Hiccup cause delay in release of comprehensive Lumia jailbreak

Around 2 weeks ago we posted about a new jailbreak announced by Windows Phone hacker Heathcliff74 which would allow users to completely unlocked all Lumia windows phones, allowing users to install any software and have full access to the files, registry and filesystem.

At the time Heathcliff was expected to release the updated version of Windows Phone Internals in a few days, but 2 weeks later nothing has been posted. Now Heathcliff74 has posted an explanation and has confirmed the app is still on its way.

It turns out his hack prevented phones from being updated even when the unlock itself was reversed, something which would cause issues to users. He writes:

Two weeks ago I was just wrapping up some final pieces of code. But there was a problem with the implementation of the bootloader unlock. It had to do with updatability. When the bootloader was unlocked, the phone could not be updated anymore, which makes sense. But after relocking the phone, the phone still couldn’t be updated anymore. That means, that when the phone was unlocked once, it could never be updated anymore, unless you would flash a stock ROM and start over. I realized the impact of this problem later on. Because many Lumia models only have WP 8.1 based stock ROM’s and the update-process from WP 8.1 to the current W10M build is painfully long. Doing experiments this way would be agonizing. And this implementation would never be useful for people who want to use this on a phone which they still want to update regularly.

So I was looking for a solution for this problem. It took me a while to get it right. I needed a new hack and many attempts to get it implemented correctly. But I have fixed it now. I still need to finalize some stuff, but it is almost ready. If I wouldn’t have been able to fix this shortly, I would have released the tool without this, but that would really have been a big disappointment for me. Because you only make a first impression once.

If I knew all this in advance, I would have waited to release that intro-video. I mean, I worked on this for two years already. And I’ve worked on this in silence all that time. Because I knew that when I would publish about my progress, I would also get questions about ETA’s all the time. And I simply can’t answer them. I need to focus on my work. I didn’t release that video to tease a lot of people and then sneak out again on purpose. I’m just as anxious as others to release this tool. And now that I have this problem fixed, I guess I can release the tool soon. But you got to realize that it is important for me to test everything properly. It is important to get it right, or else phones get bricked. So, it is ready when it is ready. Sorry to test your patience. Hang in there just a bit longer.

Heathcliff

The updated tool is still expected imminently, but of course only when Heathcliff feels it is safe for casual users.

For a taste of its features see Heathcliff’s demo video below.

Via Reddit.com

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