[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Pachacouti:
I have been coming here for years really, enough o spot major changes, like the bootloader variant's available lately, so I thought it a good idea to create a one charity thread full of bootloaders, because I figured out that the variant's of bootloaders have increased. Just look at all those custom roms... each modded rom seems to come in 4 flavour now.

a, a/b

32mb or 64..?

user, user-debug, or eng.

then there's the type of whatever chips etc, but most importantly...

People are forgetting a simple fact. A 'user' built bootloader, ie, stock, after-sale is blocked to root.

Magisk says patch the bootloader, yup, but they also want internet, so flashing latest magisk to a bootloader wont work if your not online, cause it wants to update BEFORE you get to play.. su CANNOT be used until you update the app, even if there are no updates, and while flashing magisk apk solves this, it is an un-neccessary step and a pain, because magisk is not the cure. It now takes over su... or busybox... Provable thus:

Flash Magisk'd boot, reboot, dulled out magisk shows in gui, wanting an update. Root checker says you are rooted (system-as-root, root shows even without magisk ) does not mean magisk rooted your bootloader, because if it had, you would be able to install su or busybox at shell... to get su. without recovery. I know. I've tested this fone for a year now... then I noticed I was using a user build... says it all....

With a latest magisk'd bootloader, booted up, we still cannot install su or busybox. So magisk does NOT root the bootloader, OR the fone. Until you login to them.

Even then, Magisk can patch, but not FLASH the fone=USER build.

Say I cant update offline to test why it wont flash the boot it just created. to make matters worse, now we gotta worry about the name of the patched boot getting longer and longer, magisk themselves making it harder to keep track... only to find flash failed. Respect Magisk :)

All because of the variant build.

We test recoveries... but magisk roots the bootloader.

Why patch a recovery for temp root wiped upon reboot when we can do the bootloader?

If we posted our magisk'd bootloaders instead of recoveries, you'd spot something factual.

A WORKING magisk'd bootloader, when opened in hex, will show variant=eng - if its PIE. Mine shows user.

A WORKING magisk'd recovery, when opened in hex, wait for it.. shows eng! wtf?

This is cause someone upped their test using their eng build, so it worked. For others.

Stock recovery does NOT show this. It shows user. PIE rooters see ENG in their RECOVERY. NOT USER!!!!!

Hence the note9 recovery, with ENG at the start, allowed me to patch my bootloader while in gui, and reflash it to bootloader OFFLINE, using what I just wrote wont work.

Because the PIE rooted bootloades are all ENG builds.

So if your magisk'd bootloader OR recovery shows 'USER' - forget it.

So, why not magisk patch your bootloader and post it here? Take it from your stock, magisk it, and post it.

Then we can all just grab a boot, and KNOW why the latest problems can disappear in a FLASH!

I'll post a link to my post's regarding how I found this simply stupid fact... Since my bootloaders there...

people assume root works on user builds...

It no longer does, and is now in fact, a barrier. One we never worried about before.. until now...

Ps: Last OS's only please, nothing from Pie please, just Android 10 onwards due to new partition schemes...

Thank you. I'll get you rooted. After I plant myself lol....

https://xdaforums.com/t/armor-x5-android-10_q-mt6765-aka-mt6762-root-at-last.4328661/