Unlock the iPhone 2G 2.2 Safely and Easily
In this our first post of the new year we're going to show you how to unlock and jailbreak your iPhone 2G. It's been a few months now since pwnage tools unlocking and jailbreaking the iPhone 2.2 firmware were released. As my father always says, "Unless you know what you're doing never try the first iteration of anything new." In that spirit we've waited for the dust to settle before writing up this little guide for normal iPhone owners to use.
But why jailbreak and unlock your iPhone in the first place?
Unlocked iPhone Carrier Freedom
Unlocking your iPhone will enable you to use another carrier's sim card to make calls or use data. This isn't so much to change local carrier - that probably won't save you much money - but to use one of the many many travel sims available when travelling abroad. These cheap, no-contract sims can be bought in airports, high streets and even news agents. They give you a local number, voicemail and crucially, very very cheap international calls.
Access to some great iPhone sofware forbidden under Apple's SDK license
Apple's SDK license forbids certains kinds of software interaction. Though mainly to protect your data and iPhone from malicious softweare the net result a complete absense of some of the most popular and usefuls apps found on other platforms. PIMs and Today screens. These applications bring together data from your calendar, contact list, call list, notes and presents them in useful ways. A great example is Intelliscreen which we'll review in a future post. These applications are only available outside Apple's Appstore and for that you need a jailbroken iPhone.
With this process you can choose to jailbreak or unlock or do both to your iPhone. Thus if you are happy with your current carrier and don't want to run any risks you can just jailbreak your phone.
Ingredients
Gather the following files and put them in a folder
a. QuickPwn 2.2 (save and unzip this file into folder)
b. iPhone 2G Firmware 2.2
c. BL 3.9
d. BL 4.6
Preparation
If your iPhone has already been jailbroken make sure you take a note of your currently installed Cydia or Installer apps.
Unlock iPhone 2G Step 1
Connect your iPhone to iTunes. Shift-Click the Restore button. Then navigate to the folder where you saved the iPhone 2.2 firmware (b) above and select it.
Step 2
When iTunes finishes with your iPhone shut down iTunes then launch quickpwn.exe (a) from the folder you used above.
Step 3
With your iPhone still connected click the blue arrow to begin the process.
Step 4
Tell QuickPwn where the firmware file (b) you downloaded above is located. Once selected you'll see a tick as in the image
Step 5
Select the options you want. It's here you'll chose whether you want to unlock or just jailbreak your iPhone and which software management tool you want installed. You can have both Installer and Cydia but I prefer Cydia so I just went with that.
Step 6
Tell Quickpwn where the bootloader (BL) files are that you downloaded (c and d).
Step 7
OK now you're ready to begin the actual process of unlocking your iPhone. Keep your iPhone in the base and click the arrow to begin and have your finger near the Home button.
Step 8
Follow in the instructions on the following screen very carefully to put your iPhone in recovery mode. Don't worry you'll be asked to go through it again if at first it didn't work after an error dialoge pops up. If all goes well sit back and watch the process happen.
The process will ask you to do things like hold down the Home for 5 seconds. QuickPwn will count down then move on to the next task
Step 9
Enjoy your jailbroken and unlocked iPhone 2G. Tap the Cydia icon and let it update itself before exploring the myriad of applications avilable.
Remember, when the next firmware update comes out don't rush to update your iPhone until the Dev-Team have the next unlock ready or you won't be able to use you 'non-original' carrier sim. You'll also find all your Cydia or Installer Apps gone too.
Apart from access to some great apps I found unlocking my iPhone particularly useful on a recent trip to the UK where I could use an ultra cheap pre-paid SIM that allowed me to receive calls for free and make calls back to the US for less than 7 cents a mintue. Astonishingly, whilst in the UK, calls to local numbers were actually more (15 cents a minute) but still a great deal cheaper than using my AT&T sim.
Try doing the process with the different SIM in the iPhone.
~ Simon
thanks for everything
I can't use my phone anymore.. what do i do?
I have down loaded all the files i need of this site (and ive tried others)
I then restore the firmware to 2.2 then when thats done i try to open QuickPwn22 but when i open it i get a message saying:- "This version of QuickPwn can only jailbreak devices with versions >= 2.0"
and from that i cant proceed. whats going on?
Ive down loaded the same software of other sites and it coming up with the same message
can you help me please? i would really be very gratefull if you could help me
ill keep checking up on the website for a reply but if not e-mail me to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
many thanks
Sam
@Dhruv Us quickpwn mac 2.2 from here: http://jmcoon.net/QuickPwn_2.2.dmg
The instructions are somewhat different so follow them carefully on screen. When you're done install/run BootNeuter from the Cydia install to complete the unlock (if you want to unlock).
@Sam
Trouble huh? Have you previously messed with your iPhone using one of the early jailbreak tools say on one of the earlier 1.x firmwares etc. some of these tools might have overwritten a sensitive area called the baseband.
You can try downloading ziphone which has a great Refurbish mode which will also downgrade your iphone 2g to 1.14. Then work up again from there with a fully restored iPhone. Just a guess but let us know how you get on.
~ Simon
it gives an error.. "Couldn't talk to the bootloader. This may be due to a CommCenter collision, so BootNeuter will exit"
What do I do?
ive followed the instructions, here and everywhere, anyways, they all just have the same instructions. but im always stuck... help! help :(
Have a think about that.
If you're serious about asking for help give up some information that might be useful to provide it.
~ Simon.
Do not perform another firmware upgrade until the dev team have released another version of quickpwwn though or you may have to reactivate your iphone with the original sim again.
~ Simon
I had to install the .net framework for QuickPwn to work on Windows.
After the unlock, I rebooted into OSX and plugged in the iPhone. iTunes said 'Do you want to restore to this phone'. This refers to your settings, and not the firmware. I said 'Yes', and my phone now has all my apps, settings, music etc, but is unlocked.
Great, thanks :)
thanks!