β€œOnePlus has announced a new system that limits who can unlock the bootloader on their phones. Stating reasons such as β€œdata security” and an enhanced β€œsystem stability” […]. OnePlus has introduced a new procedure where anyone wanting to unlock the bootloader on their devices must first fill out an online request form for β€œDeep Testing””.

Even if it is for one region, it is still enshitification preventing phones to have custom ROM πŸ€¦β€β™‚οΈ

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[–] 106 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They lived long enough to become the villain

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  • [–] 85 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I will limit my purchases of OnePlus equipment.

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  • [–] 52 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Fucking fantastic. /s. This is probably the first step to killing bootloader unlocking entirely and that could be a real problem because to the best of my knowledge that would leave Google and maybe Fairphone as the only two possibilities in existence until Graphene launches a device

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Motorola still allows unlocks, but they don't have re-locking capabilities under custom keys.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Motorola does conditional bootloader unlocks, you need to have your device connected to the internet for roughly 7 days after you bought it, in order to have the "OEM unlocking" option available. Then you have to request a bootloader unlock key through their website which requires a Lenovo ID account.

    I'm not saying it's impossible, but at any of those steps they can make shit worse (like Xiaomi did).

    To my knowledge the only brand which lets you unlock your bootloader without a fuss is Nothing. Sony and Fairphone are on close second but there you still need to request a bootloader unlock key.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Oh yeah, I forgot about them. Question is, how well does custom ROMs work with media tech chips? Because from what I understand, a lot of Motorola's are now using media tech. And I have not seen many custom ROMs work with them.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago*

    Google don't restrict unlocking the boot loader. I just checked on my Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the OEM unlocking toggle is still there. The only barrier is enabling developer options by repeatedly tapping the build number in settings/about phone, just like it always has been

    You can only relock the bootloader with a signed OS image loaded

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago

    Boooooo, not cool!!

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  • [–] 49 points 1 year ago (2 children)
    • "requirements are only applicable to users in China"
    • "restrictions will not apply to previous versions of ColorOS" (<16)
    • "unlocking the bootloader won’t void the phone’s warranty"

    While not ideal, it's also not the end of the world.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago

    Hopefully this is as far as it goes and not something they will continually restrict each year. This feels similar to the Xiaomi situation which seems to have had the same problems in China, but have gradually restricted unlocking more and more.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    this is garbage and backwards

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Adding OnePlus to my blacklist, next to Samsung.

    Any others I need to add?

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Xiaomi recently blocked bootloader unlocking and even before that it was a convolute process were you made a request using a app of theirs and had to wait one week before the phone was unlocked.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    Is Daddy Google making them do this under the excuse of "data security"? It's a bit sus that they've all "decided" to do it of their own volition.

    Plus Google has locked a bunch of stuff out of the open source versions now, so it's likely only a matter of time before it's effectively useless.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    FFS. Who the hell is even left that allows unrestricted bootloader unlocks? Sony?

    E: oh, Pixels too I guess

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I had the 5 but really everything after 1 was aafter they had become just as bullshit as the competition

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I switched to Nord after running my 3T down and I'm really happy, I got a great upgrade in hardware AND no shitty curved screen for 1/3rd of the price.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I kinda want a phone in the exact shape of the oneplus one but with current wifi and recent ish processor. When I got the 5 I gave the 1 to my brother who proceeded to drop it at work and run over it with a forklift. The screen cracked and the wood back plate broke but the phone still worked. Some months later he got the 5t and ran over that too but it was decimated.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    I just stopped buying Android devices. Now I inherit old ones that other people would have thrown out. They are ok if you didn't pay for it.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    I don't know much about hacking, but it's surprising to me that there's not a way to get around this. What stops people from developing a forced workaround? What would need to be done to develop one?

    Edit: Answering my own question, sort of, it seems that a locked bootloader uses cryptographic keys stored on the device, so the problem becomes a typical key brute forcing scenario. What a mess. It's so annoying that there aren't more "touchscreen handheld computers" where you can just install whatever you want on them the same as building your own PC. I hate how everything like that is being chipped away over time.

    Stuff like this seems promising though in a very far-out, push-comes-to-shove kind of way: https://www.synacktiv.com/en/publications/how-to-voltage-fault-injection#protect

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    [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    As someone who just tried daily driving a non-unlocked phone for the first time in 10+ years, I'm interested in seeing some development in the direction of sandboxing. Not sure how stuff works in GrapheneOS for example (haven't tried it) and haven't delved into too much details of AOSP either, but I think it makes sense - make sure that system and sensitive apps are not possible to tamper with even if you want to, and run everything else in a separate space that you can have root access to. Would be nice, although realistically I don't see this happening outside of some developer-focused device.

    But yeah, even if I don't want to unlock, I'd prefer having the peace of mind that I can if I decide to. Haven't tried OnePlus so far, and this here makes is much less likely that I would in the future.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Definitely check out GrapheneOS. It pretty much addresses what you're asking about, aside from root access.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    One of the reasons for me to try staying stock/non-rooted was finance/banking apps, Google Wallet and so on - if it ever worked while rooted, it was a cat and mouse game on each update. GrapheneOS doesn't work for that. Also, it being limited to only Pixel phones is not ideal. But yes, my old (and still working) phone is a Pixel, so I might give it a try just out of curiosity.

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  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    They are going out of business and should be considered compromised by piracy. Buying a One Plus is supporting a global criminal organization.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Any citations? I haven't been paying attention to OnePlus specifically, but haven't heard about any of this.

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  • [–] -4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The article... Locking the bootloader is ceasing to sell a product that can be owned. It is a rental controlled by someone else actively, not just passively through a proprietary orphan kernel. It is action taken to filter, manipulate, and exploit. That is actually a soft coup against democracy itself, if you grasp the role of informed autonomous citizens and the reason ignorance is never an excuse in a democracy. The mechanism of trust is a fascist tool that is diametrically opposed to a liberal democracy. Trust in the chain of information flowing to a citizen is to subjugate and steal the right of citizenship. This is fundamentally simple with enormous implications. The naive stupidity of people blind to this fundamental issue is truly sad. The transition to actively exploiting the device, is to surrender democracy to a traitorous pirate if you purchase one of these. It is not small thing to shrug off. This is a pivotal moment and issue that will create an unimaginatively dark dystopia. The problem with coups is only the speed at which they are executed. This is a foundational cornerstone taken slowly where people are far to stupid to see it and resist in time to make a difference.

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  • 29 comments in c/android@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 64 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Whaaaat

    Mfers I bought the phone, I do whatever the hell i want with it

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  • Not in their eyes.

    Phones already literally come with a EULA. The wording may or may not be the same, but the intent is.

    You don't own your phone, you silly thing. What you own is an unexclusive and transferrable (for now, Teslas don't even have that for example) licence to use most features of the phone.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    i bought it for its cheaper than the flagship phones, im guessing thats why people switch to OP, they probably want people to keep buying thier new phones each cycle, and not have a modded phone that you will stay on forever.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Sure- or they're tired of Samsung's bullshit. I was going to buy the S25 Ultra outright on release day but then they cut the wireless functionality of the S Pen in favor of their bullshit AI so I decided to cut my support for Samsung and bought a OP13 instead.

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  • [–] 39 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    The writing's been on the wall since they swapped to ColorOS with Android 12 and the bootloader update that came with it that no longer supports relocking, along with the delayed/nonexistent source code releases for the kernel.

    It's very sad that basically the only real option is Google's Pixels, and even there the tides are turning.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Sony is still an option! my Xperia is dead easy to unlock and it has a headphone jack and sd card slot. they're just a bit of a hassle to find since they only sell in select markets :p

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago

    How the mighty have fallen. I got my OnePlus One in 2015 with CyanogenMod preinstalled (although I reinstalled the vanilla OS after, and rooted it easily). Enshitification indeed, no brand is safe.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago

    Ok then, I'm out.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Bootloader apartheid great

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Was a OnePlus user for years. Had the original device, the 3, 5 and the 7 pro since launch. I replaced the battery in my 7 pro and put lineage on it just to keep it going.

    My idiot brain jumped off a boat last week with it in my pocket and I assumed I would just get the new one. But no unlockable bootloader means I need to look elsewhere.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    One Plus was really impressive at first but like everything, at some point companies want to make a profit. I also had the original and the 3, but that was it.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    true, OP was your semi-budget phones with some of the flagship feature, that was thier selling point. im guessing if samsung, and google is locking down thier phones, OP thought it can force people to constantly get newer phones down the line.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Damn that sucks. I only buy phones that allow unlocking. Currently on a OP8T. Probably going used Pixel/GrapheneOS next, but really a usable Linux phone can't come soon enough.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    isnt google walling in thier OS soon, and it seems other phone makers are following suit.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yeah, seems like bad times ahead. Definitely looking forward to that Linux phone.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Do you have the beautiful blue one?? That’s the prettiest phone to me! I have one as well but I don’t use it anymore, still have it with Lineage as a backup just in case

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Nothing phone seems to be the best choice today. A few models, so notmuch choice, but solid hardware unbloated android and unlockable bootloader.

    I own a 3a and am pretty happy. Bulky and heavy tough.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    The Phone 1 and 2 have official lineage os support as well. Nothing is still bootloader unlock friendly (for now). Phone 3 is too new for LineageOS but is still an excellent phone with a good development community on their forums.

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  • 1 comment in c/android@programming.dev view that post

    And people wonder why I want a Linux phone. They're slowly closing the door and it won't ever reopen.

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