Develop Bugs

[Q] Why was Evo 4g's bootloader locked?

So, I've searched and not been able to find an answer to a question. Why was the original Evo's bootloader locked in the Gingerbread OTA? It seemed like HTC was beginning the process of keeping the bootloaders unlocked, then WAM. We get an update that broke more than it seemed to fix and killed my battery life. I was not rooted, but my phone's overall performance was so poor after the OTA, I was ready to root it. Then, I find out there is no way to do so.
It is annoying that they do an update that hurts my phone's performance, and at the same time, block any chance I have of improving the performance.
So, have we got an answer as to why it was locked?
Thanks!

Because Sprint has the final say so on it, and they wanted it locked....

HTC stated they would be locking the bootloaders on their phones. There was a small public outcry, and HTC said they would have an unlock solution for their future phones. At this point the GB update for the Evo was finalized, and was too far in the game to make a change. Maybe the Evo will be on the "list" for HTC to unlock the bootloader. But it really only has about 5 months left on its support cycle (18 months for updates), so who knows.

Thanks!
So, it was a Sprint thing and not HTC that locked it. That makes more sense. Thank you.

I emailed HTC referencing their decision to not lock future devices and requesting help unlocking my bootloader. Here is the response I received:
I understand you would like the bootloader unlocked on your EVO. While the statement notes that locked bootloaders will not be occurring on future devices, the official policy is still being reviewed as it pertains to existing devices. Please keep an eye on htc .com and twitter .com/htc for the latest news.
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Click to collapse
I guess that enough for a little hope. We'll see what happens...

I just want to point out for those new to the Evo, that the Evo's bootloader has always been locked since Eclair on launch day. This is not new with this update, after each ota update a new root exploit has had to been found to get past the locked bootloader.

wfrandy, thank you for that clarification.

The 4G's bootloader is not locked like the 3D's. The 4G's bootloader still isn't unlocked but it is a lot easier to circumvent. This article explains it better than I can.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/0...r-recovery-and-kernel-images-all-locked-down/

HipKat said:
Because Sprint has the final say so on it, and they wanted it locked....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not true. HTC controls the bootloader on their devices. Sprint just gets the img file from them and they add it to their own updates, They don't get the source or the ability to change it in any way, aside from switching to a different version.
Besides that, look at the release date in the bootloader menu... it says March 8, It was developed and released BEFORE that announcement. And THAT is the real reason why it's still locked. The only reason the update came out in June was because Sprint took forever to lock down everything that they COULD and put in all their crappy bloatware and whatnot. In the future when HTC develops and releases the next version of the hboot, I would guess that it would be unlocked from that point forward.
But again, nothing Sprint can do about it, other than choose not to release it.

[Q] Will be possible in future S-OFF?

Hello Dear XDa'er
I bought myself the HTC one X and I wanted to ask if possible in the future would be S-OFF? I dare not htcdev on the way because of the warranty.
Thank you for your answers.
Ps: sorry for my bad English

FordSierra88 said:
Hello Dear XDa'er
I bought myself the HTC one X and I wanted to ask if possible in the future would be S-OFF? I dare not htcdev on the way because of the warranty.
Thank you for your answers.
Ps: sorry for my bad English
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only time will tell

FordSierra88 said:
Hello Dear XDa'er
I bought myself the HTC one X and I wanted to ask if possible in the future would be S-OFF? I dare not htcdev on the way because of the warranty.
Thank you for your answers.
Ps: sorry for my bad English
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S-Off is not guaranteed to come at any time. It may do, but as far as I know Revolutionary has been stumped at the latest HBoots.
Also, illegitemate S-Offing is not going to rescue your warranty necessarily, and neither is using HTC-Dev going to totally break your warranty:
http://htcdev.com/bootloader/ said:
Please understand that you will not be able to return your device to the original state and going forward your device may not be held covered under the warranty for all claims resulting from the unlocking of the bootloader. HTC bears no responsibility if your device is no longer usable afterwards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Their point is that they won't repair under warranty anything that breaks as a result of unlocking the bootloader.
There isn't any hard-and-fast rule here, and people have reported different experiences, but it's better than nothing!

Sorry to ask this... i consider myself not a noob on android, rooting etc, but for some reason S-OFF has passed me by... what is S-OFF?

torespen said:
Sorry to ask this... i consider myself not a noob on android, rooting etc, but for some reason S-OFF has passed me by... what is S-OFF?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
S-Off is (in my understanding) essentially full control over all partitions (including CID which controls network lock etc.), radio partitions, etc.
HTC-Dev provides a semi S-Off bootloader state, allowing you to write to all system partitions EXCEPT the above (and possibly others that I've forgotten about).
The advantages of full S-Off are: able to carrier-unlock phone for free, able to update radio without flashing official HTC ROMs, able to revert to S-On fairly simply.
With HTC-Dev, although you can "re-lock" your bootloader, the phone reports as "re-locked" rather than "locked".
(I may be making all of this up but it is my understanding based on my research).

qpop said:
Their point is that they won't repair under warranty anything that breaks as a result of unlocking the bootloader.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would mean that your warranty would remain identical, only bricked devices wouldn't be repaired. (If you limit yourself to installing roms, that is)

H-Cim said:
That would mean that your warranty would remain identical, only bricked devices wouldn't be repaired. (If you limit yourself to installing roms, that is)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem being if you read through their examples about overclocking etc and killing your cpu. It's very easy to say that some hardware has failed due to custom rom etc.
Now I have a nooby question too. I come from a desire which was prior to bootloader-gate (oh sigh, i did one of those). AFAIK our bootloader was unlocked from the factory so we could flash stuff straight up. S-OFF was pretty easy as well so we could do whatever we wanted pretty much
AFAIK, without unlocking bootloader, the best we can do is flash stock roms and attain root (once a stock bootloader method is available) but we can't get into custom roms/kernels without unlock? I'm pretty much at the point where I want to start tinkering with things... but just wonder if it's worth waiting, or if I should just go and htcdev unlock my phone now
I am a little wary of the warranty implications above, that is the only reason i hesitate.
M.

The S stands for Security

mattman83 said:
I am a little wary of the warranty implications above, that is the only reason i hesitate.
M.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too

H-Cim said:
That would mean that your warranty would remain identical, only bricked devices wouldn't be repaired. (If you limit yourself to installing roms, that is)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, possibly. As mentioned above, it's possible that the manufacturer could argue that, e.g. screen issue was due to overclock of CPU, overheating of glue holding screen resulting in the problem.
In reality I doubt that would happen, as (in the UK at least) under warranty it falls on the manufacturer to prove that the problem was due to a non-warranty problem. The CPU won't "remember" that it's been overclocked, and so with a factory reset I can't see how they could tell.
mattman83 said:
Problem being if you read through their examples about overclocking etc and killing your cpu. It's very easy to say that some hardware has failed due to custom rom etc.
Now I have a nooby question too. I come from a desire which was prior to bootloader-gate (oh sigh, i did one of those). AFAIK our bootloader was unlocked from the factory so we could flash stuff straight up. S-OFF was pretty easy as well so we could do whatever we wanted pretty much
AFAIK, without unlocking bootloader, the best we can do is flash stock roms and attain root (once a stock bootloader method is available) but we can't get into custom roms/kernels without unlock? I'm pretty much at the point where I want to start tinkering with things... but just wonder if it's worth waiting, or if I should just go and htcdev unlock my phone now
I am a little wary of the warranty implications above, that is the only reason i hesitate.
M.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think since HTCDev started there has been far less S-On rooting, for two reasons. First of all, why bother? We can attain mostly-S-Off "legitimately" so why waste energy working out how to root S-On. Secondly, the lock-down of the OS has got better with every iteration, and, at least on recent phones, no hack has been discovered (again, there's less incentive to try due to HTCDev).
xmoo said:
The S stands for Security
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
D'oh, meant to type that and forgot. Lol

qpop said:
I think since HTCDev started there has been far less S-On rooting, for two reasons. First of all, why bother? We can attain mostly-S-Off "legitimately" so why waste energy working out how to root S-On. Secondly, the lock-down of the OS has got better with every iteration, and, at least on recent phones, no hack has been discovered (again, there's less incentive to try due to HTCDev).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Point taken
So basically it's harder to do than ever and less incentive to do than ever. Solution... go do htcdev I actually signed up for the site a while reading the thread, just waiting for the (apparently very slow) confirmation email. No work tomorrow due to good friday so I suspect my phone might get some ARHD love
I think warranty laws in australia are similar to what you say. Using non-genuine ink in printer they can't void your entire warranty, only if they can prove the ink was the issue. Slightly different issue, it's not like you've just hacked your printer firmware to increase print speeds or something... but I get what you mean.
M.
Edit - signed up again on different email and got activation stuff immediately - silly. Noticed they need to update the unlock page though... first step "remove and reinsert the battery" heh
Edit 2 - all done

xmoo said:
The S stands for Security
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it stood for 'Safety'
Sent from my 'HTC One X' using XDA Premium

Excellent explanation and discussion by qpop and mattman on S-off thing. All I needed to know as new HTC user.
Sent either from my Arc or One X using xda premium

For those waiting for S-OFF by Revolutionary, it looks like you are very unlikely to get it. Baadnewz just asked in the #alpharev channel if the One would get S-OFF:
[19:46] <baadnewz> IEF you have any plans for ONE ? :B
[19:46] <baadnewz> (kick incoming)
[19:47] <burgd> To Krait or not To Krait
[19:56] <_anonymous> you got one bnz?
[19:58] * gabryel48 ([email protected]) has joined #alpharev
[20:13] * baadnewz is now known as baad_away
[20:17] * zookii ([email protected]/zookii) Quit (Quit: Leaving)
[20:20] * zookii ([email protected]/zookii) has joined #alpharev
[20:20] <@IEF> baad_away: One X is pretty unlikely, we focus on qualcomm stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a real shame that. I guess now it's either HTCDev or nothing.

Odd reply, the XL (or X 4G) is going to be the far less popular device, I don't know why you would intentionally look at something that's going to get that much less usage?
M.

Evil-Dragon said:
For those waiting for S-OFF by Revolutionary, it looks like you are very unlikely to get it. Baadnewz just asked in the #alpharev channel if the One would get S-OFF:
That's a real shame that. I guess now it's either HTCDev or nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a shame.. Guess I'll roll with S-ON in a few days if there's no word of any further progress.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Well according to Paul over at Modaco, S-Off is being worked on.
http://android.modaco.com/topic/352...s-mac-and-linux/page__p__1932154#entry1932154

f3nd3r said:
Well according to Paul over at Modaco, S-Off is being worked on.
http://android.modaco.com/topic/352...s-mac-and-linux/page__p__1932154#entry1932154
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, anyone know if it will be possible to go from S-ON to S-OFF?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Might as well reply here, then.
The One X is a completely different architecture (nvidia tegra), with it's own set of restrictions/security measures. Therefore, it felt it was not wise to get peoples' hopes up, and simply said it's 'unlikely'. There's really no point in asking for 'plans', you don't plan on finding exploits.
mattman83 said:
Odd reply, the XL (or X 4G) is going to be the far less popular device, I don't know why you would intentionally look at something that's going to get that much less usage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's One S and One XL which run on Snapdragon S4. Who says it will be 'far less popular' ? Because you say so?
If you knew a bit about architectural differences and our focus on Qualcomm-chipset phones in the past, then maybe you wouldn't find the reply so odd. I find your reply superficial. Does that help the discussion? Nope.

Sorry if I offended, that was not my intention. I'm a huge fan of what you've done in the past (being a Desire user). I do appreciate the difference between the phones and I get that even though the UI is basically identical, alot of the underlying parts are vastly different.
I also get that you do have more experience with the qualcomm since that's where you've focused in the past (and also the provider HTC have used most - the tegra is a little different for them).

HTC's "Developer Friendly" Image

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but wondered what everyone thinks HTC are doing regarding the Unlocking of the HTC One X using HTCDev.com.
To me, on one hand its great that they are providing this service but on the other the downsides (warranty void & no updates) goes against the whole "Our phones are for Developers/Power Users".
On top of that, even when unlocking the phones using their service, there is no "easy way" to root the phones (without flashing a new/custom rom) and the inability to S-Off further goes against the whole mentality.
Either I really don't understand what HTC are trying to achieve? The cynic in me thinks this is just a "buy our phone its great for developers/power users" without actually giving away what we REALLY want.
IMHO, unlocking through HTCDev.com should unlock the bootloader, give S-Off and all that lovely stuff. I understand why they would void the warranty (bar any hardware faults of course!) but if I paid for the tech, I do feel I should be able to do what I want with it!
Just my 2 pence.

agento said:
IMHO, unlocking through HTCDev.com should unlock the bootloader, give S-Off and all that lovely stuff. I understand why they would void the warranty (bar any hardware faults of course!) but if I paid for the tech, I do feel I should be able to do what I want with it!
Just my 2 pence.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can understand what you mean, and i agree, but from HTCs point of view, they just don't want idiots going and bricking their phone, and then sending to HTC and expect them to fix it for free under warranty, if they didn't state that it may void your warranty, this would 100% happen. And would cost HTC a lot of dough.

lawrence750 said:
I can understand what you mean, and i agree, but from HTCs point of view, they just don't want idiots going and bricking their phone, and then sending to HTC and expect them to fix it for free under warranty, if they didn't state that it may void your warranty, this would 100% happen. And would cost HTC a lot of dough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely, but anyone wanting to do this should be able to. People wanting to do this on XDA the percentage is high, but in general (ie vast majority of people) will never even know whats possible, let alone want to do it. It does take a certain amount of skill/knowledge to go through the process. If it were as straightforward as a menu option on the phone to S-Off it would be a nightmare for HTC.
Secondly, how is using HTCDev.com to unlock your bootloader THAT DIFFERENT from using HTCDev.com to unlock your bootloader AND get S-OFF? They still track your Device ID for warrantly issues (not a problem for me, not sure about others) so wether you screw up your phone using one or the other, its still not at an expense to HTC?

S-OFF allows you to alter the baseband and settings. You can do things you're not legally allowed to do in most countries and you can near enough permanently brick your phone. It isn't too surprising that htcdev doesn't give you full unlocked S-OFF.
It would be nice if htcdev didn't affect your warranty and gave you S-OFF but I can understand why they don't do it. The existing htcdev unlock gives you most of what a developer or user would want.

agento said:
Absolutely, but anyone wanting to do this should be able to. People wanting to do this on XDA the percentage is high, but in general (ie vast majority of people) will never even know whats possible, let alone want to do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just take a look at the amount of threads with the same questions concerning flashing/root/unlocking in the General and Q&A forum and you'll see that what you just said is actually very far from reality
With that said, if HTC didn't provide HTCDev, we would still be figuring ways to crack the thing right here, and nobody would be working on ROMs as they are now~

It's like HTC wants to be the "cool" dev-friendly phone builder, but are scared of the financial repercussions of millions of customers bricking their phones. It ends up being half-assed.
Yeah, they give us HTCdev.com, but why not just ship the phone with the bootloader unlocked? The people who will never hear about htcdev.com won't be doing anything with their phones that concerns the bootloader, anyway.
Why is rooting HTC devices so scary? Both my SGS1 and SGS2 were rooted in about 10 minutes with no skipped heartbeats or hours of waiting for a battery to charge with no indication that it's done charging!
Rooting this thing was terrifying. Maybe because it's been a LONG time since I paid completely out of pocket for an unlocked international device. All my other phones after the G1 were carrier variants and I was covered by insurance if anything happened.

nooomoto said:
The people who will never hear about htcdev.com won't be doing anything with their phones that concerns the bootloader, anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like the majority of smartphone users, they do not care to read up nor care about the differences of S-Off/unlocked bootloader/root.
Just ask any iPhone user who has a jailbroken device. Why do they do it? To pirate games mostly. People will do things just cos it's there, even when there's nothing that they actually want.
Other HTC devices had their bootloaders hacked and unlocked, S-Off'd and rooted without HTC's help. Give it a little time, and HTCDev will just be an afterthought for most of us here.
Personally, I'm just waiting for unofficial way to unlock bootloader and S-Off so HTC does not have a record of me doing it through HTCDev, hence voiding my warranty

S-Off: Food for thought.....

I wanted to just add a comment to a thread somewhere expressing a valid point in regards to s-off.....but it should almost be said in all of them so here it is.
A lot of people have growing concerns regarding s-off ever being re-accomplished with the new hboot versions (1.54 etc). People say that when the VZW S4 can't even get unlocked, how do we expect this to ever happen for HTC? An extremely large oversight that people are missing here is that yes, the VZW S4 community is very large. And with regards to unlocking the bootloader, you could also include the AT&T crowd into the mix as its kinda a dual deal. But these are the only two carrier devices being effected by the bootloader issue. Both carriers xda communities combined. However, when it comes to s-off for our device, you're not just involving VZW users. Or just adding another carrier to the mix. You literally have EVERY HTC One around the globe effected by this circumstance. So not only do you have vzw devs working on it, but at&t, tmo, sprint, rogers, bell, etc etc etc etc etc.....all of am around the globe. There are FAR FAR FAR more people interested in this than there are people for other bootloaders for other devices. This is the advantage of owning a worldwide single-product release.
So yes, I say there is a significantly larger hope for s-off being achieved than most people give credit for.
EXAMPLE - look at how many devices were effected by moonshine/revone and tell me how many phones/carriers were obtainable through this....:good:

TechSavvy2 said:
I wanted to just add a comment to a thread somewhere expressing a valid point in regards to s-off.....but it should almost be said in all of them so here it is.
A lot of people have growing concerns regarding s-off ever being re-accomplished with the new hboot versions (1.54 etc). People say that when the VZW S4 can't even get unlocked, how do we expect this to ever happen for HTC? An extremely large oversight that people are missing here is that yes, the VZW S4 community is very large. And with regards to unlocking the bootloader, you could also include the AT&T crowd into the mix as its kinda a dual deal. But these are the only two carrier devices being effected by the bootloader issue. Both carriers xda communities combined. However, when it comes to s-off for our device, you're not just involving VZW users. Or just adding another carrier to the mix. You literally have EVERY HTC One around the globe effected by this circumstance. So not only do you have vzw devs working on it, but at&t, tmo, sprint, rogers, bell, etc etc etc etc etc.....all of am around the globe. There are FAR FAR FAR more people interested in this than there are people for other bootloaders for other devices. This is the advantage of owning a worldwide single-product release.
So yes, I say there is a significantly larger hope for s-off being achieved than most people give credit for.
EXAMPLE - look at how many devices were effected by moonshine/revone and tell me how many phones/carriers were obtainable through this....:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Boy I hope you're right lol

Didn't really think about it this way, +1 for I hope you're right.

The problem is that when the bootloader isn't locked down, there's very little reason for people to really get S-OFF

S-off shouldn't be our concern. Unlocking the bootloader should be our main concern, along with root. In all honesty, s-off isn't even necessary and most people don't even know what it actually does. It could cause more harm than good.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

S-Off is fun though, I used to love being able to flash radios whenever I wanted on my Thunderbolt without an RUU. Flashing custom splash screens was fun too.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 4

All I want is the Google Edition rom, or as close as we can get to it.
If s-off isn't necessary for that, then I'm not concerned about s-off. I mean I hope it happens for the people who want it though
Sent from my HTC One.

josh995 said:
All I want is the Google Edition rom, or as close as we can get to it.
If s-off isn't necessary for that, then I'm not concerned about s-off. I mean I hope it happens for the people who want it though
Sent from my HTC One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install newts Google edition with an unlocked bootloader, s-off not necessary.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

do you need s-off for boot animations? I want that google play edition animation

crazyg0od33 said:
do you need s-off for boot animations? I want that google play edition animation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Just root. Splash screens need s-off.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

S-OFF is nice if we can't get an unlocked bootloader through HTCDEV. At this point, I'll take what I can get. I am waiting to pull the trigger on the phone now that HTC shut off the unlocking option. There might be a step where we can:
1- get s-off
2- unlock bootloader / load custom recovery
3- disable s-off (s-on again)
squabbi has built a nice AIO toolkit and I suspect when something is found for our hboot (or another attack vector is found) the toolkit can be modified to include the verizon version. I think once we (verizon people) can change the CID, we will be able to unlock the bootloader and it will be a non-issue.
Maj

MajikUF said:
S-OFF is nice if we can't get an unlocked bootloader through HTCDEV. At this point, I'll take what I can get. I am waiting to pull the trigger on the phone now that HTC shut off the unlocking option. There might be a step where we can:
1- get s-off
2- unlock bootloader
3- disable s-off (s-on again)
squabbi has built a nice AIO toolkit and I suspect when something is found for our hboot (or another attack vector is found) the toolkit can be modified to include the verizon version. I think once we (verizon people) can change the CID, we will be able to unlock the bootloader and it will be a non-issue.
Maj
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If we got s-off then the bootloader wouldn't even matter.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

antp121 said:
If we got s-off then the bootloader wouldn't even matter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I updated my #2 to add flashing custom recovery.. I currently have my rezound s-off, but I never liked it being s-off. I always prefer being s-on for extra protection. (a phone condom if you will)

Take from a someone who owed a ONE from various carriers, S-off is overrated.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

MajikUF said:
I updated my #2 to add flashing custom recovery.. I currently have my rezound s-off, but I never liked it being s-off. I always prefer being s-on for extra protection. (a phone condom if you will)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah. I remember when I screwed up my rezound. Then I fixed it, put up a guide and got hated on lol
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 08:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 PM ----------
shook187 said:
Take from a someone who owed a ONE from various carriers, S-off is overrated.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This^ I tell everyone this. They think they need s-off when really they are just too lazy to flash a boot img.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

antp121 said:
Yeah. I remember when I screwed up my rezound. Then I fixed it, put up a guide and got hated on lol
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 08:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 PM ----------
This^ I tell everyone this. They think they need s-off when really they are just too lazy to flash a boot img.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What about aroma kernels? It is not overrated. Sometimes a boot img cannot be extracted and like I said it makes aroma flashing impossible (maybe TWRP dumlock supports it not sure). Even so, its nice knowing the carrier can never lock my device or unroot it. And as of now, no one else can unlock their device. So no, S-off is not overrated. Just so everyone knows, s-off will not be achieved until the newest hboot is cracked. I am not sure if its possible but if it is, it will probably take a few months. Good luck to everyone working on it

S-Off is kind of a big deal. You can remove that tampered flag when you unlock your boot loader. Hell you can unlock your phone without losing all your data and flagging that tampered line. Most people enjoy peace of mind of being able to relock the bootloader without tampered so the factory warranty and other securities are still available to them.

Syn Ack said:
S-Off is kind of a big deal. You can remove that tampered flag when you unlock your boot loader. Hell you can unlock your phone without losing all your data and flagging that tampered line. Most people enjoy peace of mind of being able to relock the bootloader without tampered so the factory warranty and other securities are still available to them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As much as I want s-off, these are definitely not the reasons why.... I'm contempt with what I'm doing to my warranty.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Syn Ack said:
S-Off is kind of a big deal. You can remove that tampered flag when you unlock your boot loader. Hell you can unlock your phone without losing all your data and flagging that tampered line. Most people enjoy peace of mind of being able to relock the bootloader without tampered so the factory warranty and other securities are still available to them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But there is also a risk you could ruin your phone if you do something wrong. I enjoy s-off but people need to understand what they are truly doing to their phones before they do something they can't undo.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

shook187 said:
Take from a someone who owed a ONE from various carriers, S-off is overrated.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Take it from someone whom also owned a HTC One that was s-off on other carriers.... you are completely wrong.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

S-off with HTC

We all know sunshine is the (paid) method to achieve s-off as of right now...my question has anyone thought about contacting HTC to have them do this exploit?25$ is not an option for me at this point...not sure about the rest of the m8 world...and thanks for all answers...postive or negative

215Aphillyated said:
my question has anyone thought about contacting HTC to have them do this exploit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. HTC made the phone s-on intentionally. There are simply things they don't want you to access. HTC goes to great effort and expense to plug existing exploits (like firewater). They aren't going to make an exploit for their own security flag!

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2948595

So what would the most likely result be if one were to contact them for this exploit?I mean people who know what they are doing should have access to those phone exploits if they know what they are doing...idk...just doesn't make sense why they would patch an exploit...it's like they want control

215Aphillyated said:
So what would the most likely result be if one were to contact them for this exploit?
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The likely result is that they will laugh in your face, or tell you to go pound dirt.
No seriously, they will probably just respond is some polite manner like "we do not intend to support it at this time".
215Aphillyated said:
I mean people who know what they are doing should have access to those phone exploits if they know what they are doing...idk...just doesn't make sense why they would patch an exploit...it's like they want control
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Control, that is exactly it.
As I already said, HTC has already determined that there are some things they don't want you to access; and other things they will only allow you to do if you (potentially) void your warranty (bootloader unlock).
For one thing, s-off means that all safety checks are off. Meaning you can flash a mod meant for an entirely different device and brick the phone. This is obviously something HTC does not want.
They also have carrier interests to worry about. US carriers, in particular, don't want you to flash the radio from another carrier and migrate the phone to that other carrier.

Maybe its just me...been doing unlocking and rooting for awhile...and s-off'd plenty of my own devices and have not bricked one yet(knock on wood)guess they have to protect the ones who don't know what they are actually doing...just mad I can't pay 25$ for an app..

215Aphillyated said:
Maybe its just me...been doing unlocking and rooting for awhile...and s-off'd plenty of my own devices and have not bricked one yet(knock on wood)guess they have to protect the ones who don't know what they are actually doing.
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Of course, if you are careful and do your research, you will most likely be fine doing any mod. But its the ones that don't do these things that ruin it for the rest of us. The worst, is the ones that brick their phones by trying to mods, and claim warranty service. This is really the main reason for locked bootloaders and the like. If it didn't cost HTC money, they likely would not care what you did to your phone.

Makes sense...but it sucks for us

I have modified my share of devices as well this is actually my first HTC device came from a n5 the m8 has great hardware and has a damn good ROM community.