Droid X Gets Rooted 97
An anonymous reader writes "The Droid X forums have posted a procedure to root the new Motorola Droid X, putting to rest Andoid fans' fears that they would never gain access to the device's secrets due to a reported eFuse that would brick the phone if certain boot files were tampered with. Rooting the phone is the first step in gaining complete control over the device."
Was there ever FUD? (Score:3, Insightful)
Drooooid (Score:2, Insightful)
Hah (Score:5, Insightful)
"The Droid X forums have posted a procedure to root the new Motorola Droid X, putting to rest Andoid fans' fears that they would never gain access to the device's secrets due to a reported eFuse that would brick the phone if certain boot files were tampered with. Rooting the phone is the first step in gaining complete control over the device."
Man.. if I had read that summary two years ago when Android was starting to take off my heart would have sank.
Rooted, but.... (Score:5, Insightful)
They may have rooted the device, but due to the cryptographic signature on the bootloader, kernel, and eFuse watching the ROM, you won't be sticking Android 2.3/3.0 on your Droid X (or Milestone) until Motorola decides you worthy.
If this lockdown was going to be fully hacked, it would have happened to the Milestone by now.
Re:Was there ever FUD? (Score:5, Insightful)
As far as I can tell even now the Motorola Milestone (the european version of the original Droid) still hasn't gotten past the signed ROM requirement of it's boot loader even though it too has been rooted.
See the engadget article [engadget.com] for details
Re:Why support companies that pull crap like this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do people support companies that treat you like a criminal?
We buy things that do certain things. If they do those things that you care about well, they serve their purpose and end up being worth the money. Things like jail-breaking are just icing.
It's fun to make statements professing our desire to stick to our principles, but at the end of the day we still need email clients in our pockets.
Bad summary (Score:4, Insightful)
This in no way puts that to rest. Rooting your device doesn't touch the boot partition at all. What should put to rest the bricking issue is Motorola straight up saying it won't happen. (see here [engadget.com])
Re:Why support companies that pull crap like this? (Score:5, Insightful)
As far as I can tell, the real problem with the American phone market (maybe even in general?) is corporations assraping the consumer, gouging for money on features (tethering, ring tones, incoming calls/msgs etc. etc.) that are free and open to use with any sane provider (or sane country, where the gouging is regulated). So no argument there.
But really, against apple, a cheap shot it was not. Your bookstore analogy does not hold water, because bookstores in general do not set themselves up to be guardians of people's morals. I use a Mac both at work and at home and was a fanboy when most people were predicting the death of Apple, but jesus fucken christ is it ever hypocritical to allow apps with recorded speeches of a fascist, and at the same time ban:
They set themselves up for criticism because seemingly they apply a ban policy that is both very stringent and basically a "if we don't like it, we don't accept it". So without ever owing an iPhone or ever using the app store, going by the news coverage alone, Apple seems to like:
Ok, so they probably do not attempt to advance a fascist ideology, but it is totally perverted nonetheless. I'd get rid of my Macs if only they weren't so damn good products. Ironically, it is Adobe products on a hassle free Unixy platform that keep me locked to Macs. Luckily, with cell phones, there's ample choice.
Re:Rooted, but.... (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems that Motorola, like Apple before them, want to keep us all as digital serfs in their mobile fiefs (assuming you're foolish enough to buy one of their devices). That Apple want to control their system from hardware to OS is one thing; to see any mobile manufacturer, however, pissing all over the openness that Android supposedly grants is quite another.
Re:Hah (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean you didn't realize that the carriers would force this one the phones regardless of who wrote the OS?
Knowing it'll happen doesn't erase disappointment with it.
If you didn't expect this than you really do need to take your fanboy blinders off.
Grow up.
Re:Why support companies that pull crap like this? (Score:1, Insightful)
What will that result in except for phone manufacturers switching to a worse OS?
Re:Why support companies that pull crap like this? (Score:2, Insightful)
That's what phones are after all, consumer products. 99% of the world just wants a product and could give two shits about rooting or jailbreaking the device. The vast number of people who buy these phones will just be focused on comparing things like price, service, available apps and the usability of the product. There's a reason that the iPhone is/has been so successful. It came with a slick UI out of the box(and has gotten slicker). Sure it's not open, but most people don't care because it doesn't impact the way they want and expect to use said device. Sure, you're effectively renting the hardware since you can't run whatever you want on it. Sure, that's not ideal. But given the choice between a semi-locked down system that is easy to use, looks good and does what I want or an open system with a crufty UI and so-so ease of use, I'll take the first one most of the time. Especially if it's a device I don't want to have to mess with constantly.
Yes I've run Linux and Solaris and I like them for their purpose. I also run OSX on my macbook and windows7 cause they fit my purposes. I appreciate the openness of Linux and openSource, but I can also respect the decision not to be open source. And as I've spent more and more time using computers, the need for good UI design has become more and more a factor and I've come to care less and less about being able or needing to hack code to make it work.
Re:Why support companies that pull crap like this? (Score:3, Insightful)
The ability to unlock your bootloader would in no way prevent it from "just working". As to why you should care even if you don't want to use custom ROMs: by now it should be clear that cell phones and their descendants are going to replace PCs for most of the population. If carriers and manufacturers are able to get away with using this transition as an excuse to take control over the hardware that we pay for, it will be very bad for future innovation and freedom.
Re:Motorola are clearly assholes (Score:1, Insightful)
This is exactly why it's important to be able to load custom ROMs. Android 2.2 has been available on the Droid for at least a week now, in the form of CyanogenMod [cyanogenmod.com].
Re:Motorola are clearly assholes (Score:3, Insightful)
This is all part of a plan to limit upgrades to existing phones, in order to push people into buying new ones. Simple.
A shame you believed the packaging though. Caveat emptor.