iPhone Hacking 101: Jailbreaking

When you want to add ringtones, change wallpaper, or run third-party applications on your iPhone, you need to perform a task called "jailbreaking". What this does is to open up your iPhone's file system so it can be accessed from your computer. There are a number of tools available to jailbreak.

If you're on an Intel Mac, you just won the lottery. The easiest software to use, by far, is iFuntastic. It walks you through the entire process with helpful prompts and pictures and is very simple to use. The iFuntastic crew promise PPC support in upcoming releases. If you are a PPC user and don't have the desire to download, compile and install complicated hacker tools you might be best served by just waiting for the next iFuntastic release.

Also keep in mind that you don't have to jailbreak on your own computer. You can borrow a friend's computer for 15 minutes to use iFuntastic. That's handy if you're a Windows users or on a G4 or G5.

A much more complicated alternative to iFuntastic is the iPhone Utility Client, with its amusing acronym iPHUC. You will have to google for the link as the website in question has requested no direct links. If you have access to developer tools, iPHUC will allow you to jailbreak on your G4 or G5. I warn you that the process is ugly and involves extreme hackery. If you want a slightly easier way to use iPHUC, the latest version of the iActivator tool performs iPHUC-compatible jailbreaks. Best of all, it's a Universal Binary.

For Windows users, there's the original fully-leaded jailbreak utility. The complicated bit is that it requires that you have a copy of the original 1.0.0 firmware present. To get that, you will have needed to have restored your iPhone at least once during it's 1.0.0 release.

The bottom line is that if you don't own an Intel Macintosh, the path to jailbreaking is difficult and complicated. You'll need to google a lot and, I recommend, rely on social networking. The best place to get started with jailbreak is over at irc.osx86.hu, in the #iphone channel. Be polite. And remember, anyone helping you out is doing so of their own goodwill.

Thanks Nate True, duck_tape and Ste.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/07/ifuntastic-2-5-for-iphone-bri…

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Hacks iPhone iPhone 101

When you want to add ringtones, change wallpaper, or run third-party applications on your iPhone, you need to perform a task called...

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Bartf

Like Gisele, I am trying to get jailbreak to work on my PC running Windows. When I run jailbreak, the iphone says, "!Please connect to itunes." but then it hangs. Anyone have some ideas?

According to mark at hacktheiphone.net, the older firmware is supposed to be available here: http://hacktheiphone.net/iphone_first_ten_steps_to_modding_windows.html

and shouldn't be a problem if your phone had newer firmware.

But still, my system hangs. Has anyone else seen this problem? Anyone know how to solve it?

Thanks in advance,

Bart

August 29 2007 at 11:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Giselle

Is there anyway to jailbreak a phone that has already been updated to 1.0.1? I am trying to jailbreak my phone to add custom ringtones, does anyone know when iFuntastic is coming out for PC?

August 21 2007 at 6:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Macroy

Thanks for the tips about installing apps, guys! I'd only be willing to risk another restore if it was really really easy to install apps, and whenever they get multitouch working on the iPhone NES emulator.

August 09 2007 at 2:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

John

Thanks Dave for the recommendation - nice to know somebody is using it. The name thing I discovered after putting it up, so I've renamed it to iPhoneOpener now, and I've just uploaded a new, improved version to my blog at http://weblog.bluedonkey.org/?p=714 including pre-built binaries for PPC and Intel platforms (apologies to Windows folks: I just don't have a Windows box to build them on).

August 09 2007 at 1:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

(01)

Hmmmm, I seem to have won the lottery with my MBP, yet have no iPone... doesn't seem right somehow :-)

August 09 2007 at 12:33 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave

If you just want to add a ringtone, iFuntastic is great. But if you think you'll want to install apps, look for iOpener (unfortunately, there's lots of other stuff called iOpener) and install the SSH server on your phone. After you do that, you'll never have to jailbreak your phone again--you have access to the full filesystem, and just upload files with an SFTP client. And if you want to install an app you'll have to do this anyway to set the permissions on the executable.

August 08 2007 at 7:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

thecompkid

Well, it's not that hard. Erica seems to be convinced that all TUAW readers are complete idiots. To call a few commands in Terminal "extreme hackery" is more than ignorant, and is even moderately insulting. Either way, I do agree with Erica about the intel mac point. Truth is, you really do need to know what you're doing if you're not on an intel mac. Ahh...that new mac feeling just came back, despite the fact that my macbook is over 11 months old. :)

August 08 2007 at 5:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Davey

I accidentally (and moronically) forced quit Ifuntastic midway through the process while trying to do something else. It bricked my iPhone, but I was able to restore it using iTunes without a hitch. So it's at least me-proof.

Also can I get an Erica free feed? I'm tired of getting useful advice, ground breaking hacks, and new apps for my iPhone.

August 08 2007 at 5:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steven

Does iFuntastic work after you have updated the iPhone's software? I have not been able to get mine to work since...

August 08 2007 at 3:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alex

You'll just have to do an iPhone restore using iTunes and reload all your content to the phone. iTunes keeps a backup of your phone data.

August 08 2007 at 2:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply