trying to un-jailbreak and getting horribly confused

[hankhandsome]

i think it's a case of me trying to do more than i actually can.

anyway, i initially got my 8gb iPhone 3g locked to one network so I used redsn0w and the iPad baseband to allow me to unlock and jailbreak it. Worked fine and I used it for 6 months or so.

Now, sadly, i need to sell the phone so I wanted to unjailbreak it and return it to the latest OS update (4.2.1).

If I do a manual restore in iTunes and return to 3.1.3 then I get the 1015 error, so I use TinyUmbrella to kick it out of recovery and it activates and works absolutely fine.

However, if i try to then upgrade the OS to 4.2.1 it just absolute does not want to take. I get the 1015 error and I can't kick it out of recovery. I've also had an error code 14 and, i think, 1604.

i've also used iReb to put it into DFU mode to manually restore 4.2.1 and it still doesn't like it.

Is it a case that once i've used redsn0w to install the ipad baseband, there's no way of returning to 4.2.1 ?

The place I want to take the phone to so i can sell it will only take it if the phone has the latest OS and can be restored by their in-store tester. So obviously if their tester gets a 1015 error then i won't get anywhere.

If it's going to be stuck on 3.1.3 then I guess i can accept that and put it on ebay.

any help most welcome. cheers

[goofball2k]

If you installed the ipad baseband, you can't downgrade the baseband unless you have an old bootloader, and you must always use a custom ipsw to install on your phone.
If you have used tinyumbrella, try checking the hosts file and remove any gs.apple.com entries in there, then try restoring to 4.2.1.

[hankhandsome]

try checking the hosts file and remove any gs.apple.com entries in there, then try restoring to 4.2.1.

I'm actually doing this as we speak - i manually removed the 4.2.1. update from the iTunes update folder and i'm re-downloading it through itunes - although it's currently saying it's got 3 more hours to go !!

I'd already removed the entry in the hosts file so with any luck, by around 1am tomorrow morning, it might work

if that doesn't work then i might try and find a custom 4.2.1 that maybe doesn't have any kind of baseband update in it.

thanks for your reply

[Stray]

When updating to 4.2.1 with the iPad baseband you will need to use a custom firmware. nothing else. That way you will get restored and not get an error message at all

[hankhandsome]

would you use iTunes to flash the custom firmware then ??

i'm open to trying that if this latest attempt doesn't work (which i'm not expecting it to to be honest..)

i think i might just have to go with ebay after all. the second hand store i was going to take the phone to would expect to be able to do a normal iTunes restore as a matter of course before accepting the handset and obviously if i can only do it via a custom firmware they're not going to be interested.

[Stray]

Use itunes you can use pwnagetool or sn0wbreeze to make it and click shift then restore on the screen. One more thing if you happen to have the 05.08 bootloader you could downgrade the baseband as I know they probably wouldn't accept it just due to that fact

[hankhandsome]

i'm currently re-jailbreaking it just to find out what bootloader i have got - i've found a webpage with some good instructions on how to downgrade the baseband if i've got the relevant bootloader so i think it's worth a go - would potentially double the price i'd get for it if i sold it in this shop as opposed to ebay.

[Stray]

you could have just used tinyumbrella sorry. either way if you have the preferable bootloader you would have needed the jailbreak. download fuzzyband as this would do the job

[hankhandsome]

you know i actually think downgrading it to 3.1.3 has fully killed off my chances of re-jailbreaking or upgrading the firmware.

it's currently 3:02am over here and i've just been trying it again and again and again with no luck.

each time 3.1.3 works. i can kick it out of recovery and it's fine. but i don't have cydia. i tried re-jailbreaking it with redsn0w 0.9.4 and the 3.1.2 firmware but it just hung on the black screen for ages.

I manually re-flashed it with 3.1.2 through iTunes and it just downgraded the phone os to 3.1.2.

Each time I try to re-install 4.2.1 it stops with an error - even the custom firmware with no baseband update won't restore.

Probably because i've got the iPad baseband still installed.

If i could somehow get cydia back then i might be able to get somewhere but I can't really see any way how to do that that i haven't already tried.

[Stray]

Do you have shshs for 4.1 saved?

[i.Annie]

+1. any iOS 4 you'll need SHSHs to restore to whether you're using custom fw or stock. You need to use a custom fw but you also need SHSHs for 4.1. But for 4.2.1 it would be fine without. For 3.1.x it's fine as you've figured out but it works differently on iOS 4

[hankhandsome]

Do you have shshs for 4.1 saved?

i don't unfortunately. i might root around to see if anyone has uploaded any but I think i'm just going to ultimately restore it back to 3.1.3 and stick it on ebay as 'do not upgrade'.

i might not get as much as i wanted for it but anything is better than nothing.

[Orby]

i don't unfortunately. i might root around to see if anyone has uploaded any but I think i'm just going to ultimately restore it back to 3.1.3 and stick it on ebay as 'do not upgrade'.

i might not get as much as i wanted for it but anything is better than nothing.

An iPhone 3G on 3.1.3 is generally a better-performing device than one on the 4.x series--the 4.x firmware is just liquid death for that model of phone.

A custom firmware still needs to start from Pwned DFU mode, even if you're just restoring to preserve/work-around the baseband.

If you want Cydia on that iPhone, use either Spirit (Spirit) or JBME 2.0 Click this link in Safari on your iPhone!.

PS: /Updating/ not restoring to iOS 4.2.1 should allow you to get around the baseband hangup; as well as Fix Recovery from The Firmware Umbrella - TinyUmbrella

Just some food for thought.

[hankhandsome]

Thanks for the tip about cydia. i got that back on the phone and ran the fuzzydoor program which confirmed that my bootloader was 6.04, so unfortunately there's no chance of rolling back the baseband update.

i'm fairly sure i have updated to 4.2.1 and it didn't work. I think over the course of last night, i did both methods !

anyway, for the sake of being thorough i'm going to try updating and using fixrecovery from tinyumbrella.

if that doesn't work then i'm going to restore it back to 3.1.3 and just accept defeat. it works perfectly with 3.1.3 so i'll just put it on ebay and mention that it shouldn't be updated.

thanks for all of your help so far

just as i suspected - did try this last night. i connect the phone and use iTunes to update, not restore, to 4.2.1.

i get the inevitable 1015 error so i go to TinyUmbrella to choose 'exit recovery' and nothing happens.

so i hold down the power and home buttons to reboot and get the usual data cable pointing to itunes icon screen. I run fixrecovery421 directly. put the phone into DFU mode and fixrecovery completes running and still nothing happens.

so that's it. i'm going to roll it back to 3.1.3 and call it a day as I really don't think anything else is going to work - i've tried everything i can possibly think of.

thanks again for your help.