[Updated] Droid X Gingerbread Update Comes With New Bootloader that Stops Root Access

[SnydersWeb]

This is mostly in response to Aixelsyd's post...

I would be perfectly OK that in order to get an unlocked phone that:

• Mandated tiered data plan.
• I brick it - VZW is not responsible, I take responsibility.

Tiered Data Plan:
Unlocking tethering shouldn't be a theft of any sort. Main reason is I see my connection is my connection, I should be able to use it as I see fit and if I go over, charge me. Conversely I don't see it necessarily as a good thing to have an unlimited connection and pound VZW's data networks into the ground. Sadly the way the plans are structured at this moment it allows for people to abuse it.

Allow me to be responsible for my phone
I need a phone carrier, not a nanny. It's my phone, let me do what I please with it. I'd happily run Blur if it was a really killer interface. Open up the marketplace of ideas and let the best man win. Frankly I love the default google UI, it's simple, lets me do exactly what I want efficiently.

One of my biggest beefs with completely locked down phones is the fact the carriers have been far from benevolent with their powers:

• Up-your-arseware that cannot be removed (Madden, etc. on DroidX).
• Obnoxious UI elements that consume valuable screen real estate and detracts from the whole look and feel of the device. (OK this is mostly aimed at my KRZR I had years back...)

This does not include arbitrary onerous restrictions they can inflict for the purpose of extorting, er extracting more money from us. Who is to stop them from disallowing us to use Google maps or any other application? Or force-disabling pieces of the hardware such as the GPS? - I don't believe for a second that VZW hesitate would do that if the users wouldn't kill them for doing so.

 

[xsylus]

I'm sensing a rift between what consumers really want and what the manufactures are willing to allow. This update seems like a slap in the face to the consumers who own the affected devices and you'd think this would hurt Motorola's sells. Motorola is starting to become like Muammar Gaddafi (out of touch with reality) :r_c: and the Droid users who want an unlocked boot-loader and root access are the lowly rebellion. :wacko: :icon_ nana:


*Sign the petition to tell Motorola that we WANT unlocked boot-loaders on our smartphones*
Motorola Locked/Encrypted Bootloader Policy | groubal complaints

 

[johnomaz]

This seems rather... 'shifty'.

No, I think "obnoxious" is the word you are looking for.

I think I may be saying goodbye to Verizon after this contract period. I've already written off Motorola. Will probably be going to Sprint next...better phones and better policies and better prices.

I will miss Verizon's network. And their service was pretty good. But thats about it.

If Sprint was good in my area, I'd join ya, but it sucks monkey turds in my area. ATT and Verizon are both and I ditched ATT for all these crappy business practices. Now I have to live with it. Verizon has better phones. IMO.

 

[*22899]

I don't want to start any miss information by asking this,, but........

Has anyone else noticed their X acting funny lately?

I'm on the rooted GB from TBH and yesterday I got a screen on my X saying I was in international rooming while I was in my house where I have perfect signal all the time.

Today my calls aren't all going threw I hit call and some times I'll wait for 30 seconds of silence before it just beeps and says call not connected.

These could all be from any number of issues but just wondering I guess.

 

[czerdrill]

I'm sensing a rift between what consumers really want and what the manufactures are willing to allow. This update seems like a slap in the face to the consumers who own the affected devices and you'd think this would hurt Motorola's sells. Motorola is starting to become like Muammar Gaddafi (out of touch with reality) :r_c: and the Droid users who want an unlocked boot-loader and root access are the lowly rebellion. :wacko: :icon_ nana:


*Sign the petition to tell Motorola that we WANT unlocked boot-loaders on our smartphones*
Motorola Locked/Encrypted Bootloader Policy | groubal complaints

It's not what consumers really want though. I don't get why people think motorola or verizon just randomly decided they don't care what their customers want and are doing as they please. As if they haven't done market research and surveys. As if blocking root is going to make their next phone a flop. They know what they're doing and they're succeeding. People have to stop trying to play CEO.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Dusty]

It's not what consumers really want though. I don't get why people think motorola or verizon just randomly decided they don't care what their customers want and are doing as they please. As if they haven't done market research and surveys. As if blocking root is going to make their next phone a flop. They know what they're doing and they're succeeding. People have to stop trying to play CEO.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Well apparently close to 10000 people think the bootloader shouldn't be encrypted. There are numerous other campaigns that people can sign up for to protest bootloader encryption. You have to admit, there's an undeniable undercurrent for modding.


The thing is, that in order to appease rooters and modders Motorola literally has to do nothing. Nothing as in not get programmers to write codes that encrypt their software. I'm willing to bet that writing a mildly locked bootloader is worlds easier than hacker-proofing a handset. But instead, they choose to actively fight things like rooting and ROMs. They're expelling effort when people are asking them not to. That's where the rift is.

A few months ago one of their front office guys basically said if you want to root go somewhere else. I said it before and I'll say it again... "OK."

 

[czerdrill]

It's not what consumers really want though. I don't get why people think motorola or verizon just randomly decided they don't care what their customers want and are doing as they please. As if they haven't done market research and surveys. As if blocking root is going to make their next phone a flop. They know what they're doing and they're succeeding. People have to stop trying to play CEO.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Well apparently close to 10000 people think the bootloader shouldn't be encrypted. There are numerous other campaigns that people can sign up for to protest bootloader encryption. You have to admit, there's an undeniable undercurrent for modding.


The thing is, that in order to appease rooters and modders Motorola literally has to do nothing. Nothing as in not get programmers to write codes that encrypt their software. I'm willing to bet that writing a mildly locked bootloader is worlds easier than hacker-proofing a handset. But instead, they choose to actively fight things like rooting and ROMs. They're expelling effort when people are asking them not to. That's where the rift is.

A few months ago one of their front office guys basically said if you want to root go somewhere else. I said it before and I'll say it again... "OK."

As discussed over and over and over again, there are far more benefits for them to keep everything locked down then there is to appease 10,000 people, which for all intents and purposes is not a drop in the bucket, its a drop in the universe. 10,000 people to them mean nothing, no matter how badly we want it to mean something. Look at the sales numbers for all the moto android phones that have encrypted bootloaders and then figure out where 10,000 stands in that percentage. it's such a negligible amount, it's laughable.

They're not going against what the consumer wants or demands. The majority of customers are very happy with their products, and they are having no problem whatsoever making sales. there's a saying that your own problems are always the biggest problems, and that's all that's happening here. as crazy as it seems to you and 9,999 other people, the point is it's not something that any CEO of any OEM/carrier is losing sleep over. And they can literally, if they wanted to, say "We don't care about you 10,000 guys" and they'd still have no trouble pushing phones.

The android "movement" has good intentions but its not something that will ever have any real support, or something that will ever see any real progress. OEMs are not going to suddenly start releases unencrypted, unlocked, free for all phones cuz 10,000 people complained.

 

[Dusty]

You're right we do represent a drop in the bucket. You act like no company has ever listened to the undercurrent or counter-culture for product development.

But, I for one will advise everyone who asks for my advice to stay away from Motorola's phones. I can only hope everyone else that doesn't like the direction they're taking does the same. It adds up.

 

[bplewis24]

I know its popular to hate on Motorola in the root, ROM community. But some of yall act like this is something new.

Were some of yall around here for the Droid 1 and trying to root 2.2.? It wasnt a walk in the park in the beginning. And that was a stock Android device. How about rooting the Incredible? That was definitely no cake walk in the beginning.

I mean if you dont like Motorola for whatever reason, fine. But lets try to keep things in perspective.

Yeah, it seems as though the FUD has been strong within the Android community lately. Lots of horrible rumors surfacing, some worse than others, and so far the only one that is confirmed to be legitimate is that Verizon is ditching one-year contracts.

Brandon

 

[XMasterMoronX]

Big Red is starting to look a lot communist China (bdmptss)

 

[Aixelsyd]

Doesn't the TB have a locked bootloader?

Locked, yes. But not encrypted like the DX. Big difference.

yeah well give it time it won't last long.

 

[Dusty]

Doesn't the TB have a locked bootloader?

Locked, yes. But not encrypted like the DX. Big difference.

yeah well give it time it won't last long.

Yep, the TBs bootloder was unlocked weeks ago. The DX ... not at all, and many great devs have tried and quit.

 

[Delirious17]

I got the first GB that got leaked out (rooted at that too) not this 'newer' GB...what are the differences worth noting?

 

[rkeller62]

I got the first GB that got leaked out (rooted at that too) not this 'newer' GB...what are the differences worth noting?

Well, according to this thread it seems the new version is some Draconion, Orwellian or Communist plot to take away our freedom!! ;-)

 

[DoctorDeDroid]

Personal freedom infringed? Ring Slater Nazis, or, if closed, the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums