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It's the end for unlocked bootloader's

HoUdInI

HoUdInI

Android Enthusiast
I guess this is the end for samsung... i left the lg family because of there locked bootloader and now i guess samsung is following....any phones left that have unlocked bootloaders?
 
There's a difference between locked and not unlockable. Locked, if it can be unlocked, is just a minor annoyance, like shrinkwrap you need a knife to open. A bootloader that can't be unlocked, like the AT&T and Verizon Note 3s, is an entirely different matter.
 
^this. Even nexus come with a locked bootloader Most are still easily unlockable. It's the carriers who are making things hard. Having said that I won't be buying another sammy in a while. The S series were the best phones around until after the s3 imo
 
funkylogik said:
Having said that I won't be buying another sammy in a while.
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While I won't be buying another phone in a while, and I'll probably stay with AT&T (which is one of the carriers that weld the Sammys shut), I won't be buying another Sammy unless they stop nailing them down. Rotomola used to make good phones. If Lenovo doesn't ruin them by the time I need a new one I'll probably go that route. (I can still pop my SIM [in an adapter] into my 11 year old V551 and be "on the air". Even the original battery is still good.) Or maybe a Nexus, if they stop with the "no SD card, no removable battery" nonsense.

I like the idea of Safestrap, which Sammy forced Hashcode to invent, but it would be put to better use on an unlocked phone, so we didn't get the choice of whichever stock ROM we want (and that's all we can put in there now - modified stock ROMs). I'd love to try 4.4.2, then be able to reload my current 4.3, which is set up almost exactly as I want it now. (Almost, because I've just started playing with Tasker and although I now have a PIN lock when I'm out of the house and press to get to the launcher (no swipe at all), that's barely scratching the surface.)
 
can someone explain to me what exactly locked bootloader means lol....im assuming you guys are talking that your saying its carriers way of fighting root?
 
gotcha two things does that mean there are phones that cant be flashed to custorm recovery or roms or it just takes devs longer to do so? when one like me who gets device to root is there anything to look at about whatever device to see its locked or does that have to be looked up on here or xda?
 
If you have to ask, you have to look here or on XDA. (You'd have to be able to read machine code [and know how to get to it] to tell if the bootloader was locked just by looking at it. And by the time you did that you'd probably have figured out how to unlock it [fake the "real ROM" check. And if you can do that on a Note 3, you can collect quite a nice cash bounty.)

We do have "kinda-sorta" custom recovery on the AT&T and Verizon Note 3s - Hashcode, one of the devs on XDA, figured a way to intercept the boot process to run it into a modification of TWRP, which also gives us the ability to keep more than one ROM at a time in the phone. (Multi-boot - you can only be running one at a time.)

But all the ROMS have to be modifications of Samsung's stock ROM. No custom kernels either.

(I'm not complaining too much, though. After all the years I spent designing computing eqwuipment, I did what I should have known better than to do, and ended upwith a phone with no ROM. But Safestrap was still working, so 5 minutes later I had my backups reinstalled and I was back in business. Without Safestrap it would have been a scary half hour before I had a working phone.)

Rooting is a totally different kettle of lizards. All it takes really is replacing one file that Google deliberately left out of Android. And that usually takes developers a couple of days. (You have to be rooted to install that file - which is what gives you root - kind of a chicken and egg situation. So it takes a while to find a bug or hole you can exploit to get temporary root so you can install that file.) One of the big ones though, Kingo, has said that they're not even trying on 4.4.2, because it's too complex.

It's an arms race - they try to keep us out of the phones, we keep trying to get around what they put in. If we all gave up the nonsense, about half the firmwware would be gone - it's bloat to keep us out of the phones.

We can still do wonderful things, though. Xposed lets you modify apps at runtime - so you don't have to write any code, you just check the boxes and fill in the values. And Tasker lets you do some pretty amazing stuff - even more if you know a little programming.

This isn't your grandfather's Imsai any more.
 
damn that was quite informative and thorough answer!!!!
so for my clarification you need to figure out how to unlock the bootloader for recovery and rom purposes and root is to modify your phones?

and with your comment about xposed which i am familiar with btw the locked bootloader wouldnt affect the ability to root your phone and you can use xposed to mod your phone? we are just screwed in a major way by not having custom recovery to make precious nandroids
 
That chicken and egg thing.. id always wondered why in red writing in the xda op for SuperSU it says "this requires a rooted device" lol :D

@dcmjr ill let Rukbat answer that as i dont have a clue mate. Ive never had a phone thats been hard to crack.
If youre buying a new phone, wait until you see that someone has a custom recovery running on it :)
 
funky oh yeah any device i get phone tablet etc i look at the rooting options before i would buy it, if i cant have root than i dont want the device period
 
dmcjr22 said:
funky oh yeah any device i get phone tablet etc i look at the rooting options before i would buy it, if i cant have root than i dont want the device period
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Yep.

Exactly what I do.

My S3 was booted straight to download mode and connected to odin before I even removed the plastic wrap on the screen; never even got chance to load the Samsung splashscreen...rooted out of the box.

And that's why I'm holding back on my next upgrade; don't want an S5; waiting to see if they can root the Xperia Z2.
 
nigsy said:
Yep.

And that's why I'm holding back on my next upgrade; don't want an S5; waiting to see if they can root the Xperia Z2.
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And it seems from XDA the Z2 has been rooted by the devs before it's officially been released!!
 
If they wanted to, could they have an iron clad block on all our shenanigans? Or are they just not good enough to sew up all the bugs that let us in?

Seems like Samsung is going down that road. It's sad really that they care so much to keep us out...their customers.

I suppose if their customer base was more inclined to vote with their wallets, the locked down phones wouldn't sell, and changes would be made. What percentage of Android users are root users who demand unlocked phones? 10% at most?
 
yeah rooters are rare thing me personally besides myself i got one friend who turned me on to it that runs roms and i dont know why more ppl dont especially seeing how it would solve most if not all problems we see posted here on formums
 
Its nearly impossible to get an accurate measure, but 1% or less is about as good an estimate as you'll find.

To put some things in perspective:

XDA (mainly a development forum) has 5.6 million registered users.

Google announced over a billion activations back in september 2013, and there's more than 1.5 million new activations per day announced back in July 2013
 
in all reality, why do the carriers block us out? we are paying for the phones in one way or another. they are ours. by us customizing them it doesn't cost them anything.
 
FxsX24 said:
in all reality, why do the carriers block us out? we are paying for the phones in one way or another. they are ours. by us customizing them it doesn't cost them anything.
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Its only certain carriers. I noticed you are on Verizon, they are hands down one if the worst offenders at locking devices down and controlling every aspect of their network.

If you're serious about it, consider voting with your dollars next upgrade cycle and exploring other options.
 
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