Upgrade or downgrade your bootloader with BootNeuter
Chris Eissens
I was planning to review BootNeuter together with the release of WinPwn.
But as it still hasn’t been released due to several little bugs that the developer want’s to fix, i will go ahead and review the BootNeuter app first.
I’ve had a lot of people who ask me, what is BootNeuter and why do i need it.
First let me explain what it does.
BootNeuter let’s you switch between bootloaders (for info about bootloader and baseband go here).
So why do i want to switch bootloader? Without going into to much technical details (if you’d like, we can talk about this, just drop me a mail), for improved Google Location and improved battery life if you’re running 1.1.3 or 1.1.4.
People who are running older firmware versions, should not upgrade to the BL 4.6
Ok now that we have that out of the way, let’s discuss this neutering thing.
What is neutering your bootloader?
-A neutered bootloader gives you absolute control over your baseband. The normal restrictions invoked by apple are completely removed !
-The baseband is no longer integrity-checked
-Can be patched (unlocked or other custom modifications)
-4.6BL will even run with patched baseband ??� no need to revert to 3.9BL even with most recent firmware
Secpack restrictions are removed
-You are free to downgrade your baseband using bbupdater without having to run ieraser/ienew first.
-No longer does the ???greater than??? (4.6BL) or ???greater than or equal??? (3.9BL) rule apply. You can arbitrarily go up and down regardless of what secpacks you use.
Secpack signatures are ignored
-The RSA encrypted header is no longer checked for correct hash values by the bootloader
-The *.fls files can be patched and fed to bbupdater directly
-A copy of the last used secpack will be saved at a03c0000, retrievable via norz or similar dumpers. Not that secpacks even matter anymore.
-Your neuter selection survives iTunes restores and updates
Let’s have a look at the app Bootneuter itself
Warning ! You must be on fw 1.1.4 to be able to bootneuter your bootloader with BootNeuter !!
1) You can locate the app in the tools category of the installer, if you haven’t pwned your device..
2) Before you launch BootNeuter, switch off your Wireless. and make sure your battery is high enough.
3) Let’s launch the app.
4) While the app starts it will determine your settings.
5) when the app stars you can chose your Bootloader version. If you are on 1.1.3 or 1.1.4 and see that your baseband is 3.9.
I recommend that you select the 4.6, activate the neuter and the unlock swithc.
After that press flash and wait some time. The procedure can take some time, so don’t swith of your iPhone while it’s busy !!!
I’ll include some screenshots of me going back to 3.9.
Tjhe principle is the same for upgrading as for downgrading.
The process goes in several stages.
a) First the Bootloader will be flashed.
b) 2nd the Baseband will be flashed.
Et voila .. you’re iPhone’s bootloader and baseband have been bootneutered.
Now all you have to do , is reboot your iPhone , and it’s done.
This big app is available in the Installer.app through the Sendowski packaging source, see our sources page.
Enjoy
Ps: People with problems, just mail me or leave a msg.
\\ tags: baseband, bootloader 3.9, bootloader 4.6, bootneuter, Google, how to bootneuter, how to neuter, pwned, winpwn
Well Max it seemed you have been working hard on these posts… :lol:
However, I wouldn’t advise using ziphone any longer and just stick with Winpwn… http://www.winpwn.com also multi has many guides to explaine how to use it. This is the latest and safest….
Hi guys –
I am one of those unlucky ones in India who was lucky initially to get my hands on a new iphone (2G) before its release in india. I accidently upgraded it to 2.0 and locked my phone. I am struggling like crazy from past 48 hours to get it back. I followed all the steps on iClarified to first get it to 1.1.4 then ran winpwn without any luck, then tried iLiberty with some luck. I was able to turn on the iphone, but now it doesnt recognize the sim. I tried running bootneuter but it gives the dreaded Error: 5.
Its on 1.1.4 but hte firmware is: 04.05.04_G
Please please please tell me what to do next! I hope I dont have to go through some long process of restoring using winpwn / iliberty…. i am so tired and just want to see my iphone working again… please help!! much appreciated.
thanks!
Sandy
just leave your cell number on this message board i will give you miss call then just call me back i’ll solver your problem for bsure cause i have already done lots of research on this best of luck
i will check this message board again at night india time and will look for your cell number
bye Sandy
Hi Sandy
I was stuck like you some weeks ago. I was not able to create a custom ipsw (failed to create ipsw message). Then I found the most simple and eficient way. Go and find a custom image (ipsw) in the web and restore your phone over itunes in DFU mode with shift-click referencing the custom image. After that everything was just great.
http://www.iphone-storage.de/iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw
The last thing was edge config (I tried the SSH way but did not work). This one is just great:
http://www.unlockit.co.nz/unlock.ph
hope this helps
z
oh and Sandy…. I was tired too, almost nightshifts. this is by far the most efficient way.
z
Hi Zodiac – I am sorry but i didnt quite understand what i should do next? thanks.
Hi Sandy
Aparently the moderator deleted one of my posts!
Go and find a custom 2.0 ipsw file (there are plenty of them in the web, just make sure it’s got what you need in it). Just google with “iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw”
Go here:
http://www.appleiphoneapps.com/2008/07/how-to-newbies-guide-to-winpwn-20-jailbreak/
Start at step 16 and use the downloaded custom ipsw file
z
Hi Max and Zodiac – thanks for offering to help.
i will definitely explore the option and see if i get to unlock my phone.
hey max – my number is +91 98228 56326 … am waiting for your call. thanks. sandy
hi can anyone help me! i upgraded to firmware 2.0.2 on i tunes, used quickpwngui to jailbreak. and used bootneuter to unlock my iphone. but when i insert any sim card i get service, but i get error message appear saying (different SIM detected please connect to itunes) and my iphone will not let me do anything else until i take out sim card. ps i can recieve incoming calls but leaves me on screen saying slide for emergency??? please can anyone help???????????????????
Hi Zodiac – Thanks for your advice. I managed to install the “iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw†and now my phone is up an running. thanks again for the help.
cheers
sandy
hey sandy i also downloaded iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Custom_Restore.ipsw to my desktop but im a lil stuck now i dont know how to unlock my phone with it can u help me email me at greeneyez071416@hotmail.com….thank u
Greg, I am having the same damn problem. It says I have to connect to iTunes, but when I do, iTunes gives me an error saying the SIM card is not supported. Has anyone found out what the cause is or the work-a-round? Help someone.
justyn@justynacord.com
hey dude plz help me man….cuz my iphone jus 2weeks since i bought it aftr i upgrade to v2.0 i witot knowing played with bootneuter i changed the version to 4.6 and now my phone is stuck on the apple logo….i cant find a way to fix it…though i installed older version of firmware plz help me man it wil b so helpful..plz email me rizan666@hotmail.com as soon as possible ok..thankx hope u wil help.
Hi there, i have a problem, i upgraded to fw2.1 no problem. Everything works fine.
Then i noticed that my edge is not working anymore. It was working perfectly on 2.02. Since i upgraded to 2.1 it says not connected.In bossprefs it says N/A, no ip. is this something with my phone or the fw2.1?? is there a solution for this? i tried restoring i did quickpwn they all go good except the edge/gprs connection.
Thanks
well i need help here i jus got the iphone 3g phone i need a lil more help understanding how to unlock the phone i’ve downloaded the fmware 1.1.4
i also downloaded the zihone software, i have the winwn1.0 rc1 im so confused can any1 help me
Hey i just upgraded to 2.2 on the old iPhone and unlocked/jailbreaked it with osx QuickPwn.
But with my att go phone SIM it doesn’t get any service.
So I tried running bootneuter but it just freezes after it checks for my current settings.
What should I do?
exactly the same issue as Winton, any solutiuons yet?
I finally just downgraded to 2.0.2 and ran bootnuter from there.
Now it works fine, though it is kind of lame to have the old firmware. It also might work with 2.1, but I never upgraded to 2.1 and didn’t want to bother downloading the IPSW file.
hey i tried to instal a firmware it worked i tried to jailbreak an after finsihing it stuck at bootneuter “please wait determining current settings…”
sir
can i unlock r downgrade 3g i phone with baseband version 02.30.02 if yes how can i follow the above instruction
thanx
I installed bootneuter and it gets the settings but just freezes. I dont get the option to hit the flash buttton because of it freezing. any ideas? thanx
I have the same thing….
Back story: I pwned it and had it working perfectly and nicely customized, but i didn’t unlock it when i originally jail-broke it. So I wanted too now… installed cydia, installer and everything, but none of the step tutorials seem to work. Using pwnage (mac) to create the custom ispw files, wouldn’t restore properly to the iPhone. Using quickpwn for windows to and following the steps to unlock it, it would say that it completed the process successfully, but when i put in a sim card from another carrier it would say: “different sim card detected” and it would want to connect to iTunes which would then say that the sim isnt supported.
I installed bootneuter from cydia, it would look for the settings, then it would freeze right there on the loading screen. I dont have the option of hitting flash. It would say:
Bootloader version: 3.9
Neuter = on
fakeblank = off
unlock = on
But it would freeze on that screen. I would need to have to reset my phone to get it out of there.
What can i do?
this soft is not for new iphone, its for old iphone with bootloader 3.9 now, my iphone comes with bootloader 6.02 its even harder to downgrade..this guy should continue his job cos he can flash the bootloader which dev team couldnt do it till now
I have a 2g iPhone with 3.1.2 installed. I got it jailbroken, but now I want to unlock it…any idea how to do that?
No, you can’t unlock the 2g iPhone with 3.1.2 installed. Nobody can.
LAST COMMENT IS WRONG. You *can* unlock the 2g iPhone with 3.1.2 installed. I just did it.
1) Start with 2g iPhone. I’m assuming that you already have firmware version 3.1.2 installed (maybe because you put the iPhone in recovery mode and iTunes restored it to that version, or maybe you “accidently” updated).
2) Jailbreak the 2g iPhone using blackra1n RC3 from blackra1n.com (RC3 was released Nov 3, 2009).
There should be several tutorials out there for this step. Note that “jailbreaking” is not the same as “unlocking”. Jailbreaking lets you install custom applications on the iPhone, and unlocking allows you to “unlock” your iPhone to use different SIM cards, like TMobile instead of AT&T in the USA. However, you need to “jailbreak” your phone to “unlock” your phone (You use a custom application to do the “unlock” step on 2g’s. On 3g and 3gs phones, the “unlock” step is available directly from the blackra1n app that is installed on your iPhone after you jailbreak it).
3) Your phone has to be connected to a wifi network to do the unlocking step, at least the way I figured out how to do it. Make sure you can successfully complete a google search on your iPhone’s web browser, to verify wifi is working correctly. If wifi isn’t working, go to Settings > Wifi to check your wifi settings or find a local wifi network to join. Some people have trouble after the blackra1n jailbreak with wifi connections. You may have to Google about how to get wifi working again after blackra1n, there are several posts on it — i think you just have to do a “Network Reset” or “Network Settings Reset” which is located in the “Settings” application of the iPhone somewhere. I DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS. I JUST HAD TO SELECT MY HOME’S WIFI NETWORK.)
4) After jailbreaking and making sure your wifi connection is working, go to the blackra1n application on your iPhone, and install “Cydia”.
4) Once Cydia is installed, you will need to use a tool called BootNeuter which you can install through Cydia (which was originally designed for iPhone firmware version 1.1.4, but still works even on iPhone firmware version 3.1.2).
To do this, find a tutorial online about how to use BootNeuter / what settings to use.
I used the tutorial here:
http://www.redmondpie.com/jailbreak-unlock-iphone-2g-3.1.2-firmware-with-blackra1n-rc3-9140086/
That redmond site also has some tutorials for the jailbreaking step that may be useful if you’re not familiar with the “jailbreaking” process, which is required at step 2 above.
I am successfully using a 2g iPhone version 3.1.2 firmware on TMobile in the US.
By the way, it was very difficult and tedious to peice everything together to get it to work.. googling about, understanding what blackra1n was and how to use it, finding the right tutorials, realizing that the 2g version of the phone isn’t unlocked by blackra1n but IT CAN BE unlocked in 3.1.2 by using the older “unlock” application BootNeuter, and then restarting the phone and hassling with the tutorials several times trying to get the phone to work. When in doubt, try rebooting the phone and/or reinstalling the application that is giving you trouble (whether that means restoring the iPhone to 3.1.2 through iTunes or that means uninstalling and reinstalling a Cydia application within the iPhone).
Also, it may be helpful to know how to restart your phone if it truely gets “stuck”/”frozen” for more than say 10 minutes, and pressing the “home” button on the iPhone doesn’t do anything, and pressing the “sleep/wake” button on the iPhone doesn’t do anything. First, try powering down the phone by holding down the “sleep/wake” button (the button on the top-right of your phone) for about 5-10 seconds. A red slider should show up on the screen and you slide this slider to the right to force the phone to power down. You can then turn the phone back on.
If that doesn’t work, you can try “force restarting” the phone, by holding down both the top-right “sleep/wake” button, and the bottom-middle “home” button at the same time for about 10 seconds. The phone should eventually just “flash” off, then turn back on and the Apple logo will show as it starts back up.
If all is lost and neither of these seems to work, or your phone is stuck in a sort of loop and just goes to the same thing even after a “force restart”, then you’ll want to do some googling on how to “recover” / restore your iPhone. Part of this process involves putting your iPhone into recovery mode:
To put your phone into recovery mode.. you can google for how to do this. Briefly, (assuming your iPhone is already on) while your iPhone is plugged into your computer and iTunes is running, you hold down both the top-right button of the iPhone (the sleep button), and the bottom-middle button of the iPhone (the home button) until the phone turns off. HOWEVER, unlike a “force restart”, you stop holding down the “sleep/wake” button right when the phone turns/flashes off, but you KEEP holding down the HOME button for about 10 seconds, typically until the screen shows a logo where it looks like an iPhone USB cord plugging into the iTunes logo or something. iTunes should recognize the iPhone is in the “recovery mode” and say say by prompting you with a message/alert about this. It may require you to allow it to “check” the iPhone version first, and then it may prompt you that the iPhone is in “recovery mode”.
Hopefully you don’t/won’t need these last few steps/tricks, but these are things that I’ve run into / learned in my history of working with iPhones.
Ok I am waaaay out of my league here I have a 2g 3.1 and am wanting to get rid of the bugs from the last update.
Will this help me?
Should I update to 3.12?
Hi everyone can help me? After upgrade 2g (firmware 1.1.4 on baseband 04.04.05_G) iphone to 3.1.2 jaibreaking used PwnageTool 3.1.4 (baseband 04.05.04_G). The iPhone 2g can’t detect my home wifi network.
Please can anyone assist me?????????
after i finish flashing it and put my sim card in, it says tmobile in the corner but i still continues to say “different sim” and “connect to itunes” help please!!?
Were you able to find a solution to what you said?
mine still says the “different sim” and “connect to itunes” with the tmobile in the corner =/
email me if you have a solution, please?
thizkid@gmail.com
so I’m completely and utterly incompetent when it comes to this stuff,
but i JUST bought this iphone and its not compatible with rogers,
which of course is who my current contract is with.
I DLed blackra1n, and got cydia, then got this bootneuter 2.1,
Hoping to unlock my phone evetually getting to this anysim compatability thing,
but when ever i open bootneuter it just like freezes…
I cant select neuter fake black or unlock.
it just stops :(
hey im sure therse is lots of people that upgraded well i just happen to get ahold of a 2G its got firmware 3.1.2 well i am not sure whats its called jailbreak/unlock i used blackrain to be able to use the phone but now i need to make it where i can use ANY sim card .. not sure how to do this please someone help please email me jokerhdc@yahoo.com thanks hope someone can help
Ok, here is my problem. I just put my cingular sim in a Iphone 3G with latest version of the Iphone Software 3.1.2 and Jailbroke and hacked with Blackrain and the only problem I have is no data connection. When I use Redsnow it asked for my bin files and I had no problem with 3.0
What do I have to do to make this work?
Thanks
Is it safe to delete the bootneuter app off your iPhone once you’ve flashed and unlocked your phone? I had a fully updated 2G to 3.1.2 that I bootneutered and now I want to get rid of the app if I no longer need it.
I unlock 3G iPhones alot, but latly have been doing 2G. Why am I getting an ERROR 2? I have successfully done 2 iPhones, on my third one I keep getting this. And some CommCenter message…Any help? Thanks
hi multinova,
my prblm is tht when i upgraded my iphone to 2.0 and i didnt know anything abt this bootneuter thingy..but i by mistake went into it and pressed another version of BL then it said phone is flashing and then restarted and it was stuck on the apple logo forever i tried all the ways of restoring the firmware but never worked out..it says error when restoring.and my phone is 2G 8GB.. and it remains a brick for 3yrs.i used only a week.so worried..Search all over the net nothing worked out.Wish u can help me out plz plz….It wud b so so helpful if u could plz help me..im expecting ur reply.plz help me out fix this thing.plzzz
i got a iphone that was unlocked but when i put it into my itunes it asked me to upgrade to the new software 3.1.2 or somethng like that, so i did.
noy my iphone is telling me to insert a at&t sim card and i obviously dont have one. what can i do to fix this ?
please help mee..
yo, can u tell me if I can downgrade my baseband somehow??
I got an iPhone 3G and my baseband is 04.05.04_G and i don’t get no service anymore since i once upgraded it to the latest version, which was a big mistake!!
thanks!
PLEASE HELP. I am currently runnin a 3.1.2 Blackra1n jailbroken 2g iphone.
but i want to unlock my phone, buit it doesnt work. it says different simcard inserted….PLEASE HELP …….i ran 3.9 BL and even 4.6 BL but it still doesnt work!
PLEASE HELP ME
EMAIL: knowledgeable@hotmail.co.uk
thanks
Hi,
just got a first gen (silver black 16GB). it has 3.1.2. Jailbroken with Blackra1n) It has an old ATT sim and I thought I could swap my sim in…when I do i get the itunes icon and cable. When I put the old sim in…works fine (no phone though). Any ideas?
i got same issue with (tv ) i try to put my sim on and i just pop up itines icon and connector that all.i cant even turn off or go in side with any program..ahve any idea please email me let me know..thank you ( leechengx@yahoo.com)
Blackra1n
Sorry – there was a typo on my last post.
Hi,
I tried to update my iPhone to the new OS 3.1 and iTunes will not let me update without signing a 2 year data contract. My phone was unlocked (although I had AT&T for voice calling and no data). Is it too late to unlock my phone again?
How can I install the OS 3.1 and unlock my phone WITHOUT using iTunes?? Please help!
can u emial me on how to unlock a iphone to use on my tmobile account.. thanks
Hi… followed all the instructions and not working. I have the original iphone 2g, with 3.1.2 and modem firmware 04.05.04_G
I ran blackrain to put cydia on the phone, then i searched and loaded bootneuter.
I run bootneuter turning neuter ON and unlock ON, and version 3.9.
I get error : the bootloader flash failed error 5
i have the same issue as tv and huy. phone is jailbroken with blackra1n, bootneuter is set into place and says it is unlocked, place in t-mobile sim and though it says t-mobile in oppose to at&t in the top left corner. the “connect to itunes” screen won’t go away. any suggestions would help.
i upgrade my iphone to 3.1.3 unknow to me that it can not be unlock plese help me with solution.
i updated an iphone 2g to 3,1,3 too, I know how to unlock it I just need a binary code baseband bootloader 3.9 and 4.6. Do anyone knows where can I find these two?