Pangu has released its much-anticipated iOS 8 jailbreak tool. Although it still has minor bugs (particularly in Safari and iMessage), you can use the tool with the Cydia app to jailbreak your device with ease. Read on to learn how.
You really have to hand it to the Pangu team. Within a week of the official release of iOS 8.1, they have come up with a jailbreaking tool for users (as they had promised earlier). Although the Cydia substrate or the app is not yet included in the tool, Pangu has tweeted that it is collaborating with Saurik – a third-party developer – to rectify this as soon as possible. In the meanwhile, you can download Cydia separately and do an iOS 8 jailbreak by following these rather simple steps:
- Take a back up of all your phone data – The jailbreak tool from Pangu has not been reported to cause any data loss till date, but it’s advisable to be on the safe side. Before you initiate the jailbreaking procedure, perform a data backup on your iOS 8-powered device. You don’t want to end up with lost or corrupt files, right?
- Prepare your handset for jailbreak – This stage involves primarily two things. Firstly, you will have to disable the ‘Find My iPhone’ feature (which basically means you CANNOT lose your phone before reactivating it after the jailbreak!). Next, turn off your iPhone’s passcode as well. Otherwise, you might have trouble retrieving the passcode after Cydia has been installed in the device.
- You will need an Windows PC – It’s still early days for the iOS 8 jailbreak tool, and no Mac version of it has yet been released. You will need a computer which has Windows 8/8.1 as the default OS. The Enterprise evaluation version is available for download with a ninety-day free trial option. In case you are a Mac user and do not have a Windows system, look for a ‘Parallels Desktop’ for Mac online. The Parallels software would convert your Mac into a virtual Windows machine.
- Activate Parallels on your system – After you have downloaded Windows 8.1 with Parallels 10 on your computer, you will need to activate it. The process is easy enough – simply click on the ‘Install Parallel Tools’ option under ‘Action’. There is an outside chance that the system might become slightly slow at this point, and you need to be wary of that. Unless Parallels is correctly installed, the entire jailbreak process would fail.
- Get iTunes on your machine – The final stage of preparations. Mobile app developers from all over have unanimously agreed that doing the jailbreak via iTunes is the safest option. Download iTunes on your actual/virtual Windows system, plug in your iOS 8 device – and make sure that the latter is being recognized by the system. If not, detach the device and try again.
- Download the jailbreak tool – Okay, now you are all set to start the jailbreak. Visit the Pangu website (http://en.pangu.io/), and download the requisite tools for the process. Save the files in a folder on your PC’s desktop. Double-click on it, and the installer will show up.
- Take a look through the Pangu jailbreak window – There is one vital thing you need to do at this point. On the left side at the bottom corner, you will find a box that is checked by default. Uncheck it – and ensure that it does not get checked again accidentally. Your device should be visible in bolded text just below the title of the jailbreak window.
- Activate the .exe file – Right-click the Pangu jailbreak tool you had saved on your computer desktop. Among the options that show up, select ‘Run As Administrator’. Another confirmation dialog box will be flashed. Click on ‘Yes’ to proceed with the task on hand.
- Initiate jailbreak – It will take a little while for the Pangu tool to recognize the iOS 8 device you have plugged on to your system. Wait until the latter is detected, and then click the large, blue-colored jailbreak button. According to iPhone app development experts, there is a slight risk of bloatware attack at this point, so make sure that you are not running any other apps on your device.
- Time for the waiting game – This will take a few minutes. You will be able to move to the next step only after the Pangu app has been fully downloaded and installed on your iPhone 6 (you might be using an upgraded iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S as well). Once the download is complete, your handset will automatically restart. After that happens, tap on the Pangu application. Your jailbreak is now done, and you can now move on to downloading Cydia.
- Download and install OpenSSH – Most popular iPhone applications do not yet have optimized versions for iOS 8. That’s precisely why you will have to play around with certain recommended Cydia tweaks (like iCleaner). But, you need to install OpenSSH first. Do this by launching the Pangu application, and selecting the ‘Download’ icon and then tapping on ‘Install’.
- Get a reliable file transfer protocol app on your computer – According to most iOS app developers, ‘Cyberduck’ is the one you should go with. It would work on both virtualized Mac systems as well as Windows PCs. A lion’s share of the iOS 8 jailbreaks done till date have been with the ‘OpenSSH’-’Cyberduck’ combination. Check the speed of your computer after the app has been installed.
- Enter your computer’s IP address – Provided that you are working with Cyberduck, you will have to enter your system’s IP address in the ‘Server’ section. In the ‘Open Connection’, enable the SFTP option. You will be prompted for a username and password. Write ‘root’ and ‘alpine’ in these two boxes respectively, and then, click on ‘Connect’.
- Bring Cydia files to the FTP window – Inside the Cydia app folder, there would be two files (both with .deb extension). Navigate to the ‘private’ or ‘root’ section of your device, and copy these two files in the FTP window. Make sure that the filesystem of your iOS handset is visible. Mobile app testing experts have found that a ‘fingerprint error’ might be displayed at this point. If you see this error too, tap on ‘Allow’.
- Send the Cydia installation command – Go the ‘Send Command’ section (you will find it under ‘Go’ on the default menu bar), and type in the following line:
dpkg –install cydia-lproj_1.1.12_iphoneos-arm.deb cydia_1.1.13_iphoneos-arm.deb
After you have done so, click ‘Send’ to activate Cydia.
16. Reboot/Restart your device – This should ideally happen automatically. In case it doesn’t, reboot your phone manually. After restarting, the Cydia app icon should be displayed on the home screen.
That’s it – you are now ready to customize the file ecosystem and install third-party apps on your iOS 8-powered device. Cydia with the Pangu jailbreak tool works seamlessly on iPad 2,3, iPod Touch (5th generation), iPad Air and iPad 4 as well. Early reports suggest that you can follow these steps to jailbreak Retina iPad Mini as well. It’s rather ironic that the first jailbreak tool for an Apple device would require a Windows system – but if you follow the above steps carefully, you can personalize your device in just the way you like.
Hussain Fakhruddin
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