When thinking about jailbreaking my iPhone, there are a lot of questions that came to mind. The most important question I was thinking of was “what if it screws up… do I have a bricked iPhone?”. Among that there were many more questions pre and post jailbreak. Here, I hope to clear up a lot of these questions as well as provide some resources to help you make an informed decision (and perhaps give you some peace of mind) before you operate on ‘your precious’ (I said in my golem voice).
Also be warned, that I’m not responsible if you do something to your iPhone/iPodTouch and render it useless. Use the information in this page at YOUR OWN RISK, WITHOUT WARRANTY.
There we go, now that those “formalities” are out of the way, please continue.
FAQ
What is jailbreaking?
Why should I jailbreak?
Who makes the jailbreak?
Is my device the right version to jailbreak?
What if the jailbreak goes wrong?
How do I jailbreak?
So, I’ve jailbroken my phone, now what?
What software should I install?
Why both Installer and Cydia?
Which one do I use?
How do I find and add sources to Installer or Cydia?
How do I FTP stuff to my device?
How do I Install applications to jailbroken devices?
What is Springboard?
Why does Installer say “Unable to Decode”?
When I manually installed *.app, I can see the icon, but the program never loads, just kicks me back to spring board?
What is Jailbreaking?
Basically, it allows you to install 3rd party applications that aren’t available in the iTunes App Store. With these 3rd party apps, a lot more configuration and features are at your disposal to use on the iPhone. You can even FTP files to your iPhone after it has been jailbroken (which is how some games can be installed). Also, sometimes developers making iPhone apps release them on their websites, not through the App Store (or perhaps apple doesn’t approve it to go in the app store), in which case the only way to use it is by installing it on Jailbroken iPhones/iPod Touches.
I don’t really know the technical stuff of how jailbreaking works, and there isn’t much point for myself to learn.
Why should I Jailbreak?
Well if you want to use 3rd party apps, or, heaven forbid, you install commercial apps you didn’t pay for (shame on you :P) then jailbreaking is probably for you. Jailbreaking is relatively low risk, and has relatively high reward, so I think it’s worth it.
Who makes the jailbreak?
The official, and only official website that the iPhone dev team communicates to is iphone-dev. So it is most reliable to use their software to jailbreak your iPhone. One example is, back on September 12th, Apple released iTunes 8, and the iPhone 2.1 firmware. I think that same day (or the next), the iPhone dev team released the PwnageTool and Quickpwn 2.1 for Mac, whereas the windows users were left waiting. Well a day later some websites had posted a guide on how to jailbreak the iPhone 2.1 on Windows, with quite a convoluted process. I don’t recommend that process, and it isn’t for the faint of heart. So here is where patience paid off. 7 Days after the 2.1 firmware release, the iPhone dev team released their Windows version of Quickpwn 2.1, and honestly it is a crap load easier to use. So my recommendation is always use the iphone dev teams apps PwnageTool and QuickPwn, (or WinPwn, which isn’t affiliated with iphone dev team, but uses their tools somewhat).
Is my device the right version to jailbreak?
In short, yes. There are a few exceptions, if you have a 2nd Generation iPod Touch (the steel housing), then as of now.. no. But most likely by the time your reading this, iPhone dev team will have a working jailbreak for it. If your device is using an old version of firmware, and you have neglected to update, then just toss it into iTunes, update the firmware and you should then be ready to get on with the jailbreaking process.
What if the jailbreaking goes wrong?
Now if your iPhone is stuck on the loading screen, or some other problem while jailbreaking, let me suggest to search the help forums at winpwn. Most likely you will have to perform a factory reset (shift+restore) with iTunes (by putting the device into DFU mode), which is fairly straight forward. Odds are, hundreds of other people have encountered the same problem you have, and there are hundreds of posts, describing the solution. I have never had to restore from factory (shift + restore) but there are lots of people who have. So most likely there are lots of posts explaining how to restore your iPhone/iPodTouch to factory. So don’t be shy to search around (even use google).
How do I jailbreak?
Luckily jailbreaking is a fairly low risk procedures. If you have never jailbroken your device before then your most likely in good shape, because all you have to do is update to the latest firmware if you haven’t already done so, and simply run quickpwn/pwnagetool (windows or mac, whatever your running). I also recommend using the official iPhone dev software HERE, or alternatively WinPwn (which does use quickpwn for windows as one of the options).
If your device is already jailbroken you have a few options. Although I would hope that if it is jailbroken, your already somewhat of an expert on the topic, and you might not be reading this FAQ.
- You can factory restore your device (with iTunes) and put the latest firmware on your device, then jailbreak it again.
- You can use PwnageTool on the mac, which can jailbreak from one firmware to another without having to use iTunes [can somebody with a mac verify this statement for me? I’m pretty sure this is true]
- You can use WinPwn on windows, which again, can upgrade your jailbreak firmware to the latest jailbroken firmware, while still keeping your precious data
- You can use other obscure, convoluted ways of jailbreaking/hacking your iPhone, but they can induce unneeded stress, so I would recommend sticking with the iPhone dev teams software (or WinPwn).
That being said, I still recommend you backup and sync your iPhone with your iTunes before performing any procedure of jailbreaking, just in case something goes awry and you end up having to factory reset (it happens). But the good news is usually when stuff goes wrong when jailbreaking, all it requires is Restoring to Factory settings and your back to where you started from, and you can attempt the jailbreak again (see previous question).
Lastly, a few resources that you may want to read/watch before jailbreaking to build your confidence.
- iPhoneincanada.ca - This guy goes through the steps, and posts a video of himself performing the jailbreak, so you can watch it and get familiar with the process. Also read comments on the page for potentially useful information.
- iPhone-hacks.com Windows / Mac - both these posts are informative, with steps to perform. Additionally the comments people submit can be helpful, especially if you encounter a problem, somebody who posted the comment may have, and also found a solution.
I’m sure there are probably more useful resources out there, but I found these two helpful.
So I’ve jailbroken, now what?
You will have two new icons, Cydia, and Installer. If you’ve tried linux before, these two icons are basically graphical frontends to repositories, like Synaptic, for debian, or YaST (opensuse), or… well you get the point. If you have no clue what that last sentence explained, then think of Cydia and Installer as programs, which can access multiple warehouses, each containing software for your iPhone/iPodTouch. Some of these warehouses may have unique applications, some may have duplicates. The good thing about Cydia and Installer, is they sort of compile a giant list of all the warehouses, in a nice categorized form for you to search and choose what to download.
So might I suggest browsing around in these two package management systems, checkout their features. One thing to note, upon opening Cydia the first time, it might “categorize” your stuff and you will see the spinning loading thing for a couple minutes. No worries, let it complete and then you can continue as if you were never interrupted.
What software should I install?
Well everybody is different, and will use their iPhone for different things, so its purely up to you. One utility that I highly recommend, regardless of how you use your device is the BossPrefs (I think it works for iPodTouch as well, but don’t quote me on that). You can get it from Cydia, in the Featured/Popular section. If you also want to apply some cool themes, get Winterboard, or if your Springboard (desktop) is crowded with icons from the iTunes App Store, then I recommend Categories. So browse around, lots of the apps have detailed descriptions of what they do so you can read about them before you download.
Why both Installer and Cydia?
Installer was used back in the day, when iPhone was released over a year ago, and iPodTouch shortly after [my facts could be wrong, it may have been same time]. Installer was the “must have” application on your jailbroken iPhone/iPodTouch when firmware was 1.x.x. It was a package management system for the iPhone. It had it’s glory days, but those are behind it. When the firmware 2.0 came out it kind of left Installer in the dust, Cydia was developed, which is a package management system for debian packages (frontend for aptitude). In fewer words, since firmware 2.0, Cydia has become the dominant package management system, and even though an Installer 4 was released by a russian dev team, Cydia still takes the crown (I think so). However for now, both are still packaged with the jailbreaking pwnage/quickpwn tools to give the user the most robust selection of applications.
That being said there probably are people still running iPodTouches, and iPhone on firmware versions 1.x.x and are still using Installer.app (Installer 3), because there are still a lot of repositories packed with software for the older firmware versions.
If you want more information about the topic visit: Here, Here, and Here (this last one are the devs who make and maintain Installer 4. Unfortunately no english, but if you speak one of those languages then feel free to satisfy your curiosity).
Which one do I use?
I’d say both. You will see a lot of programs that are duplicates but some are unique to Installer 4 and some are unique to Cydia. There’s no harm keeping them both and using whatever one you need to at any particular time.
How do I find and add sources to Installer or Cydia?
This is one area that gave me a lot of headache at first. There are lots of websites that have Huge lists of Installer sources, as well as lists of apps that are on them. However I have found that 90% of all these website have the sources for Installer.app (or Installer 3). So adding these sources is useless, because Installer 4 cannot “Decode” the packages. As of now, there is a very short list of Installer 4 compliant sources (repositories), but two helpful websites I found that list some are:
- iPhoneinCanada.ca - list of Installer 4 and Cydia sources/repositories
- Installer Apps - Just has a small list of Installer 4 sources, and quite a comprehensive list of Installer.app (Installer 3) sources.
One website that looks awesome is http://iappcat.com/, however it unfortunately doesn’t work at all for Installer 4, so don’t waste your time.
After you have a source you want to add (sources look almost like website addresses), its quite simple to add them.
- In Installer, at the main screen you will see a button at the bottom right that says “Sources”. You add your sources in there. Also to note that every time installer launchers, you sill see your Tasks have a superscript number appear, and count down. That means that it is refreshing the list of apps from the repository (checking if there’s new software).
- In Cydia, click “Manage”, near the bottom right. Then slick the large Sources button. Then press “Edit” in the upper right, and then “Add” in upper left. The rest I think you can figure out.
How do I FTP stuff to my device?
Well you won’t actually use FTP, but SFTP. And you SFTP to your iPhone/iPodTouch through an SSH channel. In order to SSH to the iPhone you must install OpenSSH. You can install it through Cydia. After it is installed all you have to do is open up BossPrefs, connect to your WiFi network, and turn SSH on. Then you can connect to your iPhone with an FTP client. Most FTP clients support SFTP, but for windows a free client that works for me is FileZilla. Then just connect to the IP address of your iPhone (it should say the IP in the WiFi settings), username is root and password is alpine (note back in 1st gen ipod with 1.x firmware I think the password used to be dottie, but it has since then changed.
How do I Install applications to jailbroken devices?
Well this will bring me to a list of 5 most common ways, which actually took me a while to figure out.
- Use the App Store of course. This is the way that apple of course prefers people install applications to their iPhone/iPodTouch device. Any other method isn’t officially supported.
- Use Cydia. This package management system is a front end for the aptitude system, which uses debian packages for program distribution. Again fairly straightforward.
- Use Installer. Again, another package management system. Also fairly straight forward.
- Use SSH (SFTP) with a *.app folder. After you do a little searching around you may find websites that distribute programs by *.app. So with *.app all you really have to do is Copy the *.app folder over to your /Applications folder. I was confused at first because I didn’t have an exact ‘/Applications’ Folder. but in your FTP client, as long as you type /Applications and press enter in the address bar. It should bring you to the correct location. Mine looked like /Applications.XXXXXX where the X’s are upper and lower case letters, with maybe numbers, I can’t remember. So after you move the folder over, you just set the File Attributes (chmod) the *.app folder you just copied to 755 or 777. Either work I think, heck 775 probably works as well. A More comprehensive guide can be found HERE (look in the FAQ)
- For *.ipa, it is a bit more intensive. *.ipa are usually official iTunes App Store files, and so you may have seen them before. However when installing them onto jailbroken iPhones there is an extra step, which is also documented HERE (again look in the FAQ)
You may also find that when using the manual install methods, the program icon shows up correctly, but when you click on it, it either “appears” to load, then brings you back to springboard, or some other wierd thing happens. Couple of things to check are: if you CHModded the *.app directory, maybe reboot your iPhone (BossPrefs > Power button can reboot), the app might just be old and can’t run under firmware 2.X.X, or just bad luck and you can remove the program and try again.
What is Springboard?
It is basically the fancy desktop on your iPhone. When you reload springboard, it is kind of when you “refresh desktop” on windows. Refreshing springboard checks for new programs that may have been installed, and displays the icons.
Why does Installer say “Unable to Decode”?
Because the source you are trying to install is Installer.app (Installer 3). It is old, not really supported in the newer firmware, and most likely the programs on the old source also cannot be installed on the new firmware. So just give up on the source if you see that message.
When I manually installed *.app, I can see the icon, but the program never loads, just kicks me back to spring board?
I kind of mentioned this above but here goes again. Couple of things to check are: if you CHModded the *.app directory, maybe reboot your iPhone (BossPrefs > Power button can reboot), the app might just be old and can’t run under firmware 2.X.X, or just bad luck and you can remove the program and try again.
Resources
http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ - Official iphone dev website (Quickpwn and PwnageTool)
http://www.appleiphoneapps.com/
http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/
http://www.iphonehacks.com/
http://www.iphone-hacks.com/
http://www.installerapps.com/
http://ipodtouched.net/
http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/
Loading ...
[…] and i need a pros & cons of jailbreaking 3G iPhone Thanks Windows Guide to JBing a 3G. FAQ for JB __________________ No Rain - No Rainbows It is not automatically a stupid question, just […]
Leave Comment