Hello, there.
So, I bought this iPhone 2G from eBay for $45
with the intent of making one of my famous "Is It Obsolete?" videos
Unfortunately, I ran into a problem.
I couldn't get past this screen.
When I connected to iTunes, it complained that I didn't have a valid SIM card.
After a quick Google search, it was obvious that I'd have to jailbreak the phone.
However, that proved to be an enormous headache, wasting almost an entire day.
I read numerous websites that were out of date and typically had broken links for their downloads.
I tried watching many blurry, amateur YouTube videos describing the process
that were hard to follow and often had out-of-date information.
And ultimately was foiled by a constant error message in redsn0w saying "USB communication problem"
on every computer I tried.
So I decided to make this up-to-date video for anyone trying to jailbreak an original iPhone,
sometimes referred to as the 2G model.
So, you might want to make sure that you really have an iPhone 2G.
Now, the best way to know is to just look at the back, it should be silver at the top
and then a black area on the bottom.
Okay, the first step is to download firmware 3.1.2 from Apple.
Technically, 3.1.3 is the latest that works with this phone,
but I was not able to get that one to work and there's almost no difference.
You can get this firmware in many places, just Google for it.
Make absolutely sure that it's the 2G version.
Okay, the next thing you need to do is open iTunes and connect to the phone.
Tell it that you want to restore, but hold down the SHIFT key,
or on a Mac, hold down the OPTION key when you click "Restore".
This way, it'll ask you for an .ipsw file to restore from, and you can locate the one you just downloaded.
This will take several minutes, but eventually your phone will reboot, and now you'll be running firmware 3.1.2.
Okay, the next thing you'll need to do is download a copy of redsn0w.
Yes, it has a zero instead of an O. However,
the newest versions don't work right with the 2G.
You'll constantly get this USB communication error that I mentioned before
even though the software clearly identifies the phone.
So, what you'll want is the older version 0.9.2.
Okay, so once you get this downloaded, you'll need to put your phone into DFU mode, or sometimes called Recovery mode.
It's a little bit tricky, but here's how you do it.
Plug your phone into the USB port.
First, you turn your phone off by holding down the sleep button until the shutdown option appears.
Once it has completely shut down, hold down the sleep button to re-activate the phone
and do not release the button.
After three seconds, press and hold the HOME button.
You should be holding both buttons down at this point.
After ten seconds, release the sleep button but continue to hold the HOME button
for another five seconds.
Hopefully, you'll be in DFU mode now.
If you mess up, just turn off your phone by holding the sleep button for a while,
and then try it again. Okay.
Now, open redsn0w and click the "Browse..." button.
Locate that 3.1.2 firmware that you downloaded earlier.
Then click "Next".
If it's the right file, it should say: "IPSW successfully identified."
So, it'll do its thing for a moment.
At this point, you'll have several options to choose from, and I'm not going to go into all of them.
In this case, I don't want Cydia, since I'm just trying to get into the phone without a SIM card.
This "Unlock" option will allow you to use other cellphone carriers besides the default.
But, again, I don't need that right now...
Okay, click "Next".
It will walk you through putting your phone into DFU mode, but mine was already in that mode
so it'll just go straight through.
Eventually you should see this screen on your phone, which is a good sign that everything's working.
Next, you'll see the little pineapple guy while everything finishes up.
Eventually it'll reboot, and despite the message about the SIM card,
you should finally be able to get into the phone and do whatever you want.
Now, I would like to give one warning when it comes to downloading redsn0w...
When I was using Windows, I kept running into downloads that were full of
all other kinds of unwanted software.
And, uh, so...
It took several attempts before I found just the redsn0w software
without getting all the malware and the trial software bundled in with it, so...
Just a warning on that.
Okay, so I hope you found this video useful, it's probably the only...
modern, up-to-date jailbreaking video for this older model iPhone that you can probably find on YouTube.
I'm looking forward to making the next video, where I'm going to run this iPhone 2G through its paces,
I'm going to carry it with me for a week as my own phone...
and I'll get back to you with results, and...
Should be pretty interesting.