Free manual iPhone software unlock

Posted by dennis on September 13th, 2007 at 11:56pm Comments

The really cool people from #iphone-dev (read: underground iPhone programmers community) released the first ever free software unlock method for the iPhone.

While the folks from iPhoneSimFree are charging $59.99 for an unlocker program that works for only one iPhone at a time, the kind folks from #iphone-dev published a manual (for now) way to unlock your iPhone only using software, at no charge whatsoever.

This manual unlock method consists of 39 steps that you would need to follow to activate your iPhone without soldering anything in it or even opening it up. At the same time you might want to wait a little bit, as #iphone-dev iPhone hackers are about to release an automatic GUI-based program version of their free iPhone unlock software method, dubbed the iUnlock, very soon

For more info on that see the #iphone-dev website, while the iPhone unlock instructions are listed below.

Manual Step By Step Guide

The Great Idiot’s Guide to taking an iPhone from box to unlock. This guide requires a search engine and a brain. If you lack either, please turn away now.

Step 1. Take phone out of box

Step 2. Place phone into dock

Step 3. Connect Dock To Computer, one with iTunes 7.4.1 installed

Step 3b. Hold down Home + Power on the phone until the phone goes into restore mode (30 seconds or so), then iTunes will ask you to restore the phone and update it to 1.02

Step 4. Download lockdownd from anyone of the numerous sources which has it out there on the internet. We are not linking to it for copyright reasons

Step 5. Get lockdownd onto phone, into the folder /usr/libexec/ This means if you are using a mac, you need iNdependence http://iphone.fiveforty.net/wiki/index.php/INdependence to jailbreak, activate, and install ssh and SCP lockdownd over to the phone, or use iFuntastic for an easy to use file manager that lets you explore the entire filesystem. if you are using a pc, you can go use iBrickr from http://iphone.fiveforty.net/wiki/index.php/IBrickr. Use the batch file from Step 2 of http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5273 to activate on Windows after jailbreaking with iBrickr.

Step 6. Reboot phone by holding home and power button for 3 seconds, then sliding to power off. Then hold power button for 3 seconds to slide on.

Step 7. Now use iTunes to update that phone to 1.02 if you did not earlier, and then go back and do Steps 5 and 6 again

Step 8. With that update done, go to Settings -> WiFi and join your wireless network. If you don’t have a wireless network then give up and go to hell.

Step 8b. This is a good time to shut off your auto-lock as it will kill your SSH connection. Go to Settings > General > Autolock and set it to Never.

Step 9. Go visit http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/ and install the apptapp installer.

Step 10. With the apptapp installer in your phone, use it to install the packages Community Sources, then BSD SubSystem, then OpenSSH, IN THAT ORDER

Step 11. Find out the IP address of your phone on wifi. This is most easily accomplished by going to General -> Wifi -> Click on Arrow next to network signal strength

Step 12. Open SSH Shell to phone. On Mac OS open Terminal and type ssh root@ and hit enter. If you are on windows go download http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html and use PUTTY to connect to your phone. The username is root and password will be dottie. When you connect it will take up to 30 seconds for the first connection to happen. THIS IS NORMAL, JUST WAIT. Leave this window open

Step 13. With all of this accomplished, you are almost there. Now you need to copy 3 files to the phone. These magical 3 files can not be linked to for legal reasons and are named ICE03.14.08_G.fls, iUnlock, and nor. You need to download these files to your computer, and then copy them to the phone in the folder /usr/bin. For the Mac please download Fugu, a wonderful application from http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/ and connect to your phone’s ip address. Alternatively Mac users can also use Transmit (download from: http://www.panic.com/transmit/) if you like paying money for software. On the PC you get to use PSCP from the page you downloaded PUTTY from earlier. It has a UI of sorts and will be unpleasant to use. Go buy a mac.

Step 14. In that SSH window we left open, issue this command

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist

This command will unload the CommCenter

Step 15. Now issue the next command

cd /usr/bin

Step 16. And the next command

chmod +x iUnlock

Step 17. and then the great command

./iUnlock ICE03.14.08_G.fls nor

Step 18. Waiting. This will take 20 minutes. This will spit out lots of 0’s, and it will probably piss you off. Sucks to be you. I wrote this guide while waiting for my phone to flash.

Step 19. Now. You still have that SSH session open, right? Lets go get bbupdater, a tool also found on the damn internet, and then send it over to the same location to sent the other 3 files, /usr/bin

Step 20. Issue the next wonderful command

chmod +x bbupdater

Step 21. And yet another wonderful command

bbupdater -v

Step 22. And now for a great and beautiful command (but first a boring one!)

mkdir -p /usr/local/etc
minicom -s

Step 23. This will get you to the minicom configuration screen. Go down to Serial Port Setup and press enter

Step 24. Now type the letter a

Step 25. Now change the line to read

/dev/tty.baseband

Step 26. Press enter

Step 27. Press Escape

Step 28. Move down to the line that reads “Save setup as dfl” and press enter

Step 29. The screen will say initializing modem, and then present you with a prompt. Type AT and press return. you should get ok.

Step 30. Give this great command

AT+CLCK=”PN”,0,”00000000″

If it gives out an error, do it again, if it does not give out an error move on

Step 31. Give this revolutionary command

AT+CLCK=”PN”,2

If this command returns 0 then move on. if not then issue it again.

Step 32. Press CTRL-A, then Q, then move the selection to yes and press enter

Step 33. Issue this extraordinary command

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist

You can check the CommCenter has started with:

launchctl list

Step 34. Turn off phone by holding power and home buttons for 3 seconds, then sliding when you see the prompt to power off phone.

Step 35. Insert foreign provider sim card

Step 36. Power on Phone

Step 37. Fix Youtube - http://www.ging.co.nz/youtube.php.

Step 38. Enjoy your unlocked iPhone

Step 39. Stop bugging people on irc

Related posts:

1. iPhone jailbreak and Unlock Software
2. Apple won’t allow iPhone SIM unlock software in App Store
3. New Macbooks / iTunes disable iPhone unlock software?
4. iPhoneSimFree iPhone unlock software now available for $59,99
5. Apple iPhone iPhoneSimFree Software Unlock

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