Archive for April, 2008
The writers of ipodtouchhacks.com are faced with lots of questions from people. There are 2 kinds of people that we face everyday. First, there are people that are interested in jailbreaking their iPod, but are scared of what might happen. These people are more concerned with what they benefit from jailbreaking their iPod. They come to us with questions and concerns about the whole process of jailbreaking. Secondly, there are people that already jailbreaked their iPod, but are in urgent need of help…due to an error and things not going smoothly. I’m writing this post to help Lone Stag and I out a bit. The best way for help from any of us is to email us directly. This will save you time because you get a quick and direct respond (depending if we’re not busy) and you won’t have to look for our response to your answer within 400+ comments. Here are our email addresses:
Lonestag01@aim.com
Rawks_in_ur_socks@yahoo.com
If you email us or leave us a comment on our post, please PLEASE PLEASE explain your question as DETAILED as possible. It’s hard to help you guys out if you just say it’s just not working. Tell us if an error pop up appears or if it shuts off…just be DETAILED! We will help any of you out as quickly as possible. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll look for it as best as we can. Hope all goes well!
-rAwks
What are the best applications out there for the iPod? What applications do you use? These are questions we are asked by new hackers to get a feel of which applications THEY should install. To be honest, there isn’t an application that is THE BEST, but there are applications that are really great to use. It also depends on your personality because I might like playing puzzle games (which I do), but someone else might not. I have 6 pages on my home screen, but it would be TOO much to write about each one. That’s why I am going to write about my favorite 5 applications and my favorite 5 games. I will write about the 5 in no particular order and I’m not including applications that come with the iPod (Maps, Music, Photo, etc.). This will hopefully help you get a little familiar with who I am and it might also influence you in installing these onto your iPod.
My favorite 5 applications are Light, Touchpad, Flip A Coin, Sketches, and Customize. Lots of people think the light app is pretty dumb, but I seriously use it EVERYDAY. When it’s dark around the house, I turn on the light app and it guides the way. Touchpad is one of my favorite apps because it allows you to control your computer from your iPod. I use this on a daily basis for work. This app works with both PC and MAC computers. Flip A Coin is perfect for those that are indecisive, like ME. I can never choose where to eat and it’s always between two choices, so I use the Flip A Coin to make the choice for me. Sketches is an app where you can draw and scribble, like an Etch A Sketch. I use Sketches on a daily basis to draw or write little notes to my fiancé because you can send your artwork or note through email. Customize lets you customize your iPod and change things like your slider image, battery images, etc. I am currently using a modded Customize because I am not fond of the new Customize.
My favorite 5 games are iZoo, MixUp, Millionaire, Text Twist, and iQuickBlock. If you like the game Bejewled you will love iZoo. It’s pretty much the same game, just different name. You can even install different themes for this, so you can get the Bejewled look or you can even get another theme to make the icons into Simpson’s characters. MixUp is a game where you have scrambled letters and you have to arrange it to create a word. It keeps on going, but after a while the words get repetitive. If you like the show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” you will most definitely want to install Millionaire app. The only downfall for this app is that you can’t use the phone a friend lifeline because it ACTUALLY wants you to call someone on your contact list (This will work if you have the microphone to make calls with your iPod). Text twist is a game where you form words from a set of six scrambled letters and you must find at least one 6-letter word using all the letters to get to the next round.
As I said in the beginning, I have LOTS of applications and games on my device, but these are my favorites. The only way to know which applications or games are best for you…is to try them out yourself. Hope all goes well!
-rAwks
There are so many mixed feelings and thoughts about which jailbreak to use. I can’t give you a DEFINITE answer on which one to use. All I can do is write a post about my jailbreak experiences to express how I feel about them. Then it’s your choice on which one to use.
When I first started writing for ipodtouchhacks.com, I used Ziphone 2.6 and I did stumble upon a few obstacles. I ran into the BSD root error, my permissions for the notes app was messed up, and my mail app was always crashing. All these problems that occurred were easily fixed by either doing a hard reset, changing the permissions to the correct ones, and installing a fix for it. This jailbreak lasted me a great amount of time and I was really pleased with Ziphone. Then Friday night I was uninstalling applications I hardly used to give me less pages on the home screen. I found out I did something wrong when I plugged in my iPod into my laptop and it wouldn’t connect anymore. I got that annoying “Can’t connect to iTunes” blah blah blah error. I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, but I had to do it…I restored my iPod to factory settings. Since, Ziphone came out with 3.0…I decided to use that. The jailbreak was quick and it was nice that it installs BSD Subsystem, Installer, and OpenSSH at the same time. It seemed like everything was fine, so I installed a few applications onto my iPod. I plugged in my iPod to put some songs on it, but same thing….”Can’t connect to iTunes” blah blah blah error. I did this maybe another 2 times and the same outcome occurred. I decided to use iLiberty this time. I liked how this jailbreak gave you a choice to install recommended applications while it was being jailbroken. The jailbreak seemed fine, but my iPod kept on freezing. I tried this jailbreak again and the same thing happened. I noticed I still had my original Ziphone 2.6 program on my laptop still, so I used that. Guess what happened…my iPod is working PERFECTLY!!!
It’s tough to give recommendations about which jailbreak to use because there are so many pros and cons for certain people. I used Ziphone 3.0 on my cousin’s iPhone and it worked perfectly. Dloader girl used iLiberty and she supports it 100%. So…all I can say is to choose one and try it out. If it doesn’t work for you, then try the other one out. If none of them work, use Ziphone 2.6…haha. Hope all goes well!
We get tons of questions regarding topics such as emulators and adding games onto those emulators. Getting an emulator for a certain video game system is easy…the hard part is finding the ROMs and/or BIOs for the emulator. Add this source http://iappcat.com/r/6675 into Installer. After your sources refresh, click on your install tab and click on the folder named “rAwks.” This is a repo I created that includes all the emulators out there and some ROM and BIO packages. I can’t guarantee all the ROMs or BIOs will work, but most of them do.
Usually the way you add ROMs into your emulator is by SSHing into your iPod. You would then create a ROMs folder in a specific path way. When you install the ROM packages from my source it will create the folder on its own, if you haven’t created one yet. The first time I installed the packages it created the folder in the correct place, but when I recently did it again it created it in the wrong place. The ROM packages include only a limited amount of games and it might not include a game you really want. Now the only way to add the game of your choice is to find the ROM online and download it. Then when you have it on your computer, you have to SSH into your iPod and place it in the ROMs folder. As mentioned, the emulators require you to place the ROMs folder in a specific section in the iPod. I will give you directions on how to SSH into your iPod to include the ROMs you downloaded into your emulators. First off, make sure to read Lone Stag’s post on “Detailed Instructions on How To SSH” and follow all his steps. (If you have a MAC, download and install Cyberduck…instead of WinSCP) When you’re all logged in using either WinSCP or Cyberduck, now you have to be careful what you do. You don’t want to delete something your not suppose to or move things in the wrong place. Here are the steps:
- Navigate to /var/mobile/Media
- If you don’t have the folder already, create a new folder and name it “ROMs”
- Click on the ROMs folder. Then you would have to create folders for each emulator you want. (Ex. NES, SNES, GENESIS, GBA, etc.)
- Depending on which ROM you’re adding, you would just drag that ROM from your computer into that emulator’s folder.
- Once you are done, on your iPod that game should be in your emulator.
If you run into any problems, just let me know. There are many videos online if you need visual help. Hope all goes well!
PS…here are some sites to find some ROMs or BIOs
http://www.theoldcomputer.com/Libarary%27s/Emulation/NES/ROMs/NES_roms_summary%200-L.htm#-L.htm
http://ndash.eu/en/?lnk=gbn
http://rapidshare.com/files/69551457/gba_bios.bin.html
SSH’ing is a useful skill to know. It can help get apps to work, enable you to create custom backgrounds and icon images, copy content directly from your iPod, and so much more. Once you get used to the navigation, it is quite easy and will help you become a better hacker. Now, onto the steps.
1. What You Need
- A jailbroken iPod (read my previous posts on how to get your iPod jailbroken)
- In Settings, click general, auto-lock, never
- Make sure you have WiFi and a computer or this will not work
2. Install OpenSSH on your iPod
- In installer, go to install, all packages, OpenSSH
3. Download and install WinSCP
4. Enter your information
- To find your host name, turn on your iPod and go to settings, WiFi.
- On your selected network, click the blue arrow on the right
- The IP Address is your host name, type it in the box in WinSCP
- The Username is root
- The Password is alpine
- Click Login
- It will take awhile on your first try
- Always keep searching and waiting until it is found
- When the warning comes up, click Yes
- You are now inside your iPod
5. What to do now
- I know this is going to bug a lot of you, but I am not going to tell you what to do yet
- Keep reading the site to see what you actually did this and why it is extremely useful
- I guess you will have to keep coming back to the site to check for updates (which will be soon)
- Note: Don’t mess around with the fies you now are capable to edit. It could damage your hardware
- KEEP READING MY POSTS
- LEAVE COMMENTS TO ME
Lone Stag
Do you have a lot of time on your hands? Do you spend hours of the day dealing with your iPod? (Customizing, installing, etc.) Are you the type of person who enjoys figuring out solutions when caught in a jam? We are looking for any hackers out there who would like to be testers for us to find common problems with jailbreaks. We’re interested in hackers that really know their stuff (*cough*…dloader girl…tledbett…*cough*) and that are willing to restore their iPod a couple times. Let us know if you’re interested in being a tester for us. You can either email me or Lone Stag. Thanks so much!
lonestag01@aim.com
rawks_in_ur_socks@yahoo.com
-rAwks
This is a post rAwks and I jointly wrote about common questions we see. These questions are aimed for owners of a jailbroken 1.1.4 iPod Touch.
First, a foreword from rAwks:
Lots of people have been asking us questions about problems they have faced with jailbreaking their device. I understand…before I was a writer for this site, I would panic to Lone Stag for help. We don’t mind helping other’s out with problems, but sometimes it gets TOO repetitive. I know it’s a hassle to read through 100+ comments to find the answer that you’re looking for. So…this post will hopefully break it down for you to find your answer easier. Here goes:
BSD ROOT ERROR
Lots of people have faced this error while jailbreaking their device and it really scares the crap out of you. You panic because you see all this gibberish on your device and it just doesn’t stop. When you restart it and turn it back on, the same white text shows up. The way to fix it is by doing a hard reset and restore to 1.1.4 on iTunes. To do to a hard reset you would hold the home button and the wake/sleep button down until it shuts off. Keep holding it down even through start up (when the Apple logo appears). Finally let go when the “connect to iTunes” screen shows up. From there, restore to 1.1.4 and try again!
MAIL APP CRASHING
Some people faced their Mail app crashing when clicked on. The way to fix this is by adding a source into Installer. Add this souce: http://installer.iClarified.com
Then install “SyncFix” in the iClarified folder. Once you install it, restart your iPod and connect to iTunes. This should stop it from crashing.
KEYBOARD FREEZE
I faced the keyboard freezing when trying to add a source into Installer. I thought just a simple restart would fix the solution. When I went back, the keyboard froze again. The way to fix this is by going into Contacts and click the + to add a new contact. Click on one of the boxes (I chose the “First Last” box) and just type anything in for about 10 seconds. Once you’re down typing away, click on cancel. Then click cancel again and just click on the home button. When you go into Installer and add a source, it should fix the freezing keyboard situation.
APPLICATION SPACE
Lots of people think that by installing applications you’re going to use up the GB you have for music, photos, etc. If you have a 16 GB iPod Touch, all that space is ONLY for music, photos, etc. When you install apps, they take up space somewhere else. When you jailbreak your iPod, immediately install “Bosstools.” This app will free up more space for more apps. If you don’t install this and lose space, sometimes things go wrong (Ex. Installer crashing). When you have Bosstools on your home screen, click on it and then click on “Free Disk Space.” When you get to the next screen, click on “Relocate Fonts.” A pop up will show up making sure you want to do it…just click “Do it!” Once down, your disk space will boost up.
SUMMERBOARD
When you install SummerBoard onto your iPod, make sure to make it active. Lots of people forget to do this. If you don’t make it active, when you click on the theme you want…nothing happens! To make SummerBoard active, all you have to do is restart your iPod. Once it’s back on, click on SMBPrefs and on the very bottom it should say “Active.”
CUSTOMIZE
It doesn’t work for 1.1.4 yet, but if you really want it…there’s a way around it. First you have to add 2 sources into installer:
- repo.ispazio.net
- ipodtouched.net/repo.xml
When those get added, go to the install tab and under Tweaks (1.1.4) install the “1.1.4 Compatibility Patch.” This allows you to install apps that work for 1.1.3. Once you install this, click on the install tab and find the folder that says “iPod Touched.” Inside you will find “Modded Customize” and install that. When you’re done, go to the uninstall tab and uninstall the “1.1.4 Compatibility Patch.” Make sure that every time you use this patch, you uninstall it. When you want to use it again, install the patch and install whatever you want…then make sure to uninstall it.
ERROR PACKAGE FAILED
The unwelcome “Error Package Failed” pop up appears when you try to install an app in Installer. To fix this problem, make sure in Installer that there is nothing in your queue. If you cleared it and you install again and nothing happens, clear the queue again and restart your iPod. You shouldn’t get that error again.
SPRINGBOARD/SUMMERBOARD NOT COMPLETING REFRESH
If you exit installer and your restart is just hanging longer than usual, just wait a little longer. If after one minute it is still hanging, hold home and power until your iPod turns off. Turn it back on and it should be working.
APP FREEZES
App freezes are common, especially if they are still in the beta stages. If an app freezes, press home and get back to your home screen. If clicking home doesn’t work, hold power and home until it turns off. Turn it back on and try the app again.
iChat NOT WORKING
iChat might not log you in when you clearly entered your correct email address and password. If you can’t log in, try this. Click your name. When is trying to connect, click cancel. Then click your name again. Keep clicking it until it logs you in on the connecting screen.
THE ULTIMATE SOLUTIONS
If something is wrong and the above solutions don’t work, manually turn off your iPod by holding power and home until your iPod turns off. The ultimate solution to any problem is to do a hard restore. This is if your iPod is completely not working. To do this, hold power and the home button. Keep holding, even when it turns off. Let go when you see the connect to iTunes logo appear, and restore your iPod in iTunes.
Update: If you have an iPod Touch with the latest 2.0 software you will need to downgrade your software from 2.0 to 1.14 before using this tutorial.
In my previous ZiPhone post, I was not as explicit with directions as my other jailbreak method. I am sorry. To make it up to you, here are DETAILED instructions for Jailbreaking your iPod Touch. For those of you curious, it takes up as much space as ONE song. So not a lot at all.
WARNING: If anything goes wrong, hold the home button and the power button until it turns off. Keep holding it until it shows the connect to iTunes image. Then try again. It should work the second time if the first doesn’t.
1. Restore your iPod to firmware 1.1.4
- Plug in your iPod and run iTunes.
- When your iPod shows up in iTunes, click the restore button
- This will erase everything on your iPod, but you can sync it later
- Do not restore from a backup
2. Download ZiPhone
- Download ZiPhone
- Click on the downloaded file and let it install
- If it doesn’t install, you need to download and install this .net microsoft file
3. Run ZiPhone
- With your plugged in iPod and ZiPhone running, click Jailbreak (the second action)
- Wait a minute, and your iPod will be jailbroken with installer on your home screen.
4. Get it Running
- In installer, go to the Install tab, click all packages, and install BSD Subsystem
- To get the January apps, go to the sources tab and click edit, and add http://ipodtouchmaster.com/files/repo.xml OR http://repo.applerepo.com
- In the Install tab, go to iPhone 1.1.4 Applications and install iPhone 1.1.4 Apps
- Add the source
- In Installer, go to Install, All Packages, then install BossTool
- Once installed, click home and let the iPod refresh
- Click BossTools, Free Disk Space, then Relocate Fonts
- You can then uninstall BossTool in Installer in the Uninstall tab
5. You are done
- Sync with iTunes and enjoy your Touching
- Keep reading ipodtouchhacks.com to see what the next steps are and what you can actually do now with your hacked device.
The Lone Stag
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