You must log in or register to comment.
I mean, why would I ever unlock the bootloader if I’m going to keep the stock OS? People don’t just unlock the bootloader and leave it there sitting doing nothing 😂
For rooting it, for example. That’s always an option, even when your phone does not have a good alternative ROM
I have never met a person that just rooted their phone without slapping a custom ROM on it. The initial motive for rooting is normally to install a custom ROM, but that makes sense I guess
Edit: yup, I’m wrong about needing root to install a custom ROM. My apologies, my last rooted device was the galaxy note 3 back in 2013/2014. My memory is very rusty.
“The initial motive for rooting is normally to install a custom rom”.
Nope.
Rooting has nothing whatsoever to do with installing a custom rom.
Root is a function within a rom - it’s the equivalent of granting admin access in Windows (root means you have write access to the root directory). Most ROMs that you can install aren’t rooted themselves. That’s how little root is related to rom.
What is common between rooting and a custom rom is the requirement for an unlocked bootloader.
I’ve rooted almost every phone I’ve owned (since 2009), and all but the last 2 never had a custom rom available. Most phones don’t have a custom rom available - it’s a rare phone that does have a custom rom available.
Check out rom developers, like Lineage, to see how many devices get custom rom support.
I have never met a person that just rooted their phone without slapping a custom ROM on it.
Now you have
The initial motive for rooting is normally to install a custom ROM
I think there are some misunderstandings.
Root is not needed to flash a custom ROM. That does not (usually) happen from a running system, but through fastboot or the recovery, and those don’t ask for root permission, only an unlocked bootloader.
You don’t necessarily need to root to install a custom ROM
On a Fairphone at least you can practically flash the device OOTB after unlocking the bootloader, no root needed.
Overlooking the title, the real news to me in this article is the rapidly increasing difficulty of getting permission from that vendor to unlock your bootloader in the first place.
And why should you need permission to do this?
It’s so weird that Google’s phone has been the most accessible for unlocking your phone. Oneplus used to be good too, but then they became bad in that area too and now custom rom scene seems dead for newer Oneplus phones.
Oneplus used to be good too,
On that note, Xiaomi also used to be good. In fact, xiaomi’s initial popularity is for the ease of unlocking and rooting. Once it gain popularity, it started to lock down, much like the path OnePlus is on.
Anyone else here nostalgic for installing MIUI on their nexus 5?
Oh, did they? Easily unlocking the bootloader was exactly what I chose my OnePlus 6t for. Sad to see how fast they dropped that.
Yeah, I’ve been waiting since a week to unlock my bootloader. I still have to wait 4 more days to be able to unlock. Once it’s done I’m going to Lineage OS.
Xiaomi phones have a good hardware to price ratio. I’ve got a headphone jack, dual SIM, and a dedicated memory card slot.
Many years back if I am not mistaken the bootloader came unlocked. That led to some resellers flashing their bloatware on to the phones.
I wish flashing custom ROMs was like flashing custom firmware to routers. With most routers you can return it back to stock and no one will know the difference.
Is this not the case with the pixel?
Once its unlocked it trips a fuse on a hardware level.
A pixel is better but not perfect
And why should you need permission to do this?
Xiaomi historically had a problem with resellers installing malware in custom ROM on their phones, so they started putting up more and more obstacles to unlocking the bootloader over time, while still providing an avenue for legitimate customers to unlock.
I don’t know what spurred the current action though.
It does seems that they just made it nearly impossible to unlock the phone for the Chinese version of their phone: You need to be ‘level 5’ in their shitty forum. And from what I gathered this involves posting hundred or thousand of messages with a lot of likes.
I don’t think it will take long before they pull the same kind of bullshit for the global version of the phone unless there is a general outcry.
The whole point of unlocking the bootloader on a Xiaomi phone is to replace the shit Xiaomi ROM with something better, at which point you don’t care about updates for the Xiaomi one anymore.
Also considering the huge barriers they put to try and dissuade people from unlocking the bootloader on their phones - the “have the phone register itself in our system and then wait 168h (1 week) before you can unlock the bootloader” is especially entertaining - I don’t think there are that many people out there unlocking the bootloader on their Xiaomi phone just for fun.
This is a lost for people wanting to use the Xiaomi version of Android. They are locked.
For people who buy these phones specially to unlock the bootloader and install a custom ROM, it doesn’t change much.
It’s possible that rooting your phone impedes the ability for the Chinese spyware to work properly.
The only spyware you should be concerned about is that from your own country. That’s the country that can actually do things against you with the information. What are you worried about “China” doing with your chats or metadata on which apps are open?
Word. All this China is a big brother fails account for the fact that most states today are big brothers. It’s only a matter of degree.
It’s worse than that. All this China big brother talk is just a variant of xenophobia. It’s a talking point they’ve been trained to slam their foreign “enemies” about without ever thinking about it at all of what the actual harm they’re concerned about would look like.
??? wouldn’t you install a custom ROM?
Whatever happened to Android being FOSS?
You’re confusing Android and AOSP.
At least it seems like you can still do a backup, re-lock the bootloader, apply for an upgrade, then unlock the bootloader again and restore the backup - right?
Just sideload the ota, no need to go through so much trouble.
Maybe they will also make the waiting period more painful… That sucks.
as if they give updates to my one year old android. they never did.
Thats cool, I don’t use chinese spyware phones anyways
Tbh I wonder if flashing an aosp rom changes that at all
Why wonder? Go read the code.
What? My point is that I wonder if there are hardware and bootloader level back doors that survive flashing a new ROM or if you can be truly clean flashing a trusted AOSP one.
Don’t people usually flash a custom rom when they unlock their bootloader? Somehow if you are still on the stock rom can’t you just flash the update since you have already unlocked the bootloader?
Well, that’s fine I don’t use MIUI at all 🤷♂️
No one should be using their Chinese spyware OS anyway.
