Tethered to Untethered

[Jmills87]

The drivers should install automatically when the computer detects the device in DFU mode(as long as you have a newer OS like Win7 or Vista)

 

[f4780y]

The drivers should install automatically when the computer detects the device in DFU mode(as long as you have a newer OS like Win7 or Vista)

But not without iTunes installed? You can't walk up to any old PC without iTunes and have it automatically install Apple device drivers? Apple are pretty precious about that, because as far as they are concerned the device drivers have no place on a PC in the absence of iTunes (understandably from their perspective).
It's possible to extract them yourself from iTunesSetup.exe, and install only the drivers on another PC, but you do need to install them "manually" (via MSI) if iTunes is missing. It is also illegal to distribute them AFAIK, which is why you don't get little simple USB stick packages for tethered booting.

UPDATE - Just gave it a try on a vanilla Windows7 Ultimate build (sans iTunes) and no dice. Windows contacts the Windows Update Service for a DFU device driver when the phone is connected but it fails with "No Driver Found" error.

 

[Jmills87]

Strange, thought that it could work without iTunes, thanks for looking into that for us f4780y!

 

[G-Weezy]

No you don't need iTunes. I do it at school all day. When you transfer the redsnow file make sure you get the extracted app. That's all you need and the iOS 5 software. When you put it in DFU mode the computer will automatically download the apple drivers while in DFU mode.


When you click on extras and select the iOS file it will open up the file from the flash drive since that will be the only place that has the ipsw on the PC.

I have did it all this week at school with no iTunes. You know how school you can't download and install.

 

[f4780y]

No you don't need iTunes. I do it at school all day. When you transfer the redsnow file make sure you get the extracted app. That's all you need and the iOS 5 software. When you put it in DFU mode the computer will automatically download the apple drivers while in DFU mode.

When you click on extras and select the iOS file it will open up the file from the flash drive since that will be the only place that has the ipsw on the PC.

I have did it all this week at school with no iTunes. You know how school you can't download and install.

Well, we'll agree to differ. Just tried it on 3 different PC's at work, Widnows XP, Vista, and 7, and all 3 failed. I did a fair bit of research into this before 4.2.1 was untethered a very long time ago, and as far as I know Apple have not changed their policy on this.

It is very possible that your school Admins provision for the installation of Apple Mobile Device drivers, but on a vanilla machine in a stand alone environment (with open internet connection) I cannot get it to work.

Oh, and if the school don't let you "download and install" as a matter of course, that will for sure include installing a new device driver package from Windows Update since they come as an MSI, adding weight to the argument that your school network is already provisioned with drivers. Each time a new device is connected to a new port on the PC you will still see the "Installing Device Driver" message, but the drivers must already be installed on the PC for this to succeed. It is quite different from the initial installation which cannot be done without the right priveilges / permissions.

 

[G-Weezy]

It's ok. It works for me. Sorry it doesn't work for you at work. I don't know I just plugged it in and it boots. I'm just lucky it works because I'll be walking around school with a messed up device lol.

 

[izzyfanto]

f4750y is right. I had an issue with iTunes on W7 between a jailbreak and had to unistall, cleaned the registry then restarted and tried plugging the phone in and the driver installation failed. downloaded and installed iTunes and it worked. ;-/