Not Quite a Blog

As I've detailed before, it's a bit of a pain in the butt to upgrade a jailbroken, unlocked iPhone (I have the 2G original iPhone). (Warning, I'd advise using these directions instead of those just linked to. I believe these to be superior.)

I hoped that AptBackup would help ease a bit of the pain... AptBackup saves a list of Cydia applications (applications that run on jailbroken iPhones) to a place that iTunes can back it up. The idea being that you restore from iTunes, restore from AptBackup and at least all your old programs are there. No dice. I don't think AptBackup works with iPhone OS 3.0. Anyway, it didn't seem to for me. (A friend pointed to this article which tells which files to copy via SSH from your iPhone once you've told AptBackup to "back up". This is handy if AptBackup barfs and you need to SSH in and copy these files back.)

Here's how I upgraded my 2G iPhone:

1. Had iTunes download, but not install, the iPhone OS 3.0 ipsw file.
2. I wrote down all the Cydia apps I had installed by starting Cydia and hitting the "manage" tab. As updating the FW removes any Cydia applications, you'll need to add these back one by one. (My list is below.)
3. Used PwnageTool 3.0 to create a customized version of the 3.0 ipsw file. Saved this file to someplace where I can find it.
4. Put the iPhone in DFU mode (or recovery mode?). I can never get this right. But I found a way to get it right every time: With your iPhone connected to your Mac, close iTunes and then open PwnageTool (you might have to close and re-open it). See that it has a tab labeled "DFU"? Click on that. This will walk you through how to put your iPhone in DFU mode. Close PwnageTool. (A friend told me that if your iphone is unlocked, you can use recovery mode instead... to get into that disconnect the iPhone, hold the home button while connecting it to USB.)
5. Open iTunes and it will notice the iPhone is in recovery mode. Option-click "Restore" and navigate to the ipsw file you created with PwnageTool. Let iTunes restore from the new firmware and re-sync. (takes a long time)
6. Re-install all the Cydia apps, one-by-one, from the list made above.
7. If you're on T-Mobile like me, in order to use the EDGE Data Network, you'll have to go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network and put in epc.tmobile.com in for "APN" (or internet2.voicestream.com if you have T-Mobile's Total Internet package.).
8. If you've purchased Snapture (a campera app), you'll probably have to download SBSettings from the iPhone and reset the user directory permissions on your phone (more here). Later: Actually, I can't seem to get Snapture to work. Looks like Snapture Labs will have an updated binary "within hours". Even Later: If you're having a problem deleting old pics and taking new ones, use MobileTerminal or ssh into your phone and delete any directory like 100APPLE or 999APPLE from /private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM/. (see here)
9. Via Terminal, you should change the passwords on the root and mobile users from the default of alpine for both (in the last firmware, mobile's password was dottie, but not anymore.
10. If you've setup Cycorder to save videos to a directory in your Air Sharing directory tree (e.g., a la this post), you'll have to re-establish that symbolic link. (Tip: make sure the target directory exits and is chowned to mobile:mobile.)