41–50 of 359 posts
The title of the article is misleading. The author says the phone cannot be bootloader unlocked without first connecting to the Internet. Once they have connected they are able to unlock the bootloader.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Make phone Google free. More features here https://grapheneos.org/features
So I’m guessing with this you’d use an alternative store like F-Droid instead of the Play Store? (Pardon my ignorance, I’m an iOS dev and have been for a decade; I don’t really know the Android landscape.)
The title of the article is misleading. The author says the phone cannot be bootloader unlocked without first connecting to the Internet. Once they have connected they are able to unlock the bootloader.
"Magic hostname" mentioned in article (afwprovisioning-pa.googleapis.com) makes me believe this may be related to zero-touch enrollment of Android Enterprise/Android for Work ( https://support.google.com/work/android/answer/7514005 ). I'm sure devices sold to regular customers and enterprises are identical and nobody is going to unbox and pre-provision them before shipment, so unboxed phone needs to contact provision…
Do you need to actively be connected to the internet while enabling bootloader unlocking, or does the phone merely need to have connected to the internet once at some point? The latter seems reasonable to me in light of your point about enterprise enrollment. However, I'm confused by nelblu's post downthread[1], which describes using wifi to unlock used phones. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35853135
My guess would be that if OEM unlocking stays disabled, phone reverts to "greyed-out" setting after each factory reset (yeah, that would be an issue if Google suddenly decides to send Android to graveyard...). I believe actual bootloader unlocking happens inside fastboot mode, outside regular OS and without access to WiFi/cellular data - enabling OEM unlocking is only a prerequisite to actual unlock.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As usual, security is used as an excuse to lock down more than is necessary. To prevent the supply chain attack you mention, the boot lock just has to be tamper evident, such as showing a "Bootloader unlocked" message during boot. As is already the case in some phones. Additionally, a way to reset to a factory-verified state could undo such an attack. Warranty could also easily be achieved by flipping a non-reversibl…
Pixel's are locked down a very tiny bit , and I don't think this is some kind of dystopian over-reach with security as an excuse. For all the security listed in this thread the whole "I must connect to the internet once" problem is a very fair tradeoff from the user's perspective.
Other people might instead say "Pixels are locked down."
> I don't think this is some kind of dystopian over-reach with security as an excuse.
Why?
> "I must connect to the internet once" problem is a very fair tradeoff from the user's perspective.
Speak for yourself.
> Request to Google: ungrey the “OEM unlocking” toggle in the factory, before shipping store.google.com devices to customers. Do not make your customers connect the device to the Internet before they are allowed to install the operating system they want. That won't happen. I can think of two big reasons off the top of my head: 1. Supply-chain attacks, someone gets a hold of the phone before it gets to you and unlocks…
As usual, security is used as an excuse to lock down more than is necessary. To prevent the supply chain attack you mention, the boot lock just has to be tamper evident, such as showing a "Bootloader unlocked" message during boot. As is already the case in some phones. Additionally, a way to reset to a factory-verified state could undo such an attack. Warranty could also easily be achieved by flipping a non-reversibl…
And the warranty thing is moot, unlock does not void Pixel's warranty
Yup, I am quite annoyed too with this practice. I have had 3 pixel phones and first thing i do is to unlock and flash calyxos or graphene. Since I always purchase used phones only, I just make it a practice to buy them in cash and unlock at a public WiFi.
> connect the device to the Internet before they are allowed to install the operating system they want Phoning home before undertaking such an activity takes away the ownership rights from the customers. They do not actually own these devices even after they have purchased them. The reason is that an important part of their ownership rights, i.e. the freedom to use the software of their choice, has been withheld from…
This unlock involves: creating a user account in the Xiaomi services website, logging into that account from your phone's system, then having the phone logged in for at least 7 days, then using a Windows software which sends a request for unlocking, which they will grant (at least in my experience).
The most outrageous part of all this process (apart from the fact that it exists at all) is the 7 days of usage with the phone logged in. If you attempt an unlock earlier than that, the software will say: "You have to wait X days and Y hours before you can unlock this device."
EDIT: This Reddit wiki page explains the process. I'm flabbergasted that it actually takes 720 hours aka 30 days:
Yup, I am quite annoyed too with this practice. I have had 3 pixel phones and first thing i do is to unlock and flash calyxos or graphene. Since I always purchase used phones only, I just make it a practice to buy them in cash and unlock at a public WiFi.
I just got myself an old used Pixel phone as a daily driver, and I intend someday to flash it with a lineageOS. It already was somewhat tricky for me, at my skill level, to successfully do this on "ordinary" devices (Nexus 7 and Pixel C tablet), and it seems like getting the Pixel to truly unlock is going to be an added layer of complexity.
The whole process was amazingly easy when I did it and took less than 15 minutes.
> connect the device to the Internet before they are allowed to install the operating system they want Phoning home before undertaking such an activity takes away the ownership rights from the customers. They do not actually own these devices even after they have purchased them. The reason is that an important part of their ownership rights, i.e. the freedom to use the software of their choice, has been withheld from…
Xiaomi does the same (or at least did until my latest phone change i.e. around 3 years ago). You must unlock the bootloader before being able to install a custom recovery image such as TWRP, which itself is used to install custom ROMs. This unlock involves: creating a user account in the Xiaomi services website, logging into that account from your phone's system, then having the phone logged in for at least 7 days ,…
