Root [CDMA] No need to panic about 'locked' bootloader - HTC listened

[novox77]

If this hit CNN or some big news network, HTC would have no choice but to fix it ASAP.

Man it would be totally awesome if someone on here had a brother who was a producer or something on CNN.

It would be a really, really slow news day if HTC's bootloader policy made national headlines on CNN...

 

[BlackDynamite]

It would be a really, really slow news day if HTC's bootloader policy made national headlines on CNN...

Not necessarily. They always have a tech guy showing new stuff. I remember the Sprint Katana getting featured on both CNN and Fox News.

 

[fattank]

Your suggestion is a good one. Created (and locked) a thread containing links to petitions.

http://androidforums.com/evo-3d-all-things-root/342244-htc-petitions-change-bootloader-policy.html

Wow, I'm impressed. Suddenly the vote count shot up near 6200. Guess I'm not the only lurker.

I do find it a bit strange on HTC's part (considering they should have been informed enough to know full well there would be a substantial backlash), that they take such a "calculated risk" in locking down the bootloader. If this is just one big marketing campaign as has been suggested above, it's also very risky -- especially since their "response" so far has been pure commitment-free appeasement. It is fairly clear that by responding in this way at this stage, they think they're merely appeasing the "nerd rabble" long enough to stall until release while generating some nice PR -- and stopping our votes.

Think about it. Rather than some clever new bait-and-switch sensationalist marketing (pun intended), it seems they genuinely decided nobody would care that much -- and now that there has been a moderate outcry ["moderate" at the time of their response], they're still holding out hope in appeasement while trying to mince words and placate the crowd until they can release the devices, at which point the lack of fierce negativity among enthusiasts (or even pseudo-geeks, a large Android community) in the interim would no longer factor into the consumer consciousness. In this way, HTC would win the bootloader battle without a fight and wouldn't lose too many sales (or so they believe).

Furthermore, if and once the outcome of their "revised decision" is to keep the devices hopelessly locked, it will certainly be too late for any change to be elicited regarding their bootloader policy pre-release, and they'd "win" the battle by default. The moral of the story? Do not let up; spread the word. I still can't believe this power of ours, the power of the community, but it's real. Motorola got nearly 10k signatures on this very petition site, and shortly thereafter they announced they'd let up as much they could on their bootloader locks, despite their legacy as one of the most locked-down handset producers this side of Apple.

But while impressive, we're far from done. Spread the word -- our choices today, our words and actions, may indeed have a direct bearing on the openness of handsets for years to come! Even if you're not a fan of the Evo 3D, the Sensation, or even HTC -- your vote may nonetheless play a crucial role in determining the functionality of a competing device you might buy down the line.

 

[jerofld]

Not necessarily. They always have a tech guy showing new stuff. I remember the Sprint Katana getting featured on both CNN and Fox News.

Agreed, but I think CNN is in love with Apple. The only Android related posts I ever see there are ones that are bad news. But I don't log into the tech column too often.

But I'm sure there's a way to suggest stories to them and Fox. It wouldn't be front page, but it would be in the tech section.

 

[EarlyMon]

Make that 6201 - Groubal voting from twitter ftw!

 

[hakujin]

Haha! That's a pretty tall cup (CNN & Fox News)... If they were reviewing phones (I have no idea, I haven't watched either channel even semi-regularly in some time) I doubt any talk of 'bootloaders' would be relayed to the public. However, they would be reporting actual news which is more than they do regularly so there's that.

I was thinking more along the lines of the techosphere's impact on potential sales as already, there are a bunch of people hammering them on this, but a lot of them don't necessarily even know what the problem is (i.e. I'm not buying a HTC phone that doesn't work the way I want it to).

So I say go with it... the phone is 'broke' and locked down. It doesn't function correctly and people are better off waiting until HTC fixes it.

I think this message has largely been sent already. Ball is in their court. If they can't put the carriers in check and fix their root aggressions, I'm going w/ SGS2 (so long as it's not AES Signed) and I bet so are a lot of others!

 

[alcohol]

HTC officially dissolves locked bootloader policy -- Engadget

There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we've listened. Today, I'm confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience.

 

[EarlyMon]

novox77 - guess you have a thread decision to make here.

 

[BenChase7]

HTC officially dissolves locked bootloader policy -- Engadget

There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we've listened. Today, I'm confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience.

Amazing! Thanks HTC!

 

[themuffinman75]

HTC officially dissolves locked bootloader policy -- Engadget

There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we've listened. Today, I'm confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience.

I am honestly stunned, I wasn't expecting this anytime soon. HTC has earned my utmost respect, I will be happy to give you my money.

 

[BenChase7]

I am honestly stunned, I wasn't expecting this anytime soon. HTC has earned my utmost respect, I will be happy to give you my money.

Completely agree. Its impressive a company of this capacity acted so fast to a consumer outcry, especially considering the ones that were upset (but arguably the most important ) probably only make a small percentage of their overall sales. Impressive HTC.. makes my day!

 

[Jackietreehorn]

 

[Jackietreehorn]

In all seriousness though, I still have questions that will hopefully be cleared up shortly. First off, will this apply to the 3D? I would assume so, but who knows? I would hope that it's something OTA as to not further delay a possible launch.

Also, this is great, but what exactly are they saying? Are they completely unlocking, or just removing encryption? Also, while it's great either way, no mention of (and not surprising, as it's far more technical) recovery and kernel signing. Still going to be disappointed if these are locked up tight.

Still, can't help but feel like we fought the good fight, and came away on top.

 

[SaleenFiend]

Change thread title:

No need to panic about 'locked' bootloader - HTC has got us covered!

 

[novox77]

I'm on the forums much of today. Finally, I pull myself from my computer to go for a run. I come back, and.... this. WTF. Time to start cleaning up the confetti I guess.

Grats everyone! Now we can all go back to focusing on the damn release date.

 

[Jackietreehorn]

Heh, sorry for contributing to the uh...non productive posts here (he says as he stares at post 139). And as long as I'm off topic still, kudos on the title change.

Still have serious questions though, but I guess at this point, they can wait a day or two. Unfortunately, if HTC doesn't clarify, I'm not sure how we're going to know the extent of the changes til the handsets are out and in our hands...and even then, possibly waiting for some OTA update.

 

[novox77]

OP updated.

Early has mentioned this a few times: it's not hard to unlock the bootloader via an OTA update. :et's assume the phones have already shipped to the retailers, and the ROM is already flashed on those phones. An OTA update on launch would address the issue.

But I hear you. I'd like more details. Like you mentioned: what do they mean by "unlock?" We all know there was so much confusion with this very general word. My gut feeling tells me that NAND protection will still be on by default, but devs should have no problem flipping that switch. OTOH, NAND protection implies a locked bootloader. People could still hold HTC to their word. A fully S-OFF bootloader would outdo even the Nexus phones. Interesting to see what will happen.

 

[Jackietreehorn]

But I hear you. I'd like more details. Like you mentioned: what do they mean by "unlock?" We all know there was so much confusion with this very general word. My gut feeling tells me that NAND protection will still be on by default, but devs should have no problem flipping that switch. OTOH, NAND protection implies a locked bootloader. People could still hold HTC to their word. A fully S-OFF bootloader would outdo even the Nexus phones. Interesting to see what will happen.

Yeah, leaving it "locked" really isn't such a bad deal. It'd be great, as you said, if it came or was updated to a fully S-OFF bootloader, but as long as the cryptographic signing is dropped, that's enough for me. Easy for me to say though, I'm not the one that will be doing the figuring out and grunt work to get the phone opened up.

I can't imagine that we're the only ones that still have these questions, and some have even come up on Facebook already about unlocking the Sensation (technically released already) and such, so blogs will be after them for clarification which I'm guessing will come in the coming days.

 

[EarlyMon]

Remember - people talk about the unlocked Nexus - that never happened.

With a Nexus, it's locked to protect the masses, but if you want to tinker, you issue this command as the unlock part of your rooting sequence:

fastboot oem unlock

HTC and Google let everyone call that situation unlocked. I expect the same here.

In my opinion, unlocking the bootloader lets us do wholesale rom replacements. It might be corporate folly to let us have locked bootloaders with the other parts locked down because instead of tinkering, we'd replace HTC roms.

Time will tell - either way, we've cleared a huge hurdle.

I think at this point, we're exactly where novox77 started this thread: there are uncertainties on what we'll get on this new phone (because it's new), but there's no need to panic.

 

[LBPHeretic]

I am very pleased with this outcome. I am also pretty astounded about it at the same time.

Good on you, HTC. Well done, sirs.

 

[alcohol]

So will the evo 3D be delayed because of the decrypting? How exactly will this work?

 

[dan330]

So will the evo 3D be delayed because of the decrypting? How exactly will this work?

if it is going to happen...
it will be OTA (over the air update)...
pushed to your phone over the network.

 

[novox77]

The process of signing an image is practically instantaneous. So re-signing it with an unencrypted signature is trivial. Removing the signature is trivial. We just don't know what action they will take when they say they will not lock the bootloader.

And yeah, and OTA update should be trivial as well.

 

[BenChase7]

First off, will this apply to the 3D? I would assume so, but who knows?

HTC CEO Confirms EVO 3D Will Have An Unlocked Bootloader One Way Or Another | Android News, Reviews, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets, Tips, Mods, Videos, Tutorials - Android Police

 

[JunBringer]

HTC CEO Confirms EVO 3D Will Have An Unlocked Bootloader One Way Or Another | Android News, Reviews, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets, Tips, Mods, Videos, Tutorials - Android Police

Good to hear. Who knows what kind of crazy stuff we'll be able to do with this beast now!