S-OFF Is Not Needed On The HTC One! The One Is Like A Nexus Device After HTCDev.com

[DroidModderX]

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In the past with HTC devices if you unlocked your device through HTCdev.com you still needed to achieve S-OFF in order to flash kernels since the boot partition was still secure. Apparently this is no longer the case with the HTC One. According to Koushik Dutta, the creator of Clock Work Mod Recovery and Rom Manager, the HTC One is nearly identical to a Nexus device after being unlocked with HTCDev.com! With an unlocked bootloader on this device you will be able to flash a Rom in its entirety (boot, recovery,system). With previous devices if you had S-On you would still be able to flash recovery and boot, but you would have to do that manually through adb.

The only thing you can't do with S-On is flash the black box partitions, radios, bootloaders, ect. You are not able to flash those on a Nexus device either. This is good news for those of you who love to hack and mod your device!

Via Rootzwiki

 

[johnomaz]

HTC did something right? Amazing! (Yes, HTC has left a very sour taste in my mouth in the past.)

 

[Dusty]

Will VZW ever get this phone? If the Motorola X device turns out to be weak I would sooo hit the HTC One.

 

[jntdroid]

I'm assuming this is for ANY variant, regardless of carrier? Edit: Nevermind: "Flashaholics can now rejoice (unless you're on AT&T, which is supposed to be blacklisting its HTC One variant, making it impossible to unlock via HTCDev - it should have been blacklisted already, but RootzWiki founder b16 was still able to unlock his AT&T HTC One when he got it). If you're on any other carrier and void your warranty by unlocking your HTC One, there is nothing in the way of you getting all the custom ROM, kernel and recovery love that you need on the HTC One."

No wonder Verizon avoided this and stuck with the DNA

I know this only affects a small percentage of users, but it's still more great news about a phone that could very well save HTCs life...

 

[jntdroid]

HTC did something right? Amazing! (Yes, HTC has left a very sour taste in my mouth in the past.)

Understandably, but the One is probably the nicest Android device I've ever used, you should at least check out if you can.

--
Sent from my S4

 

[kodiak799]

No wonder Verizon avoided this and stuck with the DNA

Seriously. I never thought the OEM's cared that much, other than maybe targeting the enterprise market. I've always felt VZW was who was pushing it.

Anyway, good news. Too bad I'm not in the market for a phone.

 

[jntdroid]

It sounds like doing this might cause you to lose the ability to take OTA updates. When you unlock the bootloader, it wipes the data partition (as it should). Unfortunately, HTC stuck some system apps in /data/preload, and the OTA (at least so far) checks for those apps...

The G+ thread has Koush saying the One doesn't have /data/preload, but a few knowledgeable guys post up the code, or whatever, showing it. That's why I say "might".

Not the end of the world, as most who unlock will want to flash custom software, but just FYI.

 

[DroidModderX]

It sounds like doing this might cause you to lose the ability to take OTA updates. When you unlock the bootloader, it wipes the data partition (as it should). Unfortunately, HTC stuck some system apps in /data/preload, and the OTA (at least so far) checks for those apps...

The G+ thread has Koush saying the One doesn't have /data/preload, but a few knowledgeable guys post up the code, or whatever, showing it. That's why I say "might".

Not the end of the world, as most who unlock will want to flash custom software, but just FYI.

if you know enough to be able to unlock the phone you should be able to reinstall the system apps. You could more than likely flash an ruu that would include everything before accepting an ota.

My HTC One is sitting on the kitchen counter in its UPS box at home. Of course I was out of town when it arrived. I won't be able to play around with it until Saturday.

 

[jntdroid]

True, but unlocking the bootloader isn't supposed to break OTAs, and b/c HTC put those apps in /data/preload instead of /system, it essentially does just that. Obviously savvy users will likely be flashing stuff anyway, so it's not really a big deal, I just like to make sure people's expectations are correct! Most ROMs, especially in the HTC community on a well-supported phone, typically have OTAs integrated within a day of release anyway.

And you're in for a treat when you get home! :yahoo: