# galaxy s3 verizon is already rooted so why the fuss about the unlock bootloader?



## flameinthefire (Dec 20, 2011)

if the phone can be rooted why is it a big deal that the bootloader is locked? i am only asking this because i wanna know before i buy the phone


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## EasilyAmused (Oct 24, 2011)

I had a locked bootloader on the Droid X and now have unlocked on GNex. One specific problem I found is that since you can't make a custom recovery your default recovery, if you accidentally screw up and reboot before done you have to restore back to factory and start over. On my GNex TWRP is my default recovery so even when I formatted system and accidentally fat fingered and rebooted the phone with no ROM it was no problem. I just gave it the 3 finger salute, went into "default" recovery (TWRP) and was able to pick up where I left off with flashing a ROM or restoring a nandroid. On my DX I would have had to flash the factory image, re-root, and start again. Definitely convenient for flash addicts like me who flash early in the morning barely able to keep one eye open and make mistakes or fat finger a step 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## jbzcar (Feb 3, 2012)

EasilyAmused said:


> I had a locked bootloader on the Droid X and now have unlocked on GNex. One specific problem I found is that since you can't make a custom recovery your default recovery, if you accidentally screw up and reboot before done you have to restore back to factory and start over. On my GNex TWRP is my default recovery so even when I formatted system and accidentally fat fingered and rebooted the phone with no ROM it was no problem. I just gave it the 3 finger salute, went into "default" recovery (TWRP) and was able to pick up where I left off with flashing a ROM or restoring a nandroid. On my DX I would have had to flash the factory image, re-root, and start again. Definitely convenient for flash addicts like me who flash early in the morning barely able to keep one eye open and make mistakes or fat finger a step
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


This is not an issue for the GSIII, our recovery partition is not locked.


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## EasilyAmused (Oct 24, 2011)

jbzcar said:


> This is not an issue for the GSIII, our recovery partition is not locked.


Nice. Well Damn. I'm out of ideas then 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## Curley (Aug 7, 2011)

With an encrypted bootloader you cannot, easily, put custom kernels on the phone. I say easily, cause they have work arounds already. Also, clearing the flash counter is not really possible.

This will make it harder to create true AOSPs and such. It also cannot be flashed off touch wiz. No mtd. This will hinder performance. And take a lot longer for Jelly Bean ports.

I think....


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## oddball (Jan 21, 2012)

Curley said:


> With an encrypted bootloader you cannot, easily, put custom kernels on the phone. I say easily, cause they have work arounds already. Also, clearing the flash counter is not really possible.
> 
> This will make it harder to create true AOSPs and such. It also cannot be flashed off touch wiz. No mtd. This will hinder performance. And take a lot longer for Jelly Bean ports.
> 
> I think....


The devs involved with AOSP have already said we have what we need for that. Really the key here is that it will slow things down. Honestly people have overreacted to an extant simply because many of us came from Motorola devices and those are locked down with military grade HARDWARE encryption. That makes any of us who have dealt with it hear locked bootloader scream. Yes it sucks, no as of now it's not a huge detriment. Now that being said if future OTA updates lock it down further it could become a serious impediment to future developments. But frankly I have far more faith in the devastating hacking abilities than I do in Verizon's ability to create an unbreakable software lock


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## Chakra (Jan 7, 2012)

You have a much greater range of mods, roms, kernels, that can be done with the boot loader unlocked. Small tweaks and changes can be done with just root.


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## jbzcar (Feb 3, 2012)

Curley said:


> With an encrypted bootloader you cannot, easily, put custom kernels on the phone. I say easily, cause they have work arounds already. Also, clearing the flash counter is not really possible.
> 
> This will make it harder to create true AOSPs and such. It also cannot be flashed off touch wiz. No mtd. This will hinder performance. And take a lot longer for Jelly Bean ports.
> 
> I think....


Honestly, kexec is super super simple to setup and use.


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