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Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

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Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#181

Post by shadowgovt »

dingledork69 wrote: post #68
LiamPowell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct, people generally don't get to own a device provided by their employer. Not allowing the bootloader to be unlocked on company-owned devices seems like a very desirable feature.

Even if you buy it yourself you don't get to own it before having google bless your device, which you can only hope they will.

Well, "hope" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Google is still very much bound by the law regarding advertising and declaration of utility of sold product. The law gives them broad leeway as to the implementation, but if they decided tomorrow "hey you know how you can unlock your devices that we advertised as unlocked on our store? We changed our minds, the devices sold can no longer be unlocked," that would be grounds at the very least for return with refund, and a lawsuit if Google didn't honor that.

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#182

Post by seti0Cha »

dleslie wrote: post #171
azalemeth wrote: post #118

If I wanted to buy a new phone that I could root, install a custom ROM on, and use without voiding the warranty, what's the current best bet? One Plus used to be pretty good, but they've gone down in freedoms and up in price. Samsung are an obvious no. The entire design of the iPhone is specifically aimed at keeping the user out of it. Linux phones aren't usable yet. The shop on the /e/ foundation website seems to be…

Pinephone Plus is a decent option, but you will be underwhelmed by the camera.

Are you using it as a daily driver? Seems like every time I look into Linux phones, there's always been some fundamental bit of functionality that wasn't working yet, like waking from sleep for phone calls. Are we beyond that now?

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#183

Post by opan »

JeremyNT wrote: post #132
jacooper wrote: post #99

Honestly be glad that google still allows bootloader unlocking. And the WiFi requirement is very small, and the article is overblowing it.

Yeah, the state of affairs with Google is better than any other mainstream vendor. It seems lame that you have to phone home to unlock a new device, but it's nothing compared to what they could be doing.

OnePlus has no such restrictions that I've seen, from the One to the 8T. I haven't heard of them locking down newer ones either. You just run the usual command to unlock the bootloader, no funny business. I've run a custom ROM on all of them that I've owned.

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#184

Post by shadowgovt »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #130
LiamPowell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is correct, people generally don't get to own a device provided by their employer. Not allowing the bootloader to be unlocked on company-owned devices seems like a very desirable feature.

But the provisioning check is forced on everyone. I don't think it's reasonable to enforce a provisioning process on every single person just because a small number of the devices go to enterprise-sized companies that want "zero touch" and Google (and their distributors) don't want the expense of stocking two SKUs, one set to require provisioning, and another not. I shouldn't have to prove ownership of my device to s…

> A company should not have the ability to render millions of devices useless because they purposefully or accidentally shut off a provisioning service

Isn't this considering a hypothetical scenario where somebody buys one of these phones, tosses it in a drawer for years, and only later comes back to discover the provisioning server is gone?

If you buy one of these phones it says it can be unlocked and you can't unlock it, Google is obligated to take it back for a refund or to eat a lawsuit from aggrieved customers for false advertising.

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#185

Post by shadowgovt »

dingledork69 wrote: post #88
Dylan16807 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the process doesn't work then return it as defective. Transfer of control isn't happening exactly at sale time but a few hours later isn't a big deal. Though of course that depends on it staying unlocked.

And it depends on the user being willing to connect it to the (public) internet without a firewall in between. I wonder if any of the countries that implement a country-wide firewall block this domain. That would disable bootloader unlocking for the entire country.

We're talking about a cell phone though, right? A device that sooner or later is going to be connected to a cellular internet that will track it relentlessly?

I'd imagine the demographic that is buying the cell phone and then not intending to use it as a phone is not one that Google is losing a lot of sleep over serving poorly.

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#186

Post by opan »

azalemeth wrote: post #118

If I wanted to buy a new phone that I could root, install a custom ROM on, and use without voiding the warranty, what's the current best bet? One Plus used to be pretty good, but they've gone down in freedoms and up in price. Samsung are an obvious no. The entire design of the iPhone is specifically aimed at keeping the user out of it. Linux phones aren't usable yet. The shop on the /e/ foundation website seems to be…

Can you elaborate on your OnePlus comment about less freedom? Last I checked you could still unlock the bootloader and flash LineageOS right away.

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#187

Post by rkagerer »

Sierra7 wrote: post #168

Basically this is done to ensure that the phone isn't locked by the carrier, meaning if you buy the device directly from google you can still unlock the device by connecting to the internet. Yeah, it sucks, yeah, you own your device less in a way, but im happy they still let you do it. I sent a support message a while back asking about it on the google store thing - and they said it was unlocked. I installed graphene…

So my choices are locked or locked?

This is why I ordered my last phone from Hong Kong (and convinced the seller to take Bitcoin for it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25598831).

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#188

Post by rkagerer »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #125

"Here is the rest of the network activity, all of which is TLS-encrypted by keys buried in the stock Google operating system, and thus not controlled by the device purchaser: Hostname Downloaded to phone Uploaded from phone storage.googleapis.com 383 MiB 8 MiB fonts.gstatic.com 137 MiB 3 MiB afwprovisioning-pa.googleapis.com 18 MiB 1 MiB www.gstatic.com 8 MiB 287 kiB googlehosted.l.googleusercontent.com 8 MiB 345 kiB…

I'm generally not a fan of bigger government, but we need to legislate to death the practice of companies sending your data off without transparency and consent.

Re: Pixel phones are sold with bootloader unlocking disabled

#190

Post by Sierra7 »

rkagerer wrote: post #187
Sierra7 wrote: post #168

Basically this is done to ensure that the phone isn't locked by the carrier, meaning if you buy the device directly from google you can still unlock the device by connecting to the internet. Yeah, it sucks, yeah, you own your device less in a way, but im happy they still let you do it. I sent a support message a while back asking about it on the google store thing - and they said it was unlocked. I installed graphene…

So my choices are locked or locked? This is why I ordered my last phone from Hong Kong (and convinced the seller to take Bitcoin for it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25598831 ).

> So my choices are locked or locked?

Not really. Your choices are:

- Locked by your carrier if they lock it, annoy support to get them to take it off

- Bought directly from google, can be unlocked.

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