Guides

Thanks to pod2g and the iPhone Dev-Team it's now possible to jailbreak the iPhone 4 and all models of the Phone 3GS untethered. Although iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners are still waiting for an A5 jailbreak, all iOS devices running iOS 5.0.1 with A4 hardware can now be jailbroken untethered. This includes the original iPad, iPod touch 3G and iPod touch 4G.

Using redsn0w to jailbreak is a straightforward process, and will install the Cydia app store on your device. This opens up a whole new world of tweaks and apps to improve your iPhone experience and customize operation. Be sure that before you proceed with the instructions, you have installed the iOS 5.0.1 firmware update.

Accessing your iPhone filesystem directly with a command line console can be convenient and makes it possible to run utilities such as OpenSSH without the need to buy separate standalone clients. The MobileTerminal app has been around for some time and provides this functionality to jailbroken iPhone users. Unfortunately, the latest version of MobileTerminal available in Cydia crashes in iOS 4 and iOS 5.

The app is still available and easy to install, without having to manually decompress archives or copy files directly to your iPhone. The easy way to install MobileTerminal in iOS 4 or iOS 5 doesn't even require a computer. Follow these steps directly on your jailbroken iPhone to install a working copy of MobileTerminal:

Developers are moving closer to an untethered iOS 5 jailbreak every day. Thanks to BigBoss, now you can protect your tethered iOS 5 jailbreak from making your iPhone unusable during a crash or unplanned reboot. The solution to the problem, known as a semi-tethered jailbreak makes it possible for the iPhone to come back up when you can't be near your computer for a full tethered boot.

There are some quirks to the SemiTether package, but having an iPhone that will start up is much better than one that just stays on the Apple logo. You'll still have to get back to your computer eventually to boot tethered for access to jailbreak apps and Cydia. Safari and Mail will also not be functioning when the iPhone is in a semi-tethered state.

Thanks to iPhone Dev-Team the redsn0w jailbreak tool is updated to jailbreak the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS running iOS 5. This is a work in progress designed to help app developers update their products for the latest firmware. As such, Dev-Team considers redsn0w a beta release and warns early adopters there may be lingering bugs in the firmware.

Before you go ahead and read the tutorial, be aware this does not apply to the iPhone 4S or iPad 2. Jailbreak solutions for these two devices are under development and have not been released. When it comes to the iPhone 4 and 3GS, most devices will require a tethered jailbreak.

Are you missing some key jailbreak tweaks now that you've updated your iPhone 4 or 3GS to iOS 5 firmware? Already tired of dealing with all of the shortcomings in iOS 5 notification center? Luckily if you have saved your SHSH blobs you can easily downgrade and return your iPhone to a jailbroken state (and reinstall LockInfo!)

In order to downgrade you must have saved SHSH blobs. Pictured above are how saved SHSH files appear for each firmware version in Cydia, when they are saved to Saurik's server. Follow these steps to downgrade to earlier firmware, including iOS 4.3.3 for an untethered jailbreak with JailbreakMe.