7 ms·

Xiaomi does the same (or at least did until my latest phone change i.e. around 3 years ago). You must unlock the bootloader before being able to install a custo

by j1elo 3y ago

Xiaomi does the same (or at least did until my latest phone change i.e. around 3 years ago). You must unlock the bootloader before being able to install a custom recovery image such as TWRP, which itself is used to install custom ROMs. This unlock involves: creating a user account in the Xiaomi services website, logging into that account from your phone's system, then having the phone logged in for at least 7 days, then using a Windows software which sends a request for unlocking, which they will grant (at least in my experience). The most outrageous part of all this process (apart from the fact that it exists at all) is the 7 days of usage with the phone logged in. If you attempt an unlock earlier than that, the software will say: "You have to wait X days and Y hours before you can unlock this device." EDIT: This Reddit wiki page explains the process. I'm flabbergasted that it actually takes 720 hours aka 30 days: https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/wiki/bootloader/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/wiki/bootloader/

mschuster91 3y ago
Samsung does the same fwiw for their newest phones. Pretty annoying.
- jesprenj 3y ago
  You don't need an account, but it's still terrible. I experienced this yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35854287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35854287
- ajolly 3y ago
  Samsung won't even let you unlock their US phones bootloaders.
- barbariangrunge 3y ago
  I was never able to get lineage working on my old s8
  - stinos 3y ago
    Was that due to bootloader issues or just because there's no official support (It's not actually listed on https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#samsung https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#samsung) ? FWIW I have it running on a 2nd hand s10e and it's not flawless, but still pretty good.
    - barbariangrunge 3y ago
      the s8 was a weird case. I think the s7 and s9 could be unlocked, but the s8 was locked up tight, iirc
solarkraft 3y ago
The wait time differs based on the device. I had to wait a week until I could use my Pocophone F1.
- climb_stealth 3y ago
  Man, I love my Pocophone F1. Any idea where it would still be possible to purchase one? With LineageOS it handles everything I throw at it without issues. Love the form factor and the finger print sensor on the back. Also SD card slot and headphone jack. Looks like the newer Pocophones are stepping backwards so I have been trying to get my hands on another second hand F1. Haven't been able to find it anywhere though. Surely there must be people out there selling them?!
WeylandYutani 3y ago
Xiaomi heavily subsidizes their phones. The idea is that they make it back with people using their apps.
- grishka 3y ago
  Yep. All their stock apps, including those that have no business having any kind of network access as part of their functionality, come with a privacy policy, show it to you in a modal on first launch, and quit if you decline it. The calculator app has a privacy policy, so does the clock, the media gallery, the file manager, and the local music player. I was also told that there are actual ads sprinkled throughout the system. I'm highly doubtful that it's possible to sell a phone for the equivalent of $100 at a profit.
  - londons_explore 3y ago
    There are plenty of $100 phones. I used a $50 phone for a year, and it was fine to use - it ran every app I tried to use, had a 3 day battery life, and the only thing that it lacked was NFC and a gyroscope and compass (makes maps apps hard to use because you don't get a blue arrow). I now have a $500 phone and overall it's a bit of a downgrade because the battery only barely lasts a day.
  - rjh29 3y ago
    This is the same for Huawei and their phones aren't even that cheap!
tpm 3y ago
Luckily there are reputable companies (warranty and all that) that do this as a part of the purchase process.
RicoElectrico 3y ago
The rationale for the hoops and waiting period is IIRC that shady sellers were tampering with phones sold through AliExpress etc.
- danuker 3y ago
  Security, the classic excuse behind reducing freedom.
  - delfinom 3y ago
    To be fair, they probably do have to deal with more creative fraud in the Chinese market. They just implemented a rather lazy solution.
  - __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
    Gotta secure your flimsy business model against competitors.
  - _ea1k 3y ago
    Sometimes its a valid reason. I love the idea of being able to unlock the bootloader. I don't love the idea of someone else being able to do it before the phone gets to me.
    - froh 3y ago
      so it's about end customer security, thanks for elaborating!
    - eidolon_93 3y ago
      > I don't love the idea of someone else being able to do it before the phone gets to me. So how do you feel about PCs then? Because most computers sold doesn't have these draconian protections and apparently that has never been an issue.
      - HWR_14 3y ago
        I believe it has in fact been an issue with several areas of electronics, including PCs, in the past.
hbs18 3y ago
> then having the phone logged in for at least 7 days I unlocked the bootloader with the unlock tool less than 12 hours after purchasing my Xiaomi Mi 8. How come everybody has to wait that long?
- scns 3y ago
  Which tool?
totetsu 3y ago
I once had to follow a similar process to get the key to sign apps to install on my nokia symbian phone.
preisschild 3y ago
Yeah, I bought a Pocophone F1 when it came out, expecting to instantly install LineageOS, but then I found out that I have to wait a full week and set up a Windows VM. The phone per-se wasn't bad, but that was my last purchase from Xiaomi. Replaced the Pocophone with a Google Pixel 5A and I will stick to Google Pixel because GrapheneOS is great.
- phatfish 3y ago
  Xiaomi have required this for a while now, not sure exactly when but at least since 2016. The other big Chinese brands that have cheaper high end handsets don't offically support unlocked bootloaders as far as i know. They subsidize their handsets with all the junk that their custom Android UIs push, so don't want owners to flash a custom ROM. The top 3 phones in the LineageOS install stats page are Xiaomi for this reason. https://stats.lineageos.org/ https://stats.lineageos.org/ Often phones that do support unlocking (without the hoop jumping) you have to pay a premium for, like the Pixel.
- knewter 3y ago
  The pocophone f1 was for a while the fastest mainline Linux phone. Throw postmarketos on that bad boy.
nottorp 3y ago
Xiaomi requires a google account, a xiaomi account and a sim card inserted just so you can enable developer mode. That's what returns are for, I guess.
footlose_3815 3y ago
I went through this on my POCO F3. I couldn't help but think they were running all kinds of shitty chinese malware on my PII during this time.
pessimizer 3y ago
If laws let companies do this, they will. Eventually unlocking your phone will look like a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test. At 30 days, it has already passed the level of cancelling your subscription to The Economist and reached the obfuscation level of cancelling the average gym membership. They'll just keep testing the limits until their analytics tell them that only 23 people made it through the process in the last year, then they'll shut it down for lack of use. Legally obligated, they'll replace the process with a promise that if you mail a newly purchased device to the company, they'll send you an unlocked version within about 3 months. Then, a year later, mail to that P.O. Box starts getting returned, and customer service claims that they're not aware of any mail-in program. The representative claims, honestly, that "we don't sell unlocked phones." You get escalated to a supervisor, and insist that they're legally required to unlock your phone. The supervisor apologizes to you, promises to get to the bottom of the training oversight that led to the escalation, and insists that you mail the device directly to his office and he will take care of you personally. Only three people made it to the supervisor last year. Two of them never ended up sending in their phones, and for the one that did, the company accidentally sent another locked phone back and the customer failed to follow up.

by j1elo 3y ago

mschuster91 3y ago

Samsung does the same fwiw for their newest phones. Pretty annoying.

jesprenj 3y ago
You don't need an account, but it's still terrible. I experienced this yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35854287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35854287
ajolly 3y ago
Samsung won't even let you unlock their US phones bootloaders.
barbariangrunge 3y ago
I was never able to get lineage working on my old s8
- stinos 3y ago
  Was that due to bootloader issues or just because there's no official support (It's not actually listed on https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#samsung https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/#samsung) ? FWIW I have it running on a 2nd hand s10e and it's not flawless, but still pretty good.
  - barbariangrunge 3y ago
    the s8 was a weird case. I think the s7 and s9 could be unlocked, but the s8 was locked up tight, iirc

solarkraft 3y ago

The wait time differs based on the device. I had to wait a week until I could use my Pocophone F1.

climb_stealth 3y ago
Man, I love my Pocophone F1. Any idea where it would still be possible to purchase one? With LineageOS it handles everything I throw at it without issues. Love the form factor and the finger print sensor on the back. Also SD card slot and headphone jack. Looks like the newer Pocophones are stepping backwards so I have been trying to get my hands on another second hand F1. Haven't been able to find it anywhere though. Surely there must be people out there selling them?!

WeylandYutani 3y ago

Xiaomi heavily subsidizes their phones. The idea is that they make it back with people using their apps.

grishka 3y ago
Yep. All their stock apps, including those that have no business having any kind of network access as part of their functionality, come with a privacy policy, show it to you in a modal on first launch, and quit if you decline it. The calculator app has a privacy policy, so does the clock, the media gallery, the file manager, and the local music player. I was also told that there are actual ads sprinkled throughout the system. I'm highly doubtful that it's possible to sell a phone for the equivalent of $100 at a profit.
- londons_explore 3y ago
  There are plenty of $100 phones. I used a $50 phone for a year, and it was fine to use - it ran every app I tried to use, had a 3 day battery life, and the only thing that it lacked was NFC and a gyroscope and compass (makes maps apps hard to use because you don't get a blue arrow). I now have a $500 phone and overall it's a bit of a downgrade because the battery only barely lasts a day.
- rjh29 3y ago
  This is the same for Huawei and their phones aren't even that cheap!

tpm 3y ago

Luckily there are reputable companies (warranty and all that) that do this as a part of the purchase process.

RicoElectrico 3y ago

The rationale for the hoops and waiting period is IIRC that shady sellers were tampering with phones sold through AliExpress etc.

danuker 3y ago
Security, the classic excuse behind reducing freedom.
- delfinom 3y ago
  To be fair, they probably do have to deal with more creative fraud in the Chinese market. They just implemented a rather lazy solution.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y ago
  Gotta secure your flimsy business model against competitors.
- _ea1k 3y ago
  Sometimes its a valid reason. I love the idea of being able to unlock the bootloader. I don't love the idea of someone else being able to do it before the phone gets to me.
  - froh 3y ago
    so it's about end customer security, thanks for elaborating!
  - eidolon_93 3y ago
    > I don't love the idea of someone else being able to do it before the phone gets to me. So how do you feel about PCs then? Because most computers sold doesn't have these draconian protections and apparently that has never been an issue.
    - HWR_14 3y ago
      I believe it has in fact been an issue with several areas of electronics, including PCs, in the past.

hbs18 3y ago

> then having the phone logged in for at least 7 days I unlocked the bootloader with the unlock tool less than 12 hours after purchasing my Xiaomi Mi 8. How come everybody has to wait that long?

scns 3y ago
Which tool?

totetsu 3y ago

I once had to follow a similar process to get the key to sign apps to install on my nokia symbian phone.

preisschild 3y ago

Yeah, I bought a Pocophone F1 when it came out, expecting to instantly install LineageOS, but then I found out that I have to wait a full week and set up a Windows VM. The phone per-se wasn't bad, but that was my last purchase from Xiaomi. Replaced the Pocophone with a Google Pixel 5A and I will stick to Google Pixel because GrapheneOS is great.

phatfish 3y ago
Xiaomi have required this for a while now, not sure exactly when but at least since 2016. The other big Chinese brands that have cheaper high end handsets don't offically support unlocked bootloaders as far as i know. They subsidize their handsets with all the junk that their custom Android UIs push, so don't want owners to flash a custom ROM. The top 3 phones in the LineageOS install stats page are Xiaomi for this reason. https://stats.lineageos.org/ https://stats.lineageos.org/ Often phones that do support unlocking (without the hoop jumping) you have to pay a premium for, like the Pixel.
knewter 3y ago
The pocophone f1 was for a while the fastest mainline Linux phone. Throw postmarketos on that bad boy.

nottorp 3y ago

Xiaomi requires a google account, a xiaomi account and a sim card inserted just so you can enable developer mode. That's what returns are for, I guess.

footlose_3815 3y ago

I went through this on my POCO F3. I couldn't help but think they were running all kinds of shitty chinese malware on my PII during this time.

pessimizer 3y ago

If laws let companies do this, they will. Eventually unlocking your phone will look like a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test. At 30 days, it has already passed the level of cancelling your subscription to The Economist and reached the obfuscation level of cancelling the average gym membership. They'll just keep testing the limits until their analytics tell them that only 23 people made it through the process in the last year, then they'll shut it down for lack of use. Legally obligated, they'll replace the process with a promise that if you mail a newly purchased device to the company, they'll send you an unlocked version within about 3 months. Then, a year later, mail to that P.O. Box starts getting returned, and customer service claims that they're not aware of any mail-in program. The representative claims, honestly, that "we don't sell unlocked phones." You get escalated to a supervisor, and insist that they're legally required to unlock your phone. The supervisor apologizes to you, promises to get to the bottom of the training oversight that led to the escalation, and insists that you mail the device directly to his office and he will take care of you personally. Only three people made it to the supervisor last year. Two of them never ended up sending in their phones, and for the one that did, the company accidentally sent another locked phone back and the customer failed to follow up.