Friday, September 26, 2008

upgrade and unlock the 1st Gen Apple iphone ( firmware 2.1 )

Its been a while since I last upgraded and unlocked my iphone. I had 1.1.3 all this while, and got sick of seeing itunes popup up everytime saying "upgrade! upgrade!" so decided to spend some time today and get the software updated. ( and unlocked, of course)

The web is so full of 'tutorials' that help u unlock iphones, and its so confusing. There doesnt seem to be one 'official' location to look at. So I decided to write my own version of the step-by-step easy ublock procedure.

This is what I did:

1. Go to http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/49988701/pwnagetool-and-quickpwn-for-2-1-firmware and download quickpwn torrent file.
2. Download the torrent using ur fav torrent application.
3. Connect iphone to ur mac. let itunes startup and ask u "do u wanna upgrade?". Surprise itunes this time saying "download and install"
4. Once the 238 MB download is complete and installation is over, ur phone will return to the factory settings state. All fresh and locked!
5. Now go back to the quickpwn.dmg file that you downloaded in step 2. mount it by double clicking it, and then drag the quickpwn application inside the drive, onto somewhere else ( ur desktop?)
6. run the quickpwn app, and follow the wizard. If itsnt able to find the firmware software, let it download again ( I dint bother to figure out where it was looking for the firmware etc)
7.Once QuickPwn finishes its job, you should be able to launch the iphone, and get to the home screen. If your phone doesnt detect any network, go to step 8
8. You'd have to launch 'Cydia' on ur home screen, and go to the 'search' screen. Search for 'BootNeuter'. Install it.
9. Before you launch BootNeuter, go to Settings > general > auto-lock - and set it to 'never'. BootNeuter doesnt like autolock.
10. launch bootneuter, and set Version to 3.9, Neuter to 'on' and unlock to 'on'. Once the settings are made, Click on 'flash' on top right. Let the phone be for a while, and do its stuff. Once its all done, and restarted, You should see the logo of ur carrier on the left top.

Thats it. Happy unlocking!