iPhone 3GS 5.1.1 Jailbreak Unlock

Anyone who follows this blog probably knows why I have a 3GS (still).

So I will get to the hacking.

Once again it was time to upgrade, this time from 5.0.1 to 5.1.1, mainly because an App I use needed the upgrade.

It seems like everytime I do the Jailbreak I have to re-research it, and it changes a little bit.  I even look at this blog to see what I did last time.

Well to be honest I don't know if much changed, it seems the JB tools out there (sn0wbreeze, redsn0w) have improved quite a bit and most of the task is automated.

Quickly here is my setup.  I have a 3GS with the old bootrom (digits 3-5 of its serial number are 926).  I have the 5.13.4 baseband.  Keeping my current baseband allows easy unlocks.

So now the fun...btw this took 2 different computers and 3 cables.

First on my laptop with 2gig ram I downloaded the 5.1.1 ipsw file from here and redsn0w 9.14b2 from here.

I ran redsn0w and  clicked the Extras button, then Custom IPSW...loaded up the 5.1.1 ipsw that I downloaded and selected preserve Baseband.

On my laptop at around this point, redsn0w would fail with a out of memory error. (I did some more fooling around at this point, but won't bore you with the details)

Now I tried the same thing with my Desktop (4gig) this time it generated the no baseband ipsw for me.

Again using redsn0w and selecting the Extras button I then selected Pwned DFU to put the 3GS into a recovery mode.

Now open iTunes, it says you have a phone in recovery mode blah blah blah.  Ok that message, and hold the Shift key while clicking the Restore button.

If you are like me, you will get errors such as 2500 (I think) and or a 1600 or 1601.  The 2500 means you have a cable problem...so use a different cable.


The 1600 or 1601 is because iTunes looks something up on the internet, and doesn't like what it sees.  The fix is to edit your HOSTS file.

This file is located at (Win7, but probably all versions)...

C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/

You will see some commented out items (a line with a # in the front is considered commented out).

Find the line with gs.apple.com at the end, and either erase the line, or put a # at the beginning of the line...like this...

#74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com

then save the new hosts file.   If you are like me, you will have to save it on your desktop, delete the one in the folder, and paste the one from the desktop to the folder (due to administrator privileges and other protections)


So the restore finally finishes (after you start it again).  Don't bother setting up your phone, just start redsn0w again and this time hit the Jailbreak button.

The next screen opens up with Install Cydia selected and nothing else.  I didn't change a thing and started the process.

Just follow the directions...BTW I did this with the sim card removed...I don't know if it was required, but it worked.

After the phone reboots, you will have to do the initial setup, I then let iTunes reload my backed up apps and settings, and after a bit I started Cydia.

In Cydia, I let it do its updates, then searched for Ultrasn0w.  Clicked on the item and installed it.  That was the unlock.

After that I just let the rest of the apps be restored, and my previous Cydia items...I think after I ran Ultrasn0w I installed the SIM card, and all was well.

Thunderbird Calendar won't sync to Google Calendar - fix

I have been using Mozilla's Thunderbird Mail/Calendar program for quite a while now, and faithfully letting it do its updates...normally no problems.

I have the Lightning Add-On for Thunderbird that adds the Calendar sync, but it requires another add-on to access Google Calendars (for read/write). Apparently that add-on Provider for Google Calendar did (or does) not automatically update...you have to manually install the new version.

So if your Thunderbird calendar suddently stops accessing your Google calendar...see if you need to download some new plugins.

OpenVPN tunneling...revisited

A while back I finally got OpenVPN working, mostly it took the installation of version 2 of IPCop as my router software.

I could log into the VPN on my server remotely...but I didn't have access to my network or anything else.

I put that project on the back burner until tonight, when I found out my ObiHai110 was having issues and I was going to remotely admin it...over the VPN...

Very long story with much rebooting and Googling/OpenVPN forums reading...

I was missing a command on my server, the command that tells the OpenVPN software to route my home network traffic actually to the home network. For example, the 192.168.x.x number for a networked security cam should be routed to the home network...and to make networking easier, I have my home non routeable IP address to a hopefully offbeat number...

Anywho, because I am not home, I can't edit the server settings, but I can edit the client. So drumroll please...

...the missing line was

route 192.168.x.0 255.255.255.0

(where x is in the home network IP address...normally they default to "1" as in 'route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0' your mileage may vary)

I also have the line '--script-security 2', but I am not sure it is necessary for adding that command.

Now the correct way to do this would to have a 'push' command on the server, so as the client is logging in, this is automatically set (in case you change the numbers on the server at some point)

But this will work for me. I can access all my shared drives, and networked devices now.

As a side note, for some reason Win7 removed the popup bubble tool tips from the taskbar icons...the unintended consequences of that caused the OpenVPN context menu (right click on taskbar icon) to not pop up...that headache took a couple of hours by itself.

the registry setting that cause that is...

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]

"EnableBalloonTips"=dword:00000000

I simply deleted the setting, but apparently you can set it to "2".

Good luck!