iPhone Hacking - Activation, Jailbreak, Unlock, Bootloader Downgrade, SummerBoard and Customize on 1.1.3
Posted by Mr. IT Guy | Filed under Howto, IT in General, Mac OSX, Microsoft
I finally take the plunge and bought an iPhone. For starters, I do not like AT&T and decided to jailbreak, unlock and customize it. First of all, jailbreak and unlock. After GeoHot released the unlocking tools on Feb 8, 2008, there’s a sudden influx in iPhone unlocking tool. The one I recommend and has used before is ZiPhone (download link). ZiPhone is released by Zibri and is also available with the OSX GUI version (download link). This tool will activate, jailbreak, unlock, downgrade bootloader, change imei, recover bricked iphone, and etc, any version of iPhone currently available (up to 1.1.3).
Here’s what I do in the beginning:
- Upgrade Iphone to firmware 1.1.3
- Run the ZiPhone software with -j -u -a -b flags enabled to activate, jailbreak, unloack and downgrade bootloader
That’s all that’s needed to activate, unlock, jailbreak, and downgrade the bootloader of my brand new iPhone (1.1.2 OOTB). This will also install the Installer application. The Installer applications allows the ease of downloading/installing of software from the software repositories.
First order of business there are a couple of software that needs to be installed to lay the groundwork for other hacks. To install these software, tap on Installer -> Install -> All Packages and tap on the following packages:
- BSD Subsystem
- openSSH
- Communicty Sources
After installing these software, I proceed to install SummerBoard and Customize for audio/visual customization. There are, however, some snags/problems with the 1.1.3 firmware. Some SummerBoard themes installs in the old folder and I need to use a patched version of Customize specifically for 1.1.3 firmware. I started by adding a new repository for the patched Customize.
- Tap on Installer -> Sources
- Tap on Edit -> Add
- Type “http://www.touchrepo.com/repo.xml” (without quotes) then click OK
Repeat the same thing, but this time for the following repository: “http://sleepers.net/iphonerepo”. After adding those repositories, I installed both Customize and Summerboard. Up next is fixing the path for SummerBoard. Themes for SummerBoard need to go to /var/mobile/Library/SummerBoard/Themes, but Installer puts the non-updated themes under /var/root/Library/SummerBoard/Themes. There are two solutions to this problem. First, you can move them manually every time after installing non-updated themes, or move everything for the first time and create a symlink. The latter requires some unix command line knowledge.
First open up the BossPref Application and make sure that SSH is turned on, then use a Terminal (on Mac/Linux) or Putty (on Windows) to connect to the iPhone. For Terminal users, start from line 1, Putty users starts from line 2
- ssh root@IP.IP.IP.IP
NOTE: Replace IP.IP.IP.IP with the IP address of your iPhone - cd /var/root/Library/SummerBoard/Themes/
- mv * /var/mobile/Library/SummerBoard/Themes/
- cd ..
- rmdir Themes
- ln -s /var/mobile/Library/SummerBoard/Themes Themes
- exit
Now that both SummerBoard and Customize has been completely installed, you can install their themes from the Installer application. Stay tuned for the next post on uploading custom ringtones and SMS notification for iPhone 1.1.3
UPDATE:I forget to define what each terms means. Activation is to allow the iPhone to use the GSM service. Jailbreak is to allow the phone to add 3rd party applications. Unlock is to allow it to use any other SIM card other than what the phone is locked to (i.e. AT&T in the US). Downgrading the bootloader helps to prevent future upgrade breaking the unlock and helps to stabilize the phone when using a foreign SIM card.
UPDATE: Some SummerBoard themes also doesn’t install with the correct permission level. You should use Terminal or Putty and run the following command “chmod -R 755 /var/mobile/Library/SummerBoard/Themes”
Tags: activation, hacking, iphone, Linux, mac, Mac OSX, ssh, tools, unlock, windows
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