The other day I mentioned reports that Motorola’s Droid X has an e-Fuse chip that some wondered if it “locks the bootloader and will brick the phone if the bootloader is modified. ”
Motorola has responded by putting those fears to rest.
From Engadget:
Motorola’s primary focus is the security of our end users and protection of their data, while also meeting carrier, partner and legal requirements. The Droid X and a majority of Android consumer devices on the market today have a secured bootloader. In reference specifically to eFuse, the technology is not loaded with the purpose of preventing a consumer device from functioning, but rather ensuring for the user that the device only runs on updated and tested versions of software. If a device attempts to boot with unapproved software, it will go into recovery mode, and can re-boot once approved software is re-installed. Checking for a valid software configuration is a common practice within the industry to protect the user against potential malicious software threats. Motorola has been a long time advocate of open platforms and provides a number of resources to developers to foster the ecosystem including tools and access to devices via MOTODEV at http://developer.motorola.com.
What it means is that the e-Fuse will shut the Droid X down if you try to run an unapproved bootloader. But, it will not brick the phone.
So for those worried that Motorola was taking a hardline approach with the Droid X can breathe a sigh of relief.
[...] post by jared Published by on Jul 23, 2010 under Droid X Root | Post your comment [...]