Not Quite a Blog

Warning: The following assumes that you have a 2G iPhone, a Mac laptop or desktop and some familiarity with the command-line.

I've written before about how it's a pain to upgrade my jailbroken, unlocked 2G iPhone (here is my post on getting up to 3.0).

I just upgraded to 3.0.1 and it has gotten a lot easier!

You'll want copies of the firmware files (IPSW) of both iPhone OS 3.0 and 3.0.1 and redsn0w 0.8 from the iPhone Dev Team (you can get iPhone firmware here and redsn0w 0.8 here). We don't actually create a custom firmware here but you'll want these some day anyway... and redsn0w is essential.

Here's what you do:

1. Install aptbackup from Cydia if you haven't already. Use it to back up your Cydia apps.
2. Sync with iTunes and be sure that it creates a backup (this will be your reference if you mess up, mostly).
3. Aptbackup has a nasty habit of not working, occasionally. So, per this post, SSH into your phone and copy over to your computer the files aptbackup.cydiasources.tgz, aptbackup_dpkg-packages.txt and aptbackup_openssh.tgz found at /var/mobile/Library/Preferences. (If aptbackup barfs after your upgrade, you can install aptbackup and OpenSSH via Cydia, sftp these files back to the same directory and use aptbackup to restore.)
4. Connect your iPhone back to iTunes and allow iTunes to download the firmware and upgrade your phone to 3.0.1. (This will take a while.) When iTunes beeps and says your iPhone is rebooting, close iTunes.
5. Launch redsn0w. It will ask you to point it to your current firmware. You should point it to the IPSW file for iPhone OS 3.0 (not 3.0.1). It will recognize the IPSW and then you click "Next". Then it will do some stuff ("preparing jailbreak data") and then ask you to select some options. Just keep Cydia selected here and click "Next". Now, this is important: follow the instructions to make sure your phone is powered off and plugged in. Get ready to do some DFU ballet with the power switch and home button... when you're ready, click "Next". Follow the on-screen instructions: hold the power button for 3 seconds, then also press the home button for 10 seconds, then let go of the power button but keep the home pressed for 30 seconds. redsn0w will do some stuff.
6. If your iPhone reboots and starts doing some jailbreaking (it will be obvious, with pineapples), you're good. However, many people (including me) had redsn0w hang here... it stops with the message "Waiting for reboot" while the iPhone is totally black. If this happens to you, don't fret... wait a few seconds to make sure it isn't still working. If it's still hung, unplug the USB cable from the computer for 3 seconds and then plug it back in. It should reboot with a gray screen and then do some pineapple-icious bootneutering and jailbreaking.
7. You may need to restore from the backup you made earlier using iTunes to get your settings and stuff back (although I didn't).
8. You should be able to install aptbackup from Cydia and hit "restore" to restore your Cydia apps. It will take a few minutes to download everything and install and then it will reboot. Don't worry if all of a sudden your normal AppStore software appears gone... it will come back after a reboot or respring (or even just locking and unlocking the phone with the power button).
9. Now it's just a matter of making sure all your icons are in the right place.
10. I'd suggest changing the passwords for both the root and mobile users... from the default of alpine to something more substantial. (To do this, ssh into the phone as root, do passwd for root and then do su mobile to change yourself to the user mobile and do passwd for that user too.)
11. If you use Cycorder, you'll also need to re-establish the symbolic link between where cycorder stores its videos and AirSharing, if you had it set up like that.