Defeating Huawei’s draconian security measures wasn’t an easy task, but a developer named Andrey Smirnoff actually managed to decipher the bootloader unlock code generation algorithm for devices that are based on HiSilicon Kirin 960/659/655 chipsets. Apart from that, what makes PotatoNV possible is a low-level bootloader flashing method discovered by XDA Senior Member hackintosh5. The tool, which makes use of the VCOM_DOWNLOAD mode, requires users to open up the target device and access the test points on the motherboard.

With the release of PotatoNV, owners of the aforementioned Huawei and Honor devices are finally able to flash all the custom ROMs and kernels they desire. So this can mean being able to replace the Huawei software with a custom ROM like LineageOS or others, where you can optionally install the Google apps if you wanted to. Point is Huawei still gets to sell their hardware device so there is no loss to them, it just opens up additional options for users.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/huawei-honor-bootloader-unlock-potatonv/

#technology #mobile #huawei #rooting

  • @ghariksforge
    link
    31 year ago

    It should be illegal to sell a device whose bootloader can’t be unlocked.