iPhone 3G Jailbreak/Unlock
Posted: January 4th, 2009 | Author: Mihai Bojin | Filed under: Gadgets & Tech, General, Tools, iphone | Tags: bossprefs, cydia, iclarified, installer, iphone, iphone 3g, jailbreak, jailbreaking, orange, pwnage tool, pwnagetool, quickpwn, tutorial, vodafone, yellowsn0w, yellowsnow |This tutorial is now obsolete ! Read about Jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone 3G with the new 3.0 firmware !
Wondering what the "Iphone 3G Jailbreak/Unlocking" is and how to do it !? Read on…
I recently bought an Apple iPhone 3G with the sole intention of jailbreaking it because in my country it is only available through Orange and I am not one of their subscribers.
First of all, you will find lots of interesting information at the iPhone Dev-Team’s official blog.
A little dictionary first:
- jailbreak / jailbreaking: the process of cracking your iPhone’s firmware with the purpose of allowing third party apps to be installed;
- pwn / pwning: slang for "own/owning"; it’s the same thing as "jailbreaking";
- Cydia / Installer: two third-party installers used for updating your iPhone with your favorite third-party app;
- unlocking: the process of cracking your iPhone’s baseband in order to allow any SIM card to be installed (usually the iPhone’s come locked into AT/T or in my country’s case Orange);
- baseband: the iPhone modem’s firmware;
- firmware: a software which runs on devices (in our case on the iPhone) that is similar to an operating system for personal computers (Windows, MacOs, Linux, BSD etc)
There are a few tools available out there, most of them for Mac, but Windows versions are emerging as I am writing this:
- PwnageTool: used for upgrading the iPhone’s firmware while preserving the original installed baseband (the baseband is the iPhone modem’s firmware); you have to use this instead of iTunes if you have a jailbroken phone, if you want to be able to use the iPhone in the future;
- QuickPwn: if you have a running iPhone but you want to install third party apps, this is the tool for you; it will jailbreak your iPhone and install Cydia and Installer onto it;
- YellowSn0w: used for unlocking the iPhone 3G (this first came out on January 1st 2009); it will make any SIM card work with the iPhone; it is a new application (it is still in beta phase) and still has some bugs - I succeeded in using it to unlock my iPhone for Vodafone Romania;
This is all you need to know in short for jailbreaking your iPhone 3G.
Now let me detail a few steps which you have to take in order to jailbreak a locked original iPhone 3G:
- If your iPhone is not activated (you get a "Emergency calls only" message), you have to insert a valid SIM card into it and connect it with iTunes; follow the steps there and your iPhone will become activated;
- Check out your iPhone’s firmware and baseband: go to Settings->General->About; you have to see there Version 2.2 and Modem Firmware 2.28.00; at the time of this writing the unlock tool (YellowSn0w) only works with this baseband version);
- If your versions are not 2.2 / 2.28.00 you have to Update your iPhone through iTunes (connect the iPhone 3G to your Mac or PC, wait until it appears left on the Devices menu, click on it and click Update in the middle of the screen - right now the latest firmware is 2.2, but this will change; if this is the case when you are reading this post, then you will have to update to 2.2 through PwnageTool; you can read more about this on iClarified);
- use QuickPwn to jailbreak your iPhone 3G; you will find a tutorial for QuickPwn(Windows) on iClarified and the process is similar on the Mac
- You will now have a jailbroken but locked iPhone; put your SIM card into the iPhone 3G, if you have network signal (your carrier shows up at the top left of the screen and you can make calls) stop here!… it means you either had an unlocked iPhone or you are using the original carrier your iPhone was locked onto;
- On your iPhone, go to Cydia->Manage->Sources and add "apt9.yellowsn0w.com"; click on "Search" and type in "yellowsn0w" (the last o is a zero!); Install it !
- Now install MobileTerminal and BossPrefs, if you haven’t already done so (also available through Cydia, you can search for them there)
- Fire up Mobile Terminal and type in "yellowsn0w -h"; it will show you all the different parameters you can give to YellowSn0w; depending on your iPhone 3G version/ GSM carrier / SIM card, one of the options there will do the job (I’d go with "yellowsn0w" first and then "yellowsn0w -q", "yellowsn0w -a", "yellowsn0w -s" and other options that might be there (it is possible the Dev-Team will add more options in the future);
- After you find the option the gives no error (you can expect the usual "Resource busy" error) you will have to go to BossPrefs->Power button at the bottom of the screen->Restart; if after the restart, your network carrier isn’t showing up, try taking out your SIM, waiting around 30 seconds then reinserting it (this works for SIM cards that have carrier menu’s/services on them); more info about YellowSn0w on the Dev-Team blog and on this Hackintosh thread)
This should do it for your iPhone 3G ! If you still have problems, drop me a comment and I will help you as much as I know and can !
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[...] … if you have network signal (your carrier shows up at the top left of the screen and you can make calls) stop here!… it means you either had an unlocked iPhone or you are using the original carrier your iPhone was locked onto; …[Continue Reading] [...]
I am amazed with it. It is a good thing for my research. Thanks
Has anyone tried the yellowsn0w software? I run it last night on my iPhone 3G, firmware 2.2 and it unlocked it, but it wont pick up any signal, i’m trying to use it on TMobile.. any ideas anyone?
Hey, Just a few questions
About the sim.
I know i have to activate the phone before unlocking but does my sim have to be an active sim?
I’m currently trying to unlock mine (and failing) and i’m using an O2 sim that hasn’t been activated, is this part of my problem?
I’m trying to make my 3 network sim card work on my iPhone due ot the fact i have a contract running on it. Will i have to go out and buy an active O2 simcard?
And do i need leave the (activated) O2 sim in the iPhone the whole way through the process until the instructions tell me to put my contract 3 network sim in? By this i mean does it need to be in whilst installing the software etc.?
Thank you very much
I look foward to your reply
J Saunders
P.S.
When i QuickPwn shall i click the “unlock phone” option?
Or just install Cydia and Installer
Then use Yellowsn0w?
Or both?
Ha !
(When i click to unlock phone on QuickPwn it doesn’t seem to do anything!)
Yet again, thank you !
Let me clear things up.
1. First you need to activate your iPhone. For this you will need an ALREADY ACTIVE and working SIM card !
2. After this, you will have to Quickpwn your iPhone (afterwhich you will have Cydia installed).
3. Then you will add the yellowsnow repository, and install yellowsnow (if you also install “bossprefs” and “yellowsn0w bossprefs” through cydia (bigBoss repository), you will see yellowsnow in bossprefs and you will be able to activate yellowsn0w there.
4. (optional) Start yellowsn0w through MobileTerminal (also installable by Cydia) and try all the yellowsn0w options - this step should be done if after the 3 steps your iPhone does not see your carrier.
Please note that 3G should be disabled and you have to have the 2.2 firmware installed on the iPhone (through normal iTunes update) prior to jailbreaking your iPhone.
If you do these 4 steps, your iPhone should be able to accept any SIM card after a restart.
Good luck to you! Tell me if you succeed !
i got 2.2 on my phone but my baseband is 2.30.03 do you know i can downgrade it i try jailbraiking with quickpwn and its still the same baseband
That could be a problem!
I’d suggest using PwnageTool in order to install a 2.2 firmware on your iPhone (you probably installed 2.2.1 from iTunes, which is not good).
Try finding a 2.2.0 image and install it with PwnageTool.
Hey, thanks for your help before but i’m still having problems !
What i’m doing is:
Insert ACTIVE O2 sim card (That works, I can send texts recieve calls etc.)
Restore to 2.2 (NOT 2.2.1)
QuickPwn - Add Cydia and Installer
Then through Cydia download Yellowsn0w, BossPrefs and Yellowsn0w Toggle for BossPrefs
Then turn yellowsn0w on via bossprefs
Respring
Turn off
Insert my “3″ network sim card
Turn on
And still not working !
Please tell me where i am going so wrong !
I’ve tried so many times, yet no success !
I’m given the option on QuickPwn to unlock the phone
I’ve tried this with no success
Someone mentioned something about “unlocking the 3g” before using the QuickPwn unlock, I’m complteley clueless
Please Enlighten me on where i’m going so wrong !
Any help is most appreciated,
Thank you
Johnny Saunders
Jsaunders - If your iPhone has been updated to 2.2.1 at any point then you wont be able to unlock it using Yellowsn0w as it can’t deal with the 2.2.1 baseband version.
Can you put a 3 contract sim into an unlocked iphone? because my contract still has 12 months but i really wish i had an iphone!
You can put any SIM into an unlocked iPhone ! I’d wait for the new iPhone 3GS to come out, it’s due 19 June 2009.
Also the new firmware (3.0) will be released around this date.
Hi, I got new iphone 3gs 32gb for my Christmas software 3.1.2 as I am on vodafone I had to run the blackrain software etc and now everytime my battery runs out or phone goes to no signal for a period of time I have tolet it rain again. I was wondering that as vodafone now do the iphone does that mean I dont have to blackrain anymore if so what do I do? Thanks