0
About "re-virginizing"
Posted by Max
on
13:03
in
iPhone
A few days ago a so-called "revirgination" process was published on hackint0sh.
The iPhone Dev Team doesn't recommend using it. No further explanation.
At the same time, some people claim that this process would corrupt the seczone by writing zeros.
While I believe the Dev Team being a bunch of great guys, and appreciate the fact that they are limiting themselves to just "not recommend" a process (for whatever reason), I have taken the time to read the content of different threads.
Being one of those who own an iPhone which came with FW 1.0.2, unlocked with iUnlock_reloaded, and being annoyed by the delay of a solution making it possible for me to upgrade to FW 1.1.1, a couple of days ago I gathered all the information I could find, pondered the apparent reliability of the revirgination process and assessed the risk. My conclusion was, it was worth trying. So I did.
I followed this link for revirgination, and this link for the unlock under 1.1.1. Everything went well.
Now, for those who are in doubt and suffer from the psychologic terrorism of those claiming that this process "permanently bricks your iPhone" during the process or "may brick it once a new firmware gets released", I want to state what follows:
1 - Every hack implies a certain degree of risk, which each one of us must assess, subsequently deciding whether trying is worth or not.
2 - I have been told of people bricking their phone with the revirgination process, but none has given me evidence of it. I'd like to talk to someone trusted who witnessed such a disaster. Until then, rumors are rumors and nothing more.
3 - Nobody forces you to update the firmware. You can decide to keep 1.0.2 and just wait before you upgrade to 1.1.1. Depends on who and what you trust. In the same way, now that I successfully revirginate and upgraded to 1.1.1, nobody forces me to upgrade to 1.1.2 (if this is will be the code of the new firmware) once Apple releases it. Of course I'll wait until I can read opinions and experiences, assess the risk and so on. The decision-making process is the same, always.
And now a couple of quotes answering frequently asked questions, which helped me take my decision. Hope it helps someone else too.
Q - Does this mean that people using the very rough virginization guide (which utilizes SimFree.app in the process) are actually corrupting their data? Oh the irony. (norenore)
A - they can always do the virginization again with the server patch that gives u a new seczone... (bogdi1988)
A - No, because geohot's "abuse" of SimFree.app only gets to the stage where it sends parts of your seczone to geohot's servers, and then bugs out with an "invalid token" message before reaching the stage where the normal IPSF corrupts your seczone. Since SimFree.app doesn't receive the correct token back from what it believes to be the IPSF servers it doesn't write anything to the seczone. (weeaboo)
Q - So after this method and anysim 1.1 if we restore our phone, we will have a virgin, factory-like iphone? Because there are some people who say that the new virgin method just patches some more checks and not actually virginising our phones... Is there any chance that apple will make our phones bricks again (and we will need another tool to restore)? (mapas)
A - The "new" method is not out yet. Geo has moshed together something, which is not really a solution you should use for now (unless you want to run around reading guides, thread and readme files from here & there). But the mechanism mentioned in the first post of this thread will ACTUALLY return your seczone to a factory like condition. So it is a true virginizer. (Locked)
Q - Just to make sure that I am on the same page. I heard someone say (maybe Doggun) on the iphone forum that this virginizer also zeroes out a particular portion of the seczone (like IPSF does). Reading your response I get a feeling that the virginizer is *good* and does not suffer the same problems as IPSF. Right? (dennis)
A - you are mixing two things. The virginizer and the unlocker. The virginizer will fix the damage done by earlier iUnlock and anySIM. It has nothing to do with the current anySIM. it basically paves the way for the new anySIM to work properly.
old anySIM -> damaged seczone -> virginizer -> good seczone - > new anySIM (Locked)
Q - So what about the nck count.... it increases with old anysim and IPSF by 1 every time you run it. What about the new anysim. Does it increase the nck. If so, you would only be able to upgrade/hack five times... (PmgRiPhone)
A - The revirginizer will restore the count (geohot)
(sources: Forum Hackint0sh e Elite Team)
I hope this clarifies the situation a bit. Apparently the Elite Team is about to release a true virginizer too, but if you can't/don't want to wait any longer...
Do I need to say that if you try and for whatever reason screw your iPhone, I'm not responsible for it? What I've posted here is just information, helped me take *my* decision. You read, you decide, your iPhone. :)
The iPhone Dev Team doesn't recommend using it. No further explanation.
At the same time, some people claim that this process would corrupt the seczone by writing zeros.
While I believe the Dev Team being a bunch of great guys, and appreciate the fact that they are limiting themselves to just "not recommend" a process (for whatever reason), I have taken the time to read the content of different threads.
Being one of those who own an iPhone which came with FW 1.0.2, unlocked with iUnlock_reloaded, and being annoyed by the delay of a solution making it possible for me to upgrade to FW 1.1.1, a couple of days ago I gathered all the information I could find, pondered the apparent reliability of the revirgination process and assessed the risk. My conclusion was, it was worth trying. So I did.
I followed this link for revirgination, and this link for the unlock under 1.1.1. Everything went well.
Now, for those who are in doubt and suffer from the psychologic terrorism of those claiming that this process "permanently bricks your iPhone" during the process or "may brick it once a new firmware gets released", I want to state what follows:
1 - Every hack implies a certain degree of risk, which each one of us must assess, subsequently deciding whether trying is worth or not.
2 - I have been told of people bricking their phone with the revirgination process, but none has given me evidence of it. I'd like to talk to someone trusted who witnessed such a disaster. Until then, rumors are rumors and nothing more.
3 - Nobody forces you to update the firmware. You can decide to keep 1.0.2 and just wait before you upgrade to 1.1.1. Depends on who and what you trust. In the same way, now that I successfully revirginate and upgraded to 1.1.1, nobody forces me to upgrade to 1.1.2 (if this is will be the code of the new firmware) once Apple releases it. Of course I'll wait until I can read opinions and experiences, assess the risk and so on. The decision-making process is the same, always.
And now a couple of quotes answering frequently asked questions, which helped me take my decision. Hope it helps someone else too.
Q - Does this mean that people using the very rough virginization guide (which utilizes SimFree.app in the process) are actually corrupting their data? Oh the irony. (norenore)
A - they can always do the virginization again with the server patch that gives u a new seczone... (bogdi1988)
A - No, because geohot's "abuse" of SimFree.app only gets to the stage where it sends parts of your seczone to geohot's servers, and then bugs out with an "invalid token" message before reaching the stage where the normal IPSF corrupts your seczone. Since SimFree.app doesn't receive the correct token back from what it believes to be the IPSF servers it doesn't write anything to the seczone. (weeaboo)
Q - So after this method and anysim 1.1 if we restore our phone, we will have a virgin, factory-like iphone? Because there are some people who say that the new virgin method just patches some more checks and not actually virginising our phones... Is there any chance that apple will make our phones bricks again (and we will need another tool to restore)? (mapas)
A - The "new" method is not out yet. Geo has moshed together something, which is not really a solution you should use for now (unless you want to run around reading guides, thread and readme files from here & there). But the mechanism mentioned in the first post of this thread will ACTUALLY return your seczone to a factory like condition. So it is a true virginizer. (Locked)
Q - Just to make sure that I am on the same page. I heard someone say (maybe Doggun) on the iphone forum that this virginizer also zeroes out a particular portion of the seczone (like IPSF does). Reading your response I get a feeling that the virginizer is *good* and does not suffer the same problems as IPSF. Right? (dennis)
A - you are mixing two things. The virginizer and the unlocker. The virginizer will fix the damage done by earlier iUnlock and anySIM. It has nothing to do with the current anySIM. it basically paves the way for the new anySIM to work properly.
old anySIM -> damaged seczone -> virginizer -> good seczone - > new anySIM (Locked)
Q - So what about the nck count.... it increases with old anysim and IPSF by 1 every time you run it. What about the new anysim. Does it increase the nck. If so, you would only be able to upgrade/hack five times... (PmgRiPhone)
A - The revirginizer will restore the count (geohot)
(sources: Forum Hackint0sh e Elite Team)
I hope this clarifies the situation a bit. Apparently the Elite Team is about to release a true virginizer too, but if you can't/don't want to wait any longer...
Do I need to say that if you try and for whatever reason screw your iPhone, I'm not responsible for it? What I've posted here is just information, helped me take *my* decision. You read, you decide, your iPhone. :)
