If you were quick to download iOS 5, which was released yesterday, you may be wondering if ajailbreak is in the works. Well, it’s much more than in the works, it’s available right now. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about using the redsn0w jailbreak tool to remove Cupertino’s chains from your iDevice.
This won’t work with iOS devices with the A5 chip, meaning the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 aren’t jailbreakable right now. Any other iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch should be fine then. For the sake of completeness, that means that the iPhone 4 (AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint editions), iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3rd gen, iPod touch 4th gen, and iPad can be jailbroken on iOS 5.
Keep in mind that this is a tethered jailbreak. What that means is that every time you reboot your iDevice, you will need to connect it to a Mac or PC and re-run the jailbreak tool. Members of the jailbreak community have hinted that an untethered jailbreak is on its way, but unless you reboot your phone often or install buggy apps that cause major crashes, this shouldn’t be too big of a problem.
Of course, before jailbreaking iOS 5, you will need to have iOS 5 on your device. To get iOS 5, simply hook up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac or PC, and select “update” in iTunes. It will download the firmware, and then install for you. You will probably want to perform a backup first!
1. Get redsn0w
The first thing you’ll want to do is to download the redsn0w jailbreak tool for your operating system:
- redsn0w 0.9.9b5 for Mac
- redsn0w 0.9.9b4 for Windows
2. Open and connect
After downloading and unzipping, select the redsn0w icon, and go ahead and connect your iDevice to your Mac or PC.
3. Choose “Jailbreak”
As seen above, choose “Jailbreak” from the first screen of the redsn0w tool.
4. Turn your iOS device off while plugged in
You are now preparing to put your device in DFU mode. If you don’t know what this means, don’t worry. Simply follow the instructions, and — after you’re sure your iDevice powered off and plugged in — proceed.
During the next step, you’ll be holding down a combination of buttons for precise amounts of time, so be ready to pay attention to the instructions on your screen. It will expect you start as soon as you hit Next, so be prepared to start holding your iOS device’s power button.
5. Enter DFU mode
The above screen is what you will see after proceeding. The first part has you holding down just the power button for a few seconds.
Next, you’ll keep holding down the power button, along with the home button, for longer this time. Again, the countdown will show you the way. Just follow along.
Finally, you’ll let go of the power button, and keep holding down the home button for a while longer.
If you follow the timers just as the redsn0w tool counts them off, your device should now be in DFU mode. The screen will look like it’s powered off, but as long as redsn0w proceeds, you’re in DFU.
If you didn’t quite time it right, redsn0w will display you a terse “you must not have understood my instructions” message, but all you have to do is power down and start the process again. If the on-screen instructions aren’t working for you, just power off (while plugged in), hold power and home for 10 seconds, then let go of power and keep holding home until redsn0w advances to the next step.
Note: If you accidentally end up in recovery mode (the “connect to iTunes” screen), you can hold down the home and power buttons for about 15 seconds, until everything shuts off. Then power on again, and you should be fine. If you’re still in Recovery after doing this, look up a tool calledTinyUmbrella, or simply restore iOS 5 again in iTunes.
6. Jailbreak!
Once in DFU mode, you will see the following screens, appearing in rapid secession (without any input required on your part). Your iOS device should also flash white on the screen for a moment, and then reboot.
7. Install Cydia
The next prompt you’ll be given should be the one above. You can just select “Install Cydia” and proceed. After some crazy stuff gets displayed on your iOS device’s screen, it should reboot into a jailbroken state.
You’re now jailbroken! The only catch is, Cydia, at first, will have a blank (white) icon, and will not open. You will need to run through the next step before you will be able to use Cydia.
8. Reboot tethered
This step will let you use Cydia. Additionally, whenever you reboot or power off your device, you will need to run through the same steps.
First, connect the device to your Mac or PC and run the same redsn0w tool. From the initial screen (above), this time you will select Extras.
Finally, select “Just boot” and follow the instructions. You will need to enter DFU mode, just like you did when first jailbreaking. Refer to the instructions above if you need help again.
After you complete the tethered boot, you can open Cydia, and start searching for jailbreak apps and tweaks. Cydia (the jailbreak app store) should be sitting on the second page of your home screen.
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