It's possible that rooting your phone impedes the ability for the Chinese spyware to work properly.
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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Android
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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.
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Oh, did they? Easily unlocking the bootloader was exactly what I chose my OnePlus 6t for. Sad to see how fast they dropped that.
they were godsends back in the OnePlus 6/7 days because their phones and custom OS was meant to be more root friendly than the rest. it was what sold me and a buddy of mine on them in the first place
sadly, it's gone south now but it was fun back when it happened
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?
It is the case for a Pixel. Flash stock, relock and no one will know you've messed with your device.
Once its unlocked it trips a fuse on a hardware level.
A pixel is better but not perfect
I think that's Samsung. The Pixels don't have a fuse AFAIK.
I've never owned a Samsung device. I just know that unlocking a pixel voids the warranty
No it doesn't. Also you can just relock the bootloader. Google doesn't care.
Not enforceable in Europe. The OEM would have to explicitly prove that the bootloader unlock is what caused the issue that brought about the warranty claim.
I just know that unlocking a pixel voids the warranty
And how do you "just know" that? Any sources? Everything I've read and even done with my Pixel says otherwise, though I do return to stock and relock before returning.
I got my Redmi Note 11 one and a half years ago. The waiting time for their shitty tool to unlock the bootloader after a week wasn't the biggest obstacle for me. What really pisses me off is that they violated their obligations to upload the kernel sources and therefore significantly delayed custom ROM development. While being a cheap and popular device, it hasn't received Lineage OS support and probably never will. That ship has sailed because Xiaomi just doesn't give a fuck about what their end of the deal is if they want to use a decent FOSS based OS on their phones instead of spending huge amounts of money and time to build their own ecosystem.
Many years back if I am not mistaken the bootloader came unlocked. That led to some resellers flashing their bloatware on to the phones.
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Whatever happened to Android being FOSS?
You're confusing Android and AOSP.
please tell me how Android is not FOSS anymore.
because I really don't understand this argument here.
Android is still FOSS. you can grab the source code, modify it and use it, if you really want.
even so, since Xiaomi provides you tools and codes to unlock the phone and install any other compatible system on it.
oh, no more updates then for MIUI? the heavily modified version of Android that Xiaomi is making and providing services for it? and then, the whole FOSSness is breaking for you if they say no more updates for their version if you open the loader? who would have thought.
why would you do that, in the first place? I guess to install other roms. so you probably don't like MIUI anyway.
or you want to modify MIUI? you know that 90% of hacks just don't fucking work with MIUI's framework, right? that it's breaking and shit. and then, if that happens, who would you call? well, not the ghostbusters but go to MIUI support snd blame them for your shitty modifications.
tell me, please, how Android is not FOSS anymore, I really wanna know what keeps you up at nights.
The FOSS part of Android has been shrinking as Google let the FOSS apps die in favor of their proprietary apps.
And the worse they did is Play Services, meaning a lot of apps won't run on a pure FOSS Android.
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In short: Android is open source, but the actual software you get with the phone is not.
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.
No one should be using their Chinese spyware OS anyway.
as if they give updates to my one year old android. they never did.
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.
Great. Had 2 Xiaomi phones now, as I love the hardware and ability to quite easily unlock in order to install Xiaomi.eu and Magisk. If this is no longer possible, my next phone won't be Xiaomi.
This only applies if you stay on stock rom. Xiaomi.eu will update normally as it is a custom rom (despite being officially endorsed by Xiaomi).
Let's hope. I've lived my OnePlus3 (specially with GCam), but they became more expensive. I go for the flagship every 3 years, so I need a great phone, unlockable and hit costing so much.
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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?
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.
??? wouldn't you install a custom ROM?
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