So what's the downside of a tethered jailbreak?

[ideal.dreams]

So here's the thing: I want iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 really badly. The downside is that there's only a tethered jailbreak right now. I am currently jailbroken on 4.3.3 and use apps from Cydia more than I realize (namely SBSettings & MyWi). If I update to iOS 5 I'd lose out on those until an untethered jailbreak comes out, so for right now I'm considering a tethered jailbreak.

My question is: What is the downside of a tethered jailbreak? Yes, I know it means that if you turn your phone off you need to plug it back in to keep the jailbreak. But does this mean that if my battery were to die, for example, while on a tethered jailbreak, that I wouldn't be able to use my phone at ALL until I plug it into my computer? Or does it mean that it will still turn on but the jailbreak will be gone?

Thanks!

 

[WindWaker]

Hmmm, well here's the thing: do you want the new ios 5 features with limited access to your jb apps for probably at least a month, or do you want all of them without ios 5? Tethered jailbreak means that if you're phone dies while jailbroken, you cannot use your phone AT ALL until you hook it up to your computer (and completely restore everything + possibly the jb) (this includes when you restart your phone). Personally, I'm fine with the limited app access because I haven't used jb before, also I carry a usb chord around with me now just in case. It really is a matter of preference (and to an extent practicality lol).

 

[ideal.dreams]

Alright, so let's say I do use the tethered jailbreak.

I go to install MyWi - it requires a reboot of the device to finish installation. Will I lose my jailbreak if I do that? If yes, how will I get around that to install MyWi? Will that even be possible?

And also, will restarting the springboard have conflicts with the jailbreak?

 

[PatrickOMFG]

Alright, so let's say I do use the tethered jailbreak.

I go to install MyWi - it requires a reboot of the device to finish installation. Will I lose my jailbreak if I do that? If yes, how will I get around that to install MyWi? Will that even be possible?

And also, will restarting the springboard have conflicts with the jailbreak?

Instead of hitting the reboot button, hold the sleep button and shut down your phone when Cydia wants you to reboot.

Get your phone in DFU mode, then from redsn0w, select Extras and Just Boot.

Your phone will keep everything, and boot in the tethered jailbroken state, with any new cydia apps installed.

 

[ritmomundo]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

It's not worth it. Wait for the the untethered jailbreak. The pros of iOS 5 DO NOT outweigh the cons of a tethered JB. I thought I could deal with tethering, but its a serious PITA to do this DFU restart business everytime I restart (and in the beginning, when you're reinstalling all your cydia hacks, you'll be restarting every 5 minutes). It's not worth the headache. Just wait a couple more days.

 

[ideal.dreams]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

It's not worth it. Wait for the the untethered jailbreak. The pros of iOS 5 DO NOT outweigh the cons of a tethered JB. I thought I could deal with tethering, but its a serious PITA to do this DFU restart business everytime I restart (and in the beginning, when you're reinstalling all your cydia hacks, you'll be restarting every 5 minutes). It's not worth the headache. Just wait a couple more days.

Is there an estimated time on when an untethered jailbreak will be public?

 

[ritmomundo]

Is there an estimated time on when an untethered jailbreak will be public?

my guess would be very soon, judging from past releases. but no one except the dev teams would know for sure.

 

[zorinlynx]

When I tried the tethered jailbreak on my phone (back in the iOS 4.2 days), my phone would still boot up and work if I wasn't tethered BUT none of the jailbreak-installed apps would work.

I don't know if this is the same for every jailbreak so DON'T quote me on this, but that was the experience I had. I haven't jailbroken my phone since (just my iPad) but might when an untethered JB comes out for iOS 5 on A5.

 

[IrishVixen]

When I tried the tethered jailbreak on my phone (back in the iOS 4.2 days), my phone would still boot up and work if I wasn't tethered BUT none of the jailbreak-installed apps would work.

I don't know if this is the same for every jailbreak so DON'T quote me on this, but that was the experience I had. I haven't jailbroken my phone since (just my iPad) but might when an untethered JB comes out for iOS 5 on A5.

It depends on what you install. If you don't install ANYTHING that includes the use of Mobile Substrate or ties into the Springboard, your phone may boot, but you'll lose the use of Safari and Cydia, at the least.

If you use Mobile Substrate--which a lot of tweaks do--the phone won't boot past the Apple logo without being tethered to a computer. This means if you have a random crash while away from home/work, you'll have no phone at all until you get to a computer. Not even the emergency call screen. I had this happen last week, absolutely out of the blue. Picked up the phone and it wouldn't turn on just after I'd left the house, even fully charged. A long hard reset fixed it, but if I'd been on a tethered JB, I'd have had no phone for the day.

If I had absolutely no other option (say a refurb that shipped with current firmware), I'd consider it (and throw an emergency GoPhone in my car). But since iOS 5 is an optional upgrade, no thanks. I'll stay on 4.2.1 until there's a stable, untethered JB and most tweaks are updated.

 

[zorinlynx]

It depends on what you install. If you don't install ANYTHING that includes the use of Mobile Substrate or ties into the Springboard, your phone may boot, but you'll lose the use of Safari and Cydia, at the least.

If you use Mobile Substrate--which a lot of tweaks do--the phone won't boot past the Apple logo without being tethered to a computer. This means if you have a random crash while away from home/work, you'll have no phone at all until you get to a computer. Not even the emergency call screen. I had this happen last week, absolutely out of the blue. Picked up the phone and it wouldn't turn on just after I'd left the house, even fully charged. A long hard reset fixed it, but if I'd been on a tethered JB, I'd have had no phone for the day.

If I had absolutely no other option (say a refurb that shipped with current firmware), I'd consider it (and throw an emergency GoPhone in my car). But since iOS 5 is an optional upgrade, no thanks. I'll stay on 4.2.1 until there's a stable, untethered JB and most tweaks are updated.

Thanks for the clarification on this. That jailbreak I had a while ago was a very brief one; I started installing tweaks and eventually bricked the phone so I DFUed back to a pre-jailbreak state. I never did try booting untethered after the tweaks, so that's where I got my misguided idea from.