Forums » Replicant development »
U-boot on Galaxy Nexus
Added by Jack K over 6 years ago
Hi everyone!
I'm new here, and am a current user of LineageOS, but would like to make the move to Replicant soon. (When my current phone breaks I'll probably get an S3.)
Anyway, I understand that liberating the bootloader is an important goal, but with the Samsung phones for which Replicant is supported the bootloader is signed and so free replacements cannot be installed.
I was wondering if any of you had seen this page - http://ksyslabs.org/ukernels/gnex_uboot/ - They claim to have installed U-boot on a Galaxy Nexus, and mention something about "X-loader" (I'm not sure what that is) having a particular version that had a "security hole" that allowed installing of unsigned bootloaders on the device. The code is on github, so I'm guessing it can be tested out. I'm not technical enough to understand the steps they describe, but I was wondering if one of you folks might want to check it out and see if they are on to something...
Thanks,
Jack
Replies (1)
RE: U-boot on Galaxy Nexus - Added by Andrés D over 6 years ago
Hi Jack!
Paulk also installed a custom u-boot and x-loader on LG Optimus Black (P970)[1]. That is possible because that phone doesn't check the signature. It's also possible to install a custom bootloader in a newer LG phone (because LG leaked his private key to sign the bootloader). Unfortunately, neither phone is ported to Replicant. Galaxy Nexus is supported in the latest version of Replicant, although I don't think a lot of people is using it or even testing, and comparing with better supported phones, the camera isn't working. Also, it seems that newer Galaxy Nexus have x-loader fixed and checks the signature.
About x-loader, it's a minimal first stage bootloader that makes the minimum hardware configuration to launch a bigger one like u-boot or Samsung's proprietary.
[1] https://code.paulk.fr/article20/a-hacker-s-journey-freeing-a-phone-from-the-ground-up-first-part