[HTC One Max] scotty1223:
ill have a look for that thread in a minute. its easy to understand why there is some confusion. if you "unlock the bootloader" on a moto,samsung,sony,or just about any other manufacturer,you have access to everything. having a security flag,and a "bootloader unlocked" flag is a concept unique to htc.

s-off means literally security off. this means there are no write protections in place keeping you from modding valuable parts of the device,and having those modifications stick permantly. there are also no securities keeping you from accessing any part of the phones software or firmware. you can flash any file that you wich,to any partition,wether that file is signed by htc or not.

the bootloader unlock via htcdev is basically htcs answer to lots of crys for s off. when users petitioned for "unlocked bootloaders" they wanted them unlocked ala samsung or moto,or s-off in htc-speak. htcdev is definately not what any of us had in mind when signing those petitions. ;) while its far from s-off,IMO htcdev unlock is better than nothing. most folks simply want to flash roms,or add superuser access to a stock rom,wich is easily possible with htcdev unlock. in htc's defense,a great majority of users are better off not being able to mod anything important(like the bootloader or radios) :eek: at least htc was willing to compromise. htcdev is a reliable means adding of root access to make other exploits work. to an extent,were done with the cat and mouse games of the past where temp root exploits are found an patched. hopefully they continue to offer it.

first and foremost,if youre s off,you dont need to be htcdev unlocked. no security means you can add a recovery and root any time you wish,no matter how stock you are,what ruu you run,or OTA you take.

if you unlock while s off,youre "unlocking" partitions that you have access to allready(boot,system,recovery) and you gain the luxury of being able to use the fastboot flash and fastboot boot(in some cases. that option seems to be disapearing) with the partitions that htcdev allows access to. even while s off,the stock ship bootloader still has some restrictions. you cannot fastboot flash radio radio.img or similar.

again,the ability of fastboot flash to install recovery or boot image is a luxury. you dont need it. any partition can be flashed to an htcdev locked device by packing a properly named image into a zip file with a correctly written android info text document.

when presented with a file to install,the first thing the phone will do is check the radio secure flag. if it finds it "off" or "00" then it stops there. period. it doesnt care what you install as long as you do it in a manner allowed by the stock ship hboot. the phone finds security to be "on" or "03" then a whole range of other checks are done,including file signiture, main version,bootloader version,CID,MID,lock status,and others im prolly forgetting :p

so from that,a couple facts:

-you do need to be s off to modify any partitions where all important data lives. lock flag,radio flag,cid,mid,tamper flag,etc. none can be manipulated manually while s on.

-you dont need to be s off to flash a rom,kernel,or recovery(but it does make it easier with some devices). techincally htcdev will allow you to do those things while s on.

-turning the lock flag to locked or unlocked does not remove any securities on an s off phone. an s-off locked htc is equal to an unlocked samsung or moto device.

-phones do come s off. being s off does not void your warranty,and they cant prove it didnt come that way,if the bootloader is locked,tamper flag removed,and running completely stock software and firmware. i personally would never turn s-on for warranty work.

if i can think of anything else ill add it,hopefully it cleared up a few things for you guys :)