UnifiedNlp not working on LineageOS 17.0 Beta

[oscaropenness]

Steps to reproduce:
Flash UnifiedNlp_2018-08-17.img via TWRP 3.3.1
Long press on location icon in pulldown menu
start osmand with Battery Saving location activated

Expected behaviour:
In location setting should be a link into UnifiedNlp-App.
Osmand~ should find location via Cell Network.

Actual behaviour:
App does not show up.
Osmand~ does not find location.

Does the UnifiedNlp work under LineageOS 17?
What adjustments need to be made to make it work?

[Roboe]

Hi, thank you so much for bringing this up.

I currently don't have a device with LOS 17, and therefore I can't test this. I don't know neither if there've been any changes to the Android system that render this kind of installation obsolete for that Android version upwards.

I'm afraid I'm unable to do much more to help you than tagging this issue with [help wanted] and patiently wait for some other generous peep to help you.

[dllud]

@oscaropenness Does your device use an A/B system-as-root partition style? If so #14 should fix this for you, perhaps in conjugation with #13.

[Roboe]

I've prepared a pre-release with @dllud contributions. Could someone test them and report results, please? 🙏

https://github.com/WeAreFairphone/flashable-zip_microG/tree/2019-12-23

Thanks everyone!

[snm247]

This doesn't work for LineageOS 17. /system is used instead of /system/system.

The reason seems to be that BOARD_BUILD_SYSTEM_ROOT_IMAGE isn't set to true for Android 10 (see here), so the following code in update_binary doesn't work as expected:

SYSTEM_AS_ROOT="$(getprop ro.build.system_root_image)"

The result of getprop ro.build.system_root_image is empty (using lineage_FP2-UNOFFICIAL-17.0-BETA0.zip):

(As a side note: The installation of the F-Droid Privileged Extension fails the same way.)

[dllud]

Thanks for the feedback @snm247
According to the Android documentation you linked, it should be safe to use /system/system for Android 10 and later, and bypass the ro.build.system_root_image check.
@Roboe can you add that?

[oscaropenness]

As already mentioned the by @snm247, the unifiednlp_2019-12-23.test.zip-build does NOT work. However, the recommendation by @dllud to bypass the test (in my case by commenting it out, and setting SYSTEM_ROOT to /system/system) seemed to work.
After installing my hacked unifiednlp_2020-01-03.zip via TWRP, I can now see the UnifiedNlp Settings under Location.
However, this hack might only work for LineageOS 17.0 and is probably not a general solution.

But I want to thank you all very much already for your help and the quick response.

@Roboe Should I keep this open until there is a general fix?

[snm247]

I can confirm that unifiednlp works when SYSTEM_ROOT is set to /system/system.

In case you want to use BUILD_VERSION_SDK to get the LineageOS version (as it is already used for older versions): The beta version of LineageOS 17 uses an outdated value here:

~ # getprop ro.build.version.sdk
23

So it may be best to wait until LineageOS 17 is out of beta.

[Roboe]

@dllud Ok, so all Android 10 devices don't set ro.build.system_root_image but behave like so. Ok, I'll rewrite the condition (read below).

@oscaropenness Yes, let's keep this open until we manage to get a working release.

@snm247 Hmm, it shouldn't output 23 on a live system, that's Android 6 (!). At least, it should spit 28 (Android 9 Pie). From a live system with Termux, my Oreo device outputs 27 and my Nougat device outputs 25. I guess you are checking from TWRP. However, the check in this installer is done by manually reading $SYSTEM_ROOT/build.prop to avoid ambiguity.

There's an issue. I can't properly read the build.prop to know the Android SDK version until I know where to find the system folder... which was the reason I wanted to read the build.prop in the first place, 😅. I don't know right now if we could safely check for the build.prop in /system and /system/system and discard the failed one. We will need to test that or find another way to check the Android version or system root.

[snm247]

I guess you are checking from TWRP.

You are right. Sorry for the confusion ...

After booting into LineageOS 17.0 Beta the result is:

getprop ro.build.version.sdk
29

And the result of getprop ro.build.system_root_image is still empty.

Just an idea: since the following line of code seems to work correctly in LineageOS 16, maybe the flashable zip gets the correct values when using getprop?:

SYSTEM_AS_ROOT="$(getprop ro.build.system_root_image)"

If so, you could still use getprop ro.build.version.sdk in a flashable zip.

[Roboe]

Hmmm, you're right, it worth checking with a little script

UnifiedNLP won't work on Android 10 until these PRs are merged:

microg/UnifiedNlp#183
microg/IchnaeaNlpBackend#53
microg/GmsCore#1004

True for every installer. You can see if this is the issue or not by enabling and disabling a backend and then checking satsat (if this is the issue you should temporarily see a network location).