

Motorola: no e-fuse in DroidX - fragmede
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/16/motorola-responds-to-droid-x-bootloader-controversy-says-efuse/

======
macemoneta
I don't understand the thinking here. You pay for the hardware (either
directly or through your service contract). The software is free and open
source. What do they think they are protecting?

Why not make it OS agnostic, like a PC? They can still limit support to the
original OS (like many PC vendors). It seems they just making it hard to root
because that's the way they've always done business - and change is hard for
them.

~~~
dolinsky
They are protecting from unsigned, unauthorized malware to be installed on the
phone which could cause a large amount of harm to the network at large. Does
this open up the possibility of "abuse" of this feature on the part of
Motorola and others who employ this "feature"? Sure, but it's not pure evil
either.

~~~
macemoneta
Rooting isn't impossible on the Droid X, it's just annoyingly difficult. If
someone wanted to distribute malware ROM images, they just need to wait for
the root to be accomplished by someone else. There's no real protection.

If it's Verizon that's behind this to "protect the network" it's starting to
sound like we're heading for another "Carterfone Decision":

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Modem#The_Car...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Modem#The_Carterfone_decision)

The Nokia N900 doesn't make life difficult for users. To root it you just
download and run 'rootsh'. Done. The network hasn't exploded simply because
it's easy to root and update ROMs.

~~~
fragmede
Similar to the N900, the Palm WebOS devices (Pre & Pixi) are a joy to 'root' -
enter the Konami code on the keyboard.

------
protomyth
"If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into
recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed."

no boom, but still no boot

------
tman
FUD FUD FUD. What an awful summary.

There _is_ an efuse and they refer to it in the statement: "the technology is
not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning,
but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and
tested versions of software". The technology is there in the device, says
Motorola. It's just loaded with good intentions.

Now, what's it for? "If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it
will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-
installed."

What does it mean that Motorola's "recovery mode" is eFuse based? It means
exactly what was reported earlier. The phone is bricked until you go to the
Motorola store to get your software reloaded and the eFuse reset. Find
somewhere where Motorola says that you can get out of their friendly "recovery
mode" without their assistance. If it walks like a brick, if it quacks like a
brick...

What's a bigger issue to me is why so many hackers fall for easy market-speak
like this. Are they English-challenged? Verbal-intelligence-challenged? Well,
explains why certain politicians get so popular on the internets, I guess.

~~~
rdtsc
> What's a bigger issue to me is why so many hackers fall for easy market-
> speak like this. Are they English-challenged? Verbal-intelligence-
> challenged?

No. They understand and speak plain, unambiguous English, C, Python and Lisp.
They don't speak corporate weasel propaganda. This kind of speak, throws all
kinds of exceptions, causes segfaults, or returns a non-0 and sets errno in
their heads.

~~~
woodall
>ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested
versions of software

That should throw a few red flags up.

