I noticed that Ubuntu Touch now supports way more Xiaomi devices than it used to last time I checked (it was like 2, and now its ~10!), and I’ve wanted to try out UT since now they’ve got support for some nice models like the Poco X3 or the Redmi Note 9.
Thing is, I remember hearing that Xiaomi was cracking down on bootloader unlocking recently. Did anything change in that regard?
For the record, I’ve unlocked dozens of Xiaomi phones, so I’m used to the experience of finding old archived Mi Unlock versions, using Mediatek exploits, week-long waiting times, and other endless jank. I’m just wondering if any really bad changes have been implemented since then, or maybe if unlocking is still even possible.
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You have to unlock devices as you got them on your hands. We’ll never know when they’ll pull the plug.
Unlocking is possible outside of China https://github.com/melontini/bootloader-unlock-wall-of-shame/blob/main/brands/xiaomi/README.md
the wall of shame is an awesome resource for us looking to get at cheap, discarded phones. thanks!
Sweet! I better get to work while it’s still possible.
I had a Redmi Note 8. I was able to unlock it, but had to sign in using Mi account, and had to wait for a week to get verified as a dev to unlock the bootloader.
can you share some of the things regarding MTK unlocks? when looking for cheap used devices I’ve routinely skipped over MTK devices thinking that unlock is impossible and, more importantly, there aren’t ROMs for 'em.
also, look at mobian. UT (at least in my case, SDM845) requests that the phone should be at the stock android image (9.0) which I find virtually impossible to downgrade to.
Unlocking phones has more to do with the phone’s manufacturer than the SoC it uses. Developing custom ROMs for MediaTek is more difficult. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t devices with MediaTek SoCs that have custom ROMs.
True that. Possibly the reason the Redmi 9 Lineage ROM became discontinued, maybe it just wasn’t worth the effort.
aye, i’ve only played with mtk chipsets with lancelot (redmi 9) and one other phone i can’t remember (it was an oldie, released around 2016 - i think it was the redmi note 4?)
generally from what i remember (this was a good couple years ago) the mtk exploit lets you pretty painlessly unlock most mediatek xiaomi phones, and should still work just fine to this day - haven’t really seen anything change in the mediatek sphere lately. ironically in contrast to you i remember looking out specifically for mediatek devices because of this exploit (and purely because it skipped the waiting time, otherwise mtk phones should unlock just like qualcomm ones (though according to the xiaomi unlock wall of shame (linked in Kroko’s comment) phones with unisoc chipsets are not unlockable, but at the same time i have yet to see a unisoc xiaomi phone)).
i remember the particular tool i used but no matter what i try i can’t find it anywhere anymore. even then you can still find many exploit tools and guides on the web. after a quick search i found the ‘main’ mtkclient tool (this one), and guides on xiaomiui and droidwin (i recommend going with droidwin, since i trust it, and it uses the main tool i linked, while xiaomiui gives you a tool from a random sharepoint server, which is… uh… yknow)
i also unlock all xiaomi stuff through a virtual machine, and i recommend you do the same, since stuff around unlocking xiaomi phones is often very sketch (that, and also it usually leaves tons of junk on your pc you’ll never use again). virtualbox offers the simplest way to do this, though if you’re running something like QEMU/KVM everything should still be possible.
also i’ve noticed that modern xiaomi phones use qualcomm chipsets exclusively, so if you want to aim for mediatek phones, you’ll only be able to find low-performance ones. if you want an mtk xiaomi phone, i can recommend the redmi 9 - i’ve used it for 4 years before i switched, and it’s a very feature rich phone with decent performance (200k score on AnTuTu v8, while something more modern, like the Mi 10T Pro i’m currently using has a score of over 550k), currently runs for $40-80 on the used market (at least on my end), and
is officially supported by LineageOS(nevermind, it’s officially discontinued, but it still receives updates from time to time, and you can still build the ROM yourself and install it)
10! ? That sure is a lot 😅
They don’t make it easy, I had to wait for two weeks before I could, and had to run an unsigned binary to do it. Can not recommend buying one to unlock.