sim-locked 3GS 3.0 FW on authentic carrier now but moving carriers in a month

[Echnin]

Hi

I have a non-JB 3GS on the 3.0 FW and with the old (unlockable with ultrasn0w) baseband. Right now I have no need to unlock, but I will be moving to another country and consequently another carrier in a month. According to various websites, ultrasn0w will still work on a pwned 3.1.2 with the old baseband, so it seems I would be able to unlock if I were to do so now. Will this continue to be the case with future firmwares, as long as I stay on the "jailbreak train"? I am confused because of the issue with ECID hashes - should I JB now, before Apple stops signing 3.1.2 hashes? In particular, if I do not JB, and need to restore at a later point, will I have to restore to stock 3.1.2 and then be upgraded to the new baseband? Is it even possible, at the current point in time, to restore and not be forced to upgrade baseband?

I have done a bit of research, but am confused as to what I should do, and hope that some of you might be able to give me advice as to my best course of action.

 

[inf]

Hi

I have a non-JB 3GS on the 3.0 FW and with the old (unlockable with ultrasn0w) baseband. Right now I have no need to unlock, but I will be moving to another country and consequently another carrier in a month. According to various websites, ultrasn0w will still work on a pwned 3.1.2 with the old baseband, so it seems I would be able to unlock if I were to do so now. Will this continue to be the case with future firmwares, as long as I stay on the "jailbreak train"? I am confused because of the issue with ECID hashes - should I JB now, before Apple stops signing 3.1.2 hashes? In particular, if I do not JB, and need to restore at a later point, will I have to restore to stock 3.1.2 and then be upgraded to the new baseband? Is it even possible, at the current point in time, to restore and not be forced to upgrade baseband?

I have done a bit of research, but am confused as to what I should do, and hope that some of you might be able to give me advice as to my best course of action.

First jailbreak your 3.0 3GS with redsn0w for example. After that use pwnagetool 3.1.4 to create a custom firmware and use the created custom firmware to restore with itunes.

In the future, as long as you use the pwnagetool to create your firmwares you will be able to jailbreak and unlock. If you need to restore your phone, just use the custom firmware you have made (keep it in somewhere wher you can find it if you need it later on)

 

[Echnin]

Thank you very much for the quick response! I still have two things I am uncertain about:

1) Will I have to jailbreak with redsn0w? I was under the impression that pwnagetool would jailbreak it as well?

2) When pwnagetool asks me if I need to activate the phone, what should I respond? Obviously I don't need it to activate it now, but I will have to do so when I switch carriers. Should I first answer no, and then create a new firmware with pwnagetool once I switch carriers?

Thank you

 

[aldude]

Thank you very much for the quick response! I still have two things I am uncertain about:

1) Will I have to jailbreak with redsn0w? I was under the impression that pwnagetool would jailbreak it as well?

2) When pwnagetool asks me if I need to activate the phone, what should I respond? Obviously I don't need it to activate it now, but I will have to do so when I switch carriers. Should I first answer no, and then create a new firmware with pwnagetool once I switch carriers?

Thank you

You could use redsn0w. Pwnagetool might work but I think that's MAC-only.

If you're on 3.0 (not 3.0.1 or 3.1.2) and you're a Windows user the easiest way to jailbreak is probably to use purplera1n. Then, install ultrasn0w to unlock. After that, any future firmware updates will need to be done using pwnagetool (or a custom firmware) to preserve the unlock ability of the phone.

There are tutorials on how to use purplera1n and ultrasn0w - don't have any links to hand but let us know if you need them.

 

[Echnin]

Hi. I had problems while jailbreaking. I have now resolved the problems, but will describe the problem and the solution for posterity. I made a custom 3.1.2 ipsw with PwnageTool, got into DFU/Recovery Mode, but when trying to restore I got 2001 and 1604 errors. Resetting did not work; it was stuck in recovery mode. I believe this has to do with my original iPhone 3GS FW being 3.0.1. It is still not apparent to me whether or not PwnageTool 3.1.4 is actually designed to work with 3.0.1, but I was under impression that it should have worked. A solution suggested on the iPhone Dev Team blog comment section, to "Delete the "recovery" file in ~/Library/iTunes/Device Support" did not work, as such a file did not exist.

The solution that worked for me was to use redsn0w to jailbreak, as suggested by inf. An important point to note is that the 3.0.1 ipsw does not work with the latest version of redsn0w (0.8, which was released in June). Using the 3.0 ipsw did work, even though my iPhone FW was (and is still) 3.0.1. After all this was done, I had no problems installing ultrasn0w, and my foreign sim-card worked and started roaming on a local carrier (a different one from the official Apple partner). I have yet to update to 3.1.2, as I see no reason to do so at the present time.

From what my research tells me, the method suggested by aldude - to use purplera1n - would be a very, very bad idea, as this supposedly updates the baseband and would render me unable to use ultrasn0w.

 

[TBi]

You can only use pwnage tool if you've previously jaibroken your phone. That's why you couldn't go directly to 3.1.2 from a vanilla 3.0.1. After redsn0w you should be able to upgrade now.

Give it a try. Just do a general restore (shift+click or alt+click to pick your own ipsw) from in iTunes. I didn't need to go into any recovery mode.

 

[dhlizard]

You can only use pwnage tool if you've previously jaibroken your phone. That's why you couldn't go directly to 3.1.2 from a vanilla 3.0.1. After redsn0w you should be able to upgrade now.

Give it a try. Just do a general restore (shift+click or alt+click to pick your own ipsw) from in iTunes. I didn't need to go into any recovery mode.

The newest PT 3.1.4 doesn't require the phone to be previously/currently JB.