I've just bricked my FP4 and I don't know why

Help Fairphone 4
1

I wanted to get rid of the Google layer and tried with Fairphone OS following the instructions here:
Installing Fairphone OS Manually – Support
I had Android 13 with security patch from 5 of December of 2023.
I’ve downloaded FP4-TP25-factory.zip (the latest one) to flash with fastboot.
Proceeded with the instructions, rebooted without locking again the bootloader with FairphoneOS and saw that Google was still present (I was surprised, because Fairphone OS for FP2 had no Google software on it. I was expecting the same for FP4).
Learnt that to get rid of Google I shall proceed installing e/OS with this instructions: doc.e.foundation/devices/FP4/install

They have a big warning regarding the Google rollback protection but I make sure that the security patch was the same: /e/OS build : S stable (Security patch: 2023-12-05)

Proceeded to flash with e/OS, installed correctly, boot up… all perfect. Except after I’ve proceeded to lock the bootloader.

Now my FP4 is a brick and I don’t understand why. It was me misunderstanding the warning message? I think not. If that would be true, installing FP4-TP25-factory.zip and locking my bootloader immediately would have bricked my phone also… right?

For more information, I have exactly the same problem that the one described on this closed thread: Fairphone 4 bricked by locking bootloader

2

That’s unfortunate…

The key is to check the flag get_unlock_ability before locking, because if it’s 1 you can still unlock again if rollback protection is triggered.

If get_unlock_ability is 0, the only way to go is to contact fairphone support and send it to Cordon electronics…

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3

Fairphone OS on the Fairphone 2 was Google certified and thus had Google Apps and services preinstalled, Fairphone went to great (and industry-leading) lengths to ensure this until software support ended relatively recently.

Fairphone Open OS for the Fairphone 2 was the one without preinstalled Google Apps and services, but had to be installed by the user manually in any case … https://code.fairphone.com/projects/fairphone-2/fairphone-open.html

Regarding Fairphone OS the situation is the same as on the Fairphone 2.

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4

The Fairphone 1 came without preinstalled Google stuff, but with a link or an app to install them, if wanted.

5

Regarding Fairphone OS the situation is the same as on the Fairphone 2.

Thanks for the aclaration, mate. But I beg to differ. Not exactly the same. There is no Fairphone Open OS for FP4 supported by FP.

6

That’s why I wrote (and you cited) “Regarding Fairphone OS” :wink: .
Anyway, I’m sorry about the bootloader situation, I can’t do anything about that.

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