Need help! Problem after altering SpringBoard.strings

[ViciousBoss]

Just a while ago, I SSH'd into my phone using iFunBox because I wanted to change the slider text. I followed all of the instructions I received, going into System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/English.Iproj and ONLY edited the AWAY_LOCK_LABEL line.

However, after saving it and replacing the older SpringBoard.strings file with the new one, the day on the Calendar icon is gone, when sliding to the left on the homescreen to search the iPhone, it now says "SEARCH_BAR_PLACEHOLDER", and when I launch my iPod app, I receive the No Content screen, even though I have 400 or so songs and the space is still shown as being used up under my settings. These are the only problems I am aware of at the moment.

Now I've tried replacing the new file with the old one, but I still have the same problems. What steps do I need to do to return it to what it once was?

 

[ViciousBoss]

Just found another problem...

I have my iphone connected to my computer and tried using iTunes. I now notice that my phone's name has been changed and that I get a message stating "iTunes was not able to read the contents of this phone. Please restore to factory settings, etc."

All of this from just changing one minor detail in a file? If anyone could help me with this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[ViciousBoss]

Well, unless there's a way I can replace a certain file to return it to the way it was, I guess I'm going to have to restore the phone to it's original settings and start over.

If it turns out that I have to do that, are there any measures I should take beforehard with a jailbroken phone? Or could I just connect it to my computer and restore it using iTunes with no worries and jailbreak it again?

For the record, I used Blackra1n and I'm on firmware 3.1.2 (7D11)

 

[foob]

Maybe it's a permissions problem. The strings file should be owner:root group:wheel, 644 permissions.

I have no idea what iFunBox is, but if you can run commands through it, try running these as root:

chown root SpringBoard.strings
chgrp wheel SpringBoard.strings
chmod 644 SpringBoard.strings

 

[ViciousBoss]

I don't think it's able to run commands. What program will allow me to do this?

If it's going to be too much trouble to fix this, then I'd rather just restore. If I do decide to do this, it'd be fine to just restore with iTunes, correct? I thought I heard something about being unable to unlock it afterwards, but I'm not sure.

 

[foob]

You can change the permissions with the iFile or MobileTerminal apps from Cydia. In MobileTerminal, just type the commands I listed. You may need to be root, so type "su" then enter the root password first (default password is "alpine" unless you changed it, and you really should change it).

In iFile, you tap the little blue arrow next to the file, then scroll down to set owner/group, then set "Access Permissions" to user: read/write, group: read, world: read

 

[ViciousBoss]

I downloaded Terminal and tried entering the commands you posted, after going to root. After every command I entered, I received "chown/chgrp/chmod: Cannot access 'SpringBoard.strings': No such file or directory."

Not sure where to go from here.

 

[foob]

The file doesn't exist. You're probably still in mobile's home directory. You can find your location by typing: pwd

Try:
cd /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/English.lproj/
chown root SpringBoard.strings
chgrp wheel SpringBoard.strings
chmod 644 SpringBoard.strings

cd will change directory to the one where the strings file should be located

 

[ViciousBoss]

The first two commands didn't seem to do anything. However, after entering the "chmod 644 SpringBoard.strings" command I get a message stating "chmod: changing permissions of 'SpringBoard.strings': Operation not permitted."

So it looks like you're right. Maybe there's a line of code in the actual SpringBoards.strings file that's wrong?

By the way, just so you know, iFunBox is a program that allows you to transfer files to and from the Iphone on your computer. Also allows SSH.

 

[foob]

Hmm, I've actually never seen that. It should work no matter what the contents of the file are. chgrp should work exactly like chown, but it's actually a little different, so maybe that's the problem. But first, type "whoami" to make sure you're root, then try: ls -l SpringBoard.strings

We're hoping for the first part of the line to be "-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel." If it is, then you were successful and I guess you can ignore the error.

If not, try:
chown root:wheel SpringBoard.strings
chmod 644 SpringBoard.strings
Then check "ls -l SpringBoard.strings" again.

I feel invested in this now, but I have to get to bed. Even if this works, I'm not certain it will solve your problem, but since you transferred the file to your computer and back to the phone, there's a good chance the permissions got screwed up. I hope it works and you don't have to restore.

 

[ViciousBoss]

After making sure I was root, I tried the commands and I kept receiving the "Cannot access 'SpringBoard.strings': No such file or directory." line.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[foob]

Did you ever get it to work?

If it ever says "No such file or directory", it means the file or directory is not in the directory you're in right now. Either it's been deleted or you need to go to a different directory to find it. That would be the "cd /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/English.lproj/" line again. Sorry, I left it out of my last post.

 

[ViciousBoss]

Unfortunately, no. I still get the same message. However, if I SSH and look in the directory, the SpringBoard.strings file IS there, which leads me to believe that the code is somehow messed up. I could be wrong of course.

 

[foob]

That's strange. If the file is there, it should work. Just off the top of my head, one possibility is the file is actually a link, perhaps instead of copying it to the phone, it created a shortcut named SpringBoard.strings which points to the file on your computer.

When you are in /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/English.lproj/, what is the output from these 2 commands?
ls -l
head SpringBoard.strings

Head will display the first 10 lines of the file as long as it exists. Does it display a bunch of text or give an error?

 

[ViciousBoss]

Apologies for the late reply.

When I use "ls -l", I get the following code:

total 24
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1013 Sep 26 06:47
LocalizedApplicationNames.strings
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 21481 Dec 2 23:45
SpringBoard.strings
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 3589 Sep 26 06:47
USSD.strings

When I enter "head SpringBoard.strings" I get a HUGE list of code/text/characters.

 

[foob]

"-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel"

It looks like the permissions, owner and group are right. That's what we wanted. Is the phone still acting up? It could require a respring. I hope it fixed it but maybe that's what the permissions were all along and we didn't actually accomplish anything.

If that doesn't work, you might have to restore it. There's nothing special you have to do, just use iTunes to restore and rejailbreak. You'll lose any jailbreak apps and information though. I was hoping this would be a quick and easy fix to try before having to restore, I hope it didn't take too long.

 

[ViciousBoss]

Yea, it's still acting up no matter what. I'll just have to restore it I guess, which isn't that big of a deal since I didn't have a ton of info stored (if you don't include songs).

By the way, when I click restore with iTunes, do I go for the new restore or use the backup?

Thanks for all of the help, I really appreciate it.

 

[dhlizard]

Yea, it's still acting up no matter what. I'll just have to restore it I guess, which isn't that big of a deal since I didn't have a ton of info stored (if you don't include songs).

By the way, when I click restore with iTunes, do I go for the new restore or use the backup?

Thanks for all of the help, I really appreciate it.

Choose set up as new. Restoring to a backup is just inviting problems.