FP4 Root Access is possible, maybe a bit risky

Help Fairphone 4
27

Thanks for the answer, guess I’ll give a shot anyway :slight_smile:

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28

Just received my FP4, succesfully unlocked bootloader.
Though I think I should inform the procedure described is the documentation you linked is actually mistaken.

Command “fastboot oem unlock” doesn’t work anymore (maybe only valid on older fastboot versions). It will return “unknown command”.
The correct one is : fastboot flashing unlock

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29

Maybe worth letting Fairphone know :slight_smile:

Thanks for the update

30

From what I’ve read so far you seem to be aware, but for the sake of completeness (and maybe for others): some apps might refuse to work when the bootloader is unlocked.

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31

Maybe useful to have a Guide on what will not work after unlocking the bootloader.

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32

So far, Google Pay seems to be the first to protest

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33

Is this a protest at unlocking the bootloader or do you mean rooting.

I think Google Pay doesn’t like an unencrypted device.

34

Root is not possible yet.

Where did you read this and do you mean Google Pay?

35

Yes google pay :slight_smile: Have edited my previous.

Thanks

36

Yep I was expecting google pay to give me the finger after unlocking the bootloader. But that’s fine I can live without it.

Guess I’ll just have to wait for root. So far I’ve been finding the device a bit laggy in its animations, scrolling etc. I hope there’s room for improvement.

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37

First rooting may void the warranty as once you have rooted you cannot prove that any permanent problems, after restoring the default OS are not caused by you after rooting.

I don’t think Fairphone provide a rooting guide. I thought that was down to third party apps.

Do you really want to risk the 5 year warranty?

Currently I’m over year into my FP3 and have de-googled it a fair bit and unless I really want to mess with the Android 10 it’s not really an issue. It was more important years ago when I was investigating what I could do :slight_smile:

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I’ve been owning and rooting phones for more than 15 years now, never had any issue with warranty.
There’s always unrooting method, flag counter reset etc so I’m not worried about that.
I’m not asking advice on whether or not I should root, just asking about status :wink:

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39

Maybe, but as this is a discussion in a public forum, I guess it’s legit to post some warnings for not so experienced users.

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40

Of course that’s a fair point.

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41

After my FP1 died i bought an LG G6 which is flashed with HavocOS and is rooted. No Problem with google pay…

42

HavocOS might have some additional tweaks out of the box that hide the bootloader status and root account from Google Pay, I know some custom ROMs do that. im regular conditions though, unlocking the bootloader means that Google Pay will throw a fit unless you use something like MagiskHide and tinker a little bit.

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Disclaimer: You do this at your own risk! I’ve been running my phone this way only for about an hour, this might still eat your data, make backups!

I managed to get Magisk working, here’s what you need:

  • Unlocked bootloader

  • adb & fastboot

  • Magisk app installed

  • Either the stock boot.img provided by Fairphone (check Settings → About phone → Build number for the version you need, just use the newest one if you are on a version not yet available)

  • Or, if running an OS other than stock, the boot.img that’s being shipped with your ROM.

Step-by-step:

  1. Patch the downloaded stock boot.img with Magisk

  2. Transfer / adb pull that patched boot.img to your PC

  3. Reboot to fastboot adb reboot bootloader and temporarily boot from the patched boot.img fastboot boot /path/to/patched_boot.img
    Do not flash that boot.img!!!

  4. Wait for the device to boot (took a bit longer than usual)

  5. Open the Magisk app (press Cancel when asked to perform Additional Setup), choose direct install and reboot

  6. Have fun

I tried to directly flash a patched stock boot.img, pulled boot_a and boot_b from the phone and patched those, but never could get Wi-Fi working (despite the hint in the developer docs). This way finally worked :metal:

Performing an OTA update with Magisk installed:

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44

Looks promising…I always root my mobiles in the past. How to get back to unrooted if things go wrong?

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Depends upon what goes wrong for you

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If things go wrong (but not too wrong, as @amound already said) and device still works then I think the uninstall function of Magisk app should do the trick (but also might fail and brick your phone - so use at your own risk!).