Bootloader Unlock = Downgrade to Kitkat?

[secandRRe]

I was just wondering since now we have a bootloader unlock with G900V , is it possble to downgrade back to Kitkat?

 

[Dudash]

If you are on a bootloader higher than OD5, then I'm pretty sure the answer is still no.
I think someone asked this in another thread.

---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:32 PM ----------

The bootloader "unlock" isn't really a true unlock.
It modifies your current bootloader to a dev one.

Meaning..
OD5 Retail -> OD5 Dev
OE1 Retail -> OE1 Dev
PB1 Retail -> PB1 Dev

Maybe @GeTex could chime in and if I'm right, add it to the OP of her bootloader unlock thread so people know this from the start?

 

[GeTex]

As far as I'm currently aware, it's possible to downgrade bootloaders, but it's a bit silly doing it

theres only two bootloaders, old and new, OG5- and OE1+

 

[secandRRe]

As far as I'm currently aware, it's possible to downgrade bootloaders, but it's a bit silly doing it

theres only two bootloaders, old and new, OG5- and OE1+

how would i go about doing this?

 

[GeTex]

@jrkruse would best answer that. I'm not able to really make lengthy posts from mobile.

I an't confirm bootloader downgrades work but i swear someone said they did it

 

[jrkruse]

If your on bod5 or lower then yes you can downgrade. You do realize you can run kitkat roms with lollipop bootloaders right?

If you want to downgrade flash stock recovery that matches your firmware. Power of device after you flash stock recovery. Choose the firmware you want to downgrade to. Make sure firmware includes bootloader, like a full factory tar image but you will loose root using full factory tar image. or you can flash a firmware only tar image if there is one available. After you flash either one again power off the device.

Just make sure after you use odin and flash an image make sure auto reboot is unchecked and power device off after you flash it

 

[camcorder123]

Yeah - just don't flash the bootloader... The whole point of an unlocked bootloader is bypassing the verification of an image being flashed, I'm pretty sure that would allow you to downgrade.

 

[secandRRe]

Yeah - just don't flash the bootloader... The whole point of an unlocked bootloader is bypassing the verification of an image being flashed, I'm pretty sure that would allow you to downgrade.

could you provide the file that i would need to flash in Odin? or a link?

 

[camcorder123]

could you provide the file that i would need to flash in Odin? or a link?

Well I don't personally have a link to the file you want, but you should probably just look for a full tar.md5 of whatever version you're flashing to. Do a simple Google search.

Once you have it, decompress with 7zip (you can't edit a tar file, must be fully decompressed) and delete the "recovery.img" and "aboot.mbn" files. Then select the remaining files and compress them (using 7zip) into a .tar file, and flash away.

Might want to wait and see if @jrkruse inputs, as I'm not sure if you need to delete other partitions to be able to retain the unlocked bootloader. I did this to flash back to stock 5.0 and it worked fine.