According to two separate sources on the XDA forums, the Droid X is loaded with the now-infamous locked bootloader present in the Milestone. If you’re unfamiliar, this site explains the current methods being deployed to defeat the Milestone, but none have managed to succeed without killing the phone functionality. Motorola locks the bootloader using a proprietary encrypted private key scheme, and without access to Motorola’s encryption method, the hope for unlocking lies in exploits. Currently, an exploit known as the “kexec” method ranks highest in terms of hopes of success.
What does this mean for Droid X users? Custom ROMs and recovery images may be a pipe dream, unless a serious vulnerability is discovered. While the possibility for root access exploits still exists, it seems likely that Motorola has done their homework to ensure that the vulnerability which allowed for rooting of the Milestone has been addressed. Of course, with any new device comes new and potentially exploitable software. In the coming weeks we will undoubtedly see how the hacking and development community fair with the Droid X, or if Motorola’s encryption puts them off enough to avoid the phone altogether.
Credit: XDA forums
![droid_done[3]](http://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/droid_done3_thumb.png "droid_done[3]")
8 Comments:
Ugh. This is why Google really needs to keep making their own phones. Android’s openness means nothing if every device it’s on is locked down by user-hostile vendors.
Absolutely agreed. I hope they reconsider on the Nexus 2.
I almost never comment just to say I agree, but in this case, I cannot agree more.
User-hostile is right.
I’ve got a Milestone and that’s enough for me. Motorola makes fantastic hardwares which are useless for us because of the bootloader locked.
I’m sure lot of people who don’t know about rom will be really glad ,of their Droid X, but it won’t be my next mobile…
Guess I’ll just have to stick with HTC and their sometimes-shoddy hardware :/
At least they allow me to unlock bootloaders with no issue!
Good thing I saw this, I was thinking of buying one for my Birthday, looks like my next phone will be an HTC made one.
This kind of lockdown is exactly what people attracted to android and opensource are trying to avoid.
The likes of Motorola need to be punished by asking everyone to stop buying their devices.
I just got a Droid X yesterday when they came out. Dont worry some hacker will find a way to root the Droid X just be patient and it will soon happen. I mean they already found a jailbreak and unlock for the iphone 4 which was said to be impossible cause of the OTA updates but it has now been done.
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