How to get root-level access on the iPhone/iPhone 3G !?

How to get root level acces on your iPhone, you may ask !?

Well it’s preety simple. You have to have your iPhone jailbroken in order to install MobileTerminal and Sudo.

Go to MobileTerminal;

Type in "su";

Enter "alpine" which is the default password for root access on the iPhone;

You should now have complete access to your iPhone’s every corner !

Happy bricking ! :))

iPhone 3G Jailbreak/Unlock

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:

1. 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;
2. 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);
3. 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);
4. 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
5. 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;
6. 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 !
7. Now install MobileTerminal and BossPrefs, if you haven’t already done so (also available through Cydia, you can search for them there)
8. 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);
9. 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 !

My iPhone 3G story: jailbreaking and unlocking

I am now officially an Apple Fanboy !

I wanted an iPhone 3g even before it appeared. Lately I entered a no-spend thinking zone and I cut most of my spedings on "stuff" (gadgets, computers, notebooks, phones…).

But at Christmas I realized that my old phone was failing and because I couldn’t find a Nokia phone which I actually liked (design wise) I finally decided to get an iPhone 3G.

Because it was locked in Orange Romania, I had to jailbreak it. That unfortunately took me around 2 days in total.

The first day I struggled with the new Mac Leopard 10.5.6 limitations (Apple decided to pull the plug on jailbreaking the iPhone). I finally succeeded using Pwnage Tool, but then I found out that no crack existed yet for unlocking the baseband (allowing the iPhone 3G to use any carrier network). This was an iPhone 3G problem so I decided to wait until I got back in Bucharest and buy a TurboSIM or XSIM to trick the iPhone into thinking I had a valid SIM card.

However the iPhone Dev-Team realeased an unlock tool just in time (I was really lucky actually to have waited all this time to get an iPhone 3G). The tool is called "YellowSn0w" and it works in unlocking the iPhone for Vodafone Romania !

I very happy at the moment, because my iPhone 3G fully works and all I can tell you is that it’s great and I Highly Recommend It !

I will post two follow-up tutorials for the iPhone, one detailing the JailBreaking methods that exist (using PwnageTool or QuickPwn) and the other about using YellowSn0w to unlock your iPhone 3G for any carrier network.

UPDATE: I posted the iPhone 3G Jailbreak/Unlock tutorial here! Read about it and share your thoughts ! If you are having problems jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhone 3G, post them here and I will help you with as much as I can!

Until next time… Happy New Year to you all !!!