First off -

Is jailbreaking legal?

Yes. Though the crazy thing is that unlocking your phone (freeing it to be used with any carrier) is illegal (when done through a third party vendor)

So I found an iphone on the road the other day. Cool find right? I contacted the owner, right? Yes to the first, but no to the second. Why?

Remote wipe. The owner told Apple the IMEI of the device, and Apple remotely wiped it. So no contact details are left – I’m stuck at the beginning of the activation process. It can connect to my wireless network fine, but the only other information I can get is it’s IMEI, which tells me nothing…until I went to this site (2 free uses) and found I’m using iOS 4…but reviews specify they come pre-loaded with iOS 5…

Now for the notices saying I need to backup my SHSH blobs – Ripped from this blog

“Your SHSH Blob is device specific. It uses the ECID (Exclusive Chip ID) of your device, along with a challenge key, as part of the authentication process with Apple.

Because that key is static (doesn’t change), and you’re using the same ECID, it is possible for you to save your own SHSH blob for later use. It can then be used to downgrade your iDevice if you accidentally update your firmware and there’s no jailbreak available.”

The blobs on Windows 7 are stored in username/appdata/roaming/redsn0w

They will be named something like: 746889588045_iPhone3,1_5.0_9A334_partial

5.0 and the 9A334 bit are important because when your blobs are saved, they are saved for this specific build. You can’t use blobs that are for other builds – you have to ‘stitch’ them with the matching build (I backed up my blobs for 5.0, hence why I’m using 5.0_9A334 IPSW (IPhone SoftWare))

This is where said software can be downloaded

(hit ctrl+f to find what you need quicker)

To backup these blobs, go to this site and downloaded a Windows version so the backup of said blobs can occur (need java). In the third image you can see I have four items backed up – this indicates that the backup of my blobs were successful.

For those of you who are worrying about installing Java – it actually creates a “sandbox” for itself to run in. This is in the form of a virtual machine that is confined to its own space in which it can do as it please, without being able to execute code on the rest of the system. Full write up here

Now while I wait for my download of the latest firmware for iOS 6 for iphone 4 (provided by redsn0w)

Extract and run redsn0w_win…..exe

Follow the onscreen instructions. It’ll tell you what version you are running (has said I’m running version 5, so the previous web site I put up was wrong.

Now the jailbreaking occurs. If you don’t see the iPhone startup screen (maybe the loading wheel is frozen or you just see the apple logo) then go back into redsn0w, and go to extras -> tethered boot.

Install Cydia

Custom bundle - for advanced people that want to install apps and tweaks with the JB.

Add activation ticket – this is VERY important if you have previous unlocked your phone using the SAM method (iOS versions 5.0 of higher)

Now I”m stuck at the apple/loading screen. Always the one to see a silver lining, now I can detail how to restore a JB iphone…

Getting a 3194 after waiting 15 minutes for the iphone to update then check with apple servers doesn’t help things, so now im seeing how I can update the firmware manually – back to redsn0w, check under the ‘extras’ button. Enter the pwned DFU mode (you’ll know you’re in pwned DFU because the screen is black and following the regular steps to get into DFU will cause Redsn0w to say ‘wrong DFU mode detected’

Note: A friend doing the same advised me he got a 1601 error – this indicates a dodgy USB port or bad cable

To restore your IPSW through redsn0w, you’ll have to browse to the location on your computer where you stored it.

Redsn0w will tell you how to get into restore/Pwned DFU/DFU mode when required. If you have the iphone connected via USB, you should hear the ‘ba-dum!’ of the driver detection software detecting a piece of hardware being detected entering the connect/disconnect state whenever the iphone restarts/powers off/on