Trouble downgrading to iOS 5.1.1 using Cydia's shsh

spider2012 · Dec 19, 2012

Hi all,
I was getting tired of my 5.1.1 JB, as my phone was becoming too slow. So I decided to upgrade to iOS6. Prior to that I tried to save the shsh blobs and found out that apple was no longer signing the firm ware. It's ironical though, as I remember saving the blobs even before the JB but I couldn't find them ( as good as not having it

)

Anyways,so I saved it through cydia. Been on iOS6 for two weeks now, and only one major compaint - battery life. So I tried the downgrade to 5.1.1 today. I tried the custom baseband stitch (ipsw) using redsn0w and cydia saved shsh. Then got into dfu mode and tried restoring using iTunes and custom baseband. I got the error 3194. I tried recreating another ipsw file, but still same error.

I read somewhere that tiny umbrella could be used with TSS running, but that did not work either. I got a different error in iTunes.

Then I read some more, and modified the host file to access cydia server (I hope I put in the info correctly, perhaps this is where someone could help me). This time I got a new error.

Everytime the error would pop up after iTunes tried to talk to apple, so I think there is something wrong with the ipsw file which apple server keeps rejecting. Could someone who has successfully downgraded to 5.1.1 from iOS6 using cydia saved shsh blobs shed some light?

Some pointers regarding the redirection to the cydia server would be helpful as I plan go try that one more time before giving up.

Thanks in advance....

willerz2 · Dec 19, 2012

Download the latest version of RedSn0w. Download the 5.1.1 IPSW for your version of the iPhone 4 (CDMA or GSM). Run RedSn0w as admin, go to Extras > Even More > Restore. Select IPSW and point it to the IPSW you downloaded. For blobs, click Remote and it'll retrieve your SHSH blobs for you. Click Next and say yes to all the warnings saying your baseband will upgrade, your data will be deleted, etc etc. After the stitching happens it'll automatically restore and will prompt that you'll need to put the iPhone into DFU mode. This is method 1.

Method 2. Open up RedSn0w, and stitch the blob again. You can retrieve the blobs using TinyUmbrella or using RedSn0w, or use the ones you have already, whichever you like. After stitching the blobs with the IPSW, you'll have a custom firmware. Put your iPhone into DFU mode, then go to Extras > Pwned DFU. Open up TinyUmbrella, connect to TSS Server (not sure if that's necessary anymore). Open up iTunes, shift+click restore and point it to the custom IPSW you created. After you're done, you should be in recovery mode. Kick it out using a recovery fix using iFaith, RedSn0w, TinyUmbrella, etc etc.

spider2012 · Dec 19, 2012

thanks Willerz. I did try both the options you suggest. I just didnt have the details in my head to write it out as well as you did. To be more specific, I tried your option 1 (not after reading your thread, but before) using red snow to stitch an existing shsh (downloaded through cydia) and IPSW to create a custom IPSW. I tried to downgrade using this custom ipsw when I ended up with the error 3194. Just to rule out dumb luck, I tried the same procedure again after deleting the first custom ipsw, repeating to create a new custom ipsw. I still got the same error 3194. This always happens after iTunes tries to connect to apple server.

I tried the TSS server option, with the server running, but then I got error 21.

I read in a few different places that the host file needs to be modified (last line) to a cydia server 74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com. But I think I forgot to remove the # symbol which means this line is commented right? So I am planning to try this red sn0w approach one more time with the host file modified. Let me know if I am doing something wrong here....

So are you supposed to save the modifications to the hosts file?

Just to be clear every time I did shift+click restore and pointed to the custom IPSW, I would see text stating that my iPhone would be downgraded to iOS 5.1.1 and that iTunes is contacting apple server. Since I saw error after this step, I am assuming my problem is with Apple not recognizing this firmware.

Please correct me if I am wrong, any other suggestions welcome. Thanks you for your time....

willerz2 · Dec 20, 2012

3194 is a host issue. Remove any and all gs.apple.com lines from your host file, and delete any and all host.umbrella files in the same directory as your host file. Then flush your DNS and retry. Yes, you have to save it. Delete the entire line. Make sure you run as administrator using something like Notepad to edit it or it won't let you save from lack of privileges.

The error from downgrading exists because at some point, it's still contacting Apple, and Apple will reject it since the window is closed. The blobs act as a forged signature if you will. That's where TSS Servers come in, which iTunes will direct to the TSS servers and request a signature there instead of from Apple.