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Bootloader speculation

lsutigers03

lsutigers03

Android Enthusiast
On the Droid Bionic forum there's a link suggesting that it may have an unlocked bootloader. With Motorola's past does this seem like a possibility and could the Atrix be the same way?

Here's the link.

Droid Bionic
 
lsutigers03 said:
On the Droid Bionic forum there's a link suggesting that it may have an unlocked bootloader. With Motorola's past does this seem like a possibility and could the Atrix be the same way?

Here's the link.

Droid Bionic
Click to expand...

I'm not sure where they are getting their information, but I find that Motorola not locking the bootloader on any of their phones to be highly suspect. I didn't drill through all the pages of that link you posted, but I never saw any confirmation of that other than the poster. We've seen over the past year that it has been standard practice for them to lock it and I don't see a reason why they would buck that trend. As much as I would love to be able to open up the Atrix as easy as I did the Nex1; I foresee that possibility to be very slim indeed.

I will admit that I don't fully understand how a bootloader is locked, but some posters are speculating that the Tegra chip doesn't have the built in encryption like the OMAP ones did and that's their reason for not having it locked. This is a very interesting avenue of discussion and I'll have to delve into it further.
 
I was just curious. I have no clue how locking and unlocking bootloaders works. If anything speculating will help pass the time until the Atrix is released. I don't expect Motorola to release either with an unlocked bootloader as this goes against their normal practice but if they did I'm sure the hacking community would pass out from excitement of what they could do with both phones.
 
ok, so a quick visit into what moto has done with their past phones confirms at least partially that the bootloader encryption keys are hardware implemented into the OMAP cortex a8 core. What that tells me at first glance is that it is in fact a security feature of the OMAP series processor. Next up I need to spend some quality time learning what types of security features Nvidia could implement in the hardware of the tegra chipsets to hopefully give us an idea if the same sort of "hardware lock" is capable with these new phones. This sort of thing is pretty far outside my wheel house but I still remember some of it from college.

I would be surprised if Nvidia didn't have a robust security set built in, but I'm really only guessing at this point and I'm sure there are much more knowledgeable people on these forums in such matters.
 
Thanks for posting what you've found. If you do come across anything else I'd love to see what you found.
 
I'm anxiously awaiting confirmation that this has an unlocked bootloader. If it does this handset will most likely be my next toy :)
 
Sorry if this question is lame, but I am now looking into going android.
What draw back is there if they lock the bootloader?
What benefit do I get from unlocked bootloader?
 
I don't believe that the tegra 2 has any built in security, because the viewsonic gtablet was running it and their was no security at all. However I could definitely see Motorola trying to implement their own security, but if it was motorola's security it would be at the software level and much easier to crack.
 
AndreaCristiano said:
A locked bootloader makes it harder to root and almost impossible to load a custom rom
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EXACTLY. While I may or may not load a custom ROM I'd still like the option to. Rooting I see myself doing simply to remove bloatware. We already pay carriers to use their network, they shouldn't have a presence on my phone nor are they welcome.
 
uberspeed said:
EXACTLY. While I may or may not load a custom ROM I'd still like the option to. Rooting I see myself doing simply to remove bloatware. We already pay carriers to use their network, they shouldn't have a presence on my phone nor are they welcome.
Click to expand...


Yea its a bit annoying. Its another reason I love the Nexus S
 
A locked bootloader is a setback as far as rooting and loading custom roms but not impossible.
 
^A locked bootloader, u can still get root. Custom ROMs?...the purist will say its not a true custom ROM cuz you cant have a custom kernel.

And the ability to roll back to previous OS versions is hard or cannot be done cuz of the locked bootloader.
 
jroc said:
^A locked bootloader, u can still get root. Custom ROMs?...the purist will say its not a true custom ROM cuz you cant have a custom kernel.

And the ability to roll back to previous OS versions is hard or cannot be done cuz of the locked bootloader.
Click to expand...

Did the Moto Droid have a locked Bootloader?
 
atlbuc said:
A locked bootloader is a setback as far as rooting and loading custom roms but not impossible.
Click to expand...

Impossible, no. Improbable, yes. If I wanted difficult I would've stayed married :p
Original Droid did not have a locked bootloader. Droid X, as an example, does and look at the hoops those folks are jumping through. Or what about the Milestone?
I do not want even the possibility of such a future road for myself where I'm limited in something I may want to do. There was a time I enjoyed hacking and cracking being in IT and all, now I just want things to work with little fuss and spend my time on other endeavors. I do still want to tinker some and customize hence why I'm looking at Android with its feature set.
 
uberspeed said:
Impossible, no. Improbable, yes. If I wanted difficult I would've stayed married :p
Original Droid did not have a locked bootloader. Droid X, as an example, does and look at the hoops those folks are jumping through. Or what about the Milestone?
I do not want even the possibility of such a future road for myself where I'm limited in something I may want to do. There was a time I enjoyed hacking and cracking being in IT and all, now I just want things to work with little fuss and spend my time on other endeavors. I do still want to tinker some and customize hence why I'm looking at Android with its feature set.
Click to expand...

So then the Atrix is not for you, i gather because 99% its gonna be locked down
 
I wouldn't be surprised if this thing was hacked to run Chrome web browser while in Webtop mode.
 
For me, all I really want when I get this phone is to root it and, if possible, put a vanilla Android ROM on it. Just like clean Android the best. And, of course, remove some bloatware.
 
AndreaCristiano said:
LOL or wait a few months longer and there will be many alternatives
Click to expand...

Considering how long I've waited for any Android phone I could be excited about to land on ATT there's also the patience factor, I'm out of what little (any?) I had. That also plays into the more likely than not acquisition of the Atrix for me. :D
 
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