E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

Man...I don't even know if I believe this but who knows.....supposedly there is some kind of fuse inside the Droid X that will brick your phone if you try to mod it at all. Below is a copy of the article and the source. This really will stop me from going to the Droid X.....unless some of the brilliant minds here figure out how to bypass this.....which I'm sure is inevitable! :headbang:


Thing that the Android platform is all about freedom and the ability to do whatever you want with your device once you’ve bought it? Think again! Motorola’s Droid X contains a feature that bricks the handset if you try to modify the bootloader.
This is pretty scary stuff, and goes counter to what the Android platform is all about:

The eFuse is coded with information that it either looks for or is passed to it from the bootloader. The bootloader is loaded with information it looks for when it begins the boot-up process. (I have seen the sbf file look for a certain bootloader when it begins so its safe to assume that this is the process).
Once the the eFuse verifies that the information it is looking for or that has been passed through to it by the bootloader is correct then the boot process continues. What type of information is written to the bootloader? So far i’ve been able to verify that the firmware information (what we call ROMS), the kernel information, and the bootloader version.
If the eFuse failes to verify this information then the eFuse receives a command to “blow the fuse” or “trip the fuse”. This results in the booting process becoming corrupted and resulting in a permanent bricking of the Phone. This FailSafe is activated anytime the bootloader is tampered with or any of the above three parts of the phone has been tampered with.

The eFuse can be repaired, but only by Motorola, so if you trip it, it’s a case of sending your handset back for repair.
Bottom line, the freedoms offered by Android go counter to the locked handsets that service providers are happy with. Based on this, the Droid X just became a no-buy for those who like to tinker with their handsets.




Source:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/m...-destruct/8906

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

I was quite literally just about to post this citing this article

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/07/...try-to-mod-it/

Basically from what I've read, it does a bootloader check, and if the software notices that the bootloader has been tampered with, it throws the phone into an eternal booting loop, essentially perma-bricking the phone.

This has the potential to severely deter developers and hackers from cracking this phone due to the sheer fact that it would require permanently destroying multiple phones before coming up with a viable solution for unlocking/rooting.

I don't know about you folks, but I think I'll be pretty happy with my rooted Droid Incredible once it arrives tomorrow and I have a bit of time to tinker with it. ;)

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

Owned

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

This is what Microsoft does with the Xbox 360 to close exploits - they don't brick consoles (that's just wrong), but it's how they closed the JTAG exploit (and a couple others in the past, IIRC) last year.

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

There will always be a way around it folks ;)

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

People are already starting to debunk this theory. Seems there is an eFuse on the Droid also. Last time I checked I am able to change everything on it with out "blowing" it up. ;)

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

+1, week tops. lol

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

Android is an open source, they can't stop us from ROOTing it, period. It's physically impossible. That's designed probably to protect Motorola's content

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

The phone still may be rooted, but with no capacities for custom ROMs. time will tell.

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

I think the reason why motorola is doing it is for the revenue.. remember how google is paying % of the money for the adwords and the market purchases...well if it wasn't locked down and you can flash custom roms...they would most likely loose commission :/...

Getting past the eFuse may not be hard (probably by sending fake information about the rom version and etc)...but breaking the encryption on the other hand will prove a challenge as it is similar to the milestone I read..which has yet to be broken for custom roms.

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

Last time I read the story (unless i read it wrong) the eFuse was in the TI OMAP processor and not Android OS itself. That would make it hardware based and not software based which makes it a lot more hard to get around.

From the arcticle:

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/07/...try-to-mod-it/

"It requires a hardware fix, apparently, only available through Motorola, of course. This is the equivalent of a MacBook detonating some core component if you try to install an OS to dual boot."

So this is why older Moto devices like the first Droid dont have this issue

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

eFuse has always been hardware based including on the original Droid.

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

Moto has responded to the eFuse stories. It does not brick the device. The device will work once authorized software is installed.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/16/m...sy-says-efuse/

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

That is better news. waiting for the rooting attempts to commence..

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

So in other words, its partial dead device instead of a full dead device......nice

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

Sigh. You obviously need to move on to another phone. Last time I checked if you can flash the phone then it is not partially dead.

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

No I understand. You just did not get my sarcasm. eFUSE is a crappy way of trying to secure a device that we all know can do FAR MORE than what they intend for it to do. To handicap the device in such a way would make it useless to many of us. So modding it only for eFUSE to kick in and have to go back to a restricted, handicapped OEM software with bloatware is as good as a bricked phone to me (which is why Im not getting it)

Re: E-Fuse - Self Destruct
 

I don't really see it as a big deal really.

My new X doesn't have any of the bloatware at all that VZ usually puts in a phone & I'm sure somebody will figure out a way around that system anyway.

This is the first phone I have ever owned that I honestly don't care if I can ever flash the ROM in. I have been flashing ROMs since my xv6700 days & it was always to fix dificiencies in the phone or add things like sense 2.5.

This phone runs so well that I'm not sure what flashing would accomplish other than add some bugs that it doesn't have now. Anything I want to add is available for free or close to it from the market, so why would the phone need to be flashed.

I think it's kind of a relief to have a phone that runs perfectly WITHOUT having to try out 50 different ROMs in it (hell, the best thing about this phone is it's NOT made by HTC).

~John

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.1-update1; en-us; DROIDX Build/VZW) AppleWebKit/530.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/530.17 480X854 motorola DROIDX)

Seems that Motorola issued a statement yesterday. Saying that this isn't true. Possibly a lot of people just shooting off their mouth before finding out first whether there was any truth to the rumor. I guess we'll know the facts shortly. Ill wait another day for the facts.

R