On: Progress update from the Librem 5 hardware departm...

[msla]

> But to be clear, the first ethical smartphone is Fairphone.

Ethical products don't spy on users. Fairphone uses Android, so it isn't entirely ethical.

[Fnoord → msla]

> Ethical products don't spy on users. Fairphone uses Android, so it isn't entirely ethical.

Because customers want Google.

The bootloader is unlocked. If you want to install Fairphone Open then you can. That's an Android version sans Google/OpenGapps. [1]

If you want, you can also install different firmware. Examples: LineageOS (with or without OpenGapps), LineageOS + microG, SailfishOS, UBTouch.

[1] https://code.fairphone.com/projects/fp-osos/index.html

[snaky → Fnoord]

Can you add your own key to the bootloader and lock it again staying on your own firmware?

[Fnoord → snaky]

AFAIK you cannot. Is that ever possible, on any unlocked bootloader?

FWIW, the SoC is a SD801.

[culot → Fnoord]

I wonder if it would be possible to implement that feature on an Android device that allowed you to flash your own custom appsboot/lk? I've only spent a little bit of time in LK stuff, but it seemed to me that that was where that functionality lives.

From leaked LG LK code it shows that's definitely where their bootloader unlock keys lived [at one point a couple of years ago].

Since the Librem device is a different beast, though, I wonder what their bootstack looks like? Super curious now!

[simcop2387 → msla]

I this is due to the overloading of the word ethical. The librem phone behaves ethically, but the Fairphone is ethically sourced (based on comments here). It'd be really neat to have something that's both ethical in behavior and ethically sourced for the parts.