For some reason, all the sudden, I have had a lot of email support questions on problem installing several packages on Icy. If you have jailbroken and installed only Icy, you need to search for “pwnage” in Icy, and install the Icy Pwnage Bundle Fix. This will solve many install issues. Very important, those of [...]

Edit (Aug 10): Added v0.99 into the beta repository as a 1.0 release candidate. I fixed a couple issues:

• Large camera roll images are too zoomed to see them
• Added solid color option (by request)
• Fixed broken longer time durations (like in hours) so that the image would change even though you lock the device and load apps in that time frame.

I have done some testing on 2.2.1 with BossPaper. It *mostly* works but there are a few problems: 1) The image doesn’t stop rotating because the springboard API to detect when an app is loaded changed. 2) Some settings app gui problems 3) My routine to copy dock is broken. I am not sure how much effort I am going to take to fix these things.

As it stands, I plan to release v1.0 as 3.0 only sometime later tonight baring any major issues with 0.99 reported. So far all issues seem minor.

————–

I have released a new BossPaper to the beta repository tonight. If there are no major issues, I will open this up by adding it to the main repository later this week. There are still a few things to be done, but the major feature is added: allowing to select individual images. Here are the changes for v0.95:

• Used better randomization algorithm. The images seemed to be repeating too often.
• When locked, image was switching one more time. Fixed this so that the image did not switch on lock.
• Added sequential ordering option to show images in order rather than randomize.
• Added Wallpapers folder to images to select folders.
• Added some explanation on dock replacement screen when winterboard is installed that winterboard will be used to replace the dock.
• Added single image(s) selection. You can select images by browsing the folders on the flash disk. If both images and folders are selected, all will be rotated. If you have folders selected, you must delete them if you wish to show only images. You can also preview the images.
• Made the prefs app switch paper when closed if a preference reload is required so the user “feels” like something is happening.
• Took some extra steps to make sure no timer is running if only 1 image is selected.
• Added a “delete all” button for image mode. (Note this button is intentionally difficult to press).

Here is the current status:

Bug Reports:

1) Icon labels are grey – Status: Investigating.This is default color of icons. Winterboard themes make this white. I have not yet decided if I want to touch this.

2) Lag introduced on springboard when not using fade transition – Status: Investigating. I cannot reproduce this at this point.

Feature Requests:

1) White icon label switch – Status: Investigating. Theoretically this could get into “let me choose the icon label color” which was out of scope for the project since it focuses on wallpapers, but I may do it anyway.

2) Lockscreen wallpaper – Status: Investigating.

3) Release for 2.2 – Status: Investigating.

4) Cube Transition – Status: Investigating. (I do not want to use any opengles in springboard).

5) Lock Screen Wallpaper With home button to change – Status Investigating. I like this idea and will probably get to it.

Issues reported closed out:
1) Cydia issue after installing BossPaper – Status: Closed. This is an unrelated issue. See other Cydia bug reports. The comments in this post (not the post itself) offer suggestions for resolving these issues.

2) Theme Icons – Status Closed. Icon theming is out of scope and makes bosspaper become a full winterboard replacement. I may, however, create something that allows for a pick-and-choose for various winterboard themes (this is on my todo list).

3) Image swaps while on lock screen – Status: Closed. This was not a battery issue. The image just changed one more time. I fixed it in the latest 0.95 anyway (mainly to avoid emails by concerned users). If this is a battery issue, I will consider it urgent for a fix.

4) Dock swap is confusing – Status: Closed. Added some text to the new version explaining that if winterboard is installed, winterboard handles the dock swap with a theme added by BossPaper.

5) Allow for sequential display not just random – Status: Closed. Implemented in v0.95.

6) Allow single image select – Status: Closed. Implemented in v0.95. In addition, you can pick and choose any number of images not just one. (Or just one if you want).

7) Import from stock wallpaper folder - Status: Closed. Implemented in v0.95.

iPhone OS v3.0.1 is out. So far jailbreaking works if you use dev team tools redsn0w and even ultrasn0w. Purplera1n fails. I would recommend holding off the update though. It will not offer you much, if anything, and the current jailbreak state will most likely result in a 3.0 kernel on 3.0.1. In a few days a real jailbreak tool will be released. For those of you that can’t resist, you can update and jailbreak using the guides on this site. Just point redsn0w to your 30 firmware. This works for 2g, 3g, and 3gs.

Not recommended at this time. Good news that Apple hasn’t cracked down on the 3gs hole yet.

Edit: Results based on comments:

1) Some people find disabling EDGE as is in SBSettings works fine. (These folks probably have push disabled and are not using any apps that have notifications / push services.)

2) Some people find this method did work for them.

3) Some people find that a fake APN works for them without battery drain. Others experience massive battery drain.

Unfortunately, we still don’t have a solution that can be implemented yet.

————————–

Disabling EDGE on iPhone v3.0 has been very hard. It’s still not certain, but after some testing and user reported success (a big thank you to Jorge Rendon!). The main reason the EDGE toggle in SBSettings and BossPrefs hasnt been updated is because I have not known what it takes exactly to disable EDGE on 3.0. The problem is that the OS reenables it. If you “mess up” your APN, the OS goes crazy trying to enable it draining your battery in about 90 minutes from full charge. So that’s not the way either. These steps do seem to work, however. Give them a try. If the reports are mostly positive, I will integrate this into the EDGE toggle.

1) Open settings app and disable Notifications. These appear directly under carrier, if you have them. They only appear if you have installed an appstore app that requires push. If you don’t have these, skip this step.

2) Disable push mail fetch.

3) Disable EDGE using SBSettings

4) Load settings app, enable airplane mode. Wait at least 10 seconds.

5) Load settings app and disable airplane mode. Wait for you to get service again.

6) Load SBSettings. You should have no Data IP (IP N/A).

7) Try using safari on Data. It should fail. Wait a bit, Load SBSettings your data IP should remain N/A.

Feel free to test this. If you get a Data IP address, you have indication that your Data may be getting reenabled. I am interested in the results of this.

Most likely a reboot of iPhone will retain the state.

Edit: v3.0.3 alert. It seems 1/2 the people loved my status bar sensitivity change and 1/2 the people hated it. I have made it an option in v3.0.3. It defaults to “off” which is like it is in 3.0.2. If you want to re-enable the sensitive swipe allowing for downward motion and all, hit the more app, extras, and the bottom option for “More Sensitive Swipe”. Set that to ON for the more sensitive version like 3.0.1 and older. This 3.0.3 release will be out tonight before I sign off.

Anyone having a hard time opening the window, it opens very easily if you use two fingers and tap one on the carrier logo and the other on the battery then let both go at same time.

SBSettings 3.0.2 comes with a very minor code change and a packaging fix.

The processes button “Free Memory” apparently has never done anything for anyone at all! I had one user report this and no one else. I found this today while installing SBSettings on a friend’s iPhone and noticing that there was no free memory after hitting the button. So none of you have ever seen how awesome this is! It is fixed now. Turns out I packaged the 3.0.1 toggle pack up poorly and the file was copied to the wrong folder.

v3.0.2 of the app changes the way the window opens slightly. It now requires at least 50 pixels of swiping before the window opens. This is to help prevent accidental opens. You can swipe left to right or right to left, it doesn’t matter. You cannot swipe down. (Let’s see if this one generates me any mail).

So things go back and forth. Ultrasn0w has been updated and is even better yet! First, dev team has removed the daemon and used a method more similar to Geohot’s purplesn0w method. However, they did it in a manner that seems safer as it will not corrupt memory and uses less memory. From dev team blog:

To put it into perspective, ultrasn0w uses 152 bytes of properly malloc’d baseband RAM, which is 0.015% of what purplesn0w uses. Put another way, purplesn0w uses 6900 times more RAM than ultrasn0w (and doesn’t let the O/S know that it’s using it, so the O/S still thinks it’s free to use. When it does use it, the baseband will crash).

Also, there is another benefit. This uses mobile substrate to patch CommCenter unlike Geohot’s method which actually patches the CommCenter file. The benefit of this is that you are not modifying your system files and it is very easy to uninstall safely. You could probably just disable it with SBSettings mobile substrate menu as well.

I consider the current ultrasn0w the recommended unlock.

Geohot released a better 3gs unlock. It installs with his Cydia repository and patches some files on install. After this, no process or daemon is left running. This sounds like a better replacement for ultrasn0w. However, unlike ultrasn0w, it cannot be disabled with a toggle. A restore will restore the iPhone to stock locked state. Sounds very nice. Here are details from his site:

Wifi fails? Battery fails? Unlock fails? You need purplesn0w, the geohot 3GS unlock solution. Now I know you here a lot about different colors of sn0w, but I’m here to tell you why purplesn0w is the best. First off, what is purplesn0w? It’s a soft unlock for your 3GS that I’d actually use day to day. It’s not a daemon that takes any resources, and it doesn’t add a task to your baseband. It’s very close to a true unlock. All it does is patch three files, CommCenter, lockdownd, and your wildcard activation plist(which you need, activate w at&t sim first, no hacktivation support yet). That’s it, no other files are installed. Props to Oranav for the at+xlog exploit!
A full explanation is coming soon, but I think you clever reversers out there will see what it does, and see why it’s so pristine :-) The payload is radically different from other varieties of sn0w. beta as usual, back up first.

Be sure to have legit activated 3GS
Disable 3G if you don’t have it(like T-Mobile).
Add apt.geohot.com to Cydia
Install com.geohot.purplesn0w
Watch for success output in Cydia
Reboot, and enjoy your unlocked iPhone

The dev-team’s jailbreak for 3GS is released. You can view the guides and download the binaries from here.

This jailbreak supports 2g, 3g, 3gs, and iPod touch 2 on 3.0. Key features:

1) Stable jailbreak tested by dev-team
2) Icy + Cydia problem solved (we think).
3) Ultrasn0w tested and working on 3gs
4) Proper kernel patches which will enable logome (after it’s updated for 3.0).
5) Mobile Substrate + Winterboard now working on 3gs.

Again, for download links and redsn0w installation guide, go here.

Note: If you used purplera1n RC2 or newer, you do not need to redo your jailbreak. You will be unable to use logome in the future, but that should be the only downside. If you used purplera1n RC1 or older, you should redo your jailbreak. I believe you can run redsn0w right over the top of it.

Update July 5, 2009: The purplera1n app is now released for OSX as well. Guides and links are updated. Install instructions are the same. OSX users can use the same guide.

Update July 4, 2009: The purplera1n app has been updated. Same download link. This fixes several issues such as Vista and Windows 7 not working. It also fixes teh kernel signing issues and Saurik’s vmcheck passes now paving the road for Winterboard soon!

If you already jailbroke with the old one, just run this from the pc over the top of your existing jailbreak. You will not get a freeze icon, the kernel and fixes will be updated wtihout it. If you didn’t jailbreak, now is the time as it works very well. Guide is updated for new version.

If you’re having problems such as it just hangs forever, make sure you have “purlera1n 3GS jailbreak by geohot RC2″ in the application window titlebar. If you don’t you may still have an old version.

—

So GeoHot released a 3gs jailbreak this evening. Exciting news (see SBSettings shows 159mb free RAM!):

It’s currently for Windows only. Personally, I don’t think that he wants to polish it but wanted to use this to egg the dev team to release theirs now. Anyway, there is a tool, it works in Windows only. Before you try to use it, please read my caution below and the guide.

There are issues with this jailbreak. As exciting as it is, I recommend that you guys wait. I believe that the dev-team will release something in the next couple days that will be more solid and proper. (GeoHot is amazing, and I have nothing bad to say about him). In case you didn’t want to wait, I do have a purplera1n guide below. Here are the issues (probably not a complete list):

1) The update on July 4 solves almost all the issues. The jailbreak is very easy to run! It is finicky. I had major problems running this jailbreak. First, the iPhone is put into recovery mode and if it doesn’t work (and it didnt many times), the iPhone is left in recovery mode. Most of you will have to restore to get it out of recovery mode after this. Not too fun. I will detail some steps to take you out of recovery if you cannot get things to work.

2) This is for Windows and OSX. This is for Windows Only, but not only that, it is for 32 bit Windows XP SP2 only. I do not know anyone that has had success on Vista.

3) You must have iTunes 8.2.0.23 installed.

4) This is solved on July 4th update. Winterboard does not run, it requires an update. Wait for it! The jailbreak is incomplete. The kernel vm_mem patch is not present so Winterboard will not work as some other critical tweaks. (SBSettings does work!).

5) Solved July 4th. The jailbreak has some code signing issues. I haven’t determined what this will mean yet.

In short, the process is very easy. You don’t even have to hassle with DFU mode. Just run the tool, click a couple buttons, wait, when it’s done, you have an app on your iPhone 3gs called “Freeze”. Run that, download Cydia, reboot, and you’re done.

Guide:
Geohot released a beta jailbreak called PurpleRa1n. It is beta and has some issues, but it gets the job done if you’re patient. Here are some steps and troubleshooting to accomplish the task:

Requirements: You must have
1) Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 or OSX.
2) iTunes 8.2.0.23
3) Purplera1n software downloaded get here.

Step 1) Connect your iPhone to your computer. Close iTunes if it is running.

Step 2) Run the purplera1n file that you downloaded from the requirements section. You will see this screen on Windows:

or this screen on OSX:

Step 3) Click “make it ra1n”. It will respond with “waiting for reboot”. Your iPhone will now reboot into recovery mode and you should see this image on your iPhone screen:

If you do not see this image and instead see the cable connecting to iTunes, wait 1 minute. If it stays that way then this did not work and you can assume you have to repeat the process. It’s ok to start it while you’re in recovery mode. It will just go right to the image above. If not, close purplera1n and repeat step 2 & 3. If you cant get past this, see troubleshooting.

Step 4) After a couple of minutes, your iPhone will reboot and you will see a new app with a blank icon called Freeze on your iPhone screen:

Step 5) Now we want to get Cydia installed. We’ll do this over the network. Make sure you have wifi or very stable 3g before running this step. When you do, run Freeze.

Step 6) Click “Install Cydia” and wait for it to download and install.

Step 7) When the install completes, close Freeze and reboot the iPhone.

Step 8) You now have a Cydia icon.

Step 9) Open Cydia and allow it to reorganize your apps (this eliminates the need for BossTool). After this, perform the essential updates or do a complete update.

Step 10) We no longer need the Freeze icon so let’s remove it. (Note: I do not recommend that we hide this icon using SBSettings as you may have this problem after you restore). Load Cydia and install “CyDelete”. Use the cydia search. By the way, notice how blazing fast Cydia runs on the 3gs! Wow!

Note: if springboard spins forever after the “restart springboard” just hold home and power until the iPhone shuts off, then power it back on. This seems to happen sometimes on 3.0 the first time mobile substrate installs. It all works after.

Step 11) Enable non Cydia deleting in CyDelete. Launch settings app and navigate to the bottom of the first page to find the settings bundle:

Step 12) Tap CyDelete and enable “Non-Cydia Deletion” (the top option).

Step 13) After the springboard reloads, hold any icon to get into wiggle mode and remove Freeze:

Step 14a) Optional. You no longer need CyDelete. You can uninstall this in Cydia now. I recommend keeping it however. It’s a very easy way to uninstall Cydia apps and you now have enough memory in your 3GS that you will not notice any overhead having it.

Step 15) Optional if you want to unlock now, you should be able to install Ultrasn0w. See my ultrasn0w guide.

Troubleshooting:

I would not be surprised if you’re in this section. This process was a nightmare for me. It took me many tries and several different computers. Here are some problems and possible solutions.

Purplera1n crashes as soon as you tap “make it ra1n”. Your Apple mobile device service is not running. On Windows press windows + r and type “services.msc” into the run box and hit enter. Then locate the Apple Mobile Device service and right click, say “start”.

An ECID Grabber that difrnt created. It makes the process of getting your purplera1nyday certificate faster and less complex. Read More / Download At: http://difrnt.com/blog/?p=25 *Getting your ECID and purplera1nyday certificate may be crucial to your 3Gs Jailbreak! Screenshot: UPDATE #1 difrnt also created a iBEC and iBSS Grabber! If you find it too hard to manually grab [...]

The dev team announced that it has a jailbreak for iPhone 3gs but has delayed release on it until after 3.0.1 firmware release. Many people are upset over this and really don’t understand why. Here are some details in layman’s terms:

1) Jailbreaking is done by exploiting bugs in existing hardware / software in order to gain access to the device (that Apple should have given in the first place).

2) On all devices to date, the jailbreak is permanent, meaning that it is at the hardware level and Apple lost those platforms.

3) On 3GS, Apple added another layer of security, an ECID. This is a key that is retrieved from Apple on restore to sign your IPSW image. If the image isn’t signed, the 3GS and iTunes will reject it and you will not be able to restore your device with that image.

On the 3GS, we can use an existing single exploit to retrieve the ECID and use that to sign “files” allowing to restore custom firmwares. (This is really dumbed down, but you should get the idea). Once the jailbreak is released, Apple will patch this hole.

The hole is such that anyone that has 3.0 firmware, you can obtain the necessary signing key. But once the jailbreak is out, Apple will patch it on the next firmware release. Those with the older firmware that saved off whatever was needed will always be able to jailbreak. Those that update without doing so will probalby never be able to jailbreak. Such is the nature of the exploit.

The logic in waiting is this. There are only a few iPhone 3gs devices sold. A 3.0.1 firmware release is due soon to fix some obvious 3.0 bugs and to patch up Ultrasn0w. If the jailbreak is released now, when 3.0.1 comes out, the only people that can jailbreak, ever, are those that had 3.0 and did not rush to update. If we release after 3.0.1 then 6 months worth of users should be able to jailbreak forever. (This assumes its 6 months from 3gs to 3.0.2 release, probably not that bad of an assumption). This should be a significant amount of people, which is better than nothing. Releasing now gives apple a chance to patch the hole before the 3GS is even released in all markets around the world.

Note: those of you that are interested, you can save your ECID in a usable format using these instructions. Windows users can find USBView here.

Personal speculation: I believe that we may be near the end of the software jailbreaks. In the future, new devices may require some sort of tethered jailbreak. This means when you reboot your device you must be hooked up to a pc or such, do the jailbreak, and then unhook the device and use it – until you reboot again. I predict small tethered jailbreak devices to be sold from hong kong that you will be able to keep in your car or your pocket in case you have to reboot your iPhone. Not a perfect solution, but not that bad either. Personally, I never reboot my iPhone. But if it did crash, it would work as a “normal” iPhone until you attached the device and “hit the button” again or whatever.

Of course, you 2g, 3g, and ipod touch users will never have to worry. Your devices should remain jailbreakable forever.

I am starting a compatilbity list. I will do my best to updated it as I get more information and as updated apps come in. First off, most all regular apps should work on 3.0. The changes were not that severe for most apps to stop working. So if the app is not in the list, it probably works. What probably does not work are apps that rely on mobile substrate or any sort of springboard patching. These all use undocumented APIs.

Next is to understand why some things are not working *for you* that are listed on the “working” list. Many apps require root access and use a trick that involves the dirname command. This command was not present in some older packages in Saurik’s older repository. Saurik set up a newer version of his repository for 3.0 (which will merge back in to the trunk soon). The point is, many of you may have his older repository instead due to one of these reasons:

1) You used an early Icy without its essential updates that do not fix saurik’s repo.
2) You used apt backup to restore your packages and it restored the old repository.
3) You did not accept some essential updates.
4) Some other thing that I am not aware of. But the cause is most likely failing dirname command.

You can check if you have this issue in Cydia: Load Cydia, wait for it to do its thing then go to manage, sources, then look for Telesphoreo in the list. If you see this line of text *exactly*, you have the new repository “Distribution of Unix Software for iPhoneOS 3″ (this is good!) If you see this line: “Distribution of Unix Software for iPhoneOS” (this is bad) you have the *old* repository.

One more thing. If you install something and get an immediate spinning wheel of death, reboot. Some times mobilesubstrate’s install causes this and after a reboot it will be fine.

On to the app list:

Edit #2: redsn0w replaces quickpwn and also handles jailbreak of iPhones without restore! (I believe the name quickpwn was retired because quickpwn.com is a stolen, fake site and the dev team does not want to support it).

Edit (June 20th): redsn0w 0.7 for 3.0 is out now! Get here

The dev team just released pwnage for OSX. So all your MAC users can now jailbreak your iphones. Note that this is pwnage not quickpwn. You can download it here. Also read the notes on the blog. Some highlights are:

* UltraSnow (3.0 unlock) is not available yet. If you have YellowSn0w, do not yet upgrade.

* If you have a 3gs, you must wait for an unspecified amount of time.

* iPod touch 2 users: Download here. If you have an iPod touch 2g, you must wait for a redsn0w update. Not ready yet.

* There is no windows version, there is no quickpwn yet. Coming later.

The basic pwnage guide should still work basically the same.