Jailbreak an iPod touch

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Murphy spent an evening hacking the iPod touch he got for Christmas. It should have taken about fifteen minutes but he glossed over some details on one step and overlooked a simple solution elsewhere. Be sure to read Adam’s disclaimers before proceeding. Here are some of Murphy’s observations on the experience:

First - I started with the Adam Pash post over at Lifehacker. It’s written using the word iPhone instead of touch, but there isn’t really any difference. Here are the basic steps to jailbreak an iPhone or iPod touch:

• Restore version 1.1.1 of the iPod touch or iPhone firmware using iTunes
• Go to the jailbreak website with the device’s browser - the application installer will be installed on your device automatically
• Run OktoPrep from the installer
• Upgrade to 1.1.2 using iTunes
• Run Jailbreak
• Install applications using the installer

The first stumble came with downloading the 1.1.1 firmware. The firmware file Lifehacker linked to has a zip extension and when Leopard-Safari downloaded it the contents were automatically extracted. That’s not what iTunes is looking for when you reset your firmware.

The solution was to right-click the link and save it using Download Linked File As… - problem solved. Then I just renamed the file, removing the zip extension.The article said I’d get an error message after restoring the firmware - but I didn’t get an error. I rebooted my touch right before doing the firmware restore, maybe that helped? If you do get the error the Lifehacker article points out that running the jailbreak.jar file in the jailbreak download will fix the problem. Make sure you read the article closely, you need to click Boot From Recovery.

Your touch will reboot a few times during the process - you just have to bear with it.

If you want to go back to version 1.1.2 the article has the instructions for that too.

In a nutshell: You use the new installer icon on your touch to install OktoPrep. Then you upgrade using iTunes like you would normally. Once you have 1.1.2 on board you can use the jailbreak application to get your installer application back. OktoPrep leaves the door open for you to re-jailbreak after the upgrade to 1.1.2. I wouldn’t upgrade to any future version of iTunes or firmware without hearing from the hacker community first.

The first thing I installed was the BSD Subsystem and OpenSSH. I didn’t check the box to install ssh in jailbreak. I also installed AFPd which let me drop files onto the touch using Finder.

Next - I really wanted the Stocks widget. Sure, I can check stocks using Safari, but the widget is far more direct. Nice to have weather too. To install these applications, along with Notes and Maps I followed the instructions here. The thread also has instructions on how to change the password used to gain root access to your touch.

Those instructions didn’t work for the native mail application. They may have been written for a version of MobileMail before 1.1.2. The solution was simple. The installer application on my touch had a package called Mobile Mail Prep for 1.1.2 and another for Apple MobileMail 1.1.2. I installed them in that order and everything worked. If you have problems the place to start is permissions, another reason to have ssh installed. Also, there are two parts to the Mail application, make sure you install both.

UPDATE: It looks like I could have installed the Weather, Stocks, and other iPhone apps from the installer instead of doing it manually. Next time… To get access to the new version of MobileMail.app and the Mobile Mail Prep tool I had to add a new source to my installer. That’s detailed in this thread too. The source is listed as http://repo.us.to.

Was the hack worth the risk? Absolutely. The touch is a remarkable piece of hardware. I’ve been messing around with an old iPaq and the touch puts it to shame. The response from the touch screen is flawless. The device is solid. The only thing that I’d possibly complain about: a lack of dedicated volume buttons like the iPhone has.

The mail application is handy for using imap with Gmail. I have two accounts set up and the interface is simple to navigate. If you’re using imap with Gmail make sure you select Other in the setup for the MobileMail application. Selecting Gmail will put you into a POP3 situation.

Here’s something I really like: Using the touch to upload big files to my hosting service. My isp throttles uploads down to about 45kbps. I can drop the files on my touch, hit a high-speed hotspot like a library, and zap the files up to Bluehost using secure copy (scp). The Term-VT100 application provides a slick overlay allowing you to use keys not provided on the native keyboard too. It’s pretty cool and shows how future applications might bend the interface in new directions.

I don’t know why Apple left Stocks, Weather, etc off of the Touch. It seems kind of mean. Those things wouldn’t have made me buy an iPhone, I wasn’t in the market for a phone. It’s hard to understand why they were held back.

Still, I love the touch. Aside from the great video and music features expected in an iPod, the internet features are fantastic. You’d think Apple had been making mobile applications for years. Highly recommended!

Finally, the people providing tools like jailbreak and the application installer have done a phenomenal job. The installer interface would be impressive if they had been provided with an SDK. They weren’t, but it still looks polished. The jailbreak website that installs the installer couldn’t be much friendlier either. If you hack your device using these tools you should strongly consider throwing these people a donation.

Check out Erica Sadun over at TUAW too. She’s contributed a great deal to the effort - making what could be a geek-only venture far more accessible to the rest of us.

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