Agreed
…
Hey,
So it’s been a bit of time and I’d like to get this whole thing over with.
I’ll quickly recap the situation so as to be as clear as possible.
I’ve first tried flashing /e/ using the web installer. All steps succeeded but I got stuck in the boot menu by the end of it. Seeing this was the situation, I proceeded to use the command line tool to successfully install /e/. However, get_unlock_ability returns 0, and thus I have not undergone locking the bootloader. As I understand, this is due to my web installer attempt messing something up.
Technical info is as follows:
Downloaded IMG-e-3.3-a15-20251210556408-official-FP6
Security patch is from Dec. 1st 2025
I am therefore presented with the following possible courses of action:
- Wait for /e/'s security patch to update and try get_unlock_ability again to see if that works (unlikely but still gonna try it just in case)
- Reinstall /e/ entirely using the command tool, similarly to what was described by GabrielT in the thread linked somewhere above. If I do that I’ll have a couple (understand: MANY) additionnal questions, and I’m sure you’ve had quite enough of my bumbling by now lmao.
- Just not bother with it.
I think for now I’ll just ride it out. I’m not especially worried about an evil maid attack unless someone really wants to see extremely boring work emails. That’s their problem at this point. I might also reinstall /e/ later down the line, maybe even switch to a different OS in the following years, and this whole process is a bit too stressful for me to redo several times lol.
From what I’ve read in the links provided above (namely on the lineageOS forum), I should be fine. I never leave my phone unattended anyways.
Is there anything you would recommend I do differently given my (severe lack of) experience in this domain?
Thanks for your assistance. Have a good one.
This is like saying “I decided not to lock bootloader”
imo this is a perfectly valid choice; as it happens same as me (but I did not have the alternative to lock, as it happens).
Your best estimate date of unlock remains recorded here and, as you surmised, its significance recedes into the past.
Options are open to those who learn; back in the day no one wanted to comment on locking at all and we saw newbies paying 30€ (then) for reimaging.
I accept that in future things I have said on this thread may look over cautious.
Joyeux Noël
Maybe a silly question, but I didn’t see anyone else asking yet: why not just flash the latest official /e/OS image again instead of rolling back to stock FPOS? Wouldn’t that also possibly restore unlock_ability to 1? Worth a try, or am I missing some risk (of bricking) here?
only FairphoneOS is capable to reset unlock_ability to 1, not customOS
switch to unlock_ability=0 is done when first boot into custom OS
I think it is more because he did not want to lock while get_unlock_ability=0 indicating the device state is not optimal for re-unlocking in the future.
Imho users should make up their own mind about the significance of unlock_ability=1/0 for their own circumstance. This post may help inform Installed 3.0.2 official and tried to lock bootloader - #5 by aibd. It is important to note that it is not relevant to the rollback index.
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