Hack the iPhone

Step 1: Downgrading, activating, updating, jailbreaking, and unlocking
Part 1 of 4

(intel / PPC Mac)

What I used: iPhone with 1.1.1 firmware (new in box), OS X (10.4.10 & 10.5), iTunes 7.4.2
What will also work: iPhone with 1.0.2 firmware (never unlocked before, or with repaired baseband)




First I have to say hats off to the iPhone Dev Team for making all this possible, especially to: NerveGas, Pumpkin, Edgan, drudge, dinopio, asap18 and Operator. Without their efforts, none of this would be possible! Everyone should donate to the iPhone Dev Team. You can do so with PayPal at iphone.devteam [at] googlemail.com or iphone.devteam [at] gmail.com.

So you just got your iPhone and you want to add your own ringtones (for free), change some graphics, and add some great applications and games to it. Well this is the tutorial for you. We are going to peform the first critical steps. We will create the phonedmg folder, we will get our hands on the iPhone firmware file, and we will perform a series of tasks that will make your iPhone a lot more usable than it currently is.

Warning

There are some things you should know before you perform anything on this site. There is obviously some risk involved here, but everyone I know of has been able to restore their iPhone by using iTunes. I've heard no report of anyone damaging their iPhone by modding it when using the correct program(s) properly.

• You risk voiding your warranty.
• This site is not for those uncomfortable around computers, and especially the Terminal. If you aren't sure about something on here, then I recommend stopping what you are doing and connecting your iPhone to iTunes, and signing a contract with AT&T.
• Any modifications you perform on your iPhone, including bypassing activation and unlocking, could be reset if you should install a firmware update provided by Apple. It's a simple matter of redoing everything you previously did to get your iPhone back the way you had it once you update provided the new firmware has been deemed safe.
• Read the instructions in their entirety. Do not read into the instructions, follow only what is there. If you can't follow directions, you may damage your phone requiring a replacement from Apple.
• I am not responsible for your results if they are less than what you expected. You assume all risks. I recommend seeking help in iPhone hacking forums or in the various IRC channels. Check my links page to find them.
• If you have not activated your iPhone via AT&T, then you will lack the ability to use visual voicemail.

If you've hacked your iPhone before, the preliminary steps will be familiar to you, and you can just skip them. This is the first tutorial for 1.1.1 iPhone users and no prior hacking knowledge is presumed.

Step 1.

Make sure your iPhone is docked, charged, and left on.

Step 2.

Quit/close iTunes. Don't just minimize it, shut it down. If you have the iTunes Helper open, you must quit that as well. To determine if they are running, open the Activity Monitor program found in the Utilities folder inside of the Applications folder. If it is running, highlight it in the list and click the "Quit Process" button. You must close iTunes and iTunes helper EVERY SINGLE TIME you intend to hack your iPhone.

Step 3.

Go to your dock (on your Mac) and click the Finder.




Your "Home" folder should be selected automatically. In my case, my Home folder is named Mark. Right click in the window where the other folders are in your Home folder, and create a new folder. Call this new folder phonedmg.

Step 4.

In Leopard, all downloads by default go into the Downloads folder in your home folder. I prefer to do my own organizing so what I did was open the Safari browser, then selected "Preferences". Go to the "General" tab, then where it says "Save downloaded files to:" I selected "Other" and then picked the Dekstop. While you are here, you should also uncheck the box that says "Open "safe" files after downloading. Then close the preferences window.




Download the 1.0.2 iPhone firmware from Apple. Click here.

A file with a double extension .ipsw.zip will download. When it's finished it will look like this.




Right click the .ipsw.zip and select "Duplicate".




Double click the copy and it will decompress. Leaving a folder.




Copy the contents of this folder into your phonedmg folder along with the original .ipsw.zip file.

Step 5.

Download iNdependence 1.3 beta here.

Launch iNdependence and read the "Status" bar. Confirm your iPhone has 1.1.1 firmware. Click the "Firmware" tab and click the "Enter DFU Mode" button.




You'll be asked for the location of your firmware files, which you downloaded earlier. Navigate to the phonedmg folder and click "Open".




A message will appear. You should receive a success message shortly. Click "OK".




The iPhone will now display an image of the iTunes icon and a USB cable pointing to the icon.

Step 6.

Quit iNdependence! Launch iTunes. The iPhone's screen will turn white and a pop up will appear. Click "OK". If you do not get this pop up message, then remove the USB cable from your Mac and plug it back in so the iPhone will be recognized by iTunes.




Hold the "alt/option" key on your Mac and click the "Restore" button.




You will be prompted for the location of the restore file. The file browser may already be pointing to the proper directory, but it will be empty. If this is this case, navigate to your phonedmg folder. Select the iPhone1,1_1.0.2_1C28_Restore.ipsw.zip file and click "Choose".




Various messages will appear while the restore process happens. Note, it stays on the message screen "Waiting for iPhone" for about two minutes.




Finally an error message will appear. Click "OK".




The iPhone will now display the connect to iTunes alternate graphic.




Another pop up will apear, just click "OK" and ignore the message. Do not follow what this pop up says to do! Eject the iPhone from iTunes and then close iTunes!