[Replicant] GSD4e/GSD4T

Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli GNUtoo at no-log.org
Wed Sep 2 23:07:05 UTC 2015


On Wed, 02 Sep 2015 12:57:00 +0200
Paul van der Vlis <paul at vandervlis.nl> wrote:

> > PS: Note that the galaxy nexus has a proprietary and signed
> > bootloader, so I wonder how much time it's worth.  
> 
> Do you know any Android phone with a free bootloader??
Yes.

Phones that can be supported by Replicant, given enough work for it:
* The GTA04.
* The LG Optimus black. Can be found second hand real cheap.
* The Neo900, probably not released yet.

Background information:
-----------------------
For most phones, the SOC(System on a chip) contains some (ARM)
code burned into the chip, this code is read-only.
This is commonly called the bootrom.

That code is executed first, it's then responsible for loading the
bootloader from storage(microSD, flash, etc).

On most phones that bootrom verify the bootloader signature, here
however theses 3 phones are left unlocked, so you can run whatever you
want.

The Openmoko GTA01 and GTA02 also have no signature checking activated,
but they're way too slow.

There is also a more recent LG phone which signing private key has
leaked. 
We'd need to check with the SFLC before doing anything. I also
wonder if that private key could sign bootloaders for other LG phones.

Denis.
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