Building CyanogenMod 14.1 for Nexus 6

Question

I am interested in using CyanogenMod 14.1 on my Nexus 6, but since it is not available even in the form of an official Nightly release just yet, I have to acquire it elsewhere. As always, there are third party developers who have compiled their own builds of it, but since they are not directly from the source, I do not trust them, and would rather build it myself. I started researching how to build CyanogenMod for the Nexus 6 on the CyanogenMod Wiki and I managed to get everything done until I ran into the proprietary blobs. According to the Wiki, I need to be already running a version of CyanogenMod containing containing the blobs that I need. How exactly can I do this, given that there is no official release of CyanogenMod 14.1, nor is there even an Android 7.0.1 release for me to use instead? Is it possible for me to use the Nexus 6 stock blobs from Android 7.0.0 build NBD90Z? If not, how can I go about making the blobs "work" with CM 14.1? Even after I get the blobs, I am not sure what I am supposed to do with them.

Edit: Apparently I have other problems as well. The Wiki states that I should cd into ~/android/system/device/moto/shamu, but that folder does not exist in my repository. Why is that?

— DaveTheMinion | Sources

Answer

You can't build that from the official repos yet, since the code is not ready.

There is a reason unofficial builds exist - the devs write their own codes and patches to make the code buildable, bootable and functional ahead of release, and put them in their own repos. Unless you're skilled enough to do the same, you do have to use their code or wait for official nightlies to drop (by then the official code will be ready too).

As for the trust issue... Devs don't usually interfere with CM common code; rather they create device, kernel and vendor repos which are device-specific. Again, if you still can't trust their knowledge about the device then it's up to you to research from the ground up.

Finally, since CM12.x, the blob extraction step is obsolete.

I build CM on my own PC too, but I sync from third-party repos when possible (e.g. if another dev posts his CM14 builds, I get the repo from his XDA thread) and trust them, because why not? CM is made up of individual maintainers; if you can trust one there's no reason you can't trust another.

— Andy Yan | Sources

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