Jailbreak iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Last Geohot’s post on his blog reveals that he will not release any new tool for jailbreak or unlock in the near future. Moreover, he said that he misses those old days, when jailbreaking was a hard work to do:

“…Sorry, this post was probably a bad idea. Next time I won’t say anything. I miss when this blog was actually about technical things (I’ve been reacting too much to the feedback, which led it to the place it’s in now). I didn’t fully realize most of the current scene don’t care unless they are getting something. Now I do. It’s late tonight, I’ll think about what to do about this in the morning.

The real reason behind no release isn’t technical. It’s just that it will never stop, after blackra1n, people demand unlock, after blacksn0w, people demand untethered. I miss the days when jailbreaking and unlocking were difficult, it attracted a much higher caliber crowd.

Also, to the haters, the picture is quite obviously fake.”

Many people have immediately started to buzz that it may be an indication of Geohot’s retirement. Other decided that it is just some kind of a trick and the picture above is not a fake indeed. Hope they’re right.

MuscleNerd, famous hacker from DevTeam, has announced via Twitter that an upcoming comex release will jailbreak all 4.0 devices. This will include latest iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, new iPod Touch and iPad.

jailbreak for all devices at 4.0 is already handled by upcoming @comex release so, good time for iphone4 unlock stuff

Comex is also well-known, he authored the 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 jailbreak called Spirit. He’s also recently demonstrated Frash, an upcoming release of Flash for the iPhone and iPad.

iPad USB Camera Connection Kit is much more useful as it seems. Max Sha, an experienced user, was able to access external hard drive with this kit. All you need is a jailbroken iPad, an external drive, a split-USB cable to give the drive some power and a terminal of some sort (f.e. MacBook) to mount the external storage. While it is a little unwieldy, it shows that Terabytes of external storage for iPad is possible.

Here is a complete step-by-step guide from Max Sha:

For starters, you will need to do the following:

1. Have an external hard drive formatted to either HFS or FAT32. NOTE: All data will be erased!

2. Perform the Spirit Jailbreak.

3. In Cydia, install iFile ($4.00 for full version, but there is also a free trial) and OpenSSH (free)

4. As well, install the “Nano” terminal text edit from Cydia.

5. For this particular example Max used GoodReader app for iPad ($0.99).

Now you can begin the process of mounting your hard drive. You will need external power for the drive. If you have an external drive with power (one that has a USB port and an external power supply) you won’t need to worry about this. If you have external drive with just an USB cord you will need a split USB cord.

1. Open “Settings” on your iPad to find your IP address (make sure you’re on the same network as your iPad).

2. Open Terminal, on your Mac (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). On Windows you can use Putty.

3. At the prompt, SSH into your iPad with the IP address you found in the “Settings” app (make sure OpenSSH is installed!), with the following:

ssh root@[iPad IP address]

For you first time users, the password for your root account will be “alpine”. NOTE: Please change your password ASAP. To do this, once you’ve logged in VIA Terminal, type the following into the command prompt:

passwd root

You will then be prompted for a new password. Please do the same for your “mobile” user as well, by doing the following:

passwd mobile

4. Now, type the following, in Terminal:

mkdir /Volumes
mkdir /Volumes/EXT
ln -s /Volumes/EXT /var/mobile/EXT
nano /var/stash/Applications.xxxxxx/iFile.app/Info.plist (“xxxxxx” is a series of numbers after “Applications”. If you type “/var/stash/Applications” and hit the “Tab” key, it will fill in the rest for you).

5. The nano text editor will now open. Please add the following lines below the first “<dict>”, in the document (this makes iFile look much better on the iPad):

<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
<array>
<integer>1</integer>
<integer>2</integer>
</array>

6. Then hit “Ctrl+x”. Followed by “Y”, and then “Enter”. This will save the changes that you made.

7. Now, reboot your iPad. You will notice that your SSH connection will have closed, in Terminal. Re-open terminal, when the iPad reboots, and follow steps 1-3 (without reseting the passwords again).

8. Open iFile, and go into the settings. It is recommended to have the settings set as shown below. The most important is enabling “Application Names”. Hit “Done”. Close out of iFile by hitting the Home button. Restart iFile.

9. In iFile, navigate to “/Volumes/”. Then, select the “Edit” button, in the top right.

10. Check the circle next to the “EXT” folder you created in “Step 4″.

11. Click the “Box with an arrow”, in the bottom right. In the dialogue box that opens, select “Copy/Link”.

12. In iFile, Navigate to “var/mobile/Applications/”. You should now see the names of applications above the actual folder names. Navigate to the “GoodReader” folder, then the “Documents” folder.

13. Click the “Edit” button again. And then click the “Box with an arrow”, in the bottom right. Click the “Create Link” button. You should now see the “EXT” folder. Hit “Done” in the upper right.

14. Now, connect your iPad Camera Connection Kit.

15. Take your hard drive and plug the secondary port into a power supply (in this case, Macbook Pro). Then, plug the main USB port into the iPad. You may see a message similar to “Insufficient power to mount this drive” error message on the iPad. With an external power supply, it should be much more convenient. NOTE: You MUST plug in the external power supply first, or else the iPad will not mount the drive.

16. Now, lets go back to terminal. Type:

ls /dev

What you’re looking for here is the file “disk1s1″. If that does not show up, try steps 15-16 again. If you see “disk1s1″, proceed to step 17.

17. For a FAT32 formatted drive, type the following, into terminal:

mount -t msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT

It will take a few seconds, and then return you to the command prompt. For an HFS drive, type the following:

mount -t HFS /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT

18. You are now good to go! You can now access the files in either iFile, or GoodReader. As an example of how to manipulate the files, watch the video below.

19. To unmount the drive, type the following, in Terminal:

umount /dev/disk1s1

20. That’s all!

Here is a video demonstration:

Many thanks to Max Sha!

Finally the jailbreak for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch from the Dev Team is available for download. It’s free and untethered and it’s called “Spirit”. The jailbreak supports every iDevice with firmware version 3.1.2, 3.1.3 or 3.2.

If you have iPhone 3GS or an iPad you should backup your SHSH blobs before using the jailbreak. ECID SHSH or SHSH blob is a unique signature given to every Apple mobile device. When you decide to restore the firmware on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, Apple servers checks this signature.

As you know, if a new firmware is released it becomes impossible to restore the older firmware from iTunes. But Cydia creator tuned up a new server and now it mimics Apple’s verification server and saves your older SHSH blobs so that you can restore back your device to the older firmware. Without having your SHSH blobs saved you may accidentally update new firmware and then you not only lose your jailbreak but also won’t be able to restore the older firmware to re-jailbreak your device.

This is also important because there is a big possibility that Apple will soon find out what exploit is used by the jailbreak and then it will be patched in the form of new firmware.

You can save your SHSH blob in three ways. Here is a guide to make it using AutoSHSH.

1. Download AutoSHSH. (Latest version is here).



2. Start AutoSHSH and plug in you iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad in recovery mode (only one device at a time). Recovery mode launches when you turn off your device and hold down the “Home” button when connecting the USB cable. Then you must see “Connect to iTunes” message and logo on your device.



3. In AutoSHSH click on “Grab my SHSH Blobs Automatically”. When the app will grab the signature you must choose whether you want to save it locally or not. Do not forget where you saved the signature. In the end of the procedure AutoSHSH will also upload it to saurik’s server.

If you have some problems with using AutoSHSH to save your blobs, write it in comments or try saurik’s method or Firmware Umbrella instead.

Now, when you saved you SHSH blobs, you can make the jailbreak. It is recommended for you to sync your device with iTunes beforehand. Then use the following guide:

1. Download “Spirit” (link for Windows, link for Mac OS X).
2. Plug in your device (it will be instantly recognized).
3. Hit the “Jailbreak” button.

That’s all!

Additionally here is a video tutorial for jailbreaking:

Please note that Spirit is not a carrier unlock so it won’t allow you to use unauthorized wireless carriers. The jailbreak is also “sort of beta”, so it may be buggy. DevTeam notifies that some apps in Cydia that are NOT designed for iPad may crash your system and require you to restore so be careful.

This is good news for for those who use Cydia, an alternative to Apple’s AppStore for jailbreaked iPhones and iPod Touches. Saurik has uploaded a new version of APT that has an optimized cache generator and greatly improves Cydia performance:

“I also uploaded a new version of APT I’ve been working on: it has an optimized cache generator and more error tolerant repository parsing.”

When launching Cydia the next time you will find updates for some APT packages (up to 3 depending on what you have installed). Perform the install and enjoy the speed improvements!

The number of jailbreak utilities for iPhones and iPod Touches with the latest iBoot is dramatically increasing. All of them are FAKE. Some of them will fill your computer with viruses, which is not good.

gull1hack, spartanbr3ak, br0k3n_appl3 are just some of these new programs that in one way or another deceive the user and then run malicious code. We therefore ask you to stay away from ANY such software. Some time in the future GeoHot or DevTeam will release new jailbreak and unlock software. Other than that is fake and dangerous. Install only programs you trust or the ones recommended by iPhoneRoot.

Here is a twitter comment from DevTeam:

It is known, that iPad has a restrictive DRM shackles, which makes Apple the only available supplier of software for this device. So if you buy an iPad, you will have to download software only from the Apple’s AppStore. Yes, there is a big possibility of jailbreaking the gadget within the first 48 hours after its shipping since it’s based on the already jailbroken OS iPhone, but still this is not the best way of downloading applications for most of the people.

There are people, who disagree with a DRM-based strategy of software distribution. Some of them created an Anti-DRM group named Defective by Design. They told us they created an online petition that has been signed for 8,800 times since its inception 4 days ago. DbD has already sent off their first 5,000 signatures in the form of a giant postcard, which is in the photo above.

DbD’s operations manager John Sullivan says their main target is to get Apple to remove DRM and DRM enforcement from all its media and software. This is especially valuable for the iPad designed to be widely used by non-technical people who might not be aware of DRM.

- What Apple is doing with software is quite different. This is a scary step … as Apple move towards this model in the future,

said Sullivan.

Redsn0w is a cross-platform jailbreaking tool for iPhone and iPod Touch. New version redsn0w 0.9.2 supports the latest firmware 3.1.2.

redsn0w 0.9.2 supports:

• All iPhones and iPod touches
• Windows and Mac OSX (x86)
• Apple firmwares 3.0 and 3.1.2

We expect to see Linux version quite soon.

If you need a carrier unlock, redsn0w will handle iPhone 2G by itself (by installing the BootNeuter utility). For the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS use Cydia after you’re jailbroken to install ultrasn0w (baseband 04.26) or blacksn0w (baseband 05.11).

If you have a late-model iPhone 3GS, or if you have an iPod touch 2G whose serial number begins with “MC” (newer than week 40 of last year), or any iPod touch 3G, you can use redsn0w to jailbreak but you are currently restricted to “tethered” rebooting. That means you need to connect your device to a computer each time you boot it – so just try no to reboot.

You can download the latest version of redsn0w here.

Redsn0w is a cross-platform jailbreaking, unlocking, and customizing tool for iPhone and iPod Touch. New version redsn0w 0.9b3 supports the latest firmware 3.1.2. The most recent release before this one was redsn0w 0.8, which targeted Apple firmware 3.0/3.0.1.

redsn0w 0.9 beta3 supports:

• All iPhones and iPod touches except the iPod touch 3G
• Windows and Mac OSX (x86)
• Apple firmwares 3.0-3.1.2

When it’s out of beta, it will support the iPod touch 3G, PPC OSX, and Linux.

If you need a carrier unlock, redsn0w will handle iPhone 2G by itself (by installing the BootNeuter utility). For the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS use Cydia after you’re jailbroken to install ultrasn0w (baseband 04.26) or blacksn0w (baseband 05.11).

If you have a late-model iPhone 3GS, or if you have an iPod touch 2G whose serial number begins with “MC” (newer than week 40 of last year), you can use redsn0w to jailbreak but you are currently restricted to “tethered” rebooting. That means you need to connect your device to a computer each time you boot it – so just try no to reboot.

You can download redsn0w 0.9b3 here.

iH8Sn0w has released a beta of Sn0wbreeze a software utility which jailbreaks the iPod Touch 1G, 2G and iPhone 2G, 3G, and 3GS (old bootrom & non MC). The software runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7 (32 or 64 bit). Sn0wbreeze is similar to PwnageTool for Mac. It will allow you to create custom ipsws which can be built to include Cydia applications and personalized boot logos.

At this time BlackRa1n is still recommended for Windows users with firmware 3.1.2 and RedSn0w for earlier firmwares.