artyom comments on Samsung’s One UI 8 might shut down bootloader unlocking on Galaxy phones

[–] artyom@piefed.social 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There's definitely no law in the US. In fact the vast majority of Android device bootloaders come locked. Pretty much just Pixels and Galaxies that allow this.

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[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

Yeah they might come locked, but the owner needs to be able to remove that lock if they want to.

I can't remember owning an Android device it wasn't possible on. What do you mean just pixel and galaxy allow it?

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[+] LostXOR@fedia.io 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

[deleted]

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

I think computers are gonna be next on the chopping block.

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[–] socialsecurity@piefed.social 4 points 1 year ago

It is moving that way for sure. But PC gamer is kicking still... Despite these gpu prices

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[–] neblem@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And even when it comes to Galaxies, you can't buy from a carrier in the US or you'll often get a special version that, you guessed right, has a locked bootloader. (Two phones now, never again).

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

I bought unlocked (no carrier) phones from samsung's website and got locked bootloaders. I'm in the US.

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[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

that probably only means that its carrier unlocked, so that you are not forced to use a specific carrier that someone decided for you.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Exactly, which makes the "you can’t buy from a carrier in the US or you’ll often get a special version that" invalid, since its locked bootloader whether or not you get it from a carrier

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[–] Eagle0110@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Even the non-carrier variants in the US, misleadingly called "International variants" despite of being regional to the US, have locked bootloader.

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[–] neblem@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

Yuck, TIL.

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[–] Eagle0110@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago*

Yuck indeed.

People tried many ways to get around it, back when I was still using an US variant Samsung Note 9, people went as far as using a leaked engineering/preproduction ROM, which can be flashed using Samsung's official tool because it does have the correct key for the locked bootloader to accept, being built and compiled by Samsung, and because it's an engineering ROM it would give you root and everything despite of the bootloader still being locked.

But it was an exceptionally rare leak, and it was only meant for preproduction for a reason, it is very VERY unstable and not exactly usable for a daily driver lol

So happy I am leaving all that BS from Samsung behind with my current Sony Xperia 1 VI which is bootloader-unlocked and rooted and deeply modded and truly my own device lol

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