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Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

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Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#191

Post by climb_stealth »

unaindz wrote: post #135
sunaookami wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still possible outside of China but you have to have a Mi account and for newer phones you have to make some forum posts or some dumb shit.

I dont think you need to do the forum posts but you need to request unlocking every two days and pray it works. Supposedly at 00:00 chinese local time for any chances of getting permission. Took me several months of trying non continuously.

So you were actually successful in the end? I've given up on it.

With the time difference I had to do it at 3am or something ridiculous like that.

They have effectively disabled bootloader unlocking. They can kindly fuck off.

Compared to my previous Xiaomi, which required an account of a certain age and active phone use. But after that the unlocking just worked.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#192

Post by g-b-r »

rickdeckard wrote: post #108
g-b-r wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the cost to develop/maintain/support the feature? It's a simple switch, and since it's probably in AOSP there's cost in removing it, not in leaving it there

The cost is in managing a permitted device-state without a full trust-chain, and maintaining the unlock-logic and service of such an unlock of a device. It should be simple, but since some carriers required BL-unlock to not be supported at all, many carriers required the availability of a list of all devices being unlocked and all required unlock to be irreversible, there are quite a few considerations to keep this w…

I don't understand your points, to my eyes if the bootloader is unlocked you simply either:

- don't provide the features for which you require a locked bootloader

- and don't do anything with the rest of the features

And anyhow, I'm almost sure that this is AOSP code (with a quick search I didn't manage to find it).

And, I don't know any carriers that require a locked bootloader outside of the US, and Samsung already only sold models without bootloader unlocking in the US.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#193

Post by mrheosuper »

RealStickman_ wrote: post #35
saidinesh5 wrote: post #7

Pixel stopped providing device trees, kernel history, Samsung has been doing this for a while now. Which are the devices/vendors that still allow / encourage this? Even Graphene OS reported that they're in talks with some vendor... Have there been any updates towards that? The main reason i used to root devices are: * Get longer support/OS updates than what the vendor provided * System level adblock using adaway * Ti…

Here's an updated list of relatively popular phone manufactures and their bootloader unlocking potential. https://github.com/melontini/bootloader-unlock-wall-of-shame...

Surprise that Oppo is in avoid list, while oneplus is in safe list. Both of them are from same company.

This proves there is no technical difficulty to provide unlock bootloader

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#194

Post by mrheosuper »

mschuster91 wrote: post #123

Normally, I'd go and say "vote with your wallet" - but sadly, in the tablet sphere, it's either ultra low spec Alibaba junk or it's Samsung. No Fairphone, no Pixel, nothing. Seriously Samsung, go and screw yourselves. The reason I insist on rooting in the first place is because unlike iOS which has a true full backup that you can trigger from your Mac (and restore afterwards), Android decidedly does not, and a bunch…

there are countless decent android tablet not from Samsung. Lenovo, oppo, oneplus, xiaomi.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#195

Post by dbcooper »

saidinesh5 wrote: post #7

Pixel stopped providing device trees, kernel history, Samsung has been doing this for a while now. Which are the devices/vendors that still allow / encourage this? Even Graphene OS reported that they're in talks with some vendor... Have there been any updates towards that? The main reason i used to root devices are: * Get longer support/OS updates than what the vendor provided * System level adblock using adaway * Ti…

You can use nextdns for DNS adblocking.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#196

Post by RainyDayTmrw »

ranger207 wrote: post #86
nunez wrote: post #79

As someone who roots single-purpose Android devices, this is one of those things that sucks big-time but makes total sense. The only reason one would unlock a bootloader is to root the system partition. It is impossible to protect data on rooted phones and makes data exfiltration attacks significantly easier to do. This is a huge problem for banking and music apps that absolutely rely on this capability. Samsung is,…

> It is impossible to protect data on rooted phones What makes securing rooted phones different from securing rooted PCs?

If PCs were newly invented today, they may well have been locked down from the start. You already seeing the big names, Apple and Microsoft, with MacOS and Windows, respectively, inching along in that direction.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#197

Post by climb_stealth »

Ambroos wrote: post #83
aeblyve wrote: post #23

The writing's been on the wall for custom ROMs in general for a while, so I've been starting to think about a mobile phone vendor I could actually have a decent business relationship with. I.e. use their stock ROM and be fairly happy with it. Any opinions? Samsung was a candidate for their somewhat unified ecosystem. Maybe even apple.

I still really like Sony phones. Excellent hardware. They have no online services they are trying to push, they just want you to buy their phones. As a result, the stock software is very clean Google Android without much extra. But they're not available in every region, and quite expensive. Used to have very short software support but now they do 4 major Android version updates / 6 years of security updates. You get…

I really wanted a Sony phone as it ticked all the boxes. Headphone jack, SD card slot and bootloader unlock with LineageOS support. AFAIK no one else does that in current phones.

But the sad reality hit when there were all kinds of hurdles around getting 5G/4G working in Australia. Was not going to risk ~$900 dollars on a phone that could end up being a paperweight and returned it.

It's a sad state and makes me miss the good old days.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#200

Post by ChocolateGod »

lawlessone wrote: post #136
sunaookami wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still possible outside of China but you have to have a Mi account and for newer phones you have to make some forum posts or some dumb shit.

I did that a few years ago. Had to download some tool to my PC. Then make a request that takes 2 weeks to go through. and enter the or whatever (this was like 2016 or something). Whole process was clearly designed to make you give up. Their phones where junk then though and i just got something else in the end. They're a lot better now so actually unlocking it is probably worth something now.

The two week process was to irritate resellers who change the phone to target markets it wasn't designed for.
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