iPhone Dev Team Needs Beta Testers!

The iPhone Dev Team have been teasing an untethered jailbreak for the newest iDevices on iOS 4.2.1, for a while now. The rumour was that Christmas weekend would be the release date. Well, they came really close, and released a beta of Redsn0w to beta tester who have a Mac, and were willing to possibly mess up there iDevices, to help the greater good.

So, far there have been a couple of releases, with various bug fixes, but no official, public release, yet. Here’s what the iPhone Dev Team posted on their blog:

Over the Christmas weekend we’ll be releasing a version of redsn0w that implements the “backup plan” to the 4.2.1 untethered jailbreak.  We’re seeking your help to test this redsn0w and find any bugs before we do a general release!

(If you have an iPhone 3G, or an old-bootrom ipt2g or iPhone 3GS, you already have an untethered jailbreak!  Just use the latest public redsn0w.)

To keep things manageable, this will be a Mac-only test program.  We also request that any volunteers *NOT* need the ultrasn0w unlock (in case things go very wrong).

Right now, the “backup plan” requires that you have the 4.2b3 IPSW on your Mac, and that Cydia has your 4.2b3 SHSH hashes.  Please don’t pirate that 4.2b3 IPSW!  (We’re also working on a way that this technique might apply to all those with 4.1 IPSWs, but that’s not the first goal right now.)

If you fit all the above qualifications, please follow @redsn0w_testers on twitter for announcements, and use the comments section here for feedback.  Thanks very much for your help, and Happy Holidays!

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Update #1: We’re about to release the first beta using this new “backup method”, which redsn0w calls “Jailbreak Monte”.  Here are some important points:

• This is a beta tester program. It’s not a general release!  Things can go very wrong, so please don’t even consider testing if you have pictures or other media on your device that you haven’t backed up!
• For the same reason, please don’t participate if you rely on the ultrasn0w carrier unlock.  Wait for the final version!
• Until we fix some sandbox issues with bluetooth, the bluetooth functionality is disabled.
• This very first beta1 is limited to iPhone4, iPad, and iPod touch 4G.
• Cydia must have your 4.2b3 SHSH blobs saved on file.  (As we approach a general release, we’ll provide a way to let you use locally saved hashes too).
• You must already have the usbmuxd software installed and running on your Mac (this requirement will eventually go away too). The correct invocation of the relay is just as that page says: “./tcprelay.py -t 22:2222”.  If the relay isn’t installed or running correctly by the time the redsn0w ramdisk has started, you’ll need to restore to stock FW again to try it again. Please test it beforehand to save yourself some time!
• Please leave all feedback in the comments below (we really need your feedback to help develop it into a stable release!)

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Update #2: The second beta is now available (testers ONLY please!).  This version should fix all the native app crashes (including Task switcher).  That’s the only change in from beta1….Bluetooth is still disabled.

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Update #3: The third beta is now available (testers ONLY please!).  This version extends the fix made in beta2 over to the non-GUI programs too (like the daemons that handle media content).  That should cover things like Facetime, Winterboard themes, and embedded videos in iTunes.  If you had trouble using the usbmuxd in previous betas, please wait until we incorporate that into redsn0w itself (i.e. don’t bother trying this beta3, just wait for the integration).

If you are able to help out with testing the latest Redsn0w, you can download it here:

redsn0w 0.9.7b3 (OS X).  Please test this after a fresh restore (otherwise it’s impossible to keep track of the variables involved). Select “Jailbreak Monte” to try out the untether.