I see the G6 H870DS HK or TW version (parallel imported goods) for about 360 USD.
Pretty good price I think, however the situation with the locked bootloader is making me apprehensive in purchasing it.
I read that the EU version can be unlocked right now via their website, but nothing with the Asian DS versions.
My question is what's LG record WRT unlocking their bootloaders? Did it happen with LG5, V10, V20 Asian versions?
Should I just purchase now and HOPE they will unlock it?
Tks in advance
No. If you absolutely need an unlocked bootloader, don't buy the DS. It's superior to the regular G6 in every way, save the ability to root.
I want to install custom Rom on LG V20. Which carrier should I get it from, T-Mobile, Att, Sprint, Verizon? Thanks.
You should get the US996 unlocked version. It will work on all the carriers plus you can unlock the bootloader on LG's website. All the others you will need to use Dirty Santa to unlock unless they have newer firmware which cannot unlock yet. You can get the US996 fairly cheap. Just make sure it is the US996 unlocked not the US996 US Cellular version.
Is there a way to tell if a phone is the US Cellular version or the actual unlocked version?
Already got burned once buying a US996 from ebay that was labelled as factory unlocked but it was actually a US Cellular.
I'm hoping there/s something on the sticker under the battery that will have the answers but nothing obvious from what I can see.
Does the US996 model support all TMobile bands including band 12 and VoLTE, wifi calling? Thanks.
Good morning,
I need to know who knows how to Unlock the Lg V20 with android oreo the version of Sprint model LS997a :crying:
if you mean unlock as in unlock the bootloader to root, you do not. You thank sprint for making it so locked down that their model has been unrootable for a long long time. NO, you can't simply go back to a rootable version, physical fuses preventing that have been tripped.
So, I happened to get my hands on a pair of V20's. Both were us996 models. One was the USA and the other was UCL (US Cellular). In the past, the UCL was not able to be unlocked on LG's website. I was able to unlock the USA model just fine this time. I've tried a BTP model in the past and was not able to, and knew also the UCL was not able to as well. However, I tried anyway. The first hurdle was the IMEI # is 14 digits, which you need 15 digits for it to unlock correctly. (Typically 14 is ONLY CDMA), which UCL is.
This gives the full 15... https://www.imei.info/calc I proceeded to follow LG's guide, going to fastboot, then fastboot oem device-id And guess what, I got a valid unlock.bin from LG and was able to fully unlock the previously unlockable model us996.UCL. (which is not on the list of unlocked still, only us996.USA).
I then flashed my us99610n.zip (The 20f was installed, so needed to downgrade). The phone boots just fine now and works for GSM/CDMA like any other us996.USA device. It presents the yellow warning, vs. the red stop alert.
With all the said, I'm not sure if ALL V20 models are now unlockable, but others will have to try. Ie.. vs995/h990/ls997/h910. I know the h918 was already was, but some fastboot commands were missing. So if anyone else wants to try and report back. You may not even need to really flash the unlock.bin file, more so LG's website initially would not even email the unlock.bin file if it was not able to be done.
LG's Guide: https://developer.lge.com/resource/mobile/RetrieveBootloader.dev (you need an account)
You need to make sure in developer settings to enable OEM unlock. YOU may need to go back to stock to get this option to enable it. Not sure coming from Lineage what will happen.
EDIT: Fortunately I had saved my device-id and IMEI before I rooted so I didn't have to flash stock to test on VS995. I had a 15 digit IMEI without having to find the 15th digit.
Unfortunately it didn't work. I got a model not supported message on the LG developer website. Hopefully it will work for everyone with a UCL model.
Original Post:
I am unable to test this on my dirtycow rooted VS995 because "fastboot oem device-id" does not work presumably because of engineering aboot. EDIT: I see now you did mention this OP.
I get this:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>fastboot oem device-id
...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.073s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suppose I could flash stock to see if it works on my spare device if no one else tests this on non us996 variants in the meantime.
Would be fantastic if it works! Great as it is because at least UCL versions are easier to come by than the USA version from what I see for sale online.
I have LG V20 F800L. Fastboot mode is also not available in it. You can unlock the bootlader method DirtySanta ( XDA [LS997|VS995|H910|F800L] DirtySanta Bootloader unlock and Root guide )
This is interesting. Nice find. Hopefully the door can be unlocked. Ls997 for me lol. One fully rooted, one temp root on Oreo, and other Unrooted ZVD.
A user on the V20 Subreddit got the US996 BPT unlocked via LG. So now it appears that at least all US996 models (USA, UCL, BPT) can get their bootloaders officially unlocked through LG's website.
C D said:
A user on the V20 Subreddit got the US996 BPT unlocked via LG. So now it appears that at least all US996 models (USA, UCL, BPT) can get their bootloaders officially unlocked through LG's website.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all, but I wish. I have a US996 UCK model (US CELLULAR_TULSA(USA) that this doesn't work on:
"Unfortunately, your device( United States, (US CELLULAR_TULSA(USA)), LGUS996.UCK )does not support unlocking the bootloader. Your account will be locked if you enter the wrong information more than 9 times." (down to 7 now - LOL.)
My IMEI is already 15 digits (vs 14 as noted), so no need to convert/find the check digit. This is just a standby phone, but it would be nice to unlock it without using the engineering BL/DS method. Same holds true with a pair of VS995's that I have.
Perhaps I overlooked something?
EDIT: I have another US996 device coming next week that "appears" to be the real McCoy (Carrier Code: USA) according to the IMEI . Hopefully this one is legit.
fathergweedo said:
Not all, but I wish. I have a US996 UCK model (US CELLULAR_TULSA(USA) that this doesn't work on:
"Unfortunately, your device( United States, (US CELLULAR_TULSA(USA)), LGUS996.UCK )does not support unlocking the bootloader. Your account will be locked if you enter the wrong information more than 9 times." (down to 7 now - LOL.)
My IMEI is already 15 digits (vs 14 as noted), so no need to convert/find the check digit. This is just a standby phone, but it would be nice to unlock it without using the engineering BL/DS method. Same holds true with a pair of VS995's that I have.
Perhaps I overlooked something?
EDIT: I have another US996 device coming next week that "appears" to be the real McCoy (Carrier Code: USA) according to the IMEI . Hopefully this one is legit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting to know. I haven't heard of the UCK variant before. Does it say UCK next to the barcode on the sticker behind the battery?
According to the LG firmware page, it looks like there's even a 5th region called BPS (another Brightpoint model) for the US996. So I guess we still can't go buy US996s blindly for the official bootloader unlock. No surprise about the VS995 as Verizon (along with AT&T) had locked bootloaders on their phones for ages now.
C D said:
Interesting to know. I haven't heard of the UCK variant before. Does it say UCK next to the barcode on the sticker behind the battery?
According to the LG firmware page, it looks like there's even a 5th region called BPS (another Brightpoint model) for the US996. So I guess we still can't go buy US996s blindly for the official bootloader unlock. No surprise about the VS995 as Verizon (along with AT&T) had locked bootloaders on their phones for ages now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, UCK on the sticker. Just for kicks I flashed the USA firmware US99610f_00_1205.kdz in hopes it made a difference, but it returns the same unlock string.
I tried it with a H990ds TWN and it did not work ("Unfortunately, your device..."). That was to be expected, but I tried it anyway just in case.
I had a US996 that I previously could not unlock.
The error said something in the lines of this model US996Z is not supported.
I tried the LG developer site again today and it gave me an unlock key.
Thanks for the heads up ?
I noticed that the LG developer site now has a pop-up message saying that it will terminate at the end of the year, so all official bootloader unlocks will no longer be possible after that. Anyone who wants to root any of the supported US996 models after this year would need to do the DirtySanta process.
So I have a US997 that has it's bootloader unlocked and while the current available custom ROMs are great, they aren't very stable for me and some features don't work like they should. LG hasn't officially released Pie for the American model yet (hopefully yet isn't never) so I attempted and succeeded in converting my US997 into a Canadian H873. Though unfortunately, I lost my unlocked bootloader. I then went back to official US997 software and the bootloader was unlocked once again.
Is it possible to use say H873 firmware on a US997 while keeping the bootloader unlocked for TWRP and Magisk? I tried unlocking it again on H873 firmware but due to the way it was flashed, it wouldn't get detected by my PC in ADB or Fastboot mode, so it may or may not be possible to do so that route.
Thanks