Johnny Matthews | Installing LineageOS on Nexus 5X from macOS

Bored of the standard Android OS on your Nexus 5X? You might be interested in installing LineageOS, a free and open-source operating system for various devices based on the Android mobile platform. I created this post partly as a guide, and partly as a reminder for when I need to do this again in three months. This was written on 1st of March 2018.

Prerequisite downloads

  1. Download TWRP to your Downloads folder.
  2. Download LineageOS package to your Downloads folder.
  3. Download Google Apps (arm64 version) to your Downloads folder.

Unlock the bootloader

  1. Enable USB debugging on phone.
  2. Toggle OEM Unlock on phone.
  3. Run brew cask install android-platform-tools in terminal.
  4. Plug phone into computer.
  5. Allow USB debugging on the phone using the popup.
  6. Run adb reboot bootloader in terminal.
  7. Run fastboot devices to verify the computer can find the phone.
  8. Run fastboot flashing unlock in terminal.

Install a custom recovery package using fastboot

  1. Run adb reboot bootloader in terminal.
  2. Run fastboot devices to verify the computer can find the phone.
  3. Run `~/Downloads
  4. Run fastboot flash recovery twrp-x.x.x-x-bullhead.img. Change the file name to reflect the TWRP .img file you downloaded in Step 1.
  5. Turn the phone off.
  6. Hold the Volume Down and Power buttons down until you see the fastboot menu.

Install LineageOS from recovery

  1. Run adb push filename.zip /sdcard/. Change the filename to reflect the LineageOS .zip file you downloaded in Step 1.
  2. Run adb push filename.zip /sdcard/. Change the filename to reflect the Google Apps .zip file you downloaded in Step 1.
  3. On the phone, select Wipe and then Advanced Wipe.
  4. Select Cache, System, and Data.
  5. Swipe the bar at the bottom of the screen to wipe the partitions.
  6. Go back to the main menu using the back arrow at the bottom of the screen.
  7. Select Install.
  8. Navigate to /sdcard and select the LineageOS .zip file you copied to the phone in Step 3.
  9. Select Add another ZIP.
  10. Navigate to /sdcard and select the Google Apps .zip file you copied to the phone in Step 3.
  11. Follow the on-screen prompts to install the packages.
  12. When the installation has finished select Reboot, and then System.