Post #1978458
2026-05-04 15:09 UTC
Replies (5)
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@bhtooefr@snack.social 2026-05-04 15:18
@oddtail usually "bricked" means "it doesn't boot, and the normal recovery methods don't work" - as in, it now has as much utility as an actual brick (actually less, because you wouldn't use it as part of a building's structure or facade, or as a paving material) "unbricking" is *sometimes* possible, using methods outside of the usual recovery bootup, but it used to mean that no recovery was possible either
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@aoanla@hachyderm.io 2026-05-04 15:19
@oddtail "bricked" just really means "doesn't boot to the OS" - this could be anything from software damage (say, a firmware update that doesn't complete successfully and breaks the bootloader that runs when you turn the phone on) to actual hardware damage (say, a component burns out on the motherboard for the phone).
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@oddtail@meow.social 2026-05-04 15:32
@aoanla How hard/expensive would it be to make phones that mimic the structure of a desktop computer or even a laptop? So that when things break, you don't lose the entire hardware but (say) only fix whatever the damage is or at worst move the processor and everything else onto a new motherboard? It's just... I know phones are cheap and intended to be largely disposable, but it seems terribly wasteful to incapacitate the entire phone just because of a software issue.
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@flafflar@tech.lgbt 2026-05-04 19:47
@oddtail @aoanla hohoo, you'd think. The problem is that phone companies do whatever they can so you don't actually own your device. Most people have the idea that they buy a phone and they fully own it, like they own a computer, but that's far from the truth. If a computer is bricked (in software), you can always fix it; just pop a USB stick, boot into a recovery environment, and fix the problem. Worst case, you have to reformat your entire OS. Try doing that on a smartphone. You can't, cause even though there is a USB port, the firmware will simply not recognize the USB drive. But even if it could recognize the drive, you still would be unable to boot because the bootloader is locked. Locked means the system will not let you boot into any other OS other than the one that came pre-installed on the device. 1/?
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@liliedubh@medievalist.masto.host 2026-05-04 18:26
@oddtail One of three possible problems - corrupted firmware hardware problem software problem If you have a Samsung phone, there are videos out there about how to unbrick it.