Jailbreaking is a game of cat and mouse between Apple and enthusiasts like the iPhone Dev Team. With the latest 3.1 firmware update, things have gotten a bit complicated. Yesterday, the iPhone Dev Team reported on what you should do to “future proof” your iPhone 3GS jailbreak.
Here’s what the Dev Team had to say:
Now, there are ways to ensure that even after taking an official 3GS update (which you really shouldn’t do!), that you’ll nonetheless be able to revert to a jailbreakable 3GS (this is NOT true for the unlock, see NOTE #1 below). We’ve been explaining these methods (like the iTunes /tmp technique) over the last few weeks, and there’s been some great discussion and feedback for the methods in the comments.
Having said all that, we realize that some of you updated your 3GS to 3.1 anyway. If you want to come back to the world of the jailbreak (but NOT the sim unlock, sorry!) then saurik’s new “on file†server may be able to help. He’s got all the details in a new article so do check it out.
Even if you did not update your 3GS to official 3.1 (good job! You really shouldn’t do that!), then you should still read the article and make those changes today. We fully recommend redirecting your iTunes signing process through saurik’s “on file†server to future-proof your 3GS jailbreak through all future updates.
Uhh…what exactly does all of this mean? This is getting pretty technical. My head hurts! Essentially, Saurik (the creator of Cydia) has created an easy way for your iPhone’s ECID SHSH to be stored on file on a Cydia server. This file is important for future jailbreak/unlocking in a nutshell.
Summary: If you want to jailbreak/unlock your iPhone 3GS still…
Do NOT update to 3.1 firmware via iTunes!
The only way we should EVER update our firmware for jailbroken iPhones is to use PwnageTool. The release should be coming shortly.
Click here to read Saurik’s article for an in-depth explanation. If you want to add more on this, feel free to post in the comments!
