Updated to 6.1 this evening and the evasi0n JB went through flawlessly. Now I just need to listen to my own advice.... and be patient w/ Cydia. LOL!!
I'm new at this (and here) but it seems my JB was successful on my Verizon iPhone 4s. However, when I try to open Cydia, it just says "Preparing Filesystem" and then goes away. I then restored the phone and did it again. Now when I attempt to open Cydia, it just pops up, then it disappears. It still looks like the app is running (when I press the home butting twice) but when I try to open it, again it just pops up then seems to close - but again, the app still appears to be running upon double tap.
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
EDIT: I also just did a hard reset with no change in Cydia.
"Preparing Filesystem" is what you're supposed to see the first time you open cydia after jailbreaking.
If cydia does not open up properly, I would recommend wiping everything off and do it all over again.
On the note of the wiping part, we have to be very specific when it comes to jailbreaking. If you're planning on wiping a device that has any affiliation with jailbreaking and its processes, perform a DFU restore to minimize or neutralize any risk at all when it comes to problems arousing. Better to be safe than sorry.
Oddly enough, Winterboard only took two or three attempts for me. I tried SBSettings probably a dozen times throughout the evening... only to get pretty much every red error Cydia could throw at me. LOL!!SBSettings? Really? Just installed it on my dad's iPhone 5. I had trouble with Winterboard. Took about 10 minutes to get it downloaded