messaging app crashes after SSH file swap – help

[ifruitfly]

I have two phones, one that I need to send back to apple and its replacement. I did a clean JB install on the new phone. I was wrongly under the impression that ANY restore, even from a backup, would kill the JB. so I saved my contacts, calendar, call history, and texting, files from the old phone to my desktop via SSH (ifunbox). Then I “ported” those saved files onto the new phone. Later I discovered that the phone app would not open, just kept crashing. While I could not open the phone app, I was able to receive calls, however, I had no phone tools like speaker phone or mute. I replaced the contact and call history files again (copied from the old phone) and that fixed the problem, although the contacts are now sorted by last name instead of first name which kinds sucks... Now I discovered that the messaging app crashes when I hit send. It will open fine, and it has all my texts in it, but crashes when I hit send. I just had a friend text me and I did not get the text.

Here is what I think I did wrong: I think, although I cannot be certain, that I may have put the files into the wrong directory. That is, I may have put them into var/mobile/library instead of private/var/mobile/library. The messaging app still works in the old phone, albeit without a sim card in it. I suppose I should just copy both these files again from the old phone and put them onto the new one, but since I am new at this, and do not have my ECID stored on cydia, I need to be VERY careful not to screw things up AGAIN lol or it will be 3.1.3 for me . So I need someone experienced to tell me how to best proceed??

 

[ifruitfly]

ps. I don’t think restoring from backup will work because I wanted to copy my alarm clock settings from the old phone, but since I did not know how, I tested my would be-approach on the old phone first. I copied the new phone’s alarm settings and then put them onto the old phone (after saving the original files first…). All this did was crash the clock app. So I did a restore from backup on the old phone but the clock app still crashes… for this reason, I don’t think a restore from backup will fix the messaging if I put the wrong files into the wrong place…

 

[foob]

I would check the permissions of the files to make sure they're correct. I have no idea how to do it with iFunbox.

If your contacts are sorted the wrong way, you can change that in settings.

 

[ifruitfly]

thanks for the lead. do you know how to check them from another (windows) program? i also have iphone explorer; it just so happens that i used ifunbox, no real reaon. i thought theyre all pretty much the same.

 

[foob]

No, sorry. I'm clueless when it comes to windows.

 

[ifruitfly]

[UPDATE] messaging app crashing

I posted earlier about my messaging app crashing after swapping files with SSH.

Perhaps it didn’t have anything to do with the SSH? Maybe I should copy both files, not just the sms.db?

I went ahead and replaced both files (one from the two directories i may have confused) from the old phone onto the new phone. It did not work. I downloaded “my SMS” from cydia to see if that might work. I was hoping it worked independent of the native app. It appears not to. After opening it, and clicking on a contact, it froze and then crashed. It did, however, let me send a text as a new text from my contacts. That was successful, but their reply was received.

I’m at a loss. I cannot figure out what to do to get messaging back. Can anyone help me figure out what might be causing this or how I might fix it? Are there any texting apps that work independent of the native app? Is there ANY way you can think of that would get texting back/working? PLEASE HELP

additional info: 3.1.2 JBed with blackra1n

 

[zigmondski]

It's the permissions. You need to run the following commands:

chmod -R 0755 /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS

and

chown -R mobile:mobile /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS

 

[ifruitfly]

zig, i typed both commands into terminal and this is what i got:

chmod -R 0755 /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS
chmod: cannot access ‘/private/var/Library/SMS’ : No such file or directory

chown -R mobile:mobile /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS
chown: changing ownership of ‘/private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db’ : Operation not permitted


i tested my old phone without a sim card in it to see if the texting worked. i "sent" a test text and it came up with the red exclamation mark...no sim... so after confirming the app was functional in the old phone, i copied the sms.db file from /private/var... and the other sms.db file from var/mobile/Library... and replaced each into the proper place. after doing so, the failed test text (with red exclamation mark) shows up on the new phone so this confirms that i copied the sms.db. the SMS folder contains two files; i dont recall the exact name but the other file ended with lega (if i recall correctly). should i copy both the "lega" and sms.db?

i typed the first command in a second time and got this:

chmod -R 0755 /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS
chown: changing ownership of ‘/private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db’ : Operation not permitted


then i typed both commands together with a space in between commands rather then hitting return and got this:

chmod: changing permission of ‘/private/var/Library/SMS/sms.db' : Operation not permitted
chmod: cannot access ‘mobile:mobile’ : No such file or directory

the app still crashes when i hit send. please advise what i should do, or what this means, or if i made a mistake in how/where i entered the commands.

 

[zigmondski]

I don't know mate. That is the limit of my knowledge on the subject.

Somebody here will definitely know so keep the thread bumped and I'm sure you'll get what you want eventually.

Good luck.

 

[foob]

Did you do it as root? If not, type "su" into terminal then enter the root password and retry the commands.

 

[ifruitfly]

thanks zig, your help is very much appreciated. i'll keep searching, and bumping lol

 

[ifruitfly]

OMG IT WORKED!! IT WORKED!!!
i had to log in as root... "su&quot gave me syntax error but login > root > password logged me in as root. and the commands worked perfectly!

THANK YOU both, foob and zig!! you guys are the best!! i started to think i might have to choose between a JBed phone or texting... i cant thank you guys enough!!

when people put their brains together, the potential seems limitless... again thank you both

 

[wenglish]

One way to avoid permissions hassles is to use tar. Make sure you are logged in as root and in the directory above whatever you want to save.

tar czvpf /tmp/backup.tgz stuff_you_want_to_save
(stuff_you_want_to_save can be multiple items separated by spaces, they can be directories (in which case the whole directory will be saved) or files)

Now copy /tmp/backup.tgz to your PC for safekeeping.

When restoring, copy the tgz file back to /tmp, change to the same directory you were in when you made the tar file, then:
tar xzvpf /tmp/backup.tgz

 

[mkb91]

need to do the same

Excuse my ignorance, but I'm facing a similar situation: I have an sms.db file that I need to SSH onto my iPhone (newest iOS 3 release…) before upgrading to iOS 4. I know how to SSH it onto my iPhone, but the app crashes afterwards. How do I do the chmod from Terminal? (Is it on the Mac, but you have to tell it to mod the iPhone, or what?) And also: is /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS the only place I need to replace the sms.db file?

Thanks for the help.