the reason just fine. "Difficult ... To newer android versions"
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u/PassionGlobal 1d ago
Basically for a number of reasons, Android devices that don't support GKI are tied to the kernels that either shipped with the device or came with official updates. Those kernels have the driver's you need to work your phone, other kernels do not.
But the kernel is more than a bunch of drivers, it handles all interactions between software and hardware. Over time the way these communications take place changes, like from Ye Olde Shakespearean English to Modern English.
Now let's say your kernel talks Shakespearean English and Lineage 24 talks Modern English. More often than not, or even just occasionally, when it receives a message from Lineage, it will respond 'The fuck thou sayeth?'. Which will look like a complete system crash in practice. Really not what you want in a phone.
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u/Alias_X_ 1d ago
Security patches from August 2025 to October 2026 have been merged to LineageOS 18.1 through 24.0.
As always, we will merge full security bulletins and change the security patch level string to match on all branches that Google actively distributes bulletins for - which as of writing is Android 14 (LineageOS 21) and newer.
We also plan to continue backporting and merging security bulletin patches to 18.1, 19.1, and 20.0, though as there is no “attestable” set of patches provided by Google for these versions, we will not modify the security patch level string.
Legacy branch patching has progressed greatly:
Security patches through November 2025 have been merged for the legacy branches 15.1, 16.0, and 17.1
This gets closer to closing the rather exhaustive effort to backport all feasible security patches.
Slightly off-topic, but I did not know that non-Google backports for security patches were even a thing with Lineage. Cool! So people with devices that require dead end kernels can at least sleep a bit better.
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u/Jackavalltrades 1d ago
Can someone explain to a non-tech user what this means for me. Will my phone have its last update wirh 22.2 Android 15 due to security reasons even if it could have 24 on the phone due to its structure?
It means the Nokia 6.1 won't go past 22.2.
I'll try a non-tech explanation ...
The 'kernel' in Android is a critically-important piece of software that works directly with the device's specific hardware and 'translates' between the hardware and the operating system.
Android 16 (LOS 23) and above depend on kernel functions that the Nokia's kernel doesn't have. The device is long past vendor support, so it won't get vendor updates that would fix this.
A way around this type of problem is to build an extra code module to sit between the OS and the kernel and translate anything that needs the new features into instructions that the old kernel understands.
Unfortunately, building this type of code is a tough job, and maintaining it is a never-ending job. The code cannot be one-size-fits-all. It has to be created separately for every single device type with an outdated kernel, and will often need patches when there are OS patches and updates.
Also, it has to be stable and reliable. Older kernels generally have some security and other bugs that weren't identified and patched by the vendor. Such bugs could be difficult or impossible to work around.
So ... somebody who's capable of the necessary coding work has to be willing and able to donate their time and energy, first by attempting to create the adaptor -- which might turn out to a waste of their efforts because it's too hard to get working / make stable -- then, if successful, keeping the code working in future as the OS is patched and updated.
Nobody has yet offered to do this for the Nokia 6.1, and it's unlikely that anyone will.
Is that any clearer?
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u/After-Peace-4734 1d ago
As you said, could be due to an old kernel version and no maintainer doing all the work to backport fixes/stuff
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u/morocotopo1829 1d ago
In short: not worthy to spend time and resources in old devices due to incompatibility