I've recently acquired a HTC One X, and having had a desire which was rooted from the first moment, and also s-off some time later thanks to revolutionary, I imagined development would be just as simple.
While there is (and was even before production devices were available) a root method for the One-X it requires unlocking a bootloader. A bootloader which then leaves a (so far) indelible electronic mark as to it's having been opened.
HTC promised to unlock bootloaders, yet what they've done is created a contract between a rooter and themselves, whereby the process voids your warranty.
Root access to your phone voids your warranty.
There are many threads on this already so I'm not looking to discuss it here, what does intrigue is that a whole bunch of other manufacturers have essentially gone the same route.
Asus have an encrypted system, Barnes and Noble tablet required a hardware hack to enter a recovery (APX) mode and Motorola have also announced the coming availability of a development device where you trade your warranty for administrative access to a device you own.
I'm typing this post from a Toshiba laptop, whose bios I have never tampered with, but with a W7 install, and VM installs of Windows XP, Ubuntu, Centos x64 and various other OS's.
If I desired I could install any of these OS's and expect to have availability for the drivers for the device, allowing me to perform whatever functions I choose. It's analogy that has been drawn time and again, but none of these actions would void my warranty.
It appears that "open source" is being more loosely applied and undermined.
I don't want to tamper with HTC's "Sense" interface, I don't want to overclock my Asus Transformer.
For years Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with Windows, eventually falling foul of anti-trust law in the US and competition laws in the EU. Phones should be subject to to the same initiatives.
It appears all the manufacturers are going the same route, following the same trend of locked and encrypted bootloaders.
There's more than one launcher, just as there's more than one web browser. If I wish to stop Touchwiz from running and install a different interface from the market, I should not have to take risks with the health of my device in order to perform a simple administrative function.
Each of us have almost certainly been asked by our peers what phone they should buy. We influence the market because we understand the technical sides of the devices a little more than the average man in the street. I'm losing patience with certain manufacturers and I'll not be recommending their devices to anyone again.
It's essential for the health and long term success of the Android OS that manufacturers cease penalising the development community. It's a feedback loop where we add value to their devices, even if it's simply by recommending them.
We're being cut out of the loop, as the Android devices become more locked down and the users more locked out the entire Android idea starts to eat itself.
+1 couldn't say it better
Agree with your post.
To me it seems like a cheap trick to rip us of the warranty fast & easy.
On the other hand unlocking a bootloader also means changing the kernel most likely. By changing the kernel many people oc their cpus to extreme levels.
Why shall the company take responsibility for those damages?
Rooting on the other hand should not void the warranty in my opinion.
There are easier ways to stop overclocking or at least limit the effects of overclocking.
It's something the phone providers trot out but there is no basis to the argument.
I agree with you
Agree wid ur post
Sent from my MB865 using xda premium
+1 totally agree
While I agree to this, almost anyone who roots is going to use a custom ROM. By rooting, you're telling them that it's fine, you do not need their warranty. You will rely on outside, free help if something goes wrong, because let's face it, they aren't building these things for us to root them.
Generally PCs are far less brickable, too. PCs are more modular in nature. There is not a single phone or tablet, of any brand, that is at all modular.
And anyway, from what I've read of many warranties for a PC, adding new hardware voids the warranty as well. Or at least disables it for the duration you use that new hardware inside of it.
Just think of it that way. A bricked PC is so much easier to fix than a bricked phone or tablet. In this way, if something does go wrong by something they aren't letting you do willynilly, or letting the general, far-less-techy normal end user, they're covering their own ass.
It'd be nice if they didn't hide that though.
We laugh at iPhone users that Apple limit what they can do with their devices
I think the gap between us get narrower each day.
Another terrible reply.
Phones are difficult to recover because they are made that way.
I've crashed and messed up a laptop install, but I was able to reach for a linux cd (or windows), re-install the software on to the drive (because the system partition wasn't totally locked down) and then install the drivers required because they were made available.
Your analogy is simply regurgitating the argument of companies like HTC and Asus who are prepared to sell you the hardware, just so long as you don't want to do anything with it other than what they prescribe.
The warranty debate is not for here, simply their decisions to lock down YOUR hardware will kill development.
At some point Google will have to step in and do something about the situation. Start taking control of what has the potential to be a wonderful product.
abo.saud said:
We laugh at iPhone users that Apple limit what they can do with their devices
I think the gap between us get narrower each day.
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TWO BIG thumbs up for abo, LOL
Yeap, when all Android devices got locked up, Android fanboys will cry out loud.
Being using so-called open-source but they (manuf.) hancuff dev. and push us into the corner day by day.
f4flake said:
For years Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with Windows, eventually falling foul of anti-trust law in the US and competition laws in the EU. Phones should be subject to to the same initiatives.
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And I'm kind of surprised nobody has thrown a fit about how smartphones are locked down even more. Microsoft got sued for bundling IE and not allowing you to uninstall it since it was integrated with the OS. You could still install a 3rd party browser and set it as default, and you could still install another OS if you wanted to.
Today we have Android phone OEMs that bundle bloatware which cannot be uninstalled without voiding your warranty and rooting. Bootloaders are locked and now batteries are non-removable. Its all a way to make your phone obsolete quicker so you have to replace it sooner.
I agree with you about the bootloaders and such I am using a one x from AT&T and if I had known about s-off and bootlodaer locks I woulda went with another Samsung device I'm coming from the best dev phone there is so far the captivate completely unbrickable proof that devices can be made modular and completly open source we buy.these phones we.should be able to do with them as.we.please.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app
I was given a Verizon HTC Desire 526 for free from someone who upgraded. I was going to use it for a few projects that I had in mind, but once I found out that it's impossible to root it (due to Verizon), those projects also became impossible.
What are some ways I could repurpose this unrootable phone? Preferably useful ideas. Only one I have in mind currently is a wireless security camera, or perhaps use it to time lapse a tomato plant that I'm growing (and perhaps upload it to a blog or something...)
Or, if there is some secret method of rooting this specific device, let me know! Honestly, I'm not too afraid of permanently bricking it. However, I don't want to spend $100+ on a jtag tool. I'm happily willing to hardware mod it, and have some knowledge in the field.
Absolute novice doing due diligence before any action. If statistics are being acquired is there any data suggesting that Kingroot is, in fact, the most successful path to rooting and Android phone? Have the AT&T [Alcatel] Cameox and want to confirm what is most likely to succeed. Additionally, my reading indicates that the end product might differ depending on which root tool. Hoping for informed guidance before I proceed.
Respectfully,
I have a Skyuniverse Elite A5 that i want to root. I've reached out to manufacturer several times with no luck on instructions to unlock boot-loader. its running android 9 (go edition) currently. Id like to root with magisk so i would need the stock boot.img however there is very, very minimal information on this device. where to begin on a device that has this many speed bumps? i need instructions on how to unlock my boot loader, clone my stock firmware to acquire necessary files, and rooting a ARM Cortex-A53 device with build ID: Elite_A5_1700_V1.0_202000618 Kernel Version 4.4.147 (24414) kernel architecture armv71. Thanks in advance
nonamemaddox5446 said:
I have a Skyuniverse Elite A5 that i want to root. I've reached out to manufacturer several times with no luck on instructions to unlock boot-loader. its running android 9 (go edition) currently. Id like to root with magisk so i would need the stock boot.img however there is very, very minimal information on this device. where to begin on a device that has this many speed bumps? i need instructions on how to unlock my boot loader, clone my stock firmware to acquire necessary files, and rooting a ARM Cortex-A53 device with build ID: Elite_A5_1700_V1.0_202000618 Kernel Version 4.4.147 (24414) kernel architecture armv71. Thanks in advance
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You have to get the bootloader unlocked first, there is nothing you can do until that happens. There is no "other way".
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Droidriven said:
You have to get the bootloader unlocked first, there is nothing you can do until that happens. There is no "other way".
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
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What would you recomend I try if manufacturer, carrier, and OS proprietary owner's all are not willing to provide any assistance? I've tried every fastboot command I could find, not even a specific code is given like some devices and even if I did acquire some special code there is no avenue to request unlocking from anyone. I'm finding it hard to believe that they are legally allowed to control how i use my device that i paid for. I can't stand not being in control of my phone. i feel like im being left in the dark about all the processes that are running because i literally am. i cant even view logs of anything. just what is running; not what exactly they are doing. this isnt right
nonamemaddox5446 said:
What would you recomend I try if manufacturer, carrier, and OS proprietary owner's all are not willing to provide any assistance? I've tried every fastboot command I could find, not even a specific code is given like some devices and even if I did acquire some special code there is no avenue to request unlocking from anyone. I'm finding it hard to believe that they are legally allowed to control how i use my device that i paid for. I can't stand not being in control of my phone. i feel like im being left in the dark about all the processes that are running because i literally am. i cant even view logs of anything. just what is running; not what exactly they are doing. this isnt right
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You have no choice but to do what we all do here when we have a device that has no valid bootloader unlock method, that is to just accept the fact that you are not going to unlock the bootloader without an unlock code from the manufacturer/carrier or paying for a bootloader unlock service from a shop/website that is not guaranteed to successfully unlock the bootloader.
The manufacturer and the carrier don't "have" to provide us with bootloader unlock information if they don't want to.
As a matter of fact, not giving us the bootloader unlock information actually protects their interests as far as network security and their warranty on the device is concerned.
Manufacturers lose a lot of money repairing/replacing devices that have been hardbricked due to user error/ignorance during the user's attempt to unlock and modify the device. When I device has been hardbricked, the manufacturer has no way to know that the device has been modified and that the warranty is now no longer valid due to the device being modified. Therefore, they end up paying to repair/replace devices that have technically had their warranty voided by the users modifications.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Well I completely understand where you're coming from and also understand that that is the normal methods that most users must abide by however I will do everything in my power to ensure that I can do what I want with my device. Of course manufacturers and cell phone carriers do not want users to unlock the bootloader and acquire root privileges. They hide behind the facade that they are limiting a devices use to prevent improper user operations in which could malfunction the device. That's the official statement, however if one were to acquire root privileges one would be able to view and stop all the data acquisition processes that are running in the background and everyone's device currently without their knowledge or permission. Every single application has a main objective and a more important secondary function, "capture any information that they can sell". I'm beginning the process of litigation in this matter. Manufacturer's, cell phone carrier's, and all of Google's various Android Operations cannot provide any legal documentation regarding terms and conditions and policies on rooting or installing custom operating systems. Now is the time to force them to update their policies while they do not have any currently implemented. They are no rules written about this matter they are just going with the flow essentially, mostly because nobody is aware of this. It's time you and everyone else take ownership of their devices and prevent others from profiting without your knowledge, permission, and stipulations if you choose to share your information. It's important to remember that it is okay to share information as long as you are compensated for it and are aware of its intentions. Imagine buying a pair of shoes and when you begin lacing them how you wish you are somehow unable to do so. The holes are there, the strings are in your hands, but the manufacturer doesn't want you to lace them up how you wish because if you did they wouldn't be able to make any more money off of the shoes. They have already sold the shoes, they are not in possession of them anymore; you are, however they are still trying to tell you what to do with your shoes. If you can't graspe the audacity of all this I suggest you begin researching. I used you as a framing device to convey my message so if you are offended by any of my statements please know that I was also referring to the general public as well as you. Nothing I said was intended to hurt or bother you.
Hello all,
I'm kinda new to XDA so bear with me, lol. I want to find out if there is any method such as rooting my device or the like, that can enable me to brute force 90fps on my device? I know my device is capable its done so in last iterations of andriod, but alas, 13 has severely limited the power of my phones capabilities.
I have tried flashing the phone via MSM tool, is it still possible to use MSM on andriod 13? Maybe im doing the installation incorrectly, any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Welcome to XDA! I'm also new aboard. The solution could be rooting your device, if it's compatible. Rooting can give you more control over your device's settings and allow you to tweak performance settings. However! please note that rooting your device can void your warranty and may have potential risks, so proceed at your own risk and make sure to back up your data before proceeding. As for MSM tool, as I know - it's worth checking if it's still compatible with Android 13. It's possible that the installation process might need to be done differently for Android 13. However Android supports greatly a gambling source, read here its review because this is my method of choosing the best game of chance. I check some casino opinions and then I get a sure way of earning easy money.