Booloader relock limbo on Fairphone 5

Installation Help
1

Hi there!

I had to roll back to stock android from IodeOS on my FP5 for some testing, but I didn’t realize that the security patch was older (October) than currently on IodeOS (November). Thus I couldn’t relock the bootloader due to the risks of bricking the phone.

Now I’m done with my testing on stock and would like to install Iode again, but I’m afraid to relock on it either, since fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability returns a 0.

So my question is: is it safe to relock the bootloader on Iode since I didn’t lock it on stock, or should I wait for stock to be updated so I can first relock on it, and then install Iode as normal?

Reverting back to stock I had to unlock_critical, so that might bring issues, since the instructions tell you not to do that? ( ota / ota · GitLab )

Cheers!

2

It is probably good that you are checking, there have been recent issues with users that trigger “FRP” that prevents the device from being able to be unlocked again. Part of that issue stems from having get_unlock_ability 0, and also in not removing any registered Google Accounts from the phone before re-flashing.

My recommendation is to make sure to enable get_unlock_ability from Developer Options, make sure to not have any Google accounts registered on the phone, then flash but do not lock the bootloader at this time. Then login to the phone, make sure that Developer Options still has “Enable OEM Unlocking” enabled and that everything else is as expected. Then if all looks good, go ahead and relock using fastboot flashing lock (which will wipe your userdata again so you will need to re-setup).

3

Alright thanks, this sounds good. Actually the new FP update came quicker than I thought it would (today), so I should be able to relock it on stock now. But then reflashing Iode would introduce an older security patch so that might be an issue again… So I’ll consider my options haha.

4

If you keep it unlocked waiting for the next iodéOS update, then the patch level will allow re-locking (without any reinstallations).

1 Like
5

Yeah that’s the best option right now. I tried relocking it on Iode now but couldn’t, so I’ll wait for the next update :+1: Thanks for the help!

6

For an update, I still couldn’t relock after the 7.1 update, or even after first reverting back to stock and then reinstalling Iode. I thought 7.1 would come with the same December 5th security patch as Fairphone’s stock package, but maybe that’s not right then?