Tag Archives: unlocking bootloader

/e/ : A user Data Privacy respecting operating system

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A lot has been written and discussed in the media about the unwelcome intrusion by big business houses into our private lives. Details about the Facebook data sharing scandal with Cambridge Analytic or leaks about the way Google has been ‘Googling’ our personal information and sharing it with its business partners are on news channels everywhere. If you have ever browsed to purchase a product on the internet, then you would have observed subtle hints of this intrusion in action. For days after you would be seeing advertisements from companies selling products similar to the one you were browsing. This happens when your browsing behavior is captured and shared with business houses. These business houses now attempt to coax you into buying their products which are of a similar kind. Welcome to the world of zero data privacy!

To understand the situation better, have a look at your smart phone and the applications you use on a daily basis. On android phones, almost every second application is in some way connected to Google. Gmail, Google maps, Google Assistant, Google Drive the list is endless. When you install these apps they ask you for your permission to access your contacts, your text messages, files, folders, images etc. While on the face these requests may look harmless, take some time and think about the issue seriously. What if the product or service you had browsed was of a personal nature? That information in the hands of a stranger could be dangerous for you in the long run. This pilfering of your personal data is happening through your smartphones and computers every single day, every minute. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon everyone has a finger in this pie. What is even worse is that they are making billions out of your personal information! So now that I have scared you enough you might be wondering if there is a way out of this mess? Do not worry help is just round the corner.

Introducing /e/. /e/ is the brain child of Gaël Duval – the man behind the popular linux distribution – Mandrake Linux. The popular Linux OS is still remembered for its extremely user friendly interface and smooth and efficient functioning. It helped introduce millions to linux. After moving out of mandrake Linux which was renamed to Mandriva in 2006 Gael was the Chairman and Chief Technology Officer at Ulteo. The company is bought by AZNetwork group in 2015.In 2016, he co-founded NFactory.io, an incubator-accelerator of “startups.

The rampant ‘data pilfering’ on smartphone devices by Google and Apple set Gaël thinking. The result was a series of three articles ‘Leaving Apple & Google: my eelo odyssey’. In these articles he announced his intention to come out with an alternate platform for devices. An operating system which would respect the individual and value his right to privacy. A Kickstarter campaign to fund the idea was launched. People from around the world contributed. This was a clear indication that the concept had popular support, all that it lacked was a clear direction.
Gaël has come out with a mission which declares the following as its objectives:

 

  1. We make available independent and open source IT infrastructure products & services, with an emphasis on respect for user data privacy, for the benefit of all.
  2. We think that /e/ can have a global, worldwide impact as a major open source project in the public interest. It will help by freeing users from personal data spying and advertising.
  3. /e/ is about freedom and privacy in the digital world.

A copy of the manifest is attached below:

To set the record straight, Gaël’s team is not writing the code from scratch. It has picked up a branch from the Lineage code base and has started with it. The lineage code base is a free open source operating system based on the android platform which caters to smartphones and tablets. The code is accessible through GitHub.

At present /e/ has a team of about fifteen developers working full time under the direction and guidance of Gaël developing the first release of the operating system. Gaël’s team is currently working on various elements in the operating system which he insists would have a great UI. Those who have used Mandriva earlier can definitely look forward to Gaël delivering on that promise! Various third party applications are currently being integrated . The base OS would have a “reasonable minimum” set of application to begin with. The idea being that a user could always add more applications as per his or her requirement. There would be no forceful installation of applications that sit there unused taking up space and sending back the users personal information!

The team target to release their first beta version of the OS by August end of 2018. The next step would be the opening up of the source code repository. This should be the trigger for developers from around the world to pitch in and add their code as well. Version 1.0 of /e/ is targeted for the end of 2018 or early 2019.

/e/ has come out with a road map for its development activities

For more information about /e/ go to the web site.

To read more about Gaël Duval

To contribute to /e/ financially

Build a LineageOs4MicroG ROM using Docker on Ubuntu

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One month back if anyone had said that I could build a ROM using Docker I would have laughed. I had taught myself how to build a custom ROM for my cell phone the hard way. I have three phones at home. The three phones have three different flavors of the Android Operating system. My current daily driver is a MiA1 tissot. The phone was released with Nougat and was later updated to Oreo. The current version of Oreo is 8.1. The phone is officially supported by LineageOs4MicroG. That is where I decided to try my hand at using Docker to build my own ROM. After a few false starts it finally worked. Now it works like clockwork. Let me share what I did with you.

Before we proceed let me explain what MicroG is. To those – like myself – who do not want to have Google services on their phone and yet are addicted to apps like twitter, whatsapp or GooglePay – MicroG is a must. The problem with Google is that, their apps tend to steal your personal information and marketing it. I do not like that. Yet I need to use apps like WhatsApp and Twitter. These apps need Google play store to run in the background. The way around is to install MicroG. What MicroG does is it spoofs the apps into believing that Google Play is installed on your phone!

Installing Micro G the standard way- downloading apk’s and installing them- is a pain. The easiest way is to either download a custom ROM with MicroG already built in or build a custom ROM yourself. This is where LineageOS4MicroG comes in. These builds require docker to be setup on your PC.

A word about Docker.

Docker is a build method which is almost entirely automated. Once you have the environment up and running on your PC you just sit back and wait for the build to complete. No action is required from your side. Lets see what the per-requisites are for setting up a Docker build environment.

Step 1:
Install docker on your PC. I use a Ubuntu PC but Docker can be installed on windows as well as Mac.

Check the docker web site for instructions specific to your system.

https://docs.docker.com/install/

Confirm that docker is installed on your PC by running the below command

docker
run hello-world

the output should be something like this

docker run hello-world Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally latest: Pulling from library/hello-world ca4f61b1923c: Pull complete Digest: sha256:ca0eeb6fb05351dfc8759c20733c91def84cb8007aa89a5bf606bc8b315b9fc7 Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest Hello from Docker! This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly. ...

Step 2: pull the lineageos4microg on to your pc

docker
pull lineageos4microg/docker-lineage-cicd

You should see a screen similar to the screenshot below….this was for another pull..but you get the idea 🙂

docker pull image

Step 3:

Create directories

sudo mkdir -p

/lineageos4microg/src

/lineageos4microg/zips

/lineageos4microg/logs

/lineageos4microg/ccache

/lineageos4microg/keys

/lineageos4microg/local_manifests

this would create directories on the file system. The lineageos4microg environment takes up about 150 GB of space so I do not prefer creating folders outside /home as I ran into space problems

An easier way is to just create folders using nautilus under home for e.g.

Create a folder lineageos4microg under home

and inside it create these 6 folders

lineage
zips
logs
cache
keys
manifests

Step 4:

Create an xml file… copy paste this in notepad, gedit and save with the name custom_package.xml

The name is not important, it is the .xml part which is important.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<manifest>
<project name=”lineageos4microg/android_prebuilts_prebuiltapks” path=”prebuilts/prebuiltapks” remote=”github” revision=”master” />
</manifest>

Step 5:

start the build with the below command

docker run
-e “BRANCH_NAME=lineage-15.1”
-e “DEVICE_LIST=<device name>”
-e “SIGN_BUILDS=true”
-e “CCACHE_SIZE=100G”
-e “SIGNATURE_SPOOFING=restricted”
-e “CUSTOM_PACKAGES=GmsCore GsfProxy FakeStore MozillaNlpBackend NominatimNlpBackend com.google.android.maps.jar FDroid FDroidPrivilegedExtension”
-v “/home/manoj/lineageos4microg/lineage:/srv/src”
-v “/home/manoj/lineageos4microg/zips:/srv/zips”
-v “/home/manoj/lineageos4microg/logs:/srv/logs”
-v “/home/manoj/lineageos4microg/cache:/srv/ccache”
-v “/home/manoj/lineageos4microg/keys:/srv/keys”
-v “/home/manoj/lineageos4microg/manifests:/srv/local_manifests”
lineageos4microg/docker-lineage-cicd:latest

Please note:

– replace the <device name> with your phone name. For e.g. my MiA1 is called tissot. You can get your device name by typing the below adb command

$ adb shell getprop ro.product.device

assuming you have adb setup and functioning on your pc. If not click here xxxxx

– in the above command I have set Ccache size as100G. This is because I have a lot of empty space on my PC. Set it to 50G or as per your convenience.

– the PC will seem to hang with the message Syncing repositories. This is because the setup is downloading files from the internet. This process can take a long -long time. You can see what is happening by checking the log files. Copy the logs on to your desktop and open this copy. Do not try to open the actual logs as data is being written on to it.

what these commands mean:
All the command starting with the -e are setting your environment for the build. The cache size, Lineage branch (in this case 15.1) , signature spoofing – read detailed documentation links to understand this better. Safe to say use restricted for now.
All the commands starting with the -v are the location of your source files or folders where your logs and zip is to be placed. I got errors here when the path was not correct.

Check the path to get the command to run smoothly. It is a one time task. Save the command to run it again the next time you want to build.

The sign mark the end of each line.

To see more samples refer the links given below for the LineageOS4microG site.

Step 6:

Once the build is complete you will find the build in the zips folder.

Enjoy!!!

The advantage of the Docker build is once the environment is set up it does all the work almost automatically. The resources on the PC are optimally used. For e.g. I have 15 GB or RAM but am unable to run any other application while building normally. With Docker I use my PC as normall while the build is running in the background. You can run multiple device builds at the same time, You just have to add device names separated by a comma.

Additional reading for reference and trouble shooting

Docker installation : get details for your PC

https://docs.docker.com/install

For e.g. for Ubuntu https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/

LineageOS4MicroG related documentation

https://hub.docker.com/r/lineageos4microg/docker-lineage-cicd

https://github.com/lineageos4microg/docker-lineage-cicd

A Noob’s guide to building a Lineage ROM

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As the title mentions, this is a guide by a noob which spells out the steps that build a lineage ROM. What the title does not mention is that this article is aimed at noobs as well. Now lets get down to business.

Disclaimer: Please note that by following the steps as mentioned in this article you can seriously damage your smart phone. There is good chance your phone would be bricked i.e. effectively be rendered useless and cause a lot of frustration, irritation and make you pull at your hair. If you hit that point later, Please do not look towards me to save you since I am also new to this and like you learning how to traverse this parallel universe of custom ROM development. That being said do not despair. As the saying goes browse and you shall find – Check out the internet and you would find others who have messed up their smartphones and yet somehow lived to tell the tale. In most cases you would be able to revive your phone. Ideally do not use your daily driver for such experimentation.

After reading all this if still want to go ahead then read on.
Objective:
Build a custom lineage ROM for your smart phone. I own a Xiaomi MiA1 and used the same as my target phone. You may have a different model but technically the build steps should be the same for all android phone models.

Requirements:
A linux based or a Mac computer.
Windows computers do not directly support the tools required for this type of development. As such they are not being covered in this article.
The recommended operating system is Ubuntu.

Other requirements:

  1. A basic understanding of Linux based OS specifically Ubuntu.
  2. Ability to type and use the command line. Write or copy paste commands in the Ubuntu konsole.
  3. A basic understanding of programming concepts, read and update XML files, understand error messages.
  4. Fast internet access.
  5. Steady electricity supply.
  6. Lots and lots of patience.

You will understand why the last three requirement are mentioned as you read on

Hardware recommendations – ideally your system should exceed these conditions

  1. 64 bit environment
  2. 100 GB of free hard disk space
  3. 16 GB RAM / swap space.

My hardware configuration:

  1. Intel i5 processor
  2. 16 GB RAM
  3. 1 TB hard disk.
    Please note even with this configuration it takes me about 3 hours to build the code!
    Operating system:
    I used the Ubuntu 18.04 build which is the latest at the time of writing. I will be covering only the Ubuntu OS as part of this article as I do not have a Mac and as such it is out of scope for me!

Steps to build the Custom ROM from scratch
Step 1: Setup Ubuntu
Assuming you have set up the Ubuntu OS if not click this link for a detailed explanation of the installation of Ubuntu.
Step 2: Installation of Java Development Kit
In a console window type or copy past the below commands.
Wait for one line of command to execute before typing or pasting the next

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

Please note the sudo command will ask you to enter your password.

Step 3: Installing required packages ( this is a single line not multiple lines)

sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf build-essential zip curl zlib1g-dev gcc-multilib g++-multilib libc6-dev-i386 lib32ncurses5-dev x11proto-core-dev libx11-dev lib32z-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libxml2-utils xsltproc unzip

Step 4: Configure your smart phone access

These tools will provide you access to the device once you have complete the

build and are ready to flash the Rom.

Step 5: Creating your work directories

Step 6: Installing Repo

The Android source tree is located in a Git repository and is hosted by Google. The Git repository includes metadata for the Android source. Repo is a tool that makes it easier to work with Git .

mkdir -p ~/bin

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb

sudo apt-get install fastboot

mkdir -p ~//lineage

curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo

Next type below command to make repo executable.

chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Step 7: Initialize your lineage source

Now change directory and move into the newly created lineage folder.
You can do this either by Opening nautilus and right clicking inside the lineage folder and selected ‘Open Terminal here’ or by typing the below command

cd ~//lineage

Important: Ensure you are in the lineage folder before executing the next set of commands

Step 8: Configure your Git user

You can set these on the GitHub website. Once you have set your GitHub web site

Type paste these commands. Replace the text within “ ” with your credentials.

git config –global user.name “Your Name”

git config –global user.email “you@example.com”

Step 9: Initialize the repo

repo init -u https://github.com/LineageOS/android.git -b lineage-15.1

A successful initialization will end with a message stating that Repo is initialized in your working directory. Your client directory should now contain a .repo directory where files such as the manifest will be kept.

Step 8: Download the source code

This is the step where you will realize the importance of having a fast internet connection. The source code size is about 30 – 35 GB. I have a 10 mbps line and at times the download speed shoots up to 20- 25 mbps!!!  Yet it takes me anything from 4 – 10 hours to download the code!
My suggestion is check the time when your local ISP download speeds are at its best. For me it is during the night. I set the download up at night and go to sleep!

The command to type paste to get the source code is :

repo sync -c -f --force-sync --no-clone-bundle --no-tags --optimized-fetch –prune

Optional Step 8 a: Take a backup of your source code

I copy the entire folder and keep a copy on an external device. This is just in case there is any need for me to format my hard disk. I do not copy the .Repo and .Cache folders on to my backup. To check hidden folders press Ctrl + H.

Step 9: Get the source code for your specific device.

This is an important part to understand. The code which you downloaded is generic in nature. For your particular device you would need to get files which are specific to your device.
The source for all these files is github. You are targeting three sets of folders – Device, Kernel and vendor. The git clone commands given below are for the tissot or Xiaomi Mia1 phone. Similarly other phones have their locations on GitHub from where you can get files specific to them.

git clone https://github.com/TheScarastic/andr…msm8953-common -b lineage-15.1 device/xiaomi/msm8953

git clone https://github.com/TheScarastic/andr…_xiaomi_tissot -b lineage-15.1 device/xiaomi/tissot

git clone https://github.com/TheScarastic/prop…_vendor_xiaomi -b lineage-15.1 vendor/xiaomi

git clone https://github.com/Tissot-Developmen…_xiaomi_tissot -b 8.1 kernel/xiaomi/msm8953

The format of the command will remain the same for all phones only check the url and the folder names.

Step 10: Modify Caching to speed up the build process.

Type paste one command at a time and wait for it to execute before posting the next.

export CCACHE_DIR=./.ccache
ccache -C
export USE_CCACHE=1
export CCACHE_COMPRESS=1
prebuilts/misc/linux-x86/ccache/ccache -M 50G

Step 11: Configure JACK

JACK is the java compiler and can cause crashes – believe me! A simple fix is this command which you type next
export _JACK_VM_ARGS="-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -XX:+TieredCompilation -Xmx4G"

Step 12: Cleaning up the build folder

make clean

Step 13: Initializing the build

source build/envsetup.sh

Step 14: Starting the build

croot
brunch tissot

Screenshot_Settings_20180705

Now sit back and wait for a few hours. Check the screen, occasionally for what is happening. There will a ton or warnings showing up.Do not worry about the warnings. Read the message displayed on the screen for clues as to what is happening.
The entire build took about 3 hours on my machine with nothing else running. This duration can increase and decrease based on the configuration of your build machine. It can also depend on the files downloaded during the Repo sync process.

Finally you will get the .iso file in a folder labeled out. Check the screen shot above. It shows the build settings screen. Have been using it as on my main driver and so far so good.

Handling Error messages:

There is a very good chance that the build will stop many times. When this happens read the error message and then try googling it. I can guarantee that there would be number of other people across the world who have faced similar issues while building their custom ROM’s. See what solutions have been suggested and try them out. It took me almost a week to get my first build right!
Then in the same day I got 2 builds in a row that were successful! It has a lot with having all the right files in the build environment + a good hardware configuration + lots of luck!

At times the error message which stopped the build could report that a particular file is not found in a particular folder. Do a search in the base lineage folder and see if the file is there in any other folder. Simply copy it to the folder where the build is expecting it. After that run the build commands again and restart the build.

Remember to use your default login. I used su – superuser and ran into trouble while doing a repo with the normal login. So I do not use su for the build and do the entire build and repo sync with my login.  Since i installed the system Ubuntu is satisfied with my credentials.

As I mentioned at the start this is my first shot at building a custom ROM. While there is not exactly much customization being done here as the source code is available on Lineage.com and the files specific to the device were shared by various developers on GitHub. All that I have done is that I downloaded the code and recompiled it on my machine. Having said that there is a sense of pride that you feel when you see your name in the settings tab!!!!

Hope this was a easy to understand guide to help noobs around the world do their own custom ROM development. This article is as I mentioned a guide, you should refer the links given below and get a complete understanding of the process of building ROM’s before you start on your own. So good luck with your custom ROM building!!!

Some important links which you should visit to understand how the experts do it.

Build ROM from source for Tissot 
The Android Source Code
How to build your own custom Android ROM

To download the build click the links below:
Please note that you are downloading and installing the build at your own risk. I will not be responsible for your phone bricking up and also will not be able to support you in case of any issues.

On a personal note I have been using the same build on my daily driver for the last couple of days with no issues. I have GApps installed and am able to use some 46 apps with no issues including Twitter, Whatsapp, Quora, XDA, WordPress among others. The phone camera and fingerprint features are working normally.

What Data Privacy is and why is it important

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The purpose of this article is to explain what Data Privacy is and why is it important in layman’s terms. Of late most of us have seen a spurt of emails with the subject line mentioning updates to Data privacy policy. In my case the first one came from Xiaomi – since I own a phone of theirs, then another mail came from Google and now I see even my website hosting provider has issued one!

If you watch the news, you must have seen the videos of Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook appearing before a committee of the US Senate last month. The events that led to this senate hearing occurred a couple of year’s back. It was a U.K based political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica that triggered this sudden avalanche of interest in Data Privacy. Cambridge Analytica, combined data mining, data brokerage and data analytics to extract information from Facebook users.

The method adopted by Cambridge Analytica was rather simple. Through an application called ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ it asked Facebook users if it could collect their data. About 270,000 users volunteered and gave permission to the application to collect and share their data. Now with this approval and in violation of Facebook’s policies Cambridge Analytica gained access to the friend networks of these 270,000 users. Cambridge Analytica using this application illegally gained data on about 50 million users who were in the friend’s network of these 270,000. Remember that a majority of these 50 million, had not explicitly allowed Cambridge Analytica permission to access their personal data.
The data collected basically related to the user behaviour and browsing patterns. It analysed political leaning of the user and accordingly targeted segments of Facebook users with what it called ‘Strategic Communications’. While many mainstream political scientists question CA’s claims about the effectiveness of its methods of targeting voters the matter was considered serious enough by most governments of the world to suspend its operations in their territories.

By its own admission Cambridge Analytica declared that they were involved in 44 US political races in 2014. In 2015, CA admitted it performed data analysis services for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign in the US. In 2016, CA claimed to have worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as well as the ‘Leave.EU-campaign’ for the United Kingdom’s referendum on European Union membership. CA’s role in those campaigns has been controversial and is the subject of ongoing criminal investigations in both countries. As the bad press and negative publicity from all these disclosures reverberated across the world, on 1 May 2018, Cambridge Analytica and its parent company filed for insolvency and closed operations.

Now does that mean that all is well and the world is a better place to live in… well actually no. There are still some huge monsters out there and they are not hiding under the bed but still using your data and making money out of it. The worst part of it is that we are willingly providing our approval to these ‘monsters’ to collect and use our personal data.

Most of us own smart phones. Every time we install an application on our phones it innocently asks us permission to access the camera, microphone, contact list, folders etc, etc. We have become so used to these requests that we hardly read them and approve the request. That is when the problem starts.
Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple are the giants in the tech world. Today we have reached a stage where we are totally dependent on their application, products and tools. If you do not believe me try this simple test. Try removing or not using google products on your android phone for a day. This would mean not using Gmail, You Tube, Google Maps among other applications which you downloaded from Google Play. It would be next to impossible given our dependence on Google and other such companies for most of our mundane internet work. Be it sending or receiving emails, browsing websites, purchasing or selling products online we are puppets in the hands of these massive tech giants.

Now consider this scenario. Assume you want to buy a shoe. You do not have the time to go to the local shoe store, or maybe the design or make you are looking for is not available locally. The first thing you would do is open up your browser and search for the brand of your choice. We would search through Google or check out the options available on Amazon or other similar online retailers. Once you have searched you may or may not decide to purchase the shoe online. Suppose in our scenario you do not go ahead with the online purchase but decide to purchase it locally. As far as you are concerned the matter of the shoe is closed, right? Well the internet and these massive companies do not think so. After this, for a few weeks if you are observant you will notice that as you log on to any web site, you would see advertisements for shoes showing up on the sides of the pages you are browsing. This goes on for a few days. Ever wondered why that happens?

This happens because the information that you had browsed the web, searching for shoes is captured by your browser and passed on by the Googles and Amazon’s of the world. They in turn pass it on to the various web sites which sell these products. IN this way these advertisements customized for your requirements start appearing on to your web browser. If you happen to notice the ad and go ahead and click on it that takes you to the shop where you can buy the shoes. In case you make a purchase then a commission from the sale goes to all these intermediaries who essentially tricked you into buying their product. In essence the internet search engines and business portal make billions out of millions of users like you and me. Now how does that feel? Do you feel cheated or you are ok with being spied upon?

In the above scenario it was a simple shoe now imagine if you happened to browse a porn site or purchased some lingerie online. As a human being you have every right to do that. The problem is that information is also passed on to all the relevant companies who can target you in future. Imagine the case where the same PC or Laptop is shared between multiple people in the same house. How would you like it if your children or grandparent suddenly find their web site plastered by ads for such products? Another slightly dangerous aspect of this breach of data privacy is that organizations where you apply for jobs may want to check you background through your internet searches. The fact that you have in the past browsed such sites will make you un-fit to get jobs.

Then there is another side to this whole story. A lot of website propound extremist ideologies and display information about how to make explosives or propound violence. This browsing information has in the past been used by police organizations to track and arrest operatives from perpetrating acts of violence and mayhem. By tracking onsite browsing data, intelligence organizations have been able to find such criminals before they could put their plans into action. There are specific group who search the web for people who visit child- pornography sites or have such information. Such investigative work has resulted in the arrest across the world. While this is a positive aspect of such data collection it should be remembered that there is a fine line between protection and harassment and too often government agencies tend to overstep their limits and monitor citizens above and beyond what is permissible. Examples are the extreme cases of censorship applied by the Chinese government.
All this bring us to the question as to what is it that we as citizens do to protect ourselves from such blatant violation of our privacy. One way is read carefully the pop-up that come up when you install applications on your cell phones. If you feel that it is too intrusive do not accept it. Find alternative applications and products that respect your privacy and do not intrude into your private life. We will be publishing details of such applications and tools on this web site. Keep reading and stay safe!

OEM unlocking and enabling developer options

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Every wondered what Enabling OEM unlocking Developer options means? This is a simple step by step guide which will help you with enabling OEM unlocking Developer options for android phones.

In case you are wondering why you even need to do all this in the first place let us answer that as simply as is possible. You need to enable OEM unlocking and activate developer options in your android smart phone if and only if you want to install a custom ROM on your phone.
If you do not have any such plans then it is better you move to the short stories section on this website and read the stories there.

For those who dare to mess around with their smart phones read on….

Stage One: Downloading Google Platform tools

Download the latest version of the Google platform tools from the links given below. The link is the official link on the Android site. It has links for different operating systems.
https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
These tools are required to access the Fastboot features of your phone.

Follow the steps as described on the site to install on your PC. This is important as you would need the tools to be fully functional when running on your PC. To understand this step completely please read this post first.

If you have Google Platform tools on your PC and understand what they do then read on.

Stage Two : Enabling OEM unlocking and Developer options

Settings App

 

 

 

 

Step 1: On the smart phone go to Settings. It would be the gear shaped icon in the screen on the left.

 

Step 2: On Settings page scroll to the end of the screen to find the System link. Check image shot to the right. The system link is right at the bottom . System Link on the Settings App

 

 

 

 

 

System Screen DetailsStep 3: Open System >> Click on About Phone. Again the link is at the end of the screen. Somehow you will feel that they want us to miss these settings!

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Scroll to the end of the screen >> Build numberAbout Phone Screen

 

 

 

 

 

Step 5: Tap 7 times on Build number… yes, you read that right. Tap seven times on build number. By the third or fourth tap you will start getting a pop up which will mention in reverse the number of taps required out of seven!
Once you complete the mandatory seven taps  you would have enabled Developer options on the phone. If you have enabled a pattern lock it will show up to confirm it is you who want to enable Developer Options

About Phone with Developer OptionsStep 6: Go back to the System screen and now you should see a new option >>Developer options.
In the screenshot to the left see the option just above system update and below Backup.

 

 

 

 

 

Step 7: In Developer options screen select OEM unlocking. By default it would be grayed out. By selected it the option turns green!Developer Options with OEM unlocking enabled

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 8: In Developer options screen select USB DebuggingDeveloper Options with USB Debugging enabled

That is it, you can now come back.

You have enabled USB debugging and OEM unlocking on your android smart phone.

Let the games begin 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

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