Jailbroken and unlocked 5.0 w/ iPad 6.15.00 newb questions

[mwalsh]

A friend gave me his 3GS to jailbreak and unlock yesterday (he's off to Switzerland next week and wants to buy a local SIM for his visit). He thought he'd do me a favor and make sure he upgraded to the latest iOS first, so he upgraded to 5.0.1 (5.16.05 baseband) beforehand. Gee, thanks!

After unsuccessfully trying for like 6 hours to get a 4.3.3 ISPW restore past the iTunes 3194 error, I gave up on that and was lucky enough to get a signed 5.0 restore last night. I blew out the 5.16.05 baseband left over from 5.0.1 with redsn0w, replacing it with the iPad 6.15.00, installed Cydia, and then ultrasn0w to unlock. All appears well on the unlock side, which is all he really cared about.

However, as a complete newb (this is only my second jailbreak, and I think the first time I even used jailbreakme.com from my phone) I have some general jailbreak and iOS5.0 specific questions:

Jailbreak and tethering - I'm not understanding the boot behavior for jailbroken 5.0. I have read that the phone won't boot past the Apple if not tethered. But have alternatively read that tethering is just so programs requiring jailbreak (ie: non Apps Store ones, like Cydia) work? Which is correct, if either? I don't seem to be having any problems booting up untethered and Cydia still works.

Location Services - seem to interfere with both cellular and WI-fi signals on this phone. All is well with them turned off. Anyone else experience this? Any way around it?

iOS 5.0.1 - I'm not unconvinced that had I left 5.0.1 alone, and just performed the iPad baseband overwrite via redsn0w, I could have gotten to where I needed to be without going back to 5.0 (though I recognize I might have needed to tell redsn0w to manually use the 5.0 IPSW as the reference file for the jailbreak). Any thoughts?

My own phone is still sitting at 4.0. I have wanted to upgrade some, but don't want to mess up my current jailbreak and unlock. However, I have one app I use that no longer works under 4.0, so I guess the time will come soon. Perhaps it was a mistake to not go to 5.0 last night, while I was doing my friend's. However, I definitely want to try and preserve my 5.13.04 baseband and my understanding is that redsn0w (windows) won't create a custom ISPW omitting a newer baseband right now. True statement? Could this be done if I use a Mac and pwnagetool instead though? Or do I now also have to wait for the jailbreak to come out to 5.0.1?

Thanks for the responses. Sorry if this was a bit of a long-winded first post.

 

[f4780y]

Here's a few quick replies:

1) a tethered JB phone will continue to boot until you install a Cydia tweak which hooks into the kernel. Mobile Substrate is the prime candidiate, and the vast majority of tweaks install this. You'll also find Safari does not work unless you boot tethered.

BUT - There is a semitether package you can now install from Cydia which helps alleviate this problem - You should probably install it NOW. Your Cydia apps still won't work until you tethered boot, but the phone will always boot and allow you to use the stock apps (including Safari) when you are away from a PC and reboot unexpectedly.

2) You could have left the phone on IOS 5.0.1... Also, the latest redsn0w automatically does it's tethered boot thing. You don't need to point it to a firmware file if you don't want to, so no need to keep the old 5.0 around.

3) Yes, redsn0w on Windows won't do a custom firmware yet, but sn0wbreeze will I believe (or if you can get to a Mac, redns0w is fine on there). You've missed your opportunity for 5.0 now, so you will need to go 5.0.1 (which is fine tethered).

Hope that helps.

 

[mwalsh]

Here's a few quick replies:

1) a tethered JB phone will continue to boot until you install a Cydia tweak which hooks into the kernel. Mobile Substrate is the prime candidate, and the vast majority of tweaks install this. You'll also find Safari does not work unless you boot tethered.

BUT - There is a semitether package you can now install from Cydia which helps alleviate this problem - You should probably install it NOW. Your Cydia apps still won't work until you tethered boot, but the phone will always boot and allow you to use the stock apps (including Safari) when you are away from a PC and reboot unexpectedly.

Thanks for the response!

I don't seem to be having a problem with Safari, even after going into Cydia just now and letting it update everything. Mobile Substrate on this phone is version 0.9.3901, which I don't get because Saurik himself says that this version requires a tethered boot. I guess that I should just consider myself lucky, and maybe advise my pal to stay the heck away from using Cydia while he's gone, in case something updates and causes an adverse effect.

The only other negative artifact I'm noticing beyond the Location Services issue is that "Slide to Unlock" seems a bit lazy on first boot, in that the slider either jumps over after a delay or sometimes never moves at all (though the phone does unlock anyway). But it works fine just on wake-up.

 

[f4780y]

Yeah, sorry forgot that one. Location Services are knackered for anyone using the iPad baseband AFAIK. It's well reported if you search.

 

[mwalsh]

Yeah, sorry forgot that one. Location Services are knackered for anyone using the iPad baseband AFAIK. It's well reported if you search.

That was my suspicion....thanks for confirming it. Another reason to want to preserve my own base band before I do anything else. It does work in that it will properly work with apps like Maps when turned on. I've told my friend to turn it on when he needs it and turn it off when he doesn't. I guess I do have some thread browsing to do, once time permits.