Baseband Freedom

Happy 4th of July! Today’s release of redsn0w 0.9.14b2 improves the iPad baseband downgrade and should cover anyone who couldn’t downgrade with 0.9.14b1. This version covers 3 different types of NOR chips in the iPhone 3G and 3GS (the earlier version covered only the most prevalent NOR chip). We’ve also simplified the process and added logging to help diagnose any remaining stubborn iPhones.

The revised steps are:

Connect your iPhone in normal mode, then click “Jailbreak” after redsn0w identifies its model and BB version (you needn’t pre-select the IPSW anymore). Choose the “Downgrade from iPad baseband” option (you needn’t worry about de-selecting Cydia anymore). Do a controlled “slide to power off” shutdown of your phone and proceed through the normal DFU ramdisk steps.

Should the downgrade fail to take, feel free to leave the redsn0w log in the comments below. Use the “Extras->Even more->Backup” button to grab a copy of /var/mobile/Media/redsn0w_logs, then extract the log text file(s) from the zip and paste them into the comments (currently that log file is generated only during baseband downgrade runs).

NOTE: The original warning about 3GS units manufactured in early 2011 or later still holds! They have a NOR chip that’s incompatible with 06.15.00 and so trying to install it will brick the device. Please read and re-read the warning in our earlier post.

Thanks to bobmutch, @healeydave and @dilbert4life for lending us their iPhones to improve the baseband downgrade!

DFU IPSW

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from users who can’t launch a DFU ramdisk because their iPhone home/power buttons are broken or intermittent. We’ve added a new redsn0w feature that lets you enter DFU mode as long as your phone is healthy enough to restore to a normal, everyday IPSW. You don’t need to be already jailbroken to use this method.

In redsn0w, go to “Extras->Even More>DFU IPSW” and select an IPSW that is currently being signed for your device and that you’d normally be able to restore to without any hacks. redsn0w will create an “ENTER_DFU_” version of the IPSW that you can restore to just like any other IPSW, except that now you’ll be dumped into DFU mode towards the end of the restore (WARNING, your screen will remain completely black…the only way to even know its on is that iTunes and redsn0w will detect it!). The technique used by this feature is 3 years old but surprisingly still works today!

Update #1 7/25/12: redsn0w is compatible with today’s retail release of Mountain Lion OS X 10.8. Until we start using an official developer ID for it (!), you’ll need to use the new Ctrl-Click-Open security bypass the first time you run it after downloading.

Here are the download links. Enjoy!