3 ms·
The pixels all ship with unlocked bootloaders.
by tomComb 7mo ago
The pixels all ship with unlocked bootloaders.
- droidjj 7mo agoI recently turned my unused Google Pixel 8 into a server for my personal site and various side projects. It's super satisfying to spin things up in a couple hours, point a cloudflare tunnel at it, and share it with the world.
- BLKNSLVR 7mo agoDo you have a write up of the software you used to do this? Was it just using Android apps or did you flash GrapheneOS or PostmarketOS onto it first? Is it permanently plugged into power (risking spicy pillow scenarios)?
- microtonal 7mo agoJust nitpicking: unlockable bootloaders. The bootloader is locked by default. But you can unlock it without needing Google. Additionally, Pixels support a Linux VM and has a desktop mode (I'm running GrapheneOS, it may still be that these features have to be enabled through the developer settings).
- the_pwner224 7mo ago> But you can unlock it without needing Google. Well akshually.... the bootloader is initially not unlockable. You must connect the phone to the internet. Within a few minutes a background process will reach out to Google servers to check whether it was purchased outright or with a payment plan. It will only enable the bootloader unlocking toggle after this step. Phones bought with a carrier contract won't be unlockable until paid off. In those initial few minutes (/ before you connect it to the interwebs), the bootloader unlock option in the developer settings & fastboot will be disabled.
- microtonal 7mo agoThanks for the correction! Though I recently set up and unlocked a new Pixel and I don't recall it. Maybe SKUs for European countries are an exception since such payment plans do not really exist? Or I forgot.
- why_at 7mo agoAnd even with this there are still apps which require hardware attestation and won't work on alternative operating systems.