TUAW Hands On: 4.2 jailbreak

With nothing better to do (plus a few pending reviews that require a jailbreak), I decided to give the redsn0w 4.2 jailbreak a try. A 4.2 GM 2nd generation iPod touch was my test device. The jailbreak is not very hard to do: download a copy of the current 4.1 firmware (it's on Apple's servers), point redsn0w to that firmware, and then follow directions to place the device into DFU mode.

Unfortunately, the results were not positive. This is not the fault of redsn0w; it is set for 4.1 jailbreaks, not for 4.2. Rather, the jailbreak succeeded, but the patches (at least for my 2g iPod) caused too many operational issues under 4.2 for me to recommend this approach to others. In addition to a noticeable and unsightly screen flicker, Cydia fails to run properly. That prevents me from installing any further software as OpenSSH and the command-line apt-get utility are unavailable.

On the positive side, it was easy enough to restore my firmware using a simple upgrade procedure -- allowing me to return to a functional unit already loaded with music, apps, and videos in just a few minutes, rather than perform a complete system restore. I ended up jailbreaking and restoring twice. In both cases, I found the same issues and in both cases I returned to a standard 4.2 installation a few minutes later.

While I cannot recommend using a 4.2 jailbreak at this time (at least on 2nd generation iPod touches, your mileage may vary on other devices), I still appreciate the flexibility and strength of the jailbreaking tools that at least gave me an opportunity to try.

Update: 3rd gen iPod touch jb is going far, far better... Cydia is up and running. Just did the "complete upgrade" and my unit is rebooting. Will be installing OpenSSH & apt 0.6 transitional once the reboot finishes. Well, correct that. 3rd gen was running 4.1 and I forgot to upgrade first. Under 4.2 Cydia does not run.

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Source: http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

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Jailbreak/pwnage iOS

powered by Fotopedia With nothing better to do (plus a few pending reviews that require a jailbreak), I decided to give the redsn0w 4.2...

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aph3x

Yeah 4.2 is fun to play with on the iPad but the jailbreak isn't even remotely ready for prime time. If you want a useful iPad you'll want to stay with 3.2.2 for now.

I do wish it worked though. Backgrounder sucks for multitasking and I *hate* not having folders on the iPad.

November 06 2010 at 12:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ACSalamander

You people should do some research before doing this. It's stated quite clearly in many places that Cydia does not work under 4.2. Therefore there's no reason to even attempt the jailbreak.

November 05 2010 at 4:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

gnicholls

I just finished doing pretty much the same thing but with my iPad. Same deal - it will jailbreak but there are plenty of problems after doing so, not the least of which is Cydia not running. I also found that any apps that don't come stock also would crash on startup.

Still it was cool seeing the switcher and its new fancy animation running on the iPad, even if only for a time. Looking forward to proper JB support soon!

November 05 2010 at 3:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ahmed Omar

aha, Cydia is being under update now! i think it will bring more support for iPad and fast accessibility

November 05 2010 at 3:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

RJ Salewicz II

I am confused,

"Update: 3rd gen iPod touch jb is going far, far better... Cydia is up and running. Just did the "complete upgrade" and my unit is rebooting. Will be installing OpenSSH & apt 0.6 transitional once the reboot finishes."

Cydia does not work on 4.2, how did you get it working? My iPhone 4 does not run Cydia after JB 4.2

November 05 2010 at 3:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Andy

I don't understand the point of this post. The dev-team blog clearly states none of the jailbreak apps/frameworks including Cydia have been updated for 4.2: "Right now it mostly only makes sense for JB app developers to do that because many apps (including Cydia itself) need to be updated for 4.2."

You got your click thru though, so I guess it doesn't really matter...

November 05 2010 at 2:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Andy's comment

RJ Salewicz II

Agree!!!

November 05 2010 at 3:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jfiala

Well, I was looking for a jailbreak, and seeing that Erica, an accomplished dev, is not recommending it, saved me several hours of futzing.

November 06 2010 at 4:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mark

I would encourage restraint on installing 4.2, especially to those who like to jailbreak and unlock.

Cydia isn't working on 4.2 yet and you will lose your unlock at present. Remember redsn0w has never truly been for the unlocking crowd as you must already be on the firmware you intend to jailbreak.

November 05 2010 at 2:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to mark's comment

Cash907

I thought as long as you ran the jailbreak using the pwnage tool, your baseband would remain untouched and ultrasn0w would still work. Is this not the case?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not touching 4.2 until an office jailbreak comes out that doesn't break Ultrasn0w, but I thought the unlock depended on the baseband version, not the iOS version.

November 07 2010 at 12:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply