Best Kept Secret EVER --> Not waiting for Cydia after a restore

[NewdestinyX]

Hey gang,
Many thanks to Simon, King of Hill and Thazsar for all I learned to help you with this.

Though at some point Cydia servers will clear - for any number of reasons many of us are re-restoring and re-jailbreak from time to time and wish we didn't have to wait and wade for/through Cydia to get ALL our tweaks back. Though there are a couple of backup Cydia tools out there, most famous/infamous being PkgBackUp, those tools save prefence files AND just 're-access' Cydia, live, so you still wait if there is any lag time after a jailbreak as there is now. There is a faster way to get ALL your Cydia stuff back.

ONE time only - you'll need to back up all your tweak data files like:
var/mobile/Library/iWidgets, MyFonts, etc --and from
/Library/Iconoclasm --and from
/var/mobile/Media/FolderIcons, etc.
And then grab everything from Cydia, one by one.
BUT WHILE you're in the process of getting things one by one - do this:

Every time you download a tweak from Cydia (after a fresh restore + jailbreak), BEFORE YOU "RESPRING" OR "RETURN TO CYDIA" OR "REBOOT", SSH into your phone or use iFunBox (no SSH needed) to navigate to var/root/cache/apt/Archive. Hit the refresh key in your SSH program. You'll see the .deb files of each of the tweaks and their dependency files that just got onloaded to your phone. Save every one of those.deb files to your computer!

If you ever have to restore again, all you'll need to do is create a folder here:
private/var/root/Media called Cydia. And then another folder, inside Cydia, called AutoInstall. Capital letters matter in both of those names. Then simply transfer all those .DEB files into the new private/var/root/Media/Cydia/AutoInstall folder and reboot twice and you're BACK! No Cydia wait time ever again (at least not after that first rejailbreak, post new jailbreak. )

As many of us will likely want to do a couple of fresh restores in the near future since Evasi0n has a few problems - make sure you do the 'one by one tweak .deb file' save one of those times - earlier the better. Then any time after that - easy-peasey. Until, of course, they close the signing window for the current jailbreakable OS. Then this method won't work anymore and you SHOULD NOT restore your phone after the signing window of 6.1 closes (like when 6.1.1 is released). After this process - invariably some things will have been updated by the developers to your fav tweaks. But at least you'll only WAIT for - THOSE tweaks' updates at Cydia and not EVERYTHING you own/have.

The even COOLER application of this method (though you won't get to use it again until the next iOS jailbreak) is that this same method works when you save all your stuff, the NIGHT BEFORE the jailbreak, is set to release. I didn't wait AT ALL for Cydia on day 1 of the jailbreak. All my tweaks were saved in .deb form and onloaded to my phone with iFunBox easily after I jailbroke with evasi0n. I was up and running with all my tweaks in one hour. (except the ones that weren't ready for iOS 6.1 of course). I didn't load those back on.

NO - you can't get the .deb files AFTER the fact. You have to grab them WHILE you're doing a one by one install from Cydia.

Now c'mon - you know you want to hit that thanks button.. LOL!!!

[Faresismail]

Hahaha thanks a lot! I will definably start doing so! I cant imagine the time im gonna save! But what do u mean when u say dependency file? Once again thanks

[NewdestinyX]

Hahaha thanks a lot! I will definably start doing so! I cant imagine the time im gonna save! But what do u mean when u say dependency file? Once again thanks

Dependency files are files that are needed by certain tweaks to run properly. So when you download Winterboard, for example, if you take a quick peek in the Cydia window right before you say CONFIRM for the download - you'll see a list containing Winterboard - BUT also things like "pincrush", "PreferenceLoader", "libhide", "MobileSubstrate", etc. These are 'dependency' files that Winterboard NEEDS (is "dependent" on) to run properly. You need to save all the .deb file versions of those 'dependency' files too. Make sense?

[Simon]

How is this thread different than this one: Beat the system- and getting iOS6 tweaks from Cydia now before JB release

[2k1]

Seems like the same to me

[Faresismail]

Dependency files are files that are needed by certain tweaks to run properly. So when you download Winterboard, for example, if you take a quick peek in the Cydia window right before you say CONFIRM for the download - you'll see a list containing Winterboard - BUT also things like "pincrush", "PreferenceLoader", "libhide", "MobileSubstrate", etc. These are 'dependency' files that Winterboard NEEDS (is "dependent" on) to run properly. You need to save all the .deb file versions of those 'dependency' files too. Make sense?

Yea thanks :P

[NewdestinyX]

How is this thread different than this one: Beat the system- and getting iOS6 tweaks from Cydia now before JB release

Wanted the first post to show the summary of all 'questions' asked in the other thread. That was my intent. Start clean. Help people troubleshoot rather than all my own question asking. Would that be okay? And this application is for AFTER a jailbreak release - though it follows same .deb steps. To get to this summation in the other thread - you need to start reading at page 15. I'm cool if you want to close the other thread or can it all together. This will be cleaner and more concise. Don't you think?

[Simon]

Meh, I suppose it's ok. Just thought I was seeing double

[NewdestinyX]

Meh, I suppose it's ok. Just thought I was seeing double

Thanks, Simon. I believe this presentation will be more concise. As the thread starter of the other one I would like to ask you to put a forwarding link over there, to here, and then close that other thread if you are willing to.

[Simon]

Thanks, Simon. I believe this presentation will be more concise. As the thread starter of the other one I would like to ask you to put a forwarding link over there, to here, and then close that other thread if you are willing to.

Just put a link to this thread at the top of your first post in the other one. I can close the other for you.

[King_O_Hill]

Thanks for the credit in your first post bud

[NewdestinyX]

Just put a link to this thread at the top of your first post in the other one. I can close the other for you.

Thanks, Simon. Clean start!!

Thanks for the credit in your first post bud

Well deserved, sir! I learn a lot from you veterans!

[Korazu]

Hey ND,

Thanks for the write-up here as it was awesome to use. I wanted to point out that in my experience that the cache location for my iPad 4 was different than you specified above. It was at var/cache/apt/archives. The only difference is leaving out the root.



Also I noticed that as long as I didn't have to "reboot device" all the deb files stayed there during a restart springboard message.



Thanks again for the time and effort.

[NewdestinyX]

Hey ND,

Thanks for the write-up here as it was awesome to use. I wanted to point out that in my experience that the cache location for my iPad 4 was different than you specified above. It was at var/cache/apt/archives. The only difference is leaving out the root.

Also I noticed that as long as I didn't have to "reboot device" all the deb files stayed there during a restart springboard message.

Attachment 621004

Thanks again for the time and effort.

You're very welcome! I enjoyed being ahead of everybody on launch day! The only thing about your observation of the .deb files staying in the cache is that if you accidentally go up one directory, in your SSH client, you will lose them all! Still better to save to computer right before every respring In my experience. That apt/cache folder is a 'very temporary' cache.

And thanks for the folder path name on the iPad as opposed iPhone. I'll incorporate that into my first post.

Glad the method worked for you!

[Faresismail]

Thanks KARAZOU, i wanted to start doing this but didnt find the directory until i read ur message
Also i know that this isnt the place to ask this but what does everyone mean when saying sexyparrot? Tried googleing it but nothing came up :/

[NewdestinyX]

Thanks KARAZOU, i wanted to start doing this but didnt find the directory until i read ur message
Also i know that this isnt the place to ask this but what does everyone mean when saying sexyparrot? Tried googleing it but nothing came up :/

Sexyparrot is the command name read out of a 'smiley face' moving image that's an animation of a parrot dancing. If you only come to the forum by using the ModMyi app then bevause the app cant show animations the app only shows the "command code name" of the parrot animation. But if you go to the forum from a computer - you will see this animation and understand how it's used in context.

[Faresismail]

Sexyparrot is the command name read out of a 'smiley face' moving image that's an animation of a parrot dancing. If you only come to the forum by using the ModMyi app then bevause the app cant show animations the app only shows the "command code name" of the parrot animation. But if you go to the forum from a computer - you will see this animation and understand how it's used in context.

Wow thanks this really explains a lot ( I'm guessing the shifty kitty is also a smiley )

[NewdestinyX]

Wow thanks this really explains a lot ( I'm guessing the shifty kitty is also a smiley )

You got it!

[Edo]

Well thanks, thats the best bit of info I've attained anywhere since iPhone's inception great.

[Faresismail]

Actually "Total Backup" does that for you