Using AT&T locked iPhone 4 on T-Mobile: time to jailbreak?

[kiphone4]

Hi, I have a locked AT&T iPhone that I've been successfully using on the T-Mobile network with a Gevey Ultra sim. I've been stuck at iOS 4.3.5 for a long time, and would like to move up to 5.1.1 and take advantage of this latest jailbreak before Apple patches it. How should I go about doing this, and still preserve my ability to function on T-Mobile?? I'm currently running iOS 4.3.5 and modem firmware 04.10.01.

Can I just do the upgrade to 5.1.1 via iTunes 10, then jailbreak, then rely on something obtained via Cydia to unlock the phone for use on T-Mobile? Do I need to worry about preserving the baseband modem firmware? I don't have any saved blobs, since I bought the unit after 4.3.5 was already superceded by 5.0.

Thanks for any advice you may have... the clock is ticking!

Kurt

[cooldayr]

Originally Posted by kiphone4

Hi, I have a locked AT&T iPhone that I've been successfully using on the T-Mobile network with a Gevey Ultra sim. I've been stuck at iOS 4.3.5 for a long time, and would like to move up to 5.1.1 and take advantage of this latest jailbreak before Apple patches it. How should I go about doing this, and still preserve my ability to function on T-Mobile?? I'm currently running iOS 4.3.5 and modem firmware 04.10.01.

Can I just do the upgrade to 5.1.1 via iTunes 10, then jailbreak, then rely on something obtained via Cydia to unlock the phone for use on T-Mobile? Do I need to worry about preserving the baseband modem firmware? I don't have any saved blobs, since I bought the unit after 4.3.5 was already superceded by 5.0.

Thanks for any advice you may have... the clock is ticking!

Kurt

Make a custom firmware with redsn0w
After that simply go into pwned DFU mode and restore using your custom firmware!

[kiphone4]

Thank you for your advice... however, I seem to have run into problems. I built a custom firmware without baseband using redsn0w, that went OK. I put it into pwned DFU mode with redsnow, that went OK. The screen was black. I went into iTunes, option-clicked Restore, navigated to the NO_BB_xxxx firmware and initiated the restore. This failed with error 14.

I read some on jailbreakqa.com, and learned that my Little Snitch network filter and firewall settings were possibly messing things up. So I turned off Little Snitch, and did a flush of ipfw to clear out the firewall rules. However, after the failure with error 14 the iPhone screen was no longer black like before: it showed the plug and arrow and iTunes logo. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I went ahead and tried option click Restore. That failed with error 1604.

I think that error 1604 was caused by the fact that my device is not in pwned DFU mode anymore (no black screen). How can I get it into pwned DFU again? When I hold the power button to try and turn it off (a prerequisite for using redsn0w's pwned DFU button), it just reboots to the connector/arrow/iTunes logo screen again.

Help!

Thanks,

Kurt

---------- EDIT ----------

OK, I got into pwned DFU mode again by leaving it plugged into the computer (a Mac), opening redsn0W, manually initiating DFU mode by holding the buttons, and letting redsn0w do the exploit that puts it into pwned DFU. However, when I try to restore to custom firmware I get error 14 again. Any ideas?

Kurt

---------- EDIT ----------

Could the fact that I left the (genuine) Gevey Ultra sim in the phone be a problem?

[kiphone4]

OK, I found the reason that error 14 was aborting me out of the restore process: I was using 9B208 firmware, and other folks have found the 5.1.1 9B206 can successfully restore. Sure enough, I downloaded 9B206, did the pwned DFU mode, did the iTunes option Restore, and voila! I'm up and running in 5.1.1.

However, I'm now in a different hell: when I power it up it insists on trying to activate, presumably through AT&T. It won't let me out of a setup mode, darn it! I don't have a relationship with AT&T, having been using Gevey Ultra Sim to unlock my phone. Guess I'll have to search through the Unlock forum for a solution.

[cooldayr]

Look into SAM
It fixes push (activation) issues!

[kiphone4]

Thank you, cooldayr, for your help! So, is my next step to run Absinthe to jailbreak?? Or was a jailbreak built into the custom IPSW I built? Here's the situation: when I power up it asks me for

- language (English)
- location (U.S.)
- network (I put local wireless credentials in, got connection)

... and then it goes right into trying to activate... which, of course, fails. I can't get past this by any reasonable combination of keypresses. If I JB through Absinthe will it somehow get around this, and deliver me to the home screen with no service? If I can somehow get to there I can probably go through the standard Gevey manual procedure and get it back onto T-Mobile.

The only thing I can think of is to go buy an AT&T sim for a GoPhone, cut it down, get it in there and see if I can get past this darn setup.

[kiphone4]

Ha, here I am replying to my own thread again! Well, I have success to report: I was on IRC chat through jailbreakqa.com, and was fortunate to be given the essential instructions on what I needed to do.

Here's what I did: spocker told me to put my device in DFU mode (not pwned DFU, just regular DFU), and then run the redsn0w jailbreak process with all the options unticked. I did this, and it got me past the activation problem. Apparently the jailbreak automatically deals with the activation issue.

So, then I was up and running with a home screen. I had some trouble getting the Gevey Ultra to work at first; the phone was taking 2 minutes 15 seconds to boot up, and I think that the Gevey was not liking this. The way that I got around this was to boot the phone with the SIM tray pulled out partially, and then push the tray in as soon as the Apple logo was replaced by the confirmation swipe screen. This gave me the Gevey screen, I hit cancel, went into Settings->Phone->Sim Applications->Instructions, clicked accept, waited 15 seconds, dialed 112, hit end after two seconds, turned on Airplane Mode, waited for the SIM message, turned off Airplane mode, and then waited 30 seconds for connections.

So, long strange trip, with several kind strangers who helped me.

There is, unfortunately, just one little thing that I wish I had done differently: I took spocker at his word, and unchecked ALL the jailbreak options, including the one for "install Cydia." I debated whether to leave this one checked, and kind of wished I had. My phone is technically jailbroken at the moment, but without Cydia there isn't much you can do, is there? Any ideas on how to get Cydia on the phone? Run the redsn0w jailbreak again?

Thanks,

Kurt

[RovinAround]

If you have a ATT phone, call them for official unlock. If the phone qualifies the following, they'll do it...

Not currently under contract
No past due balance on the account is was previously used with
No reports of lost/stolen for the device

If it fits those guidelines, you can get a carrier unlock from ATT. Then restore in iTunes and go from there for your desired iOS & JB

RA

---------- EDIT ----------

Originally Posted by kiphone4

There is, unfortunately, just one little thing that I wish I had done differently: I took spocker at his word, and unchecked ALL the jailbreak options, including the one for "install Cydia." I debated whether to leave this one checked, and kind of wished I had. My phone is technically jailbroken at the moment, but without Cydia there isn't much you can do, is there? Any ideas on how to get Cydia on the phone? Run the redsn0w jailbreak again?

Thanks,

Kurt

Run RedSn0w again & tick Install Cydia..

[bianchin69]

Just run redsnow again and select I stall cydia
After that's done install sams from repo.bingner.com like cooldayr said