iOS 4 Baseband Preservation Problem (with iOS 5 update)

iSteveO · Oct 30, 2011

So, I updated to iOS 5 the other day using Sn0wbreeze custom firmware. I used custom firmware to preserve my ability to go back down to iOS 4.2.8 if I wasn't happy with the battery life of iOS 5, or if some of my can't-live-without apps/tweaks weren't compatible with 5 (also to see how comfortable I was being tethered). The upgrade went flawlessly (or so i thought), but when on iOS 5, the service indicator kept switching from "Verizon" to "Searching...," and it would go from 5 to 0 bars intermittently. It would let me send texts as long as it said Verizon in the status bar (duh!), but you'd have to do it quickly before it went back to Searching. It was (barely) able to make/receive a phone call, but it would ring once (maybe twice) and then lose the connection. I was never really able to connect the phone call, since the service would always drop before it had a chance; no matter how quickly I tried, not 1 word was muttered. I'm now back on 4.2.8. I REALLY want to keep my ability to downgrade to iOS 4, but I know that if I do a clean Apple restore using the iOS 5 firmware it will automatically update the baseband and take away that ability. I know this because I upgraded using the identical GM (Gold Master) while Apple was still signing 4.2.10 (prior to iOS 5 public release), and I was able to use this to my advantage and get my iOS 4 baseband (1.0.06) back. Before I went back to the old baseband, I tried booting up 4.2.8 with the new iOS 5 baseband, and the phone had the "Connect to iTunes" screen, and wouldn't let me do anything else. Normally at this point it would say "Waiting for Activation," and then "iPhone is Activated" a few seconds later. With 4.2.8 on the iOS 5 baseband, "Verizon" did not even show in the status bar, it just said "Connect to iTunes." My question is, does anyone else know of a way to preserve my ability to downgrade, while at the same time allowing the phone to activate on iOS 5? I've used the iPad baseband trick on many 3G's, but will this work with Verizon firmware versions? Has anyone else done this? I can't be the only person on Verizon iOS 4.2.8 who wants to preserve his/her ability to downgrade when updating to iOS 5, can I!?!? I'm fairly experienced with jailbreaking/unlocking AT&T firmare & hardware, but this no-SIM thing with Verizon has got me a bit thrown. Come on all you smart people out there; help a semi-newbie out! I know someone out there is sitting on Verizon iOS 5, fully activated with the ability to downgrade back to iOS 4.2.8 and be fully activated!!

f4780y · Oct 30, 2011

It sounds to me like you misunderstand what it is you are trying to preserve using a custom firmware...

Custom firmwares, in the scenario you are trying to use them in, are about preserving a GSM baseband so it can be unlocked later. They are nothing to do with protecting your ability to downgrade the version of IOS in the future!

Since you have a CDMA Verizon phone, there is absolutely no reason AFAIK to preserve the baseband. You are on Verizon and staying on Verizon, and the concept of unlocking is completely different with CDMA. The baseband is only concerned with the ability to unlock GSM phones.

The only thing you need to enable you to restore a 4.x firmware in the future is the necessary SHSH Blobs for that version and your phone. From your signature it sounds like you have those since you used iFaith, so you should be fine.

So, to get your phone back and stable at 5.0, do a clean fresh install of 5.0 so the baseband is correctly updated. Then it should work on IOS5. In the future, if you want to downgrade to 4.x, you will use your SHSH Blobs and restore the firmware, but your baseband will remain at the current (latest) version. This should still result in a working phone on 4.x. We have tutorials to help with the downgrade process, but if you are an experienced jailbreaker you may not need them...

Hope that helps.

zig9449 · Nov 2, 2011

f4780y said:
It sounds to me like you misunderstand what it is you are trying to preserve using a custom firmware...

Custom firmwares, in the scenario you are trying to use them in, are about preserving a GSM baseband so it can be unlocked later. They are nothing to do with protecting your ability to downgrade the version of IOS in the future!

Since you have a CDMA Verizon phone, there is absolutely no reason AFAIK to preserve the baseband. You are on Verizon and staying on Verizon, and the concept of unlocking is completely different with CDMA. The baseband is only concerned with the ability to unlock GSM phones.

The only thing you need to enable you to restore a 4.x firmware in the future is the necessary SHSH Blobs for that version and your phone. From your signature it sounds like you have those since you used iFaith, so you should be fine.

So, to get your phone back and stable at 5.0, do a clean fresh install of 5.0 so the baseband is correctly updated. Then it should work on IOS5. In the future, if you want to downgrade to 4.x, you will use your SHSH Blobs and restore the firmware, but your baseband will remain at the current (latest) version. This should still result in a working phone on 4.x. We have tutorials to help with the downgrade process, but if you are an experienced jailbreaker you may not need them...

Hope that helps.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. This kid is right. No matter how many tutorials he copies, its gonna be a long time for him to figure this out. I HAVEN'T. I have tried everything. Watched a lot of videos and did everything exactly. But ya know what I could't find? A video showing how to do this stuff with a Verizon iPhone. Almost all tuts had the GSM iPhone. That has to be why. The Verizon iPhone is plain and simple different than the GSM iPone. Apple didn't change the build when it came out for no reason. If anyone here knows how to do this please post. I can successfully downgrade with my SHSH blobs for 4.2.10 and fix recovery, or activate the "slide for emergency" screen by jailbreaking. Then activate in iTunes, Except for that last part.....................Activating in iTunes. It just will not activate, and I actually do think the baseband is why. Why? because the baseband "does make a difference". Just because it is a CDMA phone does not mean it doesn't have a baseband. It does , and it's just completely different than the GSM baseband. and as it turns out all the tutorials that I actually needed only had the GSM iPhone. And alot of hacks and exploits are used in these places so the GSM baseband has to be specific to the way most of these tutorials we need to achieve anything with downgrading. Well...............................................................................Thats what I think any way. I think we need someone to soley work on the CDMA iPhone and and dig into how the baseband is fused with the iOS, or maybe something like why the MEID is always missing after downgrade at "slide for emergency screen" when tapping the "i" icon. and maybe thats the whole reason why iTunes wont activate it in the first place. It's a real bummer.

iSteveO · Nov 3, 2011

zig9449 said:
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. This kid is right. No matter how many tutorials he copies, its gonna be a long time for him to figure this out. I HAVEN'T. I have tried everything. Watched a lot of videos and did everything exactly. But ya know what I could't find? A video showing how to do this stuff with a Verizon iPhone. Almost all tuts had the GSM iPhone. That has to be why. The Verizon iPhone is plain and simple different than the GSM iPone. Apple didn't change the build when it came out for no reason. If anyone here knows how to do this please post. I can successfully downgrade with my SHSH blobs for 4.2.10 and fix recovery, or activate the "slide for emergency" screen by jailbreaking. Then activate in iTunes, Except for that last part.....................Activating in iTunes. It just will not activate, and I actually do think the baseband is why. Why? because the baseband "does make a difference". Just because it is a CDMA phone does not mean it doesn't have a baseband. It does , and it's just completely different than the GSM baseband. and as it turns out all the tutorials that I actually needed only had the GSM iPhone. And alot of hacks and exploits are used in these places so the GSM baseband has to be specific to the way most of these tutorials we need to achieve anything with downgrading. Well...............................................................................Thats what I think any way. I think we need someone to soley work on the CDMA iPhone and and dig into how the baseband is fused with the iOS, or maybe something like why the MEID is always missing after downgrade at "slide for emergency screen" when tapping the "i" icon. and maybe thats the whole reason why iTunes wont activate it in the first place. It's a real bummer.

EXACTLY!! I knew that I knew what I was talking about. I was looking for help from someone who maybe tried this with CDMA iPhones. Not the same concept as GSM bb. Ill keep you posted if I hear of a fix, and will hope you do the same. But as of right now, it is not possible, from everything I've seen, to run iOS 5 on the 4.2.8 bb, nor iOS 4.2.8 on iOS 5 bb. Thank you for backing me up on this one; there aren't as many of us CDMA-ers out there! I appreciate all replies, but GSM cannot be compared to CDMA as far as bb performance/compatibility is concerned.

f4780y · Nov 3, 2011

Best of luck then.

It doesn't get over the fact you are fundamentally wrong in your understanding of what a baseband is and how it works in relation to jailbreaking and unlocking, CDMA or not. I"ve only been jailbreaking Apple devices for 4 years. What do I know?

iSteveO · Nov 3, 2011

f4780y said:
Best of luck then.

It doesn't get over the fact you are fundamentally wrong in your understanding of what a baseband is and how it works in relation to jailbreaking and unlocking, CDMA or not.

Don't take it personally, geez. I just said it's different from GSM; that's all. I understand it just fine, and was merely saying that this seems to be the only variable that could cause the problem of not activating. I sincerely appreciate the time you took to reply, and hope you understand I am not attacking anyone. Just trying to keep my untethered options open. Thanks again for taking your time to try and help.

zig9449 · Nov 9, 2011

Any news on activating CDMA iPhone after downgrade? I'm still stumped as all he**

zig9449 · Nov 9, 2011

This has nothing to do with "jailbreaking and unlocking BTW" (yes the point of downgrading is to have an untethered jailbreak, but that is dealt with after activation, therefore, the concern lies in activating and jailbreaking is something to worry about only after phone can be activated after downgrade). CDMA iPhone cannot be unlocked anyway. Yeah you have been jailbreak for 4 years ( and I have no doubt that you know what you are talking about when it comes to your "GSM" iPhone) but you have not played with a CDMA iPhone and if you had one to compare to your GSM iphone, you would not have made that post because you would have known that there is something different about the CDMA iPhone. The fact is the baseband has to relevant in downgrading because a GSM iPhone can activate on new baseband after downgrade, but not a CDMA iphone. That fact pretty much explains itself. I am not trying to argue but only stating that he is rite and the baseband has to make a difference. (My opinion)

iSteveO · Nov 9, 2011

zig9449 said:
Any news on activating CDMA iPhone after downgrade? I'm still stumped as all he**

No, sorry to report that everything I've read, and every dev I've spoken to has said that the CDMA bb is still not fully understood regarding it's interrelation with the CDMA iOS. It looks like you're stuck on 5, but the untether will be out soon, I'm sure. Maybe another month or 2 tops, but I can wait because it'll be awesome! It looks like I'll be joining you tethered on 5 today, as I have to update before 5.0.1 comes out in order to ensure I'll be able to jb 5. Apparently you won't be able to downgrade from 5.0.1 to 5 either. What I've learned in my semi-long tenure as a jailbreaker is that patience is a virtue... no matter how hard it may be to wait, and to also pay attention to the dev's closely! Stick with 5, and your patience should be rewarded shortly! Have a good day!

iSteveO · Nov 9, 2011

zig9449 said:
This has nothing to do with "jailbreaking and unlocking BTW" (yes the point of downgrading is to have an untethered jailbreak, but that is dealt with after activation, therefore, the concern lies in activating and jailbreaking is something to worry about only after phone can be activated after downgrade). CDMA iPhone cannot be unlocked anyway. Yeah you have been jailbreak for 4 years ( and I have no doubt that you know what you are talking about when it comes to your "GSM" iPhone) but you have not played with a CDMA iPhone and if you had one to compare to your GSM iphone, you would not have made that post because you would have known that there is something different about the CDMA iPhone. The fact is the baseband has to relevant in downgrading because a GSM iPhone can activate on new baseband after downgrade, but not a CDMA iphone. That fact pretty much explains itself. I am not trying to argue but only stating that he is rite and the baseband has to make a difference. (My opinion)

I recommend you update you iPod touch as well. You don't want to miss your 5.0 window!

zig9449 · Nov 10, 2011

iSteveO said:
I recommend you update you iPod touch as well. You don't want to miss your 5.0 window!

Yeah, I guess. Ur rite. I was thinking about that. Stay on 4.3.5 til the JB get more and more promising and stable (long long time) or update to 5.0 and wait for the soon release of untethered jailbreak. The only thing, since I got my iPhone. I pretty much gave my GF my iPod. And she Mewseek. As I'm sure u know. Mewseek will only add iPod tracks to library on iOS 4. Tho the debs said they were working on it.

iSteveO · Nov 11, 2011

zig9449 said:
Yeah, I guess. Ur rite. I was thinking about that. Stay on 4.3.5 til the JB get more and more promising and stable (long long time) or update to 5.0 and wait for the soon release of untethered jailbreak. The only thing, since I got my iPhone. I pretty much gave my GF my iPod. And she Mewseek. As I'm sure u know. Mewseek will only add iPod tracks to library on iOS 4. Tho the debs said they were working on it.

Just download iFunbox for your pc and you can pull the mewseek songs off of the iPod manually and add them to iTunes on the pc. Mewseek downloads to var/mobile/documents, I think. I haven't used it for a while since it stopped working for a bit. I started using music box from big boss. It's a much better interface but it definitely doesn't add them to your iPod. Music box downloads to var/mobile/library. I prefer to add them to iTunes through my pc anyway so I can edit the info to keep my iPod organized. I'm very OCD about my iPod being organized and everything having album art, which you can easily get from Wikipedia. It may be too late anyway, because the iOS 5.0 window is now closed. I guess you could use a custom firmware since it is an iPod though. Too late for CDMA iPhones though; I updated mine about 1 hour before they released 5.0.1!! Phew! That was close! Now I'm semi-tethered on 5. It seems to be pretty stable and everything seems to work properly. iOS 5 is really much better than 4, IMHO. But you know that already since you're on it!

zig9449 · Dec 21, 2011

iSteveO said:
Just download iFunbox for your pc and you can pull the mewseek songs off of the iPod manually and add them to iTunes on the pc. Mewseek downloads to var/mobile/documents, I think. I haven't used it for a while since it stopped working for a bit. I started using music box from big boss. It's a much better interface but it definitely doesn't add them to your iPod. Music box downloads to var/mobile/library. I prefer to add them to iTunes through my pc anyway so I can edit the info to keep my iPod organized. I'm very OCD about my iPod being organized and everything having album art, which you can easily get from Wikipedia. It may be too late anyway, because the iOS 5.0 window is now closed. I guess you could use a custom firmware since it is an iPod though. Too late for CDMA iPhones though; I updated mine about 1 hour before they released 5.0.1!! Phew! That was close! Now I'm semi-tethered on 5. It seems to be pretty stable and everything seems to work properly. iOS 5 is really much better than 4, IMHO. But you know that already since you're on it!

Oh yeah, I know how to do that, just not exactly something my girlfriend would want to do.lol. I on the other hand wouldn't mind. It's what I have been doing since she updated to iOS 5.