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Best Option: PwnageTool vs blackra1n, and some concerns

T

thefil

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 11, 2007
27
0
Hey all,

I recently got an iPhone 3GS. I'm on the new Bell/Telus network that just opened in Canada. Basically, I'm really happy with my carrier, plan, and 99% of the functionality of my phone - I just want a little bit more.

My phone came with 3.1.2. The only functionality I want to add is the ability to remove the 3G download limit in app store/iTunes and to allow me to set the menu button double-tap feature to always show iPod controls. I understand I need to jailbreak for this, but I'm a little worried about some things I've been hearing.

First of all, which tool is better in my situation? PwnageTool or blackra1n? Second, can I just jailbreak or do I also need to "hacktivate" and unlock? Third, is it possible to get a non-tethered solution, so that I don't have to worry about restarting my phone? And finally, I read that some things can break, like MMS, push notifications and even carrier signal! Should I be worried?

I'm new to most of this and my research hasn't been enough to tell me what exactly I should be trying. Any help is appreciated.

P.S. I'm also a little concerned about this OpenSSH worm. Is OpenSSH installed during jailbreak by default or can I avoid that?
 
Pwnage is your best bet. As for the openSSH worm, don't worry, you have to download and install openSSH to be even vulnerable (assuming you don't change the default root password).

If you want the jailbreak just for wallpapers, themes and stuff like that, well then go ahead.
 
Moi un Mouton said:
My advice - Don't bother with the jailbreak, just enjoy your phone.

Do Settings - General - Home - iPod and you've got requirement no 1.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this actually opens the iPod app when you double-tap, which is definitely not what I want. I want the iPod control overlay.
 
OK, main reason I gave the advice I did is that the recent Apple bootrom update makes jailbreaking problematic on recent 3GS's, in that it requires a PC connection each time you restart the phone. That's a bit of a pain.
 
Moi un Mouton said:
OK, main reason I gave the advice I did is that the recent Apple bootrom update makes jailbreaking problematic on recent 3GS's, in that it requires a PC connection each time you restart the phone. That's a bit of a pain.
Click to expand...

Yeah. But how often do you actually restart your iPhone? I've been using the tethered jailbreak on my Touch ever since blackra1n first came out, and the only times I've had to restart is when I was installing something from Cydia that updated mobile substrate.
 
I can't speak about Pwnage cause I never used it, but Blackra1n has been a very quick & flawless jailbreak on my 3GS. It's basically dummy proof. From there I installed Cydia and Installous without any problems. I also installed Rock which made my Iphone freeze during install for about 10 minutes but then it reseted and everything has been ok since.

Like I said I never used Pwnage, but I can't imagine anything being as easy and quick as Blackra1n. Also I'm on 3.1.2

And I'm able to reboot without connecting to a PC or Adapter. No problems rebooting at all.
 
Night Spring said:
Yeah. But how often do you actually restart your iPhone? I've been using the tethered jailbreak on my Touch ever since blackra1n first came out, and the only times I've had to restart is when I was installing something from Cydia that updated mobile substrate.
Click to expand...

It is good to let the battery die completely and let the device turn it self off.. It calibrates the battery meter and can extend battery life - heat is the worst enemy of the battery though..
 
Is there any way to check my iPhone to see if I have the baseband or w/e to do a non-tethered jailbreak?
 
thefil said:
Unfortunately this actually opens the iPod app when you double-tap, which is definitely not what I want. I want the iPod control overlay.
Click to expand...

This is a change that Apple made in the firmware with... I forget which update, 3.1 or 3.1.2. In any case, as far as I know, jailbreaking doesn't change this behavior. If music is already playing, double-tap brings up the control overlay, if not, it brings up the ipod app.
 
One more question:

Assuming I went with a tethering jailbreak, what is the process for "waking up" my iPhone after it's been turned off?
 
thefil said:
One more question:

Assuming I went with a tethering jailbreak, what is the process for "waking up" my iPhone after it's been turned off?
Click to expand...

First of all, most of the time you won't actually turn your phone off, anyway. Usually you will just put your phone into sleep mode by pressing the sleep/power button. You will be able to wake it up by pressing either the sleep/power button or the home button, then sliding to unlock.

The only time you will have to deal with the tethering issue is if you do a hard reset, power off your phone by pressing the power button for 3 seconds then sliding to power off, reboot after installing updates to a small minority of third-party apps, or your battery dies. I don't usually have to reboot my phone for days or even weeks. The iPhone is meant to be always on.

If you do one of these things and need to get past the boot logo, just plug your phone in and re-run blackra1n. It won't re-jailbreak and you won't lose any of your settings, it will just quickly kick you out of the boot loop and boot your firmware as usual.
 
^^^^ +1

yeah it's really not that much of a hassle though i hope one day they will fix this issue with the new iboot hardware but running a quick app (blackra1n) to hard reboot isn't a hassle at all because like mentioned before how often does your phone power all the way down... almost never and if it does it's really easy to plug it in to your comp hit make it ra1n and boom you back with all your apple store apps and cydia apps etc. I tunes works fine backing up all your ish except the cydia apps. Once you JB you will never go back:D
 
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