I am getting so frustrated.

[derrrrr]

I will begin by referring to a post I made on XDA earlier today to give a general idea. ​

Spoiler: Overview

So I bought a pretty cheap phone from Best Buy recently, I guess he said it was the "Blu v9" but after some extensive research I have come to find out it is the Blu V8, and in recovery it says V8 as well. I really like the phone, and for the price is it very modern!

Heres my issue.. I feel like a prisoner not having TWRP or even root. The phone is unlocked, and developer options has an option to enable OEM bootloader unlocking, but I am not able to. I have full ADB access, but whenever I boot into bootloader, all it shows is the main boot screen with a tiny little "fastboot mode" in the top left corner, I get windows to recognize something plugged in called "fastboot gadget" but I cant get "fastboot devices" to list anything at all.

Does anyone know anything about this Blu brand in general? I feel like I don't have enough adequate information to even begin to dig deeper.
If anyone could help me, it would really mean a lot!

Beyond that, I am stumped. I have so much resentment for Best Buy right now, and whoever decided they are gonna lock these phones down. Especially when I paid for an UNLOCKED phone. They advertise it as unlocked. The funny thing is that is is carrier unlocked, not the bootloader. In Developer Options, I am able to "enable OEM unlocking" but it does NOTHING.

I think the biggest hurdle right now is not being able to recognize the phone in fastboot. ADB works just fine, completely and totally. When I "adb reboot bootloader" it even reboots into whatever the hell Best Buy thinks is a bootloader mode. Its the regular boot screen with a "fastboot mode" in tiny little white text at the top left, but then I run "fastboot devices" and get nothing.

I am running Mac OSX, but also have tried it through linux and a windows 10 VM. I don't own a windows computer right now, but I think I am going to figure out a way to try it from windows incase for some reason it is OSX bottle-necking it or something.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free. I am desperate.​

 

[mikedt]

Beyond that, I am stumped. I have so much resentment for Best Buy right now, and whoever decided they are gonna lock these phones down. Especially when I paid for an UNLOCKED phone. They advertise it as unlocked. The funny thing is that is is carrier unlocked, not the bootloader. In Developer Options, I am able to "enable OEM unlocking" but it does NOTHING.​

​

Well when a big-box store or high street retailer sells you a phone they advertise as "unlocked" that does usually mean carrier unlocked, or SIM unlocked, meaning you can use it on any carrier, and that's it. ​

​

​

I think the biggest hurdle right now is not being able to recognize the phone in fastboot. ADB works just fine, completely and totally. When I "adb reboot bootloader" it even reboots into whatever the hell Best Buy thinks is a bootloader mode. Its the regular boot screen with a "fastboot mode" in tiny little white text at the top left, but then I run "fastboot devices" and get nothing.​

​

I am running Mac OSX, but also have tried it through linux and a windows 10 VM. I don't own a windows computer right now, but I think I am going to figure out a way to try it from windows incase for some reason it is OSX bottle-necking it or something.​

​

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free. I am desperate.​

​

no devs = no fun

Main problem with Blu, apart from Vivo devices, is that Blu gets their phones made by unknown Chinese OEMs, meaning there's basically no information available for them, that devs can use to make TWRP, Lineage, etc. for. And as far as stuff like ADB, it's good luck with these things.

If you really want a phone to root and customise, you really need a phone that has an active dev community, like Exynos variant Samsungs, Google Pixels, certain Motorolas, etc.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Yep "unlocked" just means it's not locked to any carrier, that's it. If the manufacturer locked the bootloader there's not much you can do about that.
Also IIRC Blu has been caught putting spyware on their phones.

 

[MrJavi]

​

Well when a big-box store or high street retailer sells you a phone they advertise as "unlocked" that does usually mean carrier unlocked, or SIM unlocked, meaning you can use it on any carrier, and that's it. ​

​

​

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no devs = no fun

Main problem with Blu, apart from Vivo devices, is that Blu gets their phones made by unknown Chinese OEMs, meaning there's basically no information available for them, that devs can use to make TWRP, Lineage, etc. for. And as far as stuff like ADB, it's good luck with these things.

If you really want a phone to root and customise, you really need a phone that has an active dev community, like Exynos variant Samsungs, Google Pixels, certain Motorolas, etc.

Your 100% accurate with everything. I especially like "no devs=no fun".

 

[James L]

On a Mac it would be ./fastboot devices

 

[MoodyBlues]

Welcome to Android Forums, derrrrr!

I don't own a windows computer right now

That's excellent!

but I think I am going to figure out a way to try it from windows incase for some reason it is OSX bottle-necking it or something

Much better to use Linux. Let one Linux device [computer] talk to another Linux device [phone], and since they're both speaking the same language, you're more likely to get good results.

 

[Hadron]

If you use Windows you'll need to find a fastboot driver for the phone. I'd think you should have more chance with a fastboot binary on a *nix system (Linux or MacOS) to be honest.

But unless you can find a custom recovery built for this device I'm not sure what fastboot access will gain you. You might unlock the bootloader, but then what?


And as others have said, when any retailer advertises a phone as "unlocked" they mean network unlocked. You can't blame Best Buy for your not knowing this. Bootloader unlocking is an esoteric feature of interest to a small number of hobbyists - the majority of customers and retail staff will never have heard of it, so any mention of it by the retailer would just confuse most people while helping very few (as most who do know about it also known that almost no phones are sold with the bootloader unlocked).

 

[MrJavi]

Yep "unlocked" just means it's not locked to any carrier, that's it. If the manufacturer locked the bootloader there's not much you can do about that.
Also IIRC Blu has been caught putting spyware on their phones.

Yep "unlocked" just means it's not locked to any carrier, that's it. If the manufacturer locked the bootloader there's not much you can do about that.
Also IIRC Blu has been caught putting spyware on their phones.

Yep "unlocked" just means it's not locked to any carrier, that's it. If the manufacturer locked the bootloader there's not much you can do about that.
Also IIRC Blu has been caught putting spyware on their phones.

If you can't get root then check out VMOS Virtual Root, Android on Android Double System.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vmos.glb&hl=en_US