[PSA] Do not accept ota updates! No more s-off for speedy as of right now

[PSA] Do not accept ota updates! No more s-off for speedy as of right now - EVO Shift 4G General

So after my experimenting with the latest OTA update I cannot attain s-off, and I don't think you will be able to with the new bootloader.
I think the people that were able to downgrade with the latest OTA were able to do it before they rebooted with the new hboot.
It seems that we are going to end up like the Evo 3D people where you have to use fastboot to flash a kernel boot.img and clock to flash the kernel/rom.
If anyone can come up with any other work arounds please feel free to suggest them.
I had the unlocked bootloader, running UKE AOSP ROM (CM7) and tried the misc.img trick. When I rebooted to flash PG06IMG.zip I noticed my bootloader went from unlocked to locked.
It seems that HTC has patched the misc.img trick.
Again, I am more than willing to admit I am wrong and hope someone can prove me wrong on this.

Maybe you should stop "experimenting" on things that will cause serious issues to your phone

It says in the title do not accept ota updates and I think that is a valid point. Only developers should accept and download the ota updates so they can make revisions on rom/fimeware updates to avoid loosing the eng s-off bootloader.

2+ thoughts:
First, the 2.3.4 update is actually pretty damn good. Even if we were on a locked bootloader with no other options, this is the closest to acceptable stock performance we've had on this hardware.
Second, with one remark I'll follow up with, I don't think being stuck without an S-OFF bootloader is really all that big a problem for a casual power user. We have to remember there are kind of three categories of people who will use a smartphone - people that don't care about root and custom software, people like me who will happily install things if it means better performance but don't necessarily need to be doing so constantly, and people like those of you who hang out in the dev forum who flash software constantly.
I got tired of having to constantly reinstall all my old apps and restore SMS data and whatever else every time I changed roms to try, and with all due respect to the guys pumping out remarkably high quality work on Sense 3.0/3.5 roms, there are too many problems with that software on our hardware for my tastes. I flashed new software on my Hero constantly and that was kinda fun, but as my life's gone on, I don't really like it the same way I used to, and a bugfix release seems somewhat less magical than it used to.
For someone like me, only being able to flash boot and system doesn't represent a substantial problem.
Now! The remark is that I think the limited unlock is stupid and hinders the community, despite the fact that I don't need it. You guys (active devs) do a hell of a lot for the lives of these phones that the companies crap out as fast as they can and then shovel into "release worthless maintenance releases every 4 months" as soon as the container ship leaves port. I will admit: we have been lucky with the 2.3.4 update. This seems to be well tested and deals with a number of outstanding problems with our phones, not the least of which was the awful performance of the 2.3.3 updates. Unfortunately, the limited unlock and its two-step flash process only serve to slow down your progress. That's it. I cannot conceive of any reason HTC would have been able to use to justify making the choice. I actually went in and complained at them about it through htcdev just because I feel like this is going to, in the long run, only serve to destroy the active communities surrounding many of these phones.
What's the solution we can suggest (since we all know HTC doesn't care enough to read this)? Instead of a halfassed unlock state that takes all of 20 seconds to attain, we need at least the ability to have recovery flash to the boot partition, if not a full S-OFF. What's the balance? Make it harder for us to get, I guess - flashing eng bootloaders is kinda difficult and beyond the reach of people that don't understand what they're doing anyway, so I guess that makes for a good process.
I also guess that the downside, in many people's eyes, is that an official unlock :VOIDS YER WARRANTY: whereas unofficial/revertable unlocks that only *voids your warranty*. I don't know how common warranty claims are but it's clear Sprint doesn't want to service ANY phones and I don't know if anyone's ever sent a phone to HTC for work or not. This is probably an area where companies need to figure out how to bring the concept of hardware warranties in line with what software can do. A CPU overclock/undervolt is going to have a tough time failing a digitizer, right? So why refuse service? And what if we don't have software that can make any changes to how the hardware runs, like when a phone first comes out and we have unlock but not source code?
There are a number of problems at play with this situation but overall, this is stupid and regretful and we at least need a patched unlockable hboot that allows one-step rom flashing.
I know this has been the longwinded brainfart nobody wanted to read, but it feels good to write it down in a public place.

nurrwick said:
2+ thoughts:
First, the 2.3.4 update is actually pretty damn good. Even if we were on a locked bootloader with no other options, this is the closest to acceptable stock performance we've had on this hardware.
Second, with one remark I'll follow up with, I don't think being stuck without an S-OFF bootloader is really all that big a problem for a casual power user. We have to remember there are kind of three categories of people who will use a smartphone - people that don't care about root and custom software, people like me who will happily install things if it means better performance but don't necessarily need to be doing so constantly, and people like those of you who hang out in the dev forum who flash software constantly.
I got tired of having to constantly reinstall all my old apps and restore SMS data and whatever else every time I changed roms to try, and with all due respect to the guys pumping out remarkably high quality work on Sense 3.0/3.5 roms, there are too many problems with that software on our hardware for my tastes. I flashed new software on my Hero constantly and that was kinda fun, but as my life's gone on, I don't really like it the same way I used to, and a bugfix release seems somewhat less magical than it used to.
For someone like me, only being able to flash boot and system doesn't represent a substantial problem.
Now! The remark is that I think the limited unlock is stupid and hinders the community, despite the fact that I don't need it. You guys (active devs) do a hell of a lot for the lives of these phones that the companies crap out as fast as they can and then shovel into "release worthless maintenance releases every 4 months" as soon as the container ship leaves port. I will admit: we have been lucky with the 2.3.4 update. This seems to be well tested and deals with a number of outstanding problems with our phones, not the least of which was the awful performance of the 2.3.3 updates. Unfortunately, the limited unlock and its two-step flash process only serve to slow down your progress. That's it. I cannot conceive of any reason HTC would have been able to use to justify making the choice. I actually went in and complained at them about it through htcdev just because I feel like this is going to, in the long run, only serve to destroy the active communities surrounding many of these phones.
What's the solution we can suggest (since we all know HTC doesn't care enough to read this)? Instead of a halfassed unlock state that takes all of 20 seconds to attain, we need at least the ability to have recovery flash to the boot partition, if not a full S-OFF. What's the balance? Make it harder for us to get, I guess - flashing eng bootloaders is kinda difficult and beyond the reach of people that don't understand what they're doing anyway, so I guess that makes for a good process.
I also guess that the downside, in many people's eyes, is that an official unlock :VOIDS YER WARRANTY: whereas unofficial/revertable unlocks that only *voids your warranty*. I don't know how common warranty claims are but it's clear Sprint doesn't want to service ANY phones and I don't know if anyone's ever sent a phone to HTC for work or not. This is probably an area where companies need to figure out how to bring the concept of hardware warranties in line with what software can do. A CPU overclock/undervolt is going to have a tough time failing a digitizer, right? So why refuse service? And what if we don't have software that can make any changes to how the hardware runs, like when a phone first comes out and we have unlock but not source code?
There are a number of problems at play with this situation but overall, this is stupid and regretful and we at least need a patched unlockable hboot that allows one-step rom flashing.
I know this has been the longwinded brainfart nobody wanted to read, but it feels good to write it down in a public place.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure I understand that people like you that already have the s-on unlocked are use to it. I'm not the type of person that flashes roms constantly so I think that's a stereo-type. I guess what it really comes down to is people that are use to having s-off will not like the new s-on bootloader, and there will be a stock sense rom soon enough for people that have and want to keep s-off to flash. Now can you tell me what a nandroid unlocked device is? Can you nandroid restore from a stock sense rom to a aosp rom and the kernel will get restored in recovery? I don't think it will. Sure I don't like to switch roms a lot, but I do like to nandroid restore every once in awhile back to ruu to check for prl/profile updates. I might not always be at me pc to do a fastboot flash boot.img when doing nandroid restores or flash a no wipe updated rom that has new features in it. I also use my pc a lot for compiling so it takes a lot of my pc's resources to do that. So therefore even when I am at my pc it might not be available for doing those types of things.

blahbl4hblah said:
Maybe you should stop "experimenting" on things that will cause serious issues to your phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good point, and good thing this is my "dev" phone.

VICODAN said:
Good point, and good thing this is my "dev" phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now you just need to learn how to dev... Lmfao!
Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

sparksco said:
Now can you tell me what a nandroid unlocked device is? Can you nandroid restore from a stock sense rom to a aosp rom and the kernel will get restored in recovery? I don't think it will. Sure I don't like to switch roms a lot, but I do like to nandroid restore every once in awhile back to ruu to check for prl/profile updates. I might not always be at me pc to do a fastboot flash boot.img when doing nandroid restores or flash a no wipe updated rom that has new features in it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can tell you what would irritate you is that the bootloader isn't allowing recovery to write to the boot partition. I can tell you recovery can write to data and to system. I can tell you that what I wrote up above is that, at the very least, what we need is the ability to write to all three at the same time. That's a feature I want, which is what I said up above.
Indeed, the very fact that restoring a nand backup is a two-boot two-step process is exactly what I think is broken with this unlock tool. I, too, would benefit from being able to backup and restore while not at a PC.
For what it's worth, I've wiped data once since I did the unlock and flashed recovery and cw recovery restored it. Additionally, I even just flashed a 2.3.3 zip in recovery to test a theory I had about loading recovery.img off a hard drive to see if it got better permissions than loading it from the phone. The answer? No it doesn't, but hey, at least recovery was able to overwrite 2.3.3 with 2.3.4 and restore my user data.

nurrwick said:
I can tell you what would irritate you is that the bootloader isn't allowing recovery to write to the boot partition. I can tell you recovery can write to data and to system. I can tell you that what I wrote up above is that, at the very least, what we need is the ability to write to all three at the same time. That's a feature I want, which is what I said up above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but it's not very easy to get that extra feature. Look at the evo 3D and how long they've been using the s-on bootloader. HTC is making more and more difficult to get s-off without bricking the phone while in the process of doing it. I've know many devs to brick their phones just trying to achieve s-off for all of us to enjoy, but most of them won't talk about it they'll just suck it up and keep doing what they normally do.

sparksco said:
Yes but it's not very easy to get that extra feature. Look at the evo 3D and how long they've been using the s-on bootloader. HTC is making more and more difficult to get s-off without bricking the phone while in the process of doing it. I've know many devs to brick their phones just trying to achieve s-off for all of us to enjoy, but most of them won't talk about it they'll just suck it up and keep doing what they normally do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep we are now in the 3vo camp.
But, we can still flash roms and kernels, it's just more of a pain than it used to be.

sparksco said:
Yes but it's not very easy to get that extra feature. Look at the evo 3D and how long they've been using the s-on bootloader. HTC is making more and more difficult to get s-off without bricking the phone while in the process of doing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am trying to say, and I thought I expressed it correctly, that the HTC unlock needs to enable recovery to work correctly, and that if it did, not having S-OFF would really be no big deal whatsoever.
If they enabled that, I would be 100% happy with an S-ON unlockable bootloader. In short, I am asking for HTC to give us that extra feature. No more. I don't need to write to radio.
But, since they don't, I understand the desire to keep S-OFF.
PERSONALLY, I will be happy with S-ON because 2.3.4 doesn't suck and I'm not compelled to switch away from it or put in a custom kernel. I *fully* recognize I am in a minority in that position.
IF, however, I purchase another HTC phone in the future and the only option for writing to the phone's memory is this half-assed bootloader unlock, I will be very unhappy. That's why I'm going to engage in a little back and forth with them, and why I'm going to wait for any future phone purchase for the software for it to settle down. I'm not buying something that's stuck in pocket mode ever again.

nurrwick said:
I am trying to say, and I thought I expressed it correctly, that the HTC unlock needs to enable recovery to work correctly, and that if it did, not having S-OFF would really be no big deal whatsoever.
If they enabled that, I would be 100% happy with an S-ON unlockable bootloader. In short, I am asking for HTC to give us that extra feature. No more. I don't need to write to radio.
But, since they don't, I understand the desire to keep S-OFF.
PERSONALLY, I will be happy with S-ON because 2.3.4 doesn't suck and I'm not compelled to switch away from it or put in a custom kernel. I *fully* recognize I am in a minority in that position.
IF, however, I purchase another HTC phone in the future and the only option for writing to the phone's memory is this half-assed bootloader unlock, I will be very unhappy. That's why I'm going to engage in a little back and forth with them, and why I'm going to wait for any future phone purchase for the software for it to settle down. I'm not buying something that's stuck in pocket mode ever again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct me if I'm wrong but the problem is not recovery, the problem is the bootloader.
You can flash clockwork recovery, but you cannot overwrite the bootloader.

No, you're correct; you'll note I said "HTC unlock needs to enable recovery to work correctly." We all know recovery works right, since we were using it last week. This week, with bootloader unlock, it doesn't work right. BUT of course, as we also all know because you've succesfully done it, the bootloader allows you to write to boot with fastboot commands.
Thus, The problem is that the htc unlock doesn't let the bootloader give recovery permission to write to boot.
That's what I want fixed and what the dev community and people who want faster flash and restore need.

nurrwick said:
No, you're correct; you'll note I said "HTC unlock needs to enable recovery to work correctly." We all know recovery works right, since we were using it last week. This week, with bootloader unlock, it doesn't work right. BUT of course, as we also all know because you've succesfully done it, the bootloader allows you to write to boot with fastboot commands.
Thus, The problem is that the htc unlock doesn't let the bootloader give recovery permission to write to boot.
That's what I want fixed and what the dev community and people who want faster flash and restore need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I guess it's time to trollolol HTC again?
Please note though, that HTC only supports unlocked bootloaders on HTC devices released after September 2011. We aren't even supposed to have an unlocked bootloader.

VICODAN said:
Well I guess it's time to trollolol HTC again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just before I wrote the longwinded post above, I sent a direct contact message through htcdev.com… then a little while ago, I tweeted at them about it, too.
I don't expect a positive result, but I guess I owe it to myself and to the community to at least try to do what I can!

VICODAN said:
Yep we are now in the 3vo camp.
But, we can still flash roms and kernels, it's just more of a pain than it used to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say "we" I'm assuming your talking about yourself and a few select others. I think a majority of the shift community still has s-off, so this doesn't really apply to a majority of the shift community.

Most of the community won't keep the shift forever. Not that we will meet with any success by trying to convince HTC that leaving boot off-limits to recovery is a mean-spirited and pointless thing to do, but on the off chance they'll listen, wouldn't you rather have people working toward getting it to be an official part of the official solution so that your next HTC phone is easier to work with while unlocked/S-ON?
If we have to put up with bootloader unlocks from now on instead of leaked engineering software, at least someone should fight to make sure they aren't crappy.

nurrwick said:
Most of the community won't keep the shift forever. Not that we will meet with any success by trying to convince HTC that leaving boot off-limits to recovery is a mean-spirited and pointless thing to do, but on the off chance they'll listen, wouldn't you rather have people working toward getting it to be an official part of the official solution so that your next HTC phone is easier to work with while unlocked/S-ON?
If we have to put up with bootloader unlocks from now on instead of leaked engineering software, at least someone should fight to make sure they aren't crappy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I agree HTC should allow s-off when unlocking the bootloader maybe as a seperate option or just part of the main unlocking feature on their website. S-on mean security on so if you want them to make a unlockable bootloader it needs to be s-off and not s-on that protects things like recovery from flashing the boot partition.

****ty quality but:
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Thanks again otaking71

And if we pressure them into give us s-off maybe they would do it to future phones

Related

Backing up the Atrix and OTA Bootloaders...

Hi Gent's, I have some holes in my Atrix knowledge, that with all the recent developments and new members/devs I'm sure would be helpful for all to discuss and clear up.
The problem is as follows.
How can I, and others, backup their Atrix in safe secure manner that allows us to take advantage of, and remain flexible, for both future updates, either XDA member created, or OTA(which could mess with things, for example blocking our bootloader unlock for those who OTA and haven't unlocked yet, thereby denying them further future flashing freed-up fun roms).
I know we need to backup and save the PDS partition if we want security in flashing the roms regarding touchscreen and device issues, but some things need to be spelled out. First things first, my understanding is a month ago we didn't have a fully functioning CWM, we had tenfar's CWM bootstrap, which was limited in function. I heard something about borked backup/recovery with it, so I played things safe, didn't touch it. Now a couple weeks ago tenfar put out a new version that supports the Atrix post-unlocked bootloader, which allows for greater functionality in CWM. What I need to figure out guys, is what's the protocol for backing up the PDS, making a safe backup of the ENTIRE phone, and then the safe way for wiping the cache's, (IDK which one's, I don't want to trash my touchscreen lower half like some people did?), followed by the currently established procedures for switching from rom to rom.
This is all compounded by the problem that either yesterday or today a new (bootstrap?) item was given Atrix compatibility by the almighty Koush, something called ROM Manager. Should I use this instead of CWM, or should I wait. I'm fine with TiBu for apps and data, but I need to be sure I have everything necessary to restore the phone if necessary because of a bootlooping new rom for example, because I've heard too many nightmare stories about people so far, granted some members have done some stupid stuff, but I think it would be helpful if some of the recent developments in Atrix Backup/Restore could be explained by someone omnipotent in this area.
I'm thinking the correct options are, get Tenfars latest CWM, which REQUIRES bootloader bashing, followed by a Nandroid(?) backup in CWM, then wipe data cache, and dalvik cache, and any other cache's?(IDK!) After the wiping, then install new rom zip from CWM as usual, correct?
The problem with the procedure above, is I think Tenfars latest CWM requires pudding, which presents me and probably others with the following dilemma. I'm assuming, because of Motorola's past history, that when the ATT GB update OTA's, they are going to try to f**k with our current implementation of pudding bootloader unlock, for those who aren't unlocked yet, just how they closed up root with every past update for example. These guys are security nuts, read a post of mine I made last month, they definitely read our forum, at least the Nvidia Tegra guys I've confirmed to. Now I may be wrong, and they may not able to implement this, but I don't want to confuse you guys, I know that those who are unlocked will stay unlocked, but what if they refuse you guys OTA GB official because they check for unlocked BL? That's why me, and I'm sure others haven't unlocked yet. I plan on waiting for the OTA to pop up, pressing install later for 3-4 days denying the update, and checking XDA feverishly to see if those who install the OTA can use CWM, root, Unlock bootloaders, etc. If they lock up the new official GB OTA, then I'll just hit install later one last time, unlock bootloader, and pop in one of the many roms raining down from the sky.
Also this isn't so much a question, as it's a discussion, because I feel like I can't be the only one with these information gaps. If someone can add to the collective knowledge, it will help all of us
/on an unrelated closing note, since it's raining roms, has anyone tried Cherryblur 1.1a, AND Quickrom V1 (7/18), AND Kpenn's GB Beta 4 AND Ninja V 0.4.2 Alpha, AND Dorains Redpill? I'm curious if anyone has been crazy enough or has had the chance to try all of the latest and greatest, I'm sure one of those is more stable than the others, they are all based off of a hodgepodge of unofficial development builds, ha, one's a French 2.3.4 even? Not mention we were goofing around with HKTW earlier, which is MT870 not even Olympus!!! That surely cannot run with much real stablity....

Hi,
Once there is an official OTA for GB, it can be captured and saved. It's a simple edit to remove references to any bootloader. Then it can be flashed using CWM.
Cheers!

Excellent!
Spoken from NF...HIMSELF! Thank you, I was waiting to bite the unlock bullet but I forgot we always steal stuff and repackage it for flashy-goodness.
However, I guess I should just use ROM manager and do a complete NANDROID backup? Does that capture the all important PDS? And by the way, it would seem, that if you stick to legit packages and ROMs and flash with CWM and deal with data the right way, its difficult to brick it would seem?
Dalvik and Clear User Data right, or is there more....
Once again thanks NF, since your such a talented dev for atrix, are you working on cooking a rom?

How to Root a HTC one (M8) in 2016 For beginners - (first time posting)

I have just recently started my journey into rooting, I've been in research mode for about a week trying to learn as much as I can but it's SO overwhelming trying to keep up with all the old and new techniques - trying to find out what is the best method to use.
Before discovering this place I asked a few questions on reddit and was able to get a cheat sheet on all the terms one needs for rooting:
https://www.reddit.com/r/androidroo...ingroot_considered_true_rooting_where_is_the/
and while browsing Xda I found this short guide:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/help/how-to-root-htc-one-m8-android-6-0-t3420748
However both of theses sets of instructions miss out a few starting points.
I've watched a few videos on how to root a htc but they've all been made around the time of the phones release, and as we all know each year things get bigger and better in computing, so new techniques might have arrived. So I wanted to ask here what are the full sets of instructions to root a htc one m8 in 2016, starting from watch software to use to back up your phone, how to unlock the bootloader, etc... and using whatever new rooms and kernels people have been using and would recommend.
My aim is, with your help, to make this post a place beginners can go to learn how to do their first root. thankyou in advance.
My phone:
service provider: Orange/EE (UK)
Android: 6.0 (Marshmallow I think)
HTC sense version: 7.0
Sofware number: 6.12.61.4

I've just rooted my phone unlocking the bootloader yesterday. I haven't gone S-off yet.
I'm coming from Samsung phones so things are a little different for me too. I followed this guide which covers everything you can and will need to gain full root on an m8
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/general/vomerguides-m8-bootldr-unlock-s-off-t2800727
to get root apps to have all the ability they have elsewhere you need to cover 3 steps
1) unlock the bootloader, which will make some partitions accessible, but writing to the system partition is still blocked apart from via custom recovery (the phone reboots when you try to write into the system partition without "full root").
2) root. fairly obvious what that is.
3) gain S-off, which makes system partition accessible outside of the custom recovery. the phone can be enjoyed the same as any other rooted device at this stage. **this can only be done one way, and that one single way isn't free.**
you want to have all the stages mentioned in that link covered apart from the last firmware guide which is more optional.

How are you getting S-off that isn't free? I had S-off within a week of owning my phone back when it was new, and I'm on Verizon, they are the devil when it comes to modding anything. Have you looked into Sunshine?

hello guys,im looking forward rooting my m8,is there any method to root my phone without void my warranty?(i mean if i unroot my phone will still be on warranty?)

ieatabiscuit said:
How are you getting S-off that isn't free? I had S-off within a week of owning my phone back when it was new, and I'm on Verizon, they are the devil when it comes to modding anything. Have you looked into Sunshine?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the "not free" S-off I'm referring to is sunshine, unless things have changed (if they have I'll be delighted).

3mel said:
the "not free" S-off I'm referring to is sunshine, unless things have changed (if they have I'll be delighted).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just rechecked into it to refresh my memory, as I've been S-off so long I forgot the method I had used. It was in the pre-Sunshine days. I used Firewater to get S-off (thought Sunshine sounded odd to me for some reason). Didn't cost me anything but a couple minutes of my time. Hope that helps. I wouldn't want to pay for S-off either, it's not really something that I think many people would want to do...
---------- Post added at 06:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:47 AM ----------
GreiverX said:
hello guys,im looking forward rooting my m8,is there any method to root my phone without void my warranty?(i mean if i unroot my phone will still be on warranty?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a way to revert it and become S-on again (assuming you're S-off also) I would say you could hide the fact it's been rooted by unrooting and removing any root apps, but don't quote me on that. I rooted back when mine was new, and never looked back at the warranty. Now my phone would have had the warranty expire anyway, so it still doesn't matter. When in doubt, assume the warranty to be void upon rooting, but research a way to revert if it's possible. Not like we have to bother with KNOX at least.

only way is USD $25 for sunshine....can't S-OFF it without other ways.

WingZer0n said:
only way is USD $25 for sunshine....can't S-OFF it without other ways.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
then why does firewater say different?

grrmisfit said:
then why does firewater say different?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
firewater doesn't work anymore unfortunately. Only way to get S-Off now is sunshine @ USD 25.

3mel said:
I've just rooted my phone unlocking the bootloader yesterday. I haven't gone S-off yet.
I'm coming from Samsung phones so things are a little different for me too. I followed this guide which covers everything you can and will need to gain full root on an m8
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/general/vomerguides-m8-bootldr-unlock-s-off-t2800727
to get root apps to have all the ability they have elsewhere you need to cover 3 steps
1) unlock the bootloader, which will make some partitions accessible, but writing to the system partition is still blocked apart from via custom recovery (the phone reboots when you try to write into the system partition without "full root").
2) root. fairly obvious what that is.
3) gain S-off, which makes system partition accessible outside of the custom recovery. the phone can be enjoyed the same as any other rooted device at this stage. **this can only be done one way, and that one single way isn't free.**
you want to have all the stages mentioned in that link covered apart from the last firmware guide which is more optional.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi I can't root mine . Every time I try to get token it says that it's a incorrect file batch path or something like that? Do you know what the problem is?

Nebster7 said:
Hi I can't root mine . Every time I try to get token it says that it's a incorrect file batch path or something like that? Do you know what the problem is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please stop making new posts in different threads. It won't get your issue fixed any faster. It just confuses those trying to help you, leaving incomplete bits of info here and there. Just stick to one thread, specifically the one where I am already trying to help you.

redpoint73 said:
Please stop making new posts in different threads. It won't get your issue fixed any faster. It just confuses those trying to help you, leaving incomplete bits of info here and there. Just stick to one thread, specifically the one where I am already trying to help you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry. I have my issue fixed now as I just needed to type cmd on the top of the window to get token to unlock bootloader token. Flashed aicp 14.0 working excellent. Much faster, better battery oh only arm 9.0 pico seemed like the best gapps as I tried other ones didn't work. Man it took a lot of searching to do this as things are posted all over the place
---------- Post added at 02:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:38 AM ----------
Nebster7 said:
Sorry. I have my issue fixed now as I just needed to type cmd on the top of the window to get token to unlock bootloader token. Flashed aicp 14.0 working excellent. Much faster, better battery oh only arm 9.0 pico seemed like the best gapps as I tried other ones didn't work. Man it took a lot of searching to do this as things are posted all over the place
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just one thing my PC doesn't see my phone now.???

Nebster7 said:
Just one thing my PC doesn't see my phone now.???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Meaning what exactly? Doesn't see storage (did you select the option on the phone to allow data transfer?) or adb or fastboot? Booted to the custom ROM, or something else (bootloader, recovery)?
When asking for help, please give as much information as possible. One sentence is really never enough info to go on.

About disabling "Secure Boot" (S-ON) on the N5X.

Secure Boot (aka S-ON, aka other names) is the responsible for checking and validating the entire chain of trust from the psychical bootloader (BootRom) to the Android Bootloader (aboot). From there on, validating boot.img (kernels) and recoveries are checked via the lock/unlock state of the device, and validating system is duty of the Verified Boot (dm-verity) feature on the kernel.
Unlike the old days with the Nexus One and its S-OFF achievement (for reformatting the nand and others), I haven't seen any S-OFF or bootloader/radio development on any Nexus device from that point. Has been any exception for the N5X for some rare chance?
I know that disabling Secure Boot wouldn't be much useful considering there doesn't seem to be any radio or bootloader development at all, but the truth is that without the chance to flash and test it no development can appear from the nothing either. I honestly do not have any idea if by chance secure boot was disabled, anyone will jump into developing a better radio or more feature rich bootloader..
Just wondering, has this been ever attempted or anything? It seems that any HTC is attacked in this sense, but others aren't, even if Nexus are considered development freely, the truth is that they're all S-ON by default and no development of a radio or a bootloader seems to be in place ever. If It was able to happen with the Nexus One, why not for latter nexus devices?
And I don't agree to the point of "we don't need Secure Boot disabled because we would be able to really brick our Nexuses!!", because you can still brick any nexus by flashing any (signed) bootloader or radio from another device, for example N5 bootloader into a N5X (and a ton of more examples with other signed images, and let's not talk about inside android with root.. literally the first Nexus 5/5X were bricked by kernel auto uploaders because they had hardcoded the partition for the kernel, and it happened to be the bootloader one on the new device..). The S-ON check is only to guarantee you don't flash unauthorized stuff from the point of view of Google, not for your security of not bricking the device at all.

Agree
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

there is really no point here because we can actually flash anything without any problem...
on htc devices (I had last 5 year's flagships, so I know something about it) you need it to flash unsigned factory images, zips with firmware files, change your phone's id and in some cases (htc one x) even flash a kernel from recovery! yes, you had to flash manually boot.img every time you change kernel/rom
but here...really....no need, unless some really crazy guy wants to make a bootloader from scratch and load something like windows phone

throcker said:
there is really no point here because we can actually flash anything without any problem...
on htc devices (I had last 5 year's flagships, so I know something about it) you need it to flash unsigned factory images, zips with firmware files, change your phone's id and in some cases (htc one x) even flash a kernel from recovery! yes, you had to flash manually boot.img every time you change kernel/rom
but here...really....no need, unless some really crazy guy wants to make a bootloader from scratch and load something like windows phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree on that we don't "need" it for basic rom flashing stuff, but your last line defines why it would be awesome to have it. It would give out options not only to "boot Windows", but also add features to the bootloader, repartition as we please (reduce system partition after debloating), adding a mechanism to prevent any bricking by adding a safe first bootloader sequence (like it was done for the N7 2012, via nv flashing if I don't remember bad), stuff like removing the damn bootloader unlock orange or other warnings (not only changing the images but also deleting the damn timeouts at boot), being able to add passwords for bootloaders, and a ton more **** could be done.
And let's not talk about "Radios". That garbage partition is a GIANT security hole and for the worse it boots BEFORE the main cpu and controls everything, from the application cpu to the memory it's using. Literally the radio controls the phone, it's the most important partition, it's FULL of backdoors (like the Replicant guys demonstrated for the Nexus S/Galaxy S2), it's FULL of unintended security holes (because no one develops for it decently, there have been some hacking conferences having fun at them) and it's the worst we all having running on the phone right now. It doesn't matter your Android Version or security patch date, you have security holes that date from years ago opened and being probably exploited by goverments as we speak.
There are great devs around, the bootloaders are usually decompiled to find exploits to be unlocked, for S-OFF and a lot of stuff. I'm sure people could jump on radio cleaning and fixing. There is a great community and great potential unused.
Until we fix the radio and the BL, "our" N5X is not our phone. Secure Boot should be killed and development would take place.

Really interesting ! Thanks

Aww, no one is interested in this .
Sometimes I wish that the Nexus weren't so unlocked and that we would need S-OFF to even flash custom roms, so a lot more development would appear, like it did for the Nexus One.

Well, I really dont see such a point of locking down the choice. If I buy something, then its mine. So what I do with mine should really be mine choice, dispite warranty. If I break it, its still mine.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

jugoslavpetrovic said:
Well, I really dont see such a point of locking down the choice. If I buy something, then its mine. So what I do with mine should really be mine choice, dispite warranty. If I break it, its still mine.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is the point, but we are accepting nowdays devices that are full-locked except some partitions for us to play with. All is good while the bootloader is completely locked on and the radio is even more untouchable, literally making everyone able to spy on us.
The funniest part is that only "we", the users, are locked. Because I am expecting malware to grow up to the point that it will be able to get root, then unlock, then turn secure boot OFF, and then overwrite the bootloader and radio in a ransomware form blocking the boot of the device until payment is done or something like that.

RusherDude said:
Yes, this is the point, but we are accepting nowdays devices that are full-locked except some partitions for us to play with. All is good while the bootloader is completely locked on and the radio is even more untouchable, literally making everyone able to spy on us.
The funniest part is that only "we", the users, are locked. Because I am expecting malware to grow up to the point that it will be able to get root, then unlock, then turn secure boot OFF, and then overwrite the bootloader and radio in a ransomware form blocking the boot of the device until payment is done or something like that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Scary. That reminded me of a movie I have seen recently called Zero Day.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

jugoslavpetrovic said:
Exactly. Scary. That reminded me of a movie I have seen recently called Zero Day.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wonder if it's as easy as flipping some bits like for unlocking bootloader..
@segv11 @osm0sis , hey guys! you both worked for BootUnlocker, so you may know something about this : do you know if a value is stored in memory to control "Secure Boot enabled" or "Secure boot disabled" like for bootloader locked or unlocked? Have you ever found this or something related by accident? Thanks!

RusherDude said:
I wonder if it's as easy as flipping some bits like for unlocking bootloader..
@segv11 @osm0sis , hey guys! you both worked for BootUnlocker, so you may know something about this : do you know if a value is stored in memory to control "Secure Boot enabled" or "Secure boot disabled" like for bootloader locked or unlocked? Have you ever found this or something related by accident? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think so.. that's all secure bootchain stuff.. some is open source and some is not.
Google the following: lk bootloader
That's what the LG devices use if I recall correctly. Checking out some of the public source will be your best bet of finding if it even possibly can be disabled.

osm0sis said:
Don't think so.. that's all secure bootchain stuff.. some is open source and some is not.
Google the following: lk bootloader
That's what the LG devices use if I recall correctly. Checking out some of the public source will be your best bet of finding if it even possibly can be disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for the input! I think it can be disabled because apparently some N5 users made it, and considering that the N5 is the N5X's brother from LG, it should be doable too:
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"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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The image is from http://bbs.gfan.com/android-7753460-1-1.html , apparently a chinese site about a tool? for disabling secure boot? no idea honestly
So it probably is doable on N5X too, the question is how . If its a bit flip for unlock, it is probably just another value for secure boot, I wonder if adjacent to the unlock one or something like that. I'll search for lk bootloader stuff but I have not the bootloaders knowledge (or tools like IDA2 pro to get it done anyway, which sucks ) for making it anyway
Thanks a lot!

I definitely think it can be disabled and I found some rather interesting things by reading up on a site, where someone has actually spent time reverse engineering what's most likely a signed and compiled version of ABoot (LK Bootloader). I thought it was interesting as it covers the actual process of disassembling the image, which may expose the values that need to be changed to actually achieve a true state of disabled secureboot.
http://newandroidbook.com/Articles/aboot.html
What worries me however, is if the signature is checked upon flashing, as if that's the case then replacing the bootloader may in fact be next to impossible. I'm not all that interested to try it out either, as I simply don't want to risk ending up with a hardbricked phone as that wouldn't be all that great so to say. However, if someone is successful making a patch that really works and release it, I'll definitely give it a go after it has been comfirmed to work.

Doenms't the PixelROM flash a custom bootloader?
So what's the "fastboot unlock bootloader" command for?

LazerL0rd said:
Doenms't the PixelROM flash a custom bootloader?
So what's the "fastboot unlock bootloader" command for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it doesn't.
Unlocking the bootloader is the ability to ask the bootloader it self to boot a different/custom rom.

scr60 said:
No it doesn't.
Unlocking the bootloader is the ability to ask the bootloader it self to boot a different/custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, actually it does. It's using the Google Pixel Bootloader. Check is files. It's a custom bootloader.

LazerL0rd said:
Well, actually it does. It's using the Google Pixel Bootloader. Check is files. It's a custom bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a custom bootloader, it only changes the imagdata, the graphical aspect of it that you see when the phone boots. Iit's far from being a custom bootloader

Gr0vk said:
It's not a custom bootloader, it only changes the imagdata, the graphical aspect of it that you see when the phone boots. Iit's far from being a custom bootloader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay. Thank you for correcting me there!

LazerL0rd said:
Okay. Thank you for correcting me there!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should exist more people like you on the internet

I haven't been able to find a way. Probably have to burn your own bootloader onto the emmc board.

Can I update with Dec 2016 security patch if my phone is rooted?

Or do I need FlashFire?
I believe that this is the same update as the one in this post
https://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-x-style/general/maintenance-release-dec-2016-security-t3557903

You need full unroot, stock kernel, stock recovery and no system partition modification

lukas77 said:
You need full unroot, stock kernel, stock recovery and no system partition modification
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you tell me how I can do this? Is there a general guide?

Wow... how many times are we going to answer this question every single time an update comes out?!?!
A phone must be 100% stock to take an OTA... stock recovery, stock system partition, stock boot partition... or the update will fail.
You need to either restore your pre-root backup (you did one with TWRP, right?) or flash a factory image that is the same version or newer than you have installed. Period, those are the proper answers to how to go back to stock so you can get an OTA.

acejavelin said:
Wow... how many times are we going to answer this question every single time an update comes out?!?!
A phone must be 100% stock to take an OTA... stock recovery, stock system partition, stock boot partition... or the update will fail.
You need to either restore your pre-root backup (you did one with TWRP, right?) or flash a factory image that is the same version or newer than you have installed. Period, those are the proper answers to how to go back to stock so you can get an OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I apologize, this was my first time rooting my phone so I don't know a lot. I was able to root my phone, thanks to your thread on rooting.
I plan on using this thread by you to go back to stock.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...de-return-to-stock-relock-bootloader-t3489110

ThanuTK said:
I apologize, this was my first time rooting my phone so I don't know a lot. I was able to root my phone, thanks to your thread on rooting.
I plan on using this thread by you to go back to stock.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...de-return-to-stock-relock-bootloader-t3489110
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope it helps... Just remember to search around the forums or Google a bit before asking a question. I apologise if I sounded a little snappy, I had just answered some very dumb PM's that frustrated me and then this was the first open thread I saw, sorry if I was a bit abrupt.

This question has been answered a whole lot so it gets a little frustrating sometimes to see a new thread pop up for this issue. That being said and you being new to rooting, I can't stress this enough: please search and read through the threads (and know the XDA rules of course). This device has been out for a while and by now, a large majority of the questions, issues, and whatever else you may have is addressed in these forums. If you do run across anything that there is no answer for, by all means ask away.

Guys there is any chance of volte update because jio expanding their services to next one year
Can it is possible that after nought update it is possible

Suri149 said:
Guys there is any chance of volte update because jio expanding their services to next one year
Can it is possible that after nought update it is possible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possible? Yes, but it isn't likely and I certainly don't expect it to happen. Lenovo has shown no interest in updating the Pure/Style to support Jio, or even fixing the current VoLTE issues on supported carriers for that matter.

Hey could you also tell me how important the android security updates are? are they critical ? without it would my phone be vulnerable?

ThanuTK said:
Hey could you also tell me how important the android security updates are? are they critical ? without it would my phone be vulnerable?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well on this I have a pretty strong opinion, and it isn't always well liked... I work in the IT industry with networks, so security is kind of a big deal to me... but Android security updates are essentially worthless, and are only a marketing ploy to make the company look better.
For example, lets look at some major vulnerabilities that have supposedly affected MILLIONS of Android devices... Dirty Cow is a good one, I am in a group here on XDA that is trying to use this vulnerability for something, anything really, but mainly for rooting difficult devices, and in a modern device it is almost impossible because of all the other parts of Android that help keep it secure like DM-verity and SELinux, end result is no usable exploit in almost all cases, although we have some results in cases where we are in complete control of the device with hands on adb access, but even then it is very rare and device specific, not something that you could just download a random malware app and have it affect you, I would need the device in hand. Then there are the terrible ones like Quadrooter, Stagefright, and Towelroot that affected millions, no tens of millions of devices, but have you ever heard of anyone being actually effected by a real exploit of that vulnerability? Nope, me neither, because for the most part these have only been exploited in a lab and not in real life... Because in a modern (I am talking Marshmallow or maybe even Lollipop) there are other things that protect the device, application sandboxing, DM-verity, SE Linux, and IntentFirewall, are all things that would likely protect the device even IF (and that's a big IF) one of these vulnerabilities did happen to be exploited on a device.
So are security updates important... no, not from a technical perspective in real life for the average user, but I certainly wouldn't reject them if they are easy to apply. I accept and apply every single one, even though I know the chances of something happening if I don't are probably less than that of me winning the Powerball Lottery Jackpot twice in two consecutive weeks, or about the same as being stuck by lightning while being bitten by a shark.
Now, none of what I am saying applies to other updates which are often bundled with security updates, or upgrades.

My thoughts exactly on the security updates. The only "evidence" I have heard about has been a couple of individuals who do not appear to understand why an app from some unknown source or dodgy websites along with crazy permission requirements might infect their phone. I acknowledge this as a human exploit though and not on the part of Android.

If I make current twrp backup, wipe, restore original Stock unrooted twrp backup, flash Stock recovery, take ota, reflash twrp and restore only data from the backup in first step would that essentially preserve user apps/data? Otherwise I will just freeze Moto update apk and wait for 7.0 to full wipe.
Update: Nm, I guess at that point without restoring system to preserve settings I may as well just use Titanium Backup :silly:

I'm rooted and using Xposed, but got the Dec update using a completely stock TWRP backup of system and boot posted here. Afterwards I simply had to reroot and reinstall my Xposed framework in TWRP, but all my modules which were still installed worked and maintained their settings. Couple of other minor cosmetic things I had to redo, but for me this worked very well without having to fully return to stock and reinstall everything from scratch. YMMV, and also do your own TWRP backup first just in case.

roaming4gnome said:
If I make current twrp backup, wipe, restore original Stock unrooted twrp backup, flash Stock recovery, take ota, reflash twrp and restore only data from the backup in first step would that essentially preserve user apps/data? Otherwise I will just freeze Moto update apk and wait for 7.0 to full wipe.
Update: Nm, I guess at that point without restoring system to preserve settings I may as well just use Titanium Backup :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dahenjo said:
I'm rooted and using Xposed, but got the Dec update using a completely stock TWRP backup of system and boot posted here. Afterwards I simply had to reroot and reinstall my Xposed framework in TWRP, but all my modules which were still installed worked and maintained their settings. Couple of other minor cosmetic things I had to redo, but for me this worked very well without having to fully return to stock and reinstall everything from scratch. YMMV, and also do your own TWRP backup first just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is actually a valid way of doing it, but with so many variables to the state of your device prior to doing this the possible outcomes vary a lot.
But @Dahenjo has pretty much the proper procedure... if I was going to try it I'd do it that way... backup, restore stock, take OTA, reroot, reflash Xposed, restore user data... 99% of everything should be intact.

acejavelin said:
Well on this I have a pretty strong opinion, and it isn't always well liked... I work in the IT industry with networks, so security is kind of a big deal to me... but Android security updates are essentially worthless, and are only a marketing ploy to make the company look better.
For example, lets look at some major vulnerabilities that have supposedly affected MILLIONS of Android devices... Dirty Cow is a good one, I am in a group here on XDA that is trying to use this vulnerability for something, anything really, but mainly for rooting difficult devices, and in a modern device it is almost impossible because of all the other parts of Android that help keep it secure like DM-verity and SELinux, end result is no usable exploit in almost all cases, although we have some results in cases where we are in complete control of the device with hands on adb access, but even then it is very rare and device specific, not something that you could just download a random malware app and have it affect you, I would need the device in hand. Then there are the terrible ones like Quadrooter, Stagefright, and Towelroot that affected millions, no tens of millions of devices, but have you ever heard of anyone being actually effected by a real exploit of that vulnerability? Nope, me neither, because for the most part these have only been exploited in a lab and not in real life... Because in a modern (I am talking Marshmallow or maybe even Lollipop) there are other things that protect the device, application sandboxing, DM-verity, SE Linux, and IntentFirewall, are all things that would likely protect the device even IF (and that's a big IF) one of these vulnerabilities did happen to be exploited on a device.
So are security updates important... no, not from a technical perspective in real life for the average user, but I certainly wouldn't reject them if they are easy to apply. I accept and apply every single one, even though I know the chances of something happening if I don't are probably less than that of me winning the Powerball Lottery Jackpot twice in two consecutive weeks, or about the same as being stuck by lightning while being bitten by a shark.
Now, none of what I am saying applies to other updates which are often bundled with security updates, or upgrades.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Real good explanation. Good balance of technological and practical
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

acejavelin said:
Well on this I have a pretty strong opinion, and it isn't always well liked... I work in the IT industry with networks, so security is kind of a big deal to me... but Android security updates are essentially worthless, and are only a marketing ploy to make the company look better.
For example, lets look at some major vulnerabilities that have supposedly affected MILLIONS of Android devices... Dirty Cow is a good one, I am in a group here on XDA that is trying to use this vulnerability for something, anything really, but mainly for rooting difficult devices, and in a modern device it is almost impossible because of all the other parts of Android that help keep it secure like DM-verity and SELinux, end result is no usable exploit in almost all cases, although we have some results in cases where we are in complete control of the device with hands on adb access, but even then it is very rare and device specific, not something that you could just download a random malware app and have it affect you, I would need the device in hand. Then there are the terrible ones like Quadrooter, Stagefright, and Towelroot that affected millions, no tens of millions of devices, but have you ever heard of anyone being actually effected by a real exploit of that vulnerability? Nope, me neither, because for the most part these have only been exploited in a lab and not in real life... Because in a modern (I am talking Marshmallow or maybe even Lollipop) there are other things that protect the device, application sandboxing, DM-verity, SE Linux, and IntentFirewall, are all things that would likely protect the device even IF (and that's a big IF) one of these vulnerabilities did happen to be exploited on a device.
So are security updates important... no, not from a technical perspective in real life for the average user, but I certainly wouldn't reject them if they are easy to apply. I accept and apply every single one, even though I know the chances of something happening if I don't are probably less than that of me winning the Powerball Lottery Jackpot twice in two consecutive weeks, or about the same as being stuck by lightning while being bitten by a shark.
Now, none of what I am saying applies to other updates which are often bundled with security updates, or upgrades.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So i recovered and now wifi is not working. From the other thread i see that others have this issue as well. What are my options now?

ThanuTK said:
So i recovered and now wifi is not working. From the other thread i see that others have this issue as well. What are my options now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a radio version issue... your radio firmware doesn't a match what the kernel wants. You need to flash the right ones. You will have tell me more details of how you recovered.

acejavelin said:
Its a radio version issue... your radio firmware doesn't a match what the kernel wants. You need to flash the right ones. You will have tell me more details of how you recovered.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used XT1575 to update and then just followed the directions. Does that answer your question? if not could you please clarify your question ?
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=745425885120703327
In the other thread i see people using MPH24.49-18-4 FIRMWARE to fix this issue, but you stated that this might cause issues in the future, so i dont know what to do. Thanks again for helping me and understanding my lack of knowledge with all of this.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...bootloader-t3489110/post69432451#post69432451

ThanuTK said:
I used XT1575 to update and then just followed the directions. Does that answer your question? if not could you please clarify your question ?
https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=745425885120703327
In the other thread i see people using MPH24.49-18-4 FIRMWARE to fix this issue, but you stated that this might cause issues in the future, so i dont know what to do. Thanks again for helping me and understanding my lack of knowledge with all of this.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mo...bootloader-t3489110/post69432451#post69432451
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only difference in your links is one is a later build than the other one. Either one should work fine but if I had my choice, I might pick the first update and then use OTA to get to present. NOTE: I had to restore my September 1 backup with TWRP as the December 1 security patch broke my Bluetooth and I use Bluetooth all the time, it is too important to me to lose over a stupid security patch. I have since frozen the updater to avoid being nagged to death install the December 1 update again. When the next "real" OTA comes along, I will thaw the updater so I can take it and *hope* that the Bluetooth issue is solved. I will of course *always* make a TWRP backup prior to doing *any* update so I always have a way to back out of it in the event something is broken over the latest security patch OTA. HTH

I'm confused, rooted OnePlus 8 Pro can or can't use fingerprint security

Hello Guys,
I'm about to buy the OnePlus 8 Pro, as I haven't had a root-able phone for a few years and greatly miss it. In choosing the phone to buy, and to save you guys time answering repeated questions, I of course have read many threads related to rooting, which versions can me rooted, issues with rooting, etc. Mind you most of my rooting was with HTC and I never once had an issue.
I'll be buying the US market unlocked variant, rooting it, and I'll likely use Magisk during the process.
1. Do we actually need to flash a bootloader, or can I just load it with the bootloader without flashing to maintain the stock bootloader?
2. What things are broken from root? I'm assuming the google pay features will break, but will I not be able to use the fingerprint scanner? Or is it a hit and miss, intermittent problem for some and not others? This is the question that seems to lack a consolidated, concise explanation.
3. Is it better to use the international version, or the US version, or does it matter?
I rarely use custom roms, but when I do, I prefer to run pure Android. I prefer speed over animations. When I don't, I remove every app I can without breaking the phone. How friendly is this phone to trial and error, and re-flashing to start over while I'm learning?

Camboozle said:
Hello Guys,
I'm about to buy the OnePlus 8 Pro, as I haven't had a root-able phone for a few years and greatly miss it. In choosing the phone to buy, and to save you guys time answering repeated questions, I of course have read many threads related to rooting, which versions can me rooted, issues with rooting, etc. Mind you most of my rooting was with HTC and I never once had an issue.
I'll be buying the US market unlocked variant, rooting it, and I'll likely use Magisk during the process.
1. Do we actually need to flash a bootloader, or can I just load it with the bootloader without flashing to maintain the stock bootloader?
2. What things are broken from root? I'm assuming the google pay features will break, but will I not be able to use the fingerprint scanner? Or is it a hit and miss, intermittent problem for some and not others? This is the question that seems to lack a consolidated, concise explanation.
3. Is it better to use the international version, or the US version, or does it matter?
I rarely use custom roms, but when I do, I prefer to run pure Android. I prefer speed over animations. When I don't, I remove every app I can without breaking the phone. How friendly is this phone to trial and error, and re-flashing to start over while I'm learning?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Previous HTC rooter here. Had the 10, then the 12+
This phone is slightly more root friendly. And no, there is no custom bootloader. You will not need to go and get a token from a website to unlock the bootloader. As far I can tell at a glance, S-OFF isn't a thing.
If you set up magisk properly, google pay will work (for now). I use it every other day. Widevine certification will default to L3, so you can't root and keep that in L1 like you could with HTC. I don't get it myself.
Do: backup persist partition (and modem1 and modem2 I guess? Someone recommended it) For sure. While rare, and particularly an issue with magisk canary, if you want any chance of the fingerprint sensor to last, backup the persist partition. Otherwise, you're technically sitting on a ticking time bomb and it can pop at any time and no longer function. Haven't heard anything too recent, but better safe than sorry. Only other solution is RMA.
HTC phones, least the ones I used, used LCD panels. I love LCD, because it seems more protection from burn in and screen retention, and less issues for screen problems. That said, this is a newer screen and amazing, just not as amazing I feel as an LCD screen (although this is a better screen, via tech upgrades and more). Keep in mind there are rampant reports of green tint or burn in right away, black crush, and other screen issues. If you do go with the phone, I recommend giving that a thorough once over.
Customer service is in par to that famous thing of kids going, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Type stuff. Do not expect anything from customer service outside what directly is stated to contact them (such as RMAs), and then be prepared to fight tooth an nail for it, and prepare for any additives that arise from it. I would have better odds of customer service with comcast (as weird it sounds) than with oneplus' customer service. They will not honor anything outside what you can do on the website yourself.
What I mean by that, is if you have a coupon for a 10 dollars off accessories, and you accidentally "place" an order and forgot something, and want to add it again? Either wait for your current order to expire to then allow for the coupon, or you're SOL. And to add: By far, the oneplus 8 launch was the worst I ever experienced from any industry, especially as it comes to ordering it. So if you stay, keep that in mind.
A lot of people recommend to just forgo the warranty and get your own via other means (my renters insurance provides it for like, 6 bucks a year) as it's literally the same boat as customer service, with reports of people being charged erroneously like, 500 dollars for some incompency from the warehouse.
If you're in the US the global model I believe is the one you want. UK, INDIA, and CHINA have their own model. While it can be possible to use these, keep that in mind that you most likely want the phone to be compatible with the bands of your country. I believe the india / chinese model is the only one who now has the photochrom filter disabled, thus if you do go with one of these, you'll want to either install a magisk rom, or fix it yourself with one of the many guides available.
You can convert the phone to different models more easily. Such as chinese to global, as compared to HTC phones. You don't need to do superCID like you did or similar I believe, and it's very tolerant of that. In fact, the first oneplus phone even shipped with CyanogenMod installed, now more or less known as lineageOS. This device is very customizable friendly. In fact, some roms will even allow you to uninstall practically anything you want.
Speed is the name of the game, and if you like fast devices, this will blow you out of the water most likely. I personally run .5 on all animation speeds myself.
And of course, if there is issues and you really messed stuff up, you can use the MSM tool or whatever it is to correct the issue. (Again, keep that persist backup in case)
The device will detect if you're rooted and installed either the small OTA package, or the full package in case. I used to always have TWRP installed, but I don't even use it anymore myself so much. The full package can flash through the system update too, btw. Only upon unlocking the bootloader will the data partition be wiped that one time.
There is the hole punch camera, and that was a significant selling feature for me for HTC, but... I figured I'd deal with it this once. Keep that in mind if this feature bugs you as it does me.
Ok, this was my tidbit of info. If you need more clarification or something, ask. Otherwise, enjoy.

Great response, thank you!!! I think it'll be fun to pay with. But really, worse customer service than COMCAST!!! Wow. I guess you get the device and nothing more. Hard to justify 800 bones and no customer service though.

Truant_Luce said:
This phone is slightly more root friendly. And no, there is no custom bootloader. You will not need to go and get a token from a website to unlock the bootloader. As far I can tell at a glance, S-OFF isn't a thing.
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What do you mean by "need to go and get a token from a website"?
Can't I just simply unlock the bootloader like on my Oneplus 5t?
I am getting my 8Pro this week and plan to install the global ROM instead of the Chinese ROM it will come with, then root it and finally install TWRP.
Do I need to install TWRP to both slots? What are those "slots" anyway? My old phone was a 5t so it had no "slots" .
The instructions I have read are a bit confusing, seems like it is more difficult to install TWRP than it was on the 5t.
Thanks.

Truant_Luce said:
Yes, you can. So HTC was the exact process, except you had to go to HTC dev, upload a string that was copied from bootloader, it would then create a token file that only your device could utilize and when you pushed it back to the device, that unlocked the bootloader. Oneplus, you just tell it you wanna unlock the bootloader and done. Since they are coming from HTC, why I said that.
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Thanks.
How about installing TWRP? Would you have any suggestions as to how to go about it?
Also, I read that I better wipe /data before installing anther ROM.
However it seems TWRP still can't format partitions which means I can't wipe data.

Docomoco said:
Thanks.
How about installing TWRP? Would you have any suggestions as to how to go about it?
Also, I read that I better wipe /data before installing anther ROM.
However it seems TWRP still can't format partitions which means I can't wipe data.
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Think mostly it's boot, but there is a way to install it if you must. I personally haven't touched twrp since moving to oneplus. If you're moving between AOSP or oxygen or hydrogen, yes, wipe data. This can be done via factory reset, without need of twrp. Now, don't quote me too closely for AOSP, but as oxygen or hydrogen builds go (Assuming magisk) you don't need to wipe data so much. I'd recommend consulting the individual device threads.

Thanks, will do.

Is there no way to retain L1? I've come from a Mi 9T where as long as your persist wasn't corrupted, L1 was fine. Do oneplus store the widevine certs in the boot partition or something strange?

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