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ifruitfly

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
66
0
NY
im in an endless respring loop and cannot break out of it. i have tried everything i know... details below

(3gs on 3.1.2, new baseband, with 3.1.3 backed up on cydia...and im running windows XP)

here is what happend:

--tried to set file permissions for the calender app bc it was not letting me add new apointments after SSHing the file from another phone

--used ifile to 1st: private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar (i went one step further) as far as i could go before an edit, then clicked the blue arrow and while the permissions was root, i noticed that it set to read and write only. so i changed this to RWE.

--went back to calendar tried to add a new apt -- no go, didnt work

--back to ifile 2nd: private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar (one step less than the first time) clicked the blue arrow and saw that permissions was mobile. so i changed that to root.

--closed ifile opened SBsettings, and clicked respring. i thought maybe this would cause the changes to take effect. i hit respring three times before it respnded... then it resprung to the sad iphone

--from the sad iphone it has been caught in the respring loop. it goes from the sad iphone to my normal lock screen (i dont run any lockscreen apps).

here is what i have done so far:

--i replaced the Calendar.sqlitedb file with the old (presumably good) file from the old phone via SSH. this seemed to help a little in that now i was able to slide the slider but still, nothing, just back to the loop.

--i attempted to restore from backup in itunes. after about 10 minutes, nothing was happening; the phone continued to loop and itunes seemed to make no progress. so i disconnected the wire.

--i held down the home and sleep buttons until the phone powered down. holding down just the sleep/power button only caused the screen to dim, but the loop continued.

--once the power was off, i turned it back on and ran blackra1n from recovery mode. phone returned to loop.

--powered down again, same method and once in recovery mode, connected to itunes. itunes said it had to restore before it could do anything. i disconnected...

--ran blackra1n again, and once more while back in the loop, and still nothing. but now when i slide, i am seeing the error message about mobile substrate, however, it does not fully appear in that the phone starts to respring before anything can happen. i have been sliding the slider and each time the screen stops at a different level, meaning that i can see the icon animation but the respring stops it at various points. while writing this, i got a text message. it displayed, and then disappeared on the next respring.

should i do a full hard reset, should i delete stuff via SSH, DFU, i dont know, but it seems like the phone is still intact enough not to need a full restore (which would = re-jailed...).

PLEASE HELP!
 

ifruitfly

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
66
0
NY
ok but then what? after in DFU, would i then just try to reboot? i had a VERY bad experience once with a reboot loop and not being able to even do a full restore (error 9). so i am reluctant to see the silver apple again, it makes me feel queezy in the stomach. i'll do it, but i really want to avoid a full restore is at all possible...
 

ifruitfly

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
66
0
NY
if i enter DFU, wont that force a full restore?

two things perhaps noteworthy:

while playing fast-finger (swiping repeatedly as fast as i can) i have gotten as far as being able to click "ok" on the error message, seeing the color change to dark blue indicating it was tapped...but then it goes back to its loop... i also was able to 'sort of' receive a call. the call was connected and stayed connected although the phone continued to respring. even though no sound was transmitted, being connected did slow down the loop.

if only there was some way to slow/stop the loop so i could click ok on the error message??
 

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
if i enter DFU, wont that force a full restore?

What kind of iPhone do you have, and what firmware and baseband are you running?
This info would help from the start and also are you concerned about unlocking it or just JB it?
Yes, a DFU would force a full restore to either official or JB firmware. Then you'd have to install all JB apps again and sync and restore from backup all your stuff thru itunes.
 

ifruitfly

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
66
0
NY
cant believe i forgot to add that info with my initial post...

its a 3gs on 3.1.2, new baseband, with 3.1.3 backed up on cydia... running windows xp. just concerned with preserving the JB, its not unlocked.

i wonder if there is anyway to tell if this was caused by SBsettings or my or my possible fumble in ifile, and whether or not knowing this would make a difference?

the phone seems so close to being ok... due to the new baseband, DFU, would be a last resort... perhaps deleting SBsettings, running redsn0w, sn0wbreeze, irehab, i dont know, something anything, there has got to be a creative way of avoiding the a full restore... i even speculated on opening her up and finding the actual chip ID and using that to create a "fake" signed 3.1.2 firmware, not that i would know how or anything... just trying to problem solve creatively.
 

ifruitfly

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
66
0
NY
update:

i deleted the SBsettings folder from private/var/stash/applications via SSH. this did nothing. i tried again to restore from backup in itunes. after a while, itunes said it was restoring and there was a progress bar slowly but steadily moving forward. the phone continued to loop for the whole process. but when complete, the phone did flash and turn off. it came back on in recovery mode. itunes, of course, wanted to restore it before it would play with it. i closed itunes and ran blackra1n. after a very long time of staring at geohot, the phone went right back into the loop.
 

thelatinist

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2009
5,937
51
Connecticut, USA
If you can SSH into the phone, try running

sudo dpkg -r mobilesubstrate

This will remove all Mobile Substrate-dependent packages from your phone. Hopefully you will then be able to respring without going into a loop. If this fails, then I guess restoring is all you can do. Note: you won't be able to restore to 3.1.2 since you have only 3.1.3 on file. You will lose your ability to jailbreak.
 

ifruitfly

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 11, 2009
66
0
NY
ok "sudo dpkg -r mobilesubstrate" sounds like a plan. i presume this is a command and no a program? i am on a windows xp pc, and the ssh programs (iphone explorer and ifunbox) do not have terminal support. i downloaded iphone tunnel 3.0 bc it comes with terminal. however, it seems dated as the 3gs is not listed in devices. do you know how to gain terminal access via ssh from a pc?

(ps thelatinist, are you a lawyer? ive read some of your posts here-and-there and your vocabulary/language patterns sound a bit held-over from law school. i just took the feb lsats and am applying...)
 
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