CalyxOS: Android-Custom ROM with massive problems

In a message to the community, the team of the alternative and Google-free Android version CalyxOS writes that two important heads have left the team. They now need to reorganize internally.

According to contribution, Nicholas Merrill, president and founder of the Calyx Institute, has left the organization to devote himself to other projects. Secondly, Chirayu Desai, the technical director of CalyxOS, has also left. Desai wrote in a Reddit post about his departure: “Android is changing, so I figured I should make some changes too.”

The departure of the two leaves a gap that needs to be filled, writes the remaining CalyxOS team. “After their departure, there will be a transition phase while we continue to develop.” During this phase, the aim is to realign internally while adhering to established security procedures. The team is also working on “improving transparency and security through better design, better communication, and better infrastructure.”

No updates for up to 6 months

Key actions include “modernizing the technical infrastructure to support CalyxOS development”, “stabilizing update release cycles for our 25+ supported devices”, and “revising and updating our usage and development documentation, wiki, and user guides”. CalyxOS estimates that it could take four to six months to complete all these tasks. Only then will the “targeted security level” be achieved.

As part of the conversion, CalyxOS will switch the signing and verification process to new signature keys. As a result, current CalyxOS users will not be able to receive any further security software updates until the process is completed. New versions will also no longer be available until then. In addition, the team is pausing the download of current CalyxOS versions for new users.

CalyxOS would like to point out that users who wish to continue using the custom ROM will not receive any new security patches provided by the Android Open-Source Project and device manufacturers during the upgrade phase. The team “sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience” and understands if users uninstall CalyxOS to switch to another Android distribution that guarantees data protection meanwhile.

CalyxOS wants to help users with the migration and promises to publish a guide on how to backup and restore smartphones to a standard or custom Android distribution with Seedvault by August 6.

(afl)