May 19th 2020
May 19th 2020
Alexenferman
Context:
ZTE does not want to offer bootloader unlocking on their devices, not even for their flagship devices. It's sad, because their devices have a lot of potential. Instead, they focus on making a bunch of really cheap phones, one after another.
The problem is that most of their budget devices have the legendary Snapdragon 210 from 2014 with android versions ranging from Lolipop to even Oreo! Meanwhile, I have a obsolete Avid Plus (Android 5.1) laying around not doing anything and their newer devices with the SD 210 have Oreo.
What ZTE did to block people to unlock the bootloader was to remove the fastboot menu. What they did not know is that we don't need fastboot to unlock the bootloader, not even an operating system! We only need EDL (Emergency Download) mode, a special mode for the manufacturer to unbrick our devices. It can be accessed very easily using FTM mode and one ADB command.
Make sure to create a backup of your Data.
So, we do a quick read of the /devinfo partition, modify the unlock bits, and reflash the image file to the device.
When the device boots, it checks the /devinfo Partition to see if the bootloader was unlocked, and if it sees a 01, it will boot anything!!
This only works on cheap phones, because they are cheap. ZTE did not invest in security and therefore, we have a big advantage. I would say that this a good way to cheap out!
Now we can compile custom ROMs and flash them to our liking!