iPhone: Experiences and Recommendations for Jailbreaking the 1.1.1 Firmware…not for the weak!

Update #2 on 10.15.07 @ 11:25 AM PST – iNdependence download link updated to 1.2.2. Note warning from developer.  Update #1 on 10.13.07 @ 11:12 AM PST – new links for instructions; further clarification on items Yesterday there were a flurry of announcements around the successful creation of various ways…

Written By
Michael Sheehan
Published On
October 11, 2007

Update #2 on 10.15.07 @ 11:25 AM PST – iNdependence download link updated to 1.2.2. Note warning from developer. 

Update #1 on 10.13.07 @ 11:12 AM PST – new links for instructions; further clarification on items

Yesterday there were a flurry of announcements around the successful creation of various ways to Jailbreak iPhones that have firmware 1.1.1 installed. And, yesterday, I vowed to hold off for a while before I attempted it myself. I guess for me, “a while” is about 12 hours (grin). There were a couple of different sources that I found with fairly good information. iPhoneAtlas had one, Engadget had a few, one with the TIFF exploit, and iPhoneAlley had one.

- Advertisements -

Update: Here is another good source for instructions. I have not tried these but I HAVE scanned through them and they look like they are more designed towards Windows users. However. the moving (versus copying) of the media is better, I think, than the Trip2Prepz application (see more details below). There is ANOTHER good set of instructions at iPhoneHacks.com listed here.

DISCLAIMER

First a big disclaimer. This is NOT for the weak hearted, nor for someone that doesn’t know something about SSH, Linux commands, FTP and thinking outside of the box. If you screw up your iPhone, it is your own fault, not mine, nor anyone that I might reference here.

Do at your own risk!

GETTING READY

First some info. My experience started out ok, following the steps, but then drastically diverted from those steps as I ran into all sorts of complications and issues. It got really scary, really quickly! What follow are my recommendations. They might or might not work for you.

I started with the instructions from iPhoneAtlas. I recommend downloading the package that they reference, namely:

http://conceitedsoftware.com/iphone/1.1.1-jailbreak.zip

Save that file away. I created a specific directory to for all of the 1.1.1 firmware.

Be sure that you get a copy of the Firmware 1.0.2 from Apple and have that handy. It is located here:

Restore Firmware 1.0.2

Then be sure to get the latest version of AppTapp insaller. The version that I used was 3.1.

Installer.app ver. 3.1

Be sure to download iNdependence as you will need it to install SSH on your iPhone the “easy” way. I have updated the link to version 1.2.2 released on 10/15. Note from developers:

Please note that if you have used anySIM or other free SIM unlocking solutions (anything except for the iPhoneSimFree solution), and you upgrade to 1.1.1, it will wipe out the SIM unlock and render the phone and text message part of your phone inoperable. Everything else will work though.

iNdependence 1.2.2 [updated]

Get a good FTP server that can do secure FTP. The recommendation is Cyberduck (which worked great for me).

Cyberduck 2.8

That should be all of the files that you need, I believe. Keep them all in a directory so that you have easy access.

INSTRUCTIONS

I will NOT go into the steps that I took, mainly because I had to do it TWICE and each time it was DIFFERENT. What I WILL do is offer some pointers and tips that may help you get through this process…for me, it wasn’t pretty.

There are 2 sources that I used for my instructions. The first was a 10 page (printed) document that is contained in the 1.1.1-jailbreak.zip package called “README” (aka “Doc1”). The second was the iPhoneAlley article (aka “Doc2”). What I ended up doing is using sections from each one.

Downgrading the firmware

So, to start, you can use Doc1 or Doc2 to do the first step of Downgrading to 1.0.2 Firmware. I tried both and the steps are pretty similar.

Note: I would recommend unchecking the synching of all of your media (e.g., music, podcasts and video). Also be sure you download all of your Photos because you might lose them. Then be sure to sync again without your media. The process goes faster if you use Trip2Prepz application that is listed in many of the instruction.

Just some things that I ran into. The error that you will probably see is “Unknown Error 1013”. Both steps talked about using the Trip1Prepz application to create the Symbolic link (Symlink). I had an issue with this part and almost had to do it the manual way (as listed in Step 1 in Doc1). What happened with me was that the installation of Trip1Prepz froze at about 15-20% done. This happened to me many many times. I read on the iPhoneAlley forum that the same thing had happened to someone else, but no one had responded. I figured out how to get it to work. The thing that I did WRONG was not disconnect from iTunes when I ran the Trip1Prepz installer. When disconnected from iTunes, the installation went very fast.

The reason this is taking so long using Trip2Prepz is because this process is COPYING the media directory instead of MOVING it. Perhaps that application will be updated to do a MV command. So, while I haven’t tried this, just let it work through copying. However, if you have removed all of your media from your iPhone, it will go MUCH faster. That is what I would recommend.

Also, you might want to use the SSH commands listed in the fiveforty.net iPhone Dev Wiki – source #3 added today – instead of using Trip2Prepz application.

Another strange thing that happened during the install process was that when the iPhone connected to iTunes at this point, it suddenly didn’t show the full storage capacity of my iPhone (4 gigs) but rather, only 300 MB of which most of it was used. This happened to me twice actually and to a friend of mine (as well as appearing on the forums). Let me tell you now, this is EXPECTED BEHAVIOR and will show the proper amount at the end of the road (unless you had the strange experience that I had which I will explain at the end).

Doing the Update

Either Doc1 (Step #2) or Doc2 (Step #4) work fine for this. No issue here except DON’T click Restore, click Update. (Note that in Doc2, it says Upgrade and not Update…that is a typo.)

Forcing Read-Write/Jailbreaking

With this step, I actually preferred and liked the steps listed in Doc1 more than Doc2. Mainly because of the iphuc-jailbreak files. I had tried the ones in Doc2 but it didn’t want to work very well. So, do the one in Doc1. If you know nothing about using the Terminal app on a Mac, here is a little tip. You need to run the commands from in the directory where they are listed. The easiest way to change to that directory is to do this, in terminal, type “cd” and then drag the folder that contains the iPHUC-jailbreak apps onto the terminal. It will automatically paste in the path to that directory. Saves you a bit of time. Stick to the steps in Doc1.

Installing SSH

Doc1’s approach was pretty complicated so I elected to go with Doc2 and using iNdependence. Follow step 6 in Doc2 and things will work fine. One thing first…in order to get the IP address of your iPhone, the easiest way to do that is to be sure that you are connected to a WiFi network. Then get on your iPhone (or your wireless router) and get its IP address. You will need this IP address for the SSH-ing. Also, another tip, if you need to delete your “known_hosts” file, you need to get into Terminal again and type this: “cd /Users/yourusername/.ssh/” and then type “ls” to see if the fiel “known_hosts” exists. If it does, then type “rm known_hosts” and that will delete the file. Also, if you still have issues with SSH complaining about a connection, restart your your iphone and reconnect to your Mac.

Installing AppTapp

Again, I stuck to Doc2 for this part. It made the most sense and just worked. It actually was pretty neat to see how you can execute a command via SSH and launch things on your iPhone. Anyway, once that was done, I was golden, with a Jailbroken 1.1.1 iPhone…or so I thought.

ISSUES AFTER THE FACT

The first time I did this process, it took about 1.5 hours. I had a lot of different issues which is part of the reason why I bounced back and forth between different instructions. If anyone has issues, feel free to leave a comment and I will see if I had a solution or not.

But there ware another interesting thing that showed up after my first time through that caused me to do it again. When I reconnected the “final product” to iTunes, there was over 1 gig of space being used by “Other”. I had turned off the synching of photos, music, podcasts and video and had checked to make sure that I had deleted all deleted email and had the calendar set to only “go back 30 days” (these were recommendations that others had made to make the Other space go down). Unfortunately this did not help.

So, I decided to go through the entire process again, mainly because I thought I had made a mistake. After going through it again, my 1 gig of “Other” space had disappeared. Great! But then I started noticing some other things. Preferences were not complete (e.g., like some of my email prefs)…but this was not the only strange things. After the first time through, I noticed that many of my 3rd party apps had “remembered” my settings, which I thought was strange. The second time through, those 3rd party apps “forgot” my previous settings and some of my other settings were gone.

What do I make of this? I think that either I messed up in the initial install, or somehow there was some legacy information left behind…1 gig worth in my case. I found it interesting that after upgrading from 1.0.2 to 1.1.1 previously (no Jailbreak), my login image (desktop image) stayed. It was set using a 3rd Party app. This picture remained there until my 2nd install and then it was reset to the default Earth.

WRAPPING IT UP

Well, thanks for reading through this. Hope it may have helped you. It was another one of those sweaty palm experiences but in the end, for me, quite successful. REMEMBER, doing anything here can seriously mess up your iPhone and potentially brick it. You assume the risk. Apple doesn’t condone it and I post it here purely for “educational” purposes.

Post back your experiences and questions!

[poll=4]

HTD says: This was NOT an easy one…but I’m back with my 3rd Party Apps!,

- Advertisements -