SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Google is using the boiling frog method to exclude power users and custom ROMS from android.
A new feature in Android 8.0 Oreo, called "Rollback Protection" and included in the "Verified Boot" changes, will prevent a device from booting should it be rolled back to an earlier firmware. The detailed information is here.
As it rejects an image if its "rollback index" is inferior than the one in "tamper evident storage", any attempts to install a previous version of the official, signed ROM will make the device unbootable. Much like iOS (without the rollback grace period) or the extinct Lumias. It is explained in the recommended boot workflow and notes below, together with some other "smart" ideas.
Now, this might seem like a good idea at first, but let's just just imagine this on a PC. It would mean no easy roll back from windows 10 to 7 after a forced installation, and doing that or installing linux would mean a unreasonably complex bootloader unlocking, with all your data wiped. Add safetynet to the mix, and you would also be blocked from watching netflix or accessing your banking sites if you dared to install linux or rollback windows.
To add insult to injury, unlocked devices will stop booting for at least 10 seconds to show some paternalist message on how unlocking is bad for your health - "If the device has a screen and buttons (for example if it's a phone) the warning is to be shown for at least 10 seconds before the boot process continues."
Now, and knowing that most if not all android bootloaders have vulnerabilities/backdoors, how can this be defended, even with the "security/think of the children" approach? This has no advantages other than making it hard for users to install ROMs or to revert to a previous official ROM to restore missing functionality.
(Score: 4, Informative) by jmorris on Wednesday September 06 2017, @11:34PM
Ok, if you want to play with crowdfunding you might (or might not) have one of these in 2019 if you give them $599 now. What the specs will be is still TBD of course, lest it be assured of obsolescence if they tried to nail anything down now. Good luck if you actually expect them to be the absolute first ARM SoC (other than the otherwise obsolete Pi) running a real accelerated Linux desktop.
And their ad copy plays fast and lose with the truth. For example they say "Separates CPU from Cellular Baseband" with yes for themselves and no for iOS and Android. I have the service manual for the LG in my pocket. Entirely different cpu chip, ram and flash for the baseband, no DMA or other foolishness between the two, just a simple bi-directional port. Then there is "does not track you", anyone told them about how the cell network actually works? Or the bit where it says "It will not require you to enter banking details to simply get an app from an app store." Dunno about Apple's crap but Play nags but does not require money... yet.