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Huawei Will No Longer Allow Bootloader Unlocking On Its Android Handsets (androidauthority.com) 253

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has long made it easier for users to unlock the bootloader on its phones. But that is changing now. Android Authority: Earlier this month a support page, which detailed ways to unlock a bootloader, disappeared without any explanation from the company's websites. In a statement, the company said, "In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, Huawei will cease providing bootloader unlock codes for devices launched after May 25, 2018." It added, "For devices launched prior to the aforementioned date, the termination of the bootloader code application service will come into effect 60 days after today's announcement. Moving forward, Huawei remains committed to providing quality services and experiences to its customers. Thank you for your continued support."
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Huawei Will No Longer Allow Bootloader Unlocking On Its Android Handsets

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  • Right to unlock (Score:5, Interesting)

    by r_naked ( 150044 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @09:53AM (#56688258) Homepage

    I am against the government getting involved in most aspects of our lives, but this is flat out a case where government intervention is needed,

    If a phone can't be unlocked so I can install whatever OS I want, then it should not be allowed to be imported into the USA.

    This includes the iPhone...

    If I pay $3000 for a top of the line laptop, I can install whatever OS I want. It may not work perfectly, but that is on me. If I pay $300 for a bottom basement laptop, I can still install whatever OS I want.

    This has GOT to change with phones as well.

    They try to give some bullshit about how it is to protect the network, but that is a load of horseshit.

    • Re:Right to unlock (Score:4, Insightful)

      by FalcDot ( 1224920 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @10:02AM (#56688302)

      Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this. Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.

      • Re:Right to unlock (Score:5, Insightful)

        by fred6666 ( 4718031 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @10:10AM (#56688324)

        We've seen it with SIM-locking. Voting with your wallet doesn't work in an oligopoly case. There are very few carriers and they all lock their phones. Fortunately, in many countries, the government stepped in and banned SIM locking. Nothing of value was lost and it is better for the consumer and increased competition.

        • But this is not the same question.

          In the SIM case, consumers had a common and reasonable belief that they should be able to switch carriers pending the end of their contracts, and their phones were clearly capable of doing so.

          In the case of operating systems, for example, or let's take iOS on Apple iPhones, there is not really the expectation of being able to put Android on it.

          Phones don't generally switch operating systems, and consumers don't have a reasonable expectation to do so. And, for that
          • Re:Right to unlock (Score:5, Insightful)

            by fred6666 ( 4718031 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @11:36AM (#56688766)

            on Apple iPhones, there is not really the expectation of being able to put Android on it.

            Why not? If I want to try? Or develop my own OS?
            How is it any different whether it's a pocket-sized computer (aka phone) or a full computer (laptop/desktop)?
            By your logic, there no expectation to wipe Mac OS and install Linux or BSD on an Apple laptop either.

            • There's a CPU in everything--should the manufacturers for every programmable device be required to enable third-party SW on that device? It's easier than you think to cause real physical harm if we let /. Java-monkeys re-write critical pieces of firmware on embedded devices; and it would cost a lot of money and effort to put in physical hardware safeguards to protect the world from the zombie hoard of self-satisfied ass-clowns that hang out on this forum.
            • Why not? If I want to try? Or develop my own OS?

              Go for it, you own the device, do whatever you want with it.

              How is it any different whether it's a pocket-sized computer (aka phone) or a full computer (laptop/desktop)?

              There's not much difference, you can build a smartphone just like you can build a desktop. If you want real freedom over it then do that.

              By your logic, there no expectation to wipe Mac OS and install Linux or BSD on an Apple laptop either.

              There's no expectation to be able to wipe the OS on an XBox or Wii or PSP either, most people understand that.

              • by sjames ( 1099 )

                Had your argument held sway in the late '70s and early '80s, there would be no Windows or Linux. We would all still be dinking around on DOS 32.5

                Perhaps YOU have no such expectation, but people who know what they're doing do have such an expectation.

                • Had your argument held sway in the late '70s and early '80s, there would be no Windows or Linux. We would all still be dinking around on DOS 32.5

                  What argument? The modern PC was born out of the innovation of companies that provided value through separation of software and hardware rather than the incumbents of the day, now the majority of people prefer a tighter coupling of software and hardware rather than a customized setup but there's no reason you can't go back to building a smartphone or tablet from component pieces just like we do with PCs. Yes you do then need to deal with incompatibilities yourself but we've been doing that with PCs for deca

          • Re:Right to unlock (Score:5, Insightful)

            by zilym ( 3470 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @11:58AM (#56688892)

            This is not a tiny, miniscule issue. People have more smart phones than they have cars. This massive fleet of mobile computing devices is going to have security issues that get exploited sooner or later and the handset manufactures aren't going to do jack to close the holes. They want old phones to become trash and force everyone to buy new phones whenever they decide it's time to make some revenue. If this behavior is not monopolistic, anti-competitive, and counter to the public's best interests, then WTF is?

            A bootloader locked phone is like a car with the hood welded shut. Most people don't know or care about what's under the hood until it breaks. And once it does, they have a reasonable expectation of being able to take it to the nearest repair guy to get it working again.

            • by DogDude ( 805747 )
              Don't buy that brand of phone. Problem solved.
            • A bootloader locked phone is like a car with the hood welded shut.

              Right so why would you buy it? There are plenty of cars that don't have the hoods welded shut, go buy one of them.

              • Right so why would you buy it? There are plenty of cars that don't have the hoods welded shut, go buy one of them.

                That's not for lack of trying. See the Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
                If it weren't against the law, car hoods would absolutely be sealed so that only the dealerships could repair them. Hopefully we can get that kind of consumer protection for our phones as well.

                • That's not for lack of trying. See the Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] If it weren't against the law, car hoods would absolutely be sealed so that only the dealerships could repair them. Hopefully we can get that kind of consumer protection for our phones as well.

                  That wasn't law until only a couple of years ago, I don't remember car hoods being welded shut before that...and they certainly had welders.

            • Well, I have to agree that you are free to tinker with the phone that you purchased as much as you like. And there is no law preventing you from doing that.

              But the phone manufacturer is equally free to design it as much as it likes to prevent tampering / loading of foreign or unsigned code.

              If you don't like that, by all means choose a different computer / phone. No law exists to say that you have a right to compel the manufacturer to enable you to do what you want.
          • Re:Right to unlock (Score:5, Interesting)

            by wierd_w ( 1375923 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @12:38PM (#56689048)

            Given that the heart of android is FOSS, if sufficient information about the hardware is known, then it seems perfectly reasonable for an android port to that hardware to exist, barring some really strange hardware related situations that would make that more trouble than it is worth. (say, the custom ARM CPU is missing some really important instructions or features.)

            See also-- AOSP, and derivatives, like LineageOS.

            The real reason is that the hardware makers dont want people poking about with unfettered OS level control over their chips and radios, because a lot of those are fully software controlled, and with a modified binary blob, features that they charge extra for can be turned on easily.

            They cuddle up to the FCC, and complain that these experimenters and hackers (oh my!) are theoretically able to violate the transmit power restrictions, frequency band restrictions, and other restrictions put in place to comply with FCC regulations, and so the end user needs to be prevented from having access to that level of control over the hardware at all costs.

            In reality, it is simply so the handset maker can market their new 5G! enabled handset. (when the changes that enable that communication mode are mostly just software, and the older handset can often communicate at that rate just fine with the right blob being pushed into it.)

        • We've seen it with SIM-locking. Voting with your wallet doesn't work in an oligopoly case. There are very few carriers and they all lock their phones.

          No it isn't like SIM locking for exactly the reason you point out: there are very few carriers, but in the case of smartphones there are a vast array of manufacturers, it isn't an oligopoly, in fact you can even build your own phone [wired.co.uk].

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @10:40AM (#56688482)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Re:Right to unlock (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sinij ( 911942 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @11:03AM (#56688606)

        Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'.

        It is "right to repair". I can repair or replace OS with a third-party offering and is not locked-in to OEM provided options.

        • Your refrigerator? your car? your pacemaker? Do those manufacturers have to support third-party SW modding? Who draws the line?
          • by sinij ( 911942 )
            Support? No, they don't have to. However, them must not take steps to lock me out of using third-party offerings.
            • Who is liable when somebody rewrites your pacemaker software and kills you? Or burns your house down when they rewrite the software on the microwave? I guarantee the same people on this forum who are insisting on more freedom will be the first people to line up and sue they manufacturer when they cause some real physical damage by modding the device, "but, but, there should have been hardware interlocks preventing me from doing any real damage".
      • Re:Right to unlock (Score:5, Interesting)

        by CoolDiscoRex ( 5227177 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @02:26PM (#56689600) Homepage
        Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this. Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.

        The flying monkey fuck they shouldn't. Enforcing laws of ownership is a primary function of government. When you buy a product, it is yours to do as you please. This is a basic tenant of common law dating back hundreds of years. That companies think that they still control the products they sell you is the slipperiest of slopes that needs government intervention before it spreads and becomes out of hand as the 90% sit like frogs in a pot and watch.

        Another primary function of government is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. As it stands, then 10% have to accept what the 90% will tolerate. As you will hear often, "most customers don't care about unlocking the boot loader", therefore, your private property rights will go away because the 90% don't care, and the market clout of the 10% is simply not enough to make a meaningful difference to manufacturers.

        If you are truly advocating that we only be allowed what the masses will accept, then you're advocating for a whole bag of hurt, not to mention a society which caters only to the whims of the masses, the average IQ of which is now 98.

        It's why people coming back from Asia are startled by how far behind we are technologically. Americans will accept less. It doesn't bode well for our future.

        Relying on the people to enforce your rights via market forces has proven to be a colossal failure as most people, altogether now, "don't care".

        Holding the most technically literate people in a nation slaves to what the masses will accept is very much not a good thing, for reasons which I hope are obvious.

      • Re:Right to unlock (Score:4, Insightful)

        by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @03:10PM (#56689788)

        Governments should not get involved in this.

        You owe many of the comforts of your technology precisely because of government involvement. Everything from being able to repair your car, to not voiding your warranty when looking in the case, it is all thanks to the many laws on the books that protect you.

        Vote with your wallet

        This works only in a free market. Very few of those exist.

      • by surfcow ( 169572 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @03:10PM (#56689790) Homepage

        So, it's Huawei or the highway, eh?

      • by jtgd ( 807477 )

        Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this. Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.

        I'm sure their drop in sales by 0.01% will persuade them to capitulate.

      • The whole point of them providing unlocked bootloaders was to appeal to the USA modding scene, on the back of their Nexus device.

        But with Huawei struggling to conquer the American market, or perhaps in collusion with US carriers, they remove the 'feature'.

      • Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'. Governments should not get involved in this.

        Seems to me that it IS a right, similar to and related to 'right to repair'. In what fundamental way is after-market software different from the after-market hardware used to repair phones? And how is locking the software down to one vendor's offering different from locking the hardware against third-party replacement services and parts?

        Sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a 'right'... Vote with your wallet. If people want phones whose bootloader they can unlock, they should stop buying Huawei phones immediately.

        And what happens when ALL vendors refuse to allow bootloader unlocking? In that scenario "vote with your wallet" means not owning a phone, period.

        Governments should not get involved in this.

        Too late - governments are

      • by AK Marc ( 707885 )
        The right of first sale is a right. And it should be defended.

        Would the "right to bear arms" be a right if anyone who saw you armed was allowed to shoot you? Would it matter if the NRA encouraged all shop owners to shoot gun buyers?

        That you think the free market should drive people to shops that don't kill them doesn't mean it's OK in the first place.

        Anything that infringes on my right of first sale should have a valid reason behind it. Hopefully, one I agree with.
    • Re:Right to unlock (Score:5, Interesting)

      by BlueStrat ( 756137 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @10:06AM (#56688314)

      If I pay $3000 for a top of the line laptop, I can install whatever OS I want.

      Only for the present, but that too shall change. The Political-Industrial Complex will push to have ALL devices locked into officially-sanctioned bootloaders and OS's soon. Lost profits and lost opportunities to snoop due to a non-homogeneous software/OS/encryption/security environment making spying and mass data-collection difficult will not be tolerated.

      It's coming unless there is serious pushback.

      Strat

      • We've been hearing that the sky is falling for decades now and yet even today major vendors offer various OS options (including Linux) on their computers and even Microsoft provide a mechanism for disabling SecureBoot on their own devices so you can install other operating systems on them, people have even installed macOS on the Surface Book! The transition from PowerPC to Intel meant you could install Windows on a Mac and even with the introduction of Chromebooks you can run other Linux distributions as a

    • by evanh ( 627108 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @10:22AM (#56688382)

      It certainly wouldn't be the first time a government used a "national security" blanket excuse to covertly force something down a company's gullet.

    • Aaah but can you? Many devices make you jump through all sorts of hoops to do just that. The top of the line Chromebooks made you jump through hoops, the bottom of the line Surface RT had secure boot locked down completely

      You're going to see it change in the wrong way you expect before you see it change in the right way.

    • The opportunity to install a custom OS does not equate to full control over the the software and firmware running on a laptop. For example, since about 2008, ring -3 has been entirely inaccessible on Intel chipset laptops.
    • by Dog-Cow ( 21281 )

      Can you offer a reason this must be the case, other than "because"?

      • You need the correct cultural context, of course. China is run by the Communist party. Open Source is Communist, and therefore good for the people. By opposing Open Source, These are opposing the good of the people. Never fear, with some reeducation, Huawei can become again valuable and worthy members of society.
    • I am very pleased that major U.S. carriers were pressured to dump you. The unlockable bootloaders were likely a ploy anyway. ZTE has given us reason to spurn these products.
    • by Nkwe ( 604125 )
      I think the broader question is if you should be able to install the software you want on any computing device. I don't think the answer to this is clear. Think of a car (typical slashdot analogy) - Should you be able to change the software to bypass emissions systems? how about safety systems? Do we really want it easy for people to load [formally] untested software on the drive by wire breaking and steering systems we have now and in fully autonomous cars that we will have in the future? What about medica
    • This pretty much embodies how vocal and yet myopic someone can be when their particular issue displeases them. Time to open a constitutional court case! Time for regulation! In this issue which I care about, but nothing else that's important! It's amazing the specialization of outrage today, huh?

      Did you ever see the Steve Jobs talk where a guy in the audience starts to trash him about the Mac not supporting x,y,z (I don't recall exact technology in question)?

      For that one person, this might be the bi
    • but this is flat out a case where government intervention is needed,

      You have the right not to buy it. I'd prefer not creating imaginary rights.

      There are phones that are positioned as being open source and mod friendly. They aren't the cheapest phones, but they aren't unreasonably expensive. Samsung Z2, Librem 5 (I think it hasn't shipped yet, but it is close), and a few older ones as well.

      For most people the hardware and OS are not separate components that can be slotted in and out to suit the user's preferences, but instead is a monolithic user experience. That's really wh

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thomst ( 1640045 )

      r_naked demanded:

      If a phone can't be unlocked so I can install whatever OS I want, then it should not be allowed to be imported into the USA.

      They try to give some bullshit about how it is to protect the network, but that is a load of horseshit.

      It is, indeed, a load of horseshit.

      What's important to grasp here is that it is, in all likelihood, the Chinese government that has ordered Huawei to lock their bootloaders, in order to keep end users from deleting the same Chinese government spyware that led to ZTE being barred from exporting their phones to the USA (and which the idiot has defied his own intelligence agencies to announce that he's going to help ZTE get export licenses to resume).

      If you buy a new Huawei phone from here on

    • by DogDude ( 805747 )
      I am against the government getting involved in most aspects of our lives, but this is flat out a case where government intervention is needed,

      Hahahahahahaha. I shot some water out of my nose after reading this. You want the government to get involved because you can't install the software you want on your toy? Are you being serious?
    • If a phone can't be unlocked so I can install whatever OS I want, then it should not be allowed to be imported into the USA.

      So is that just for phones or for any type of computer? At least they are making it very clear so people can make an informed decision, the resolution to this problem is to simply vote with your wallet and support the companies that produce the products you want.

    • by vlad30 ( 44644 )
      After all how are you going to remove the Chinese Govs spyware and install the USA's Gov's spyware or the French Europeans Freedom-ware
    • You don't think it's interesting that this happened shortly after our own government warned people to not buy Huawei phones, because they spy on people?

      Use your brain.
    • The Librarian has already ordered long ago that phones must be unlockable.

  • by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @10:15AM (#56688346) Journal

    Huawei has been positioning itself as a higher quality smartphone brand than the rest of the Chinese competition, but fails at it entirely. It is, however, worse value than all other Chinese brands.

    I don't care one way or the other as I have standardized our family on the same model Samsung Galaxy phones (so we can swap batteries and other accessories among us), but from time to time I look into the Chinese brands like OnePlus, Alcatel/TCL, Oppo, Lenovo (though this is partly a Taiwanese brand from a technological POV). Huawei makes just OK phones which have an incredibly uninspiring value.

    I guess they have even more delusions of greatness now, as they think they should stop people from using their phones as they like (like Apple).

  • Nope (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @10:18AM (#56688356) Journal

    "Thank you for your continued support."

    There is no support. I don't have much influence in the phone world, but all that I have will now be directed at convincing people away from you.

    • by Raenex ( 947668 )

      all that I have will now be directed at convincing people away from you

      Away from Huawei, and towards...? Who are the smart phone manufacturers that let you boot your own OS?

      • Re:Nope (Score:4, Informative)

        by Christian Smith ( 3497 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @04:50PM (#56690146) Homepage

        all that I have will now be directed at convincing people away from you

        Away from Huawei, and towards...? Who are the smart phone manufacturers that let you boot your own OS?

        Google, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG (and they're just the brands I've personally owned and installed Cyanogenmod/LineageOS on.)

  • by Chas ( 5144 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @11:23AM (#56688696) Homepage Journal

    It kinda sounded like "You don't want to buy our stuff. You want to buy stuff from someone who isn't going to place limits on you doing what you want with your own device."

    • Kinda sounds like "You want to buy the shiniest newest device every year after throwing away your old one and you don't care about bootloaders. If you do, you're in the minority that won't affect sales."

  • First it says the page was taken down without an explanation, but then it goes on to say that the company did release a statement explaining their reasoning.

    This sort of self contradictory reporting bugs me a lot more than it probably should....

  • "In order to deliver the best user experience and prevent users from experiencing possible issues that could arise from ROM flashing, including system failure, stuttering, worsened battery performance, and risk of data being compromised, ...

    ... so why do *you* care what I do with it? If I want a different "user experience" than what you envisioned, why is that your concern?

  • I wasn't impressed when the government told me to avoid them, but now Huawei itself is telling me to avoid them.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday May 28, 2018 @04:42PM (#56690128)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • It seems like finding something with an unlockable bootloader is virtually impossible these days.

    What companies actually allow it still? HTC is the only one I know.

  • They wanted to prevent people plugging modems into the phone lines: 4800 baud half-duplex was available from them and only them, and that's all anyone could ever need, so there!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • We allowed to install custom ROMS til now for less stuttering and better battery life, but Chinese Government wants to spy and custom ROMS don't have the government software.
    We sorry, please use us!

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