Locking bootloader re-enabled Andoid!

mikeand · 1 Oct 2021, 15:32

Hi all,
My first post here, I have a Fairphone 3 which a couple of weeks back I happily installed UT using ubports-installer on a Mac.
I was very pleased with my install getting it nicely configured as I liked it. Then I decided I was over due locking the bootloader. I carried this out from terminal on my Ubuntu Mac. Low and behold on restart I was back in Android with no hint of the existence of my lovely UT install. It was as if the phone had been clean installed with a new Android install. WTF. Scuse my language, but did I screw up horribly locking the bootloader. Kind of difficult to get wrong even for me, it is only 1 command. Any thoughts much appreciated.

Moem · 1 Oct 2021, 15:47

@mikeand As far as I know*, UT does not work with a locked bootloader. I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way!

*and I sure hope someone corrects me if I'm mistaken

mikeand · 1 Oct 2021, 17:24

@moem Bugger, OK that was the hard way to find out. I thought I should heed the warnings of the risks to 'Software Integrity' Is this a non issue with UT or should I be concerned running with a unlocked bootloader?

Luksus · 1 Oct 2021, 18:18

@mikeand An unlocked bootloader is a problem, if someone steels your phone, than he will have full access to your device.
Sadly UT does not work with locked bootloader... please read this comment for further explanations: https://forums.ubports.com/post/47334.

Regarding your specific situation:
The Fairphone 3 has slot A and B. It is a feature in case something wents wrong on an OTA update and the current slot is not bootable anymore.
UT got installed on the current slot (lets assume it was slot A).
Maybe your device switched the "slots" after locking and rebooting, because slot A was not bootable anymore. Then it booted the Android system, which was still there on slot B.

That means, you could try to switch back to slot A again and boot UT again. But to switch slots, you would need to unlock the bootloader again, which always wipes your data-partition.
So I don't think that you can get back your UT data.

The fastboot-commands for getting current and switching slots are:

fastboot getvar current-slot
fastboot --set-active=a #or b

mikeand · 7 Oct 2021, 18:18

Hi Luksus, Moem, sorry for the delayed reply, I have been offline for a few days. Thanks to both of you, its sounds like the most likely scenario. I didn't have a chance to post before I went AWOL. But I did try a unlock and reinstall, which appeared to go perfectly. But on boot neither sim slots were recognised and I received a 'No Network' in any app that would address the sim.

To test I reinstalled the latest FP3 android and all worked correctly. I will try putting UT back on tomorrow and see what happens.

Thanks guys for all your help so far.

I will let you know if I stuff up my phone again

kugiigi · 7 Oct 2021, 18:51

Actually you may even be lucky that Android booted. From what I read/heard, locking bootloader while UT is installed may brick your device because you won't have a bootable OS and a way to unlock the bootloader again. I may be wrong or misunderstood that though

In any case, congrats with your new UT device and good luck