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[International / GSM] NewB question - unlocking bootloader (Mac)

O

orlando bull

Well-Known Member
This will be my first android phone and from what I am seeing, it would be in my best interest to unlock the bootloader before I start adding apps and such.

So... I have been looking around the internet and I think I have the process set. Just curious, if you try to run the "fastboot oem unlock" on your machine without a device connected, should it say "waiting for device"? It took me a while to get to that point, but, I am thinking that should be a good sign, just not at all sure what I should be seeing right now.

Thanks.
 
orlando bull said:
This will be my first android phone and from what I am seeing, it would be in my best interest to unlock the bootloader before I start adding apps and such.

So... I have been looking around the internet and I think I have the process set. Just curious, if you try to run the "fastboot oem unlock" on your machine without a device connected, should it say "waiting for device"? It took me a while to get to that point, but, I am thinking that should be a good sign, just not at all sure what I should be seeing right now.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

orlando bull,

You are at least in the envious position of not having to install driver software since Mac and Linux boxes should allow you to readily "see" / connect to your phone.

I don't have my GNex yet, but I have read that the "fastboot oem unlock" will report exactly what you indicated above if your phone is not connected via the USB cable.

If you are looking for a nice, safe command to test your connectivity without issuing the "fastboot oem unlock" command, you can do the "fastboot devices" while your phone is connected to verify that your Mac can see it.

The "fastboot devices" is a totally innocuous command that should give you a small level of comfort.

Hope that helps.

Cheers!
 
orlando bull said:
This will be my first android phone and from what I am seeing, it would be in my best interest to unlock the bootloader before I start adding apps and such.

So... I have been looking around the internet and I think I have the process set. Just curious, if you try to run the "fastboot oem unlock" on your machine without a device connected, should it say "waiting for device"? It took me a while to get to that point, but, I am thinking that should be a good sign, just not at all sure what I should be seeing right now.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm running MacBook Pro OS 10.6.8. With Mac Terminal, once you've navigated to where you have adb and fastboot (probably platform-tools), to run the shell you need ./ at the start of the command line, so

./adb (or) ./fastboot

some setups (including mine) have mac-specific shells i.e. fastboot-mac, in which case your command is ./fastboot-mac

If I run it with no device connected, ./fastboot-mac devices gives no response, just a new command line, while ./fastboot-mac oem unlock gives
<waiting for device> , as you have suggested.

HTH
 
I'm using a MBP as well 10.6.8 so i'll have to figure MaC friendly stuff out as well. Luckily though i have VMFusion loaded with a Win7x64 build and a Ubuntu 11.64 build :)
 
Can't you do it in Ubuntu? If so just create a virtual machine of Ubuntu and do it from there.


HEY ...SA... lol Can these rooting methods be performed on Ubuntu? Probably won't have to install the drivers like you do in Windows.
 
Woot woot :) i'm covered then lol
I thought that was the case. I had to do some work on some HTC devices a while back and using a MAC i didn't have to install drivers
 
When I CD to my platform-tools folder and type in ./fastboot-mac oem unlock it says
-bash: ./fastboot-mac: Permission denied

Any ideas?
 
kimir said:
When I CD to my platform-tools folder and type in ./fastboot-mac oem unlock it says
-bash: ./fastboot-mac: Permission denied

Any ideas?
Click to expand...


Not sure. I am guessing that you're certain that the file is in that location? Mine is actually just under "tools", not "platform tools", but if I recall, I placed it there, so, you may have put your elsewhere. That's my only guess, not at all helpful, sorry.

Did you get to the fastboot screen? (OK, I am not sure if that's what it's called, but, the one with the android opened up to look under the hood)

I took mine all the way to the "ARE YOU SURE???" step then didn't complete. Don't know why, I think I just wanted to see many more people here testing the water before I jumped in.
 
orlando bull said:
Not sure. I am guessing that you're certain that the file is in that location? Mine is actually just under "tools", not "platform tools", but if I recall, I placed it there, so, you may have put your elsewhere. That's my only guess, not at all helpful, sorry.

Did you get to the fastboot screen? (OK, I am not sure if that's what it's called, but, the one with the android opened up to look under the hood)

I took mine all the way to the "ARE YOU SURE???" step then didn't complete. Don't know why, I think I just wanted to see many more people here testing the water before I jumped in.
Click to expand...

as it turns out, I didn't have an exe. I had to chmod 777 it. and i don't have the phone yet :P

What happens if it bootloops? (how) do you apply the factory image?
 
I have been trying for over 4 hours to unlock the bootloader on my nexus. I download the newest sdk, do all the required updates, download fastboot(move it to the platform tool folder) and when I drag the folder to terminal(cd/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools) I get the message "No such file or directory" I have tried everything I can think of and reinstalled everything a few times.

ANY suggestions would be great!
 
okay so I finally got it to work. Instead of having the files in my /user/myname/android-sdk-macosx i moved all the files of the "android-sdk-macosx folder to my download folders and used terminal to open it that way and it worked the first try.... anyone know why it would not work in the other folder but would work in my downloads folder?
 
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