What does a "locked bootloader" mean?
I've seen "locked bootloader" mentioned a few times, particularly with Motorola smartphones. What does that mean??
Pondlife Aug. 10, 2012 at 14:22
means that it's harder (sometimes not possible) to put a different bootloader on and hence harder (or impossible) to put custom roms on. Not the same as rooting which is usually available even on bootlocked phones.
http://www.androidcentral.com/bootloaders-all-you-ever-wanted-know
CTPAHHIK Aug. 13, 2012 at 09:01
Boot-loader allows installation of custom kernels and recovery. Some ROMs require special kernel to work properly. Non-stock kernel allows overclocking. Recovery is just a convenient way to install ROMs and recover your phone when something goes wrong.
Not all phones can be rooted. Rooting is pretty much a process of finding vulnerability in Android that would allow escalation of execution privileges. Any vulnerability can be fixed and just like iOS it can be made very difficult (if not impossible) to root/jailbreak. However, if boot-loader is unlocked rooting becomes a trivial process.
Most Useful Answer CTPAHHIK Aug. 13, 2012 at 09:01
Boot-loader allows installation of custom kernels and recovery. Some ROMs require special kernel to work properly. Non-stock kernel allows overclocking. Recovery is just a convenient way to install ROMs and recover your phone when something goes wrong.
Not all phones can be rooted. Rooting is pretty much a process of finding vulnerability in Android that would allow escalation of execution privileges. Any vulnerability can be fixed and just like iOS it can be made very difficult (if not impossible) to root/jailbreak. However, if boot-loader is unlocked rooting becomes a trivial process.