Fairphone’s approach to root on the Fairphone 2

TobiasF · January 9, 2016, 10:39pm

@evidemment: So, will you keep your FP2 or will you return it?

evidemment · January 9, 2016, 10:50pm

Definitely keeping it . The idea of sending it back made me kind of sick…

therob · January 10, 2016, 1:39am

“Having managed to migrate my data from one phone to another”

Would you share how you made it? From FP1?
Is it worth to start a separate (wiki) thread about different possibilities to migrate data from FP1 to FP2 without Root (TitBack)?

evidemment · January 10, 2016, 7:49am

I did share it…

Peter974 · January 10, 2016, 8:07am

Erm, how to you make that assumption? You obviously found quite easy way to root that phone unofficialy, and I assume there will be ways to root the Fairphone 2 OS, only not provided by FP themselves. No difference to the Samsung.

No difference: when buying a fair product, we want this difference right?

Fairphone even made a own webpage for the Open Source version, provides Sources and all Binaries and will even provide a full system image complied from the same sources everybody could use to build her own OS. That is as open as it gets in Android world.

One more time, the point to being fair isn’t to be more open than the other?

Same as above, install Fairphone Open OS and GApps.

So to arrive the same thing we could:
root the fairphone just after receiving (officially impossible) and that’s it,
or:

install the fairphone open os
root
install Google apps
(4) do it again at each update OTA?)

Way more complicated to do the same thing…

paulakreuzer · January 10, 2016, 10:13am

That thread exists:

https://forum.fairphone.com/t/backup-solutions-without-root-access/11996?u=paulakreuzer

ben · January 10, 2016, 11:43am

Not necessarily. For me, fair is about mining, manufacturing and environmental aspects (recycling and repair). In that order. Root or not for is not related to the fairness. And I think I am not the only one who has this opinion.

Hary_Schneider · January 10, 2016, 1:13pm

Well. For you! Fine!

For me Fairness includes Software and includes root. - I think, I will cancel my order. Wrote to Customer Support already.

fp1_wo_sw_updates · January 10, 2016, 1:25pm

If you read carefully, it’s still possible. It just not the default for the normal customer. I think there is some room in the middle … the FP2 is not 100% fair or 100% free software, but it’s better in those regards (at least that is what I hope) than most other companies. I don’t know much about phone market works, I still hope to learn more about it.

It’s a complex system with hard financial interests and lot of NDAs/contracts (OEMs, google, app sellers), I think the FP project just does not have a lot of freedom to “maneuver” more fairness to begin with.

Hary_Schneider · January 10, 2016, 2:21pm

I read every single line of this thread…
But tell me: Where is the difference between Samsung and Fairphone? Of cource are there ways to root nearly every phone. But if Fairphone starts talking about root, as if it is the worst thing to do. - I feel not respected. I know, what I do. I did it with many phones. We all know how Samsung and others handle people like me. I thought, Fairphone wants me to open things. And Fairphone helps to open things. I am ending up, seeing Fairphone just as good Start. But in the meantime they adopted Samsungs view and behaviour.

No problem, with a non-rooted device in the beginning. But please supply me with SuperSU.zip signed for Stock-Recovery. Or provide a working TWRP Recovery. And then tell me, that the Warranty is not voided by just rooting.

jftr · January 10, 2016, 3:31pm

One link: http://code.fairphone.com

Has Samsung ever given you source code and binaries to build for yourself? Maybe you are not a programmer and this does not help you much. But this is the real freedom and fairness because we are not dependent on Fairphone to do stuff (be it root, other operating systems, etc) now.

kuleszdl · January 10, 2016, 3:58pm

Another link - some other vendors like Sony do this as well:

http://developer.sonymobile.com/knowledge-base/open-source/open-devices/aosp-build-instructions/

I guess they legally just can’t provide a flashable ZIP or whatever to get you officially gapps + root on a device with locked bootloader. You will only be able to have the rooted version without gapps if you want (when it becomes available) for which you will have to unlock the bootloader.

Of course, there are ways around it but none which the FP team can legally support I guess. Imho, if you really care about freedom you do not want gapps anyway.

freibadschwimmer · January 10, 2016, 5:13pm

Well, mainly in the hardware, i.e. where some of the raw materials come from and about social impacts of mining & production.
I am also very disappointed about not getting easy root access, but for me there is still a big difference between Fairphone and most other mobile phones. This is also the reason why, despite my disappointment, I will wait for a solution until I can finally use the Fairphone in a way I want to be able to use a phone.

fp1_wo_sw_updates · January 10, 2016, 5:24pm

Sony cannot be trusted, ever. Even if they have good developers (that contribute to Android). Just have a look at their current track record. The company is too big. So if one side of the company does something good, the other side kills it. Better think twice before buying Sony products. Okay, they haven’t messed up the cameras yet, but that’s only a matter of time …

kuleszdl · January 10, 2016, 5:58pm

My point was not that Sony is a viable alternative (especially not in terms of mining and production), but I just wanted to stress that providing AOSP build instructions + source is not something unique that only Fairphone does.

evidemment · January 10, 2016, 5:59pm

Fairphone means fairtrade phone… it’s the only phone with that concept in my knowledge. So there’s a big difference between Samsung and iphone etc are nothing even close to fairtrade…

kuleszdl · January 10, 2016, 6:04pm

Well, I guess that in this thread we’ve seen that the question of what aspects of the phone are meant to be more fair in Fairphone are to be discussed: While many people are satisfied with “fair trade”, others expect / demand more openness and freedom for users as well - not only due to the “if you can’t open it you don’t own it” campaign. And this is probably where some people get frustrated when comparing reality with their expectations.

TobiasF · January 10, 2016, 6:20pm

There is another “fair” phone: Shift5/Shift7.

evidemment · January 10, 2016, 6:26pm

NICE! I like that… has anyone any experience with it? it seems like you can have cyanogen mod on it… and actually choose the OS

emmy · January 10, 2016, 6:53pm

Note: links related to ShiftPhone are all in German …I’m not aware of anything in English yet.

Hi @tofra and @evidemment, before you get too excited about the ShiftPhones, there unfortunately hasn’t been very much transparency in regard to how they’re ensuring that their products are fair. They make a lot of claims, but haven’t yet backed them up with anything concrete (see this forum discussion and this commentary from an excellent blogger on the subject of fair electronics.)

Shift also announced in their new year’s post that they decided not to produce a product that they had already sold in pre-orders, which I find a bit problematic, even if they are now offering customers the newer version for the same price.

I would be very excited if their products are in fact as fair and wonderful (and cheap at the same time!) as they claim, but I’m still waiting on actual evidence for the time being.

Edit: There’s also already been a bit of a discussion about ShiftPhone here on the forum in this thread: Other phones that are fairly fair? (e.g. Shiftphone)