iPhone 1.1.4 Catch 22: Backup SMS & Stuff to upgrade w/o functioning Cydia

[crashnburn_in]

iPhone 1.1.4 Catch 22: Backup SMS & Stuff to upgrade w/o functioning Cydia:

iPhone 1.1.4 Catch 22 Situation: To backup SMS & Stuff before upgrade w/o functioning Cydia.

I bought the iPhone 1st Gen with 1.02 and then upgraded it to 1.1.4 unlocked and Jail broke it using iLiberty back in March April 2008 when I was in Houston.

Now I am in India using the phone on Vodafone India network and Netgear WiFi G Router at home for Data Access. (Data Plans are expensive here)

It has Cydia Packager (C) 2008. Jay Freeman (saurik). [email protected]

WHAT I WANT TO DO: PLEASE SUGGEST:

1) I would ideally like to upgrade this to a 2.x or 2.0.x something. Do suggest the best procedure right now for an unlocked & jailbroken iPhone 1.1.4.

2) I'd like to back all the Contacts & Calendars to easily Restore them. Also would like to synch them to Outlook so that I can restore the Contacts & Calendars after upgrade.

3) I'd like to backup & restore the SMSes current present in the "useless" Apple iPhone original SMS app that has zilchy features. (I've been reading about WeTool, SMSD, iSMS, mySMS etc.)

Here is the Catch 22:
I cant install or download the SMSD or WeTool Apps or any other SMS related / backup apps because of my Cydia.

I was getting:

Package Error
Redirection loop
(Okay)

OKAY! -- I got the Cydia message "Painfully old Cydia etc Message". I finally did the upgrade and Restart of Cydia. It went from the OLD Colorful Logo (Yellow & Purple) to a new one (White on Brown).

Now Cydia wont even start. An empty app window pops up and goes back to Home screen all within a second.

Any suggestions on how I go about backing up the SMSes & other stuff so I can upgrade to the latest firmware and Cydia + Installer (2 installer / package managers that I keep reading about).

So, what do I do? Suggestions?

I've heard of Tools such as iPhone PCSuite etc.
What do I use to backup the following before a firmware upgrade given that my Cedia is acting a certain way: (Any other items as well if I am missing)

• Contacts
• Calendar
• Notes
• SMS
• Images (Probably just copy it out)

Suggestions? What do I do?

[iPittsburgh]

I would back up the phone in itunes first. You shouldnt lose any information including text messages and contacts because you will only be updating and not restoring. You can update your iphone 1st gen all the way to 3.1.3 and then jailbreak with redsn0w 0.9.4. To jailbreak and unlock your phone you will need redsn0w 0.9.4, 3.1.2fw for 1st gen iphone and 3.9bl and 4.6bl