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Huawei Will No Longer Allow Bootloader Unlocking On Its Android Handsets (androidauthority.com)

Posted by msmash on from the reversing-stance dept.

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has long made it easier for users to unlock the bootloader on its phones. But that is changing now. Android Authority: Earlier this month a support page, which detailed ways to unlock a bootloader, disappeared without any explanation from the company's websites. In a statement, the company said, "In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, Huawei will cease providing bootloader unlock codes for devices launched after May 25, 2018." It added, "For devices launched prior to the aforementioned date, the termination of the bootloader code application service will come into effect 60 days after today's announcement. Moving forward, Huawei remains committed to providing quality services and experiences to its customers. Thank you for your continued support."

32 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Right to unlock by r_naked · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am against the government getting involved in most aspects of our lives, but this is flat out a case where government intervention is needed,

    If a phone can't be unlocked so I can install whatever OS I want, then it should not be allowed to be imported into the USA.

    This includes the iPhone...

    If I pay $3000 for a top of the line laptop, I can install whatever OS I want. It may not work perfectly, but that is on me. If I pay $300 for a bottom basement laptop, I can still install whatever OS I want.

    This has GOT to change with phones as well.

    They try to give some bullshit about how it is to protect the network, but that is a load of horseshit.

    --
    -- http://anonet.org -- The internet the way it was meant to be. Check it out, you may be surprised.
    1. Re:Right to unlock by FalcDot · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this. Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.

    2. Re:Right to unlock by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If I pay $3000 for a top of the line laptop, I can install whatever OS I want.

      Only for the present, but that too shall change. The Political-Industrial Complex will push to have ALL devices locked into officially-sanctioned bootloaders and OS's soon. Lost profits and lost opportunities to snoop due to a non-homogeneous software/OS/encryption/security environment making spying and mass data-collection difficult will not be tolerated.

      It's coming unless there is serious pushback.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    3. Re:Right to unlock by fred6666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We've seen it with SIM-locking. Voting with your wallet doesn't work in an oligopoly case. There are very few carriers and they all lock their phones. Fortunately, in many countries, the government stepped in and banned SIM locking. Nothing of value was lost and it is better for the consumer and increased competition.

    4. Re:Right to unlock by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Aaah but can you? Many devices make you jump through all sorts of hoops to do just that. The top of the line Chromebooks made you jump through hoops, the bottom of the line Surface RT had secure boot locked down completely

      You're going to see it change in the wrong way you expect before you see it change in the right way.

    5. Re:Right to unlock by houghi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Voting with your wallet only works if there are alternatives and if it would actually change anything.

      e.g. if there is a big, huge outcry because a company does something that the general public does not want (e.g. child labour, appartheid, ...) then it might work and change policies. If you, as an individual do it, they do not care.

      So what if they do not have a few thousand customers that are not buying their stuff. There are enough who do. The other companiessee this and do the same.

      The fact that I do NOT want to change the bootloader does not mean I do not want the right to do so.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    6. Re:Right to unlock by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      You need the correct cultural context, of course. China is run by the Communist party. Open Source is Communist, and therefore good for the people. By opposing Open Source, These are opposing the good of the people. Never fear, with some reeducation, Huawei can become again valuable and worthy members of society.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re: Right to unlock by Comboman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sim locking forces a user to stay on their network on and is anti competitive. There is nothing magical about their network.

      There is nothing magical about their OS build either, other than that it is bundled with crap-ware and may never get a security update. Also, if having one company control your data service, hardware AND software isn't anti-competitive, I don't know what is. Monopolies can be vertical as well as horizontal.

      --
      Support Right To Repair Legislation.
    8. Re:Right to unlock by sinij · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'.

      It is "right to repair". I can repair or replace OS with a third-party offering and is not locked-in to OEM provided options.

    9. Re: Right to unlock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No. Most bricking comes from trying to get around the lockout in the first place. Remove the lockout and the bricking won't happen.

    10. Re:Right to unlock by fred6666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      on Apple iPhones, there is not really the expectation of being able to put Android on it.

      Why not? If I want to try? Or develop my own OS?
      How is it any different whether it's a pocket-sized computer (aka phone) or a full computer (laptop/desktop)?
      By your logic, there no expectation to wipe Mac OS and install Linux or BSD on an Apple laptop either.

    11. Re:Right to unlock by zilym · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is not a tiny, miniscule issue. People have more smart phones than they have cars. This massive fleet of mobile computing devices is going to have security issues that get exploited sooner or later and the handset manufactures aren't going to do jack to close the holes. They want old phones to become trash and force everyone to buy new phones whenever they decide it's time to make some revenue. If this behavior is not monopolistic, anti-competitive, and counter to the public's best interests, then WTF is?

      A bootloader locked phone is like a car with the hood welded shut. Most people don't know or care about what's under the hood until it breaks. And once it does, they have a reasonable expectation of being able to take it to the nearest repair guy to get it working again.

    12. Re:Right to unlock by wierd_w · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Given that the heart of android is FOSS, if sufficient information about the hardware is known, then it seems perfectly reasonable for an android port to that hardware to exist, barring some really strange hardware related situations that would make that more trouble than it is worth. (say, the custom ARM CPU is missing some really important instructions or features.)

      See also-- AOSP, and derivatives, like LineageOS.

      The real reason is that the hardware makers dont want people poking about with unfettered OS level control over their chips and radios, because a lot of those are fully software controlled, and with a modified binary blob, features that they charge extra for can be turned on easily.

      They cuddle up to the FCC, and complain that these experimenters and hackers (oh my!) are theoretically able to violate the transmit power restrictions, frequency band restrictions, and other restrictions put in place to comply with FCC regulations, and so the end user needs to be prevented from having access to that level of control over the hardware at all costs.

      In reality, it is simply so the handset maker can market their new 5G! enabled handset. (when the changes that enable that communication mode are mostly just software, and the older handset can often communicate at that rate just fine with the right blob being pushed into it.)

    13. Re: Right to unlock by Alumoi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Locking the os prevents morons from bricking their device and demanding a new one.

      It also prevents smart people deleting the crapware, installing an adblocker and firewall.

    14. Re:Right to unlock by CoolDiscoRex · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this. Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.

      The flying monkey fuck they shouldn't. Enforcing laws of ownership is a primary function of government. When you buy a product, it is yours to do as you please. This is a basic tenant of common law dating back hundreds of years. That companies think that they still control the products they sell you is the slipperiest of slopes that needs government intervention before it spreads and becomes out of hand as the 90% sit like frogs in a pot and watch.

      Another primary function of government is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. As it stands, then 10% have to accept what the 90% will tolerate. As you will hear often, "most customers don't care about unlocking the boot loader", therefore, your private property rights will go away because the 90% don't care, and the market clout of the 10% is simply not enough to make a meaningful difference to manufacturers.

      If you are truly advocating that we only be allowed what the masses will accept, then you're advocating for a whole bag of hurt, not to mention a society which caters only to the whims of the masses, the average IQ of which is now 98.

      It's why people coming back from Asia are startled by how far behind we are technologically. Americans will accept less. It doesn't bode well for our future.

      Relying on the people to enforce your rights via market forces has proven to be a colossal failure as most people, altogether now, "don't care".

      Holding the most technically literate people in a nation slaves to what the masses will accept is very much not a good thing, for reasons which I hope are obvious.

    15. Re:Right to unlock by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Governments should not get involved in this.

      You owe many of the comforts of your technology precisely because of government involvement. Everything from being able to repair your car, to not voiding your warranty when looking in the case, it is all thanks to the many laws on the books that protect you.

      Vote with your wallet

      This works only in a free market. Very few of those exist.

    16. Re:Right to unlock by surfcow · · Score: 4, Funny

      So, it's Huawei or the highway, eh?

    17. Re: Right to unlock by dgatwood · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is nothing magical about their OS build either, other than that it is bundled with crap-ware and may never get a security update.

      This. Huawei only guarantees two years of updates, so if you aren't planning to replace your phone at least every two years, you'll end up on an out-of-date, security-compromised OS with no way to upgrade. If you can unlock your bootloader, you have the option of installing LineageOS and getting several more years out of the device.

      Bootloader locking serves an important purpose, but it should not be legal to deny consumers the ability to unlock their own devices. And that goes for Apple, too. If bootloader unlocking were required by law, no doubt the Android port to iPhones would get updated, not to mention that you'd have people doing things similar to XPostFacto/MacPostFactor, getting newer versions of iOS to run on older hardware.

      Right now, locked bootloaders are turning technology into disposable junk, destroying the resale market, and creating an e-waste nightmare. That alone should be ample reason for the government to get involved.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    18. Re:Right to unlock by thomst · · Score: 2, Insightful

      r_naked demanded:

      If a phone can't be unlocked so I can install whatever OS I want, then it should not be allowed to be imported into the USA.

      They try to give some bullshit about how it is to protect the network, but that is a load of horseshit.

      It is, indeed, a load of horseshit.

      What's important to grasp here is that it is, in all likelihood, the Chinese government that has ordered Huawei to lock their bootloaders, in order to keep end users from deleting the same Chinese government spyware that led to ZTE being barred from exporting their phones to the USA (and which the idiot has defied his own intelligence agencies to announce that he's going to help ZTE get export licenses to resume).

      If you buy a new Huawei phone from here on out, you'd best assume the Chinese government is getting copies of everything on it, and listening in on every transaction that you use it for - including calls, texts, social media interactions, and so-called "encrypted" communications (which aren't encrypted at the keyboard, at all) ...

      --
      Check out my novel.
    19. Re:Right to unlock by exomondo · · Score: 2

      Buy a phone that you can unlock instead?

      How will that remain possible as other major phone manufacturers targeting major western markets follow the example of Huawei?

      How will that not remain possible as people vote with their wallets and support manufacturers that do allow unlocking of devices? If you're that worried about it then you should start a campaign to educate people about it and make sure they voice their opinions on why they are making the choices they are.

    20. Re:Right to unlock by exomondo · · Score: 2

      We've been hearing that the sky is falling for decades now and yet even today major vendors offer various OS options (including Linux) on their computers and even Microsoft provide a mechanism for disabling SecureBoot on their own devices so you can install other operating systems on them, people have even installed macOS on the Surface Book! The transition from PowerPC to Intel meant you could install Windows on a Mac and even with the introduction of Chromebooks you can run other Linux distributions as a replacement (or alongside) ChromeOS.

      Today we have broader device/OS compatibility than we ever have before despite what you fear-mongerers keep saying. Saying the opposite to what you said is just as credible in terms of evidence but it also agrees with the trend we have been seeing in recent years.

  2. The most mediocre smartphone brand. by blind+biker · · Score: 2

    Huawei has been positioning itself as a higher quality smartphone brand than the rest of the Chinese competition, but fails at it entirely. It is, however, worse value than all other Chinese brands.

    I don't care one way or the other as I have standardized our family on the same model Samsung Galaxy phones (so we can swap batteries and other accessories among us), but from time to time I look into the Chinese brands like OnePlus, Alcatel/TCL, Oppo, Lenovo (though this is partly a Taiwanese brand from a technological POV). Huawei makes just OK phones which have an incredibly uninspiring value.

    I guess they have even more delusions of greatness now, as they think they should stop people from using their phones as they like (like Apple).

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  3. Nope by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Thank you for your continued support."

    There is no support. I don't have much influence in the phone world, but all that I have will now be directed at convincing people away from you.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:Nope by Christian+Smith · · Score: 3, Informative

      all that I have will now be directed at convincing people away from you

      Away from Huawei, and towards...? Who are the smart phone manufacturers that let you boot your own OS?

      Google, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG (and they're just the brands I've personally owned and installed Cyanogenmod/LineageOS on.)

  4. Re:Professor Stefan Halper by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And 9-11 was a libtard job, duh! ae911truth org

    I won't be sad when the current round of political stupidity ends.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  5. Who said this isn't a government intervention? by evanh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It certainly wouldn't be the first time a government used a "national security" blanket excuse to covertly force something down a company's gullet.

  6. regulation of carriers is the normal order by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd like to add that networks are built on the common property of wireless airspace. We have granted the government the authority to license the access to the airspace, which the carriers must pay to use. The carriers benefit from something that belongs to the people, and they can continue as long as they operate in a way mutually beneficial way. But careful oversight and regulation of a business using a common property is important to insure that their behavior remains in the public's interests.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  7. Sorry? What did they say? by Chas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It kinda sounded like "You don't want to buy our stuff. You want to buy stuff from someone who isn't going to place limits on you doing what you want with your own device."

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  8. OK, now a good reason to avoid Huawei by HiThere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wasn't impressed when the government told me to avoid them, but now Huawei itself is telling me to avoid them.

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  9. Re:Right to complain. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You have no idea indeed. That CPU is supported does not mean that you can run the OS on it because in embedded device world all the chipsets and all are variety of different incompatible ones. "provided proper driver support" is real hard to come by. So no, theoretically ARM OS won't run on any ARM devices. You might have different meaning to "theoretically" from others.

  10. Regulation by nightfire-unique · · Score: 2

    Normally I'm against regulation of technology (in general), but here's a case where we, the people, genuinely need the government to step in. It should be illegal to manufacture, import, or offer for sale any device which contains anti-freedom provisions such as bootloader locking or anti-root measures.

    --
    A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  11. Re:What places allow unlockable bootloaders now? by cafelatte · · Score: 2

    Just check this site. Anything that allows lineageos installed should be unlockable and acceptable to buy.
    https://download.lineageos.org...
    The best manufacturers in this regards are LG, Motorola and Samsung.