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Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

sammyguru.com

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Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#71
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find the link, but a couple days ago, they said in a thread here it was due to their lack of support of some important security features, and remarked that it didn't look like they were even interested in supporting them.

You cant re-lock the bootloader with a custom key which grapheneos considers a cornerstone of their security model.

Yeah, otherwise the bad guys can just wait till you're not looking at your phone, reflash your it with a backdoored version, and wait for you to unlock it (evil maid attack).

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#72
post #47
post #4

dont worry, samsung knows only 300 people will actually care. As for me, I already swore off Samdung for their whole Samsung account bs and apps they bundle and won't let me remove (or disable).

samsung is the only smartphone manufacturer that still makes phones (though not many) with all the features I want: microSD slot, dual physical sim, side-mounted fingerprint reader, headphone jack, nfc, and regular (long-lasting) security updates they also have service centers pretty much everywhere in the world, so I can always get my phone fixed (for a reasonable price, as a result of their ubiquity) if and when I…

  > samsung is the only smartphone manufacturer that still makes phones (though not many) with all the features I want
Not to mention the built-in EMR stylus. That makes such a difference in using the device, I cannot believe they are not more common. And they are a terrific backup for the not unusual case of a broken screen being unresponsive.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#73
post #53

I have to wonder what Samsung's motivation is here. Of course they probably have some bloatware they profit from, but someone who plans to unlock the bootloader just won't buy their device now. Samsung only benefits if they lose money on device sales (do they?) and make it up on "services".

How many people are there that unlock their bootloader?

I just unlocked the bootloader on my Xiaomi Mi Pad 5 today (which was a nightmare to do btw.). Why did I unlock it? The device has nice hardware, but is stuck with Android 13 and does not get any security updates either, so flashing a custom ROM is my only chance of having an up-to-date device.

Next step will be to try PostmarketOS and see how that goes

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#74
post #65
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

samsung is the only smartphone manufacturer that still makes phones (though not many) with all the features I want: microSD slot, dual physical sim, side-mounted fingerprint reader, headphone jack, nfc, and regular (long-lasting) security updates they also have service centers pretty much everywhere in the world, so I can always get my phone fixed (for a reasonable price, as a result of their ubiquity) if and when I…

Which of their phones have all of these?

Other than the side mounted fingerprint meter, I replaced my Note 10 Lite with another Note 10 Lite because it had all the other features.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#75
post #65
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

samsung is the only smartphone manufacturer that still makes phones (though not many) with all the features I want: microSD slot, dual physical sim, side-mounted fingerprint reader, headphone jack, nfc, and regular (long-lasting) security updates they also have service centers pretty much everywhere in the world, so I can always get my phone fixed (for a reasonable price, as a result of their ubiquity) if and when I…

Which of their phones have all of these?

https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a06-13265.php This year, no NFC.

https://m.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a15-12637.php Last year, but they removed 3.5mm this year

That I know, in Latin America, they don't have all that anymore. And there is only one left with 3.5mm.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#76
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve always said that it’s been “Google’s Android”, and wellp —- Welcome to Google’s Android, where the garden walls have been turned into a razorwire fence and you’re not welcome to leave. It’s really funny that Apple’s finally allowing carefully controlled access outside of their own fences and slowly adding more APIs and expansion (hell, Apple are the only platform now with third party APIs for RCS in the EU) whil…

Google is first and foremost an advertising company. They're going to do whatever makes them the most profit. It always had razor wire fences unfortunately.

It's a datamining company, and there are many ways to profit off of that...

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairphone does! https://www.fairphone.com/en/bootloader-unlocking-code-for-f...

Do anyone know why GrapheneOS doesn't support fairphone?

As others have said they have some security concerns (I don't know enough about that stuff to know how justified or surmountable those concerns are). However with the big manufacturers all locking down their devices more than ever I wonder will they have much of a choice in the end. We're going to need a manufacturer (or preferably several) to actively stand behind the possibility to use custom ROMs, and at the moment Fairphone seem like the only one who might do that.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#78
post #5
post #4

dont worry, samsung knows only 300 people will actually care. As for me, I already swore off Samdung for their whole Samsung account bs and apps they bundle and won't let me remove (or disable).

Yep. Everyone I know who bought a Samsung anything (TV/Phone/Washer/Dryer) last time said it's their last Samsung product. Samsung sure know how to piss off customers.

Is the alternative really better overall. We upgraded to a samsung fridge last year from two consecutive cheapo-chinese-local walmart-brands and it was worth every penny. It will pay itself in energy savings in less than two years.

Re: Samsung Removes Bootloader Unlocking with One UI 8

#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, by far, the biggest seller of Android phones in the US. (I think Xiaomi is the biggest globally), so they are under much more pressure to clamp down on this.

That said, rooting Samsung devices has been a worthless pursuit for a long time. Doing so irreversibly (via eFuse) disables KNOX, which prevents DeX and Samsung Health from working. It also trips SafetyNet, which disables a whole suite of key apps (banking apps and Apple Music don't work; not sure about Spotify). There's a Magisk module that uses well-known device IDs to work around these, but these only work temporaily. Many people have also reported issues with the camera (a popular reason for buying Samsungs in the first place), and you no longer get OTA updates. I believe you also get degraded camera performance if you flash another ROM since the device module is closed-source and relies on One UI to work. This is before considering that stock ROMs have gotten really good over the years (especially Samsung's), and many of the reasons why we had to root have mostly gone away.

You can work around this by buying a Pixel for now, but I think we're a few years away from bootloader unlocking going away entirely.

That said, I stll root Android devices that will only serve a single-purpose, like my BOOX eBook readers that I use Firefox on. This lets me run AFWall so that I can block network traffic for everything except Firefox (and a few other apps). However, I won't be logging into my Google account on them, and they aren't ever going to run banking apps or anything like that.

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