News

I apologize I have not posted in so long. I have been at work spreading Linux throughout the community. First of all, I would like to thank all of my readers. In the short history of this blog, I have had more than 1,000 Views in 4 months! Incredible! I will now try to focus more on Linux guides. If you ever need help with anything, just post in any comments and I WILL help within 3 days. Thank you everybody, and it has been a fun ride, and is nowhere from being over.

Spirit-Linux: Revised.

Ok, I know that many people that read my spirit-Linux guide last month were having issues compiling, downloading packages, and other minor set backs. So, in an attempt to make the spirit Linux jailbreak available to more users, i am going to revise the tutorial to be easier and cleaner. The guide will also be made available in a text only format, for easier copy and pasting of commands. So, without further ado, her we go!

First, a few requirements. You must have a computer running Linux, I myself am running Ubuntu Linux v. 10.04 Lucid Lynx. I do not have any other Linux distros running, so I can not confirm the accuracy of this guide on other distributions, such as Fedora or RedHat. If you have gotten spirit-Linux working on a different distro, please leave a comment and I will make the necessary changes as needed.

The supported firmwares are 3.1.3 and 3.1.2 on ALL devices. If you are on 4.0 or above, spirit-linux will put your device into an infinite boot+reboot loop. It is untethered, but as it is a userland jailbreak, the device is only jailbroken when it is booted. This means that custom firmware cannot be applied in DFU or Recovery modes. You must also be completely booted (activated) in order to use this jailbreak.

So, to review the requirements:

1. You must be on 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 firmware.
2. You must be on either an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPod any generation.
3. You must be activated (not in recovery or DFU)
4. You must be on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (as this is my test machine).

If you meet the above requirements, this guide is for YOU! Now, to the fun part!

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The instructions are here and forward. Have fun! (Note: when something is in bold, it is something to be typed exactly as it appears. Most bold commands can be copy and pasted.

1. Hit ALT+F2
2. In the window that appears, type in gnome-terminal
3. A box with a bunch of letters will appear titled “Terminal”. This is the text-based end of Ubuntu 10.04. Commands are typed in here, and most of the tutorial will take place here. To start off, we need to satisfy the dependencies. Type in at the prompt (which look like user@computer ~ $ ): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmcenery/ppa && sudo apt-get update
4. sudo apt-get install build-essential automake cmake git-core libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgnutls-dev libcurl3-openssl-dev ifuse libxml2-dev python-dev swig libusbmuxd-dev libtool libimobiledevice-dev
   
5. Step three may take a while depending on your internet speed. While you’re waiting, go make a cup of coffee or catch up on your favorite TV show.
6. Now that we have solved most dependencies for spirit-linux, we need to get sources from GIT repositories that aren’t provided in Ubuntu and install them. Type in at the prompt: cd ~/Desktop
7. mkdir build
8. cd build
9. Now we need to download the sources. git clone git://git.marcansoft.com/usbmuxd.git
10. git clone git://github.com/JonathanBeck/libplist.git
11. git clone git://github.com/posixninja/spirit-linux.git
12. Now to compile. There is little explaining to do from here on out. Type in at the prompt: cd libplist
13. mkdir build
14. cd build
15. cmake ../
16. make
17. sudo make install
18. cd ../
19. cd ../usbmuxd
20. mkdir build
21. cd build
22. cmake ../
23. make
24. sudo make install
25. cd ../
26. cd ../spirit-linux
27. make
28. Plug in your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad
29. Run ./spirit
30. Have fun with your newley jailbroken iDevice!

iOS 4.0 Has Been RELEASED!

The long-awaited iOS 4.0 for iPod Touch and iPhone users has finally been released to the public. It holds many new features such as:

• Unified Inbox
• SpringBoard Background
• Native Multitasking

Although these improvements are good news for iDevice users, most new features can only be used by iPhone 3g[s] and iPod Touch 3g users. Although things like multitasking can run fine on older devices, Apple does not allow users to use their devices to their **FULL** capacity. Is Apple trying to force consumers to pay more for something they can already do with their current devices? Or is the hardware really not capable? I will leave this for YOU to decide!

iDeviceRestore

I do not claim to have written this guide; I am only trying to spread the word! The tutorial was created by the Rcg Blog. The guide for iDeviceRestore, which alows you to restore or update you iDevice firmware without checking with Apples servers, alows you to install iOS 4.0 beta without a UDID. It can be found here.

Why Linux?

I get this question all the time: “Why should I use Linux? I already have a computer running perfectly fine on <insert OS here>?” Well, on a Linux system there are a few key differences from <insert OS here>:

1. It is written by the community, for the community. Although some Linux Distributions are backed by large corporations (i.e. Red Hat/Fedora or Canonical/Ubuntu), most progress is made by the community. So, rather than software being written for money or greed(?), it is written for the benefit of others. Basically, the spirit of Linux is better than <insert OS here>.
2. There are no limitations such as DRM (Digital Restrictions Management)  or protected files/folders. Anything is customizable, from the way an application works, to the sound played at startup, or the text on a pop-up warning message.  EVERYTHING can be changed to your personal liking.

Maybe you know more than I do! Post some comments and some of them might wind up in my next post :)

Jailbreak an iPod Touch on Windows

1. Download spirit from here
2. Plug in your iPod
3. Double click Spirit wherever you saved it
4. Click Jailbreak

A Linux Jailbreak?

This guide is out of date; the new version can be found at https://thegbill.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/spirit-linux-revised/

P0sixninja has successfully ported the Spirit Jailbreak (previously only available to Windows and Mac OS X users) to the ever-growing Linux operating system platform. The port, which can jailbreak all iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad generations at 3.1.3 firmware, is also the first untethered jailbreak for most models. I will quickly explain how to download, build, and use the Spirit jailbreaking utility on your Ubuntu 10.04 desktop.

1. Press Alt+F2
2. Type in gnome-terminal and hit enter
3. Install git and other build tools by issuing the command sudo apt-get install build-essential automake cmake git-core libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgnutls-dev libcurl3-openssl-dev ifuse libxml2-dev python-dev – enter your password when prompted
4. Download this package of dependencies to your desktop
5. Now unzip it by right clicking it and pressing Extract Here
6. Now just enter the commands as I tell you to
7. cd Desktop/Depends
8. cd usbmuxd
9. mkdir build
10. cd build
11. cmake ../
12. make
13. sudo make install
14. cd ../
15. cd ../libplist
16. mkdir build
17. cd build
18. cmake ../
19. make
20. sudo make install
21. cd ../
22. cd ../libimobiledevice
23. ./configure
24. make
25. sudo make install
26. ignore the ifuse package — it is not needed as it is provided in the official Ubuntu repositories
27. cd ../
    
28. Next, type in git clone git://github.com/posixninja/spirit-linux.git
29. Now, enter in cd ./spirit-linux
30. Run make
31. Plug in your iDevice
32. Run ./spirit to jailbreak your iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad
33. Now just let your iDevice restart and wait while Cydia is installed on your newly jailbroken device!