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March 3, 2012 By: ConanTroutman
After having been released for less than a week, and with a forum added only a few days ago, the Sony Xperia S is the most recent device to find a home on XDA. Even so, we’re already pleased to bring you information on how to unlock and relock the bootloader, as well as how to root your brand-spanking-new device.
XDA senior member DooMLoRD put together a very comprehensive tutorial on dealing with the bootloaders, which is based on lollylost’s similar tutorial for the Xperia Arc. There are quite a few steps to achieving the end result, but they are clearly explained, with all the necessary links provided. The actual method for unlocking is via the official SonyMobile site, so it’s only fair that we also show some thanks for their developer friendly attitude. DooMLoRD continues in his second post, and explains how to relock your bootloader using FlashTool.
Meanwhile senior member Bin4ry makes sure you’re able to get root access by providing a pre-rooted system.img, which is to be flashed via fastboot. After a quick reboot you should have root. He goes on to say that a more convenient method is sure to follow.
If you are the proud owner of a shiny new Xperia S and can’t wait to start tinkering with your device, DooMLoRD’s tutorial and Bin4ry’s rooting thread are undoubtedly the first places you should visit.
February 13, 2012 By: PoorCollegeGuy
Some users have been having a lot of problems with the HTC dev bootloader unlock method. Not only does it not completely unlock the bootloader, but it causes problems with flashing things such as kernels and radios.
This problem is especially present on the HTC Sensation, who suffer from issues such as not being able to flash some radio files and some kernels, unless installed in a specific manner, can cause some problems such as WiFi problems.
XDA Senior Member tkraaa has has taken a deeper look at some of these problems and, more important, ways around them or ways to fix them along with links to more threads that can help fix them. Here’s tkraaa’s take on the WiFi issues:
it allows you to install Custom Roms , But what htc don’t tell you is that the custom rom should be using their htc Stock kernel in order to work without errors !!!!!!! . ( Otherwise for Roms with custom kernels , you have to install Custom Kernels in a certain Method to avoid errors like WiFi error !!!! )
So, if you’re facing some of these woes and need them fixed, you can check out all the fixes and explanations in the original thread. Additionally, you can find links to other threads that deal with these problems as well in case you need them.
January 25, 2012 By: liwen
At the beginning of this year, there was on outrage over the discovery of one of our forum members who found that the bootloader on the Transformer Prime tablet was locked and encrypted. Protest ensued, and ASUS quickly gave in and announced that it would develop an unlock tool. Now their official Twitter account revealed that the unlock tool (which they erroneously call ‘root tool’, for whatever reason) is expected to arrive in February.
Just got word that the root tool for the @ASUS#TransformerPrime should be coming in February. ^EJ
— ASUS (@ASUS) Januar 24, 2012
Of course, this can mean anything from next week to 30-something days, but in any case, it’s still pretty nice to see the company respond and act so quickly. We’ve also seen their support being considerably stepped up and above of that of competitors, with ASUS Technical Marketing Manager Gary Key offering official support in our forums.
January 10, 2012 By: liwen
HTC has updated its bootloader unlock database with a few more devices, this time the Desire HD and additional Desire and Wildfire models.
Of course, HTC announced two weeks ago that all phones launched after September 2011 are unlock-able, and seems to be making pretty good progress on older models as well. The Desire, Wildfire, Wildfire S and two more devices were added just a few days ago.
So, keep it up, HTC, and Motorola better follow along.
Now go ahead and visit HTCdev to unlock your bootloader, the come back to the forums for some custom ROM goodness, okay?
January 6, 2012 By: azrienoch
Following their move to unlock all bootloaders on phones released after September 2011, HTC announced today that the HTC Wildfire S, Wildfire, Desire, Merge, and A315c (a Wildfire CDMA variant) joined the official list. It looks like all the devices they added right after Christmas are on the list as well.
The dropdown menu of supported devices on HTCDev’s bootloader page changed formats as well. Now included, at the very bottom of the list, is an All Other Supported Models option. That is for all future models, because eventually HTC won’t have that list there. You’ll also notice asterisks by some devices in the list. HTCDev explains,
In certain cases you may be required to install an RUU first in order to go through the unlock process. These devices are indicated with an asterisk in the list below.
There are added steps for those devices because you’re updating HBOOT. Head over to HTCDev.com and try it out.
Source: HTCDev
January 5, 2012 By: liwen
2011 came and went, and Google wasn’t the only one breaking their promises. Back in March, Motorola said they would unlock their notoriously secured bootloaders before the end of 2011, and guess what? They haven’t.
So, what do we do? Of course, start a petition. This has worked wonders with HTC, and, only a few days ago, ASUS. Both quickly gave in to the pressure and eventually provided (or are in the process of doing so) official unlocking solutions. Motorola originally said they were doing the same, but they didn’t, and here’s what they get for it:
OPERATION: Make Ourselves Heard (#OPMOSH)
[...]
About this movement:
Motorola Mobility Inc. has become famous for its lies, slanderous ways, and tendency to flat out prove time and time again that it cares not for its customers after they walk out of that store with their Motorola-branded device. Since the early days of Android, post Droid 1, we have sat down and took our locked bootloaders like a man. There came to be a boiling point – and a full-out war was launched on their social media sites. Sound familiar? The same thing that worked with HTC and now with Asus. We received a generic “second half of 2011″ timing. Guess what! It’s now Q1 2012, and not only have they missed their deadline, but they have IGNORED all bootloader-related questions, given NO official announcement of their plans still being in motion, and thus must have forgotten that we are a core, dedicated community that wishes nothing more than to enjoy the phones we were given. Let’s make ourselves heard yet again, turn the heat up, and make Moto (like HTC) get off of their asses and DO SOMETHING. Everyone counts!
Thanks to [TSON] for initiating this, and we can only urge you to visit the forum thread to find out what you can do to help our fellow XDA members in reminding Motorola of their broken promise.
January 3, 2012 By: liwen
ASUS just announced that it will develop an unlock tool for the bootloader of its Transformer Prime tablet. This comes only slightly more than 48 hours after a forum member has found its bootloader to be locked and encrypted, triggering a massive amount of protest posts on its Facebook wall.
As the original reason for locking the bootloader, ASUS cites the “content providers’ requirement for DRM client devices to be as secure as possible” in order to support Google DRM for “a high quality video rental experience”. Thus, it notes that unlocking the bootloader will not only void your warranty, but also make Google video rental unavailable – which makes no difference for many users since the service is only available in the US and UK (and possibly other English-speaking markets, thanks to nanu*1 for pointing out) as of the time of this writing.
Below is the juicy bit of the statement.
Regarding the bootloader, the reason we chose to lock it is due to content providers’ requirement for DRM client devices to be as secure as possible. ASUS supports Google DRM in order to provide users with a high quality video rental experience. Also, based on our experience, users who choose to root their devices risk breaking the system completely. However, we know there is demand in the modding community to have an unlocked bootloader. Therefore, ASUS is developing an unlock tool for that community. Please do note that if you choose to unlock your device, the ASUS warranty will be void, and Google video rental will also be unavailable because the device will be no longer protected by security mechanism.
December 30, 2011 By: azrienoch
I made a mistake. A few days ago I reported that, with a slew of new kernel source codes posted on HTCdev, HTC is now GPL compliant. That wasn’t true. I found out after saying it again on XDA TV. On Twitter, @gu1dry said,
@azrienoch Just finished the new XDA TV video, issue with the end, @HTC still hasn’t released source code for the Evo Design… :/
That was true. Somehow, I overlooked the HTC Kingdom (HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Hero S) when making my list of HTC’s non-GPL-compliant devices.
I don’t like being wrong. And it looks like HTC doesn’t like it when I’m wrong, either. Things get messy, or something. So HTC fast-tracked the release of the Kingdom kernel source code. It’s available on the HTCdev website. So now, HTC is mostly GPL-compliant.
I was also reminded of the fact that GPL compliance means making an Android kernel source code available as soon as the Android device releases. HTC has yet to do that. Once they get a system in place to make that happen, they’ll be GPL-compliant. I’m sure that with all the recent successes at HTCDev, we’ll see this soon. Looking forward to it. For now, being up to date with all the Android devices on shelves is definitely a victory for everyone.
December 28, 2011 By: azrienoch
Today, Peter Chou makes good on his word to no longer lock the bootloaders on HTC Android phones. Just in time for those New Year’s Resolutions.
XDA Junior Member nightwings noticed, when trying out HTCDev’s bootloader unlocking tool on his HTC Rezound, his bootloader was successfully unlocked. Similar reports came in on the HTC Vivid forum, even though neither were named on HTCDev.com’s list of supported devices.
And it’s bigger than just the HTC Rezound and Vivid. I just tried out the tool on the HTC Rhyme. I asked RussellHolly to try it on his HTC Thunderbolt. We now both have unlocked bootloaders. With the backing of an unnamed source at HTC, I feel comfortable going out on a limb to say at least every device released after HTCDev launched is now supported by their bootloader unlocking tool. Scratch that, HTCDev just posted this:
All HTC Android devices launched after September 2011 are unlockable. The website will be updated accordingly to reflect this in the coming weeks. We continue to work on models launched prior to September 2011, please check back often for the status of older devices.
For now, head over to HTCDev to unlock your device. If you find that your device doesn’t unlock, let us know so we can get a clear picture of how far the unlocking goes.
Congratulations to all persistent consumers who knew what they wanted. And congratulations to HTC and HTCDev for making it happen. We know it wasn’t easy.
December 23, 2011 By: Jase Glenn
Do you own a new HTC device? Is your device bootloader locked? For most of us to obtain root, using the HTC method of unlocking is tiresome. Go here, input this command, copy this, push that, and all to let HTC know that you want to void your warranty.
Until now that is.
Say hello to the latest creation from XDA developer: frigid. Known as HTC Super Tool v2, this bad boy roots a number of devices according to frigid, including:
Evo Design 4g
Evo 4g
Evo 3d
Evo Shift
G2
MT3Gs
MT4G
MT4Gs
Inspire
Sensation
Incredible
Wildfire S
Amaze
And a lot more if it works for your device either post here or PM me and I will add to the list!
For right now there is no functioning S-OFF, but it’s in the works, so head on over to the thread here and show your unrooted HTC device some love.
Happy Rooting.
August 28, 2011 By: azrienoch
A bricked phone. No JTAG. Modify hardware, upload a bootloader, and the phone lives. Pure development.
That’s what I think of the work of AdamOutler and Rebellos to breathe life into dead devices. A couple days ago, WillVerduzco wrote an article on Rebellos’ method of unbricking Hummingbird devices by uploading your very own custom bootloader to your device. A couple weeks ago, AdamOutler asked for help getting the official Samsung bootloader for Galaxy devices. Since then, the two teamed up to put Rebellos’ Resurrection Bootloader on devices modified according to AdamOutler’s UnBrickable Mod.
Now they’re finding the fun doesn’t stop at unbricking phones. They’re flashing bootloaders built for other operating systems. ”I used UnBrickable mod to install Bada OS bootloaders on my Captivate,” AdamOutler says. ”Totally bricked it. Messed up partition tables and everything. It assimilated my Captivate. I used UnBrickable mod to load up a secondary bootloader while holding the key combination, then flashed it.” He goes on, “I was worried for a bit because it would not download, but eventually we got it! It works!”
This means the months of hard work put into this project finally paid off. AdamOutler working on hardware, Rebellos working on software. Once the hardware side of development finished, Rebellos stepped in. ”You see,” AdamOutler says, “Rebellos is a developer working on a port of Android for Bada OS. He’s 18 years old, from Poland, just got his driver’s license, and he’s a badass behind the assembly language console.”
Samsung Galaxy devices normally boot using a primary bootloader to load a secondary bootloader that, in turn, loads the Linux kernel. Rebellos replaced the primary bootloader. That means they should be able to load non-Linux systems, like Windows Phone 7 or iOS. Rebellos says that will take, “tons of work in pure assembler, as they aren’t opensource.” He adds, “I’d say for SGS family you can count on Bada and any opensource OS, like Ubuntu.”
To put it clearly, the work these developers put into this project means the beginning of HD2-like development on any device with a CORTEX-A8 processor in it, including the iPhone 4 and Nexus S. And that’s exactly what AdamOutler and Rebellos plan to do. ”We basically created a whole new system for developers to use for developing and noobs to use for unbricking after playing with the big kids.” Pure development.
The developers are currently looking for bricked and broken CORTEX-A8 phone donations, such as these:
Samsung I9000 SGS
Samsung S8500 Wave
Samsung S8530 Wave II
Samsung SGH-i997 Infuse 4G
Samsung T959 Vibrant
Samsung SGH-T849 Galaxy Tab 7.0 inch
Samsung GT-P1000 Galaxy Tab
Samsung GT-i9010 Girogio Armani Galaxy
Samsung GT-i8350 Omnia 7
Google Nexus S
Apple iPhone4
If you would like to help out with this historical work, please see the development thread.
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