redsn0w

Folks have been jailbreaking iOS 5 for almost as long as Apple’s latest mobile operating system has been available. There’s just one catch: the only tools available provide a tethered jailbreak. That means you need to connect your mobile device to a computer and run redsn0w or ultrasn0w every time you reboot — otherwise you won’t be able to get past the boot logo and your device will be unusable until you do perform a tethered boot with a computer.

Fortunately iOS 5 is pretty stable and most people don’t have to completely shut down their devices very often. Tapping the power button to turn off the display doesn’t count. What we’re talking about is performing a complete reboot by holding the power button until a slider shows up allowing you to shut down the device.

Still, if you have a jailbroken iPhone and need to reboot it when you’re not near a computer… you might find yourself with an unusable phone until you get back to your home or office.

But there’s a tool that can help. It’s called SemiTether, and it’s currently in beta. You can download it from the Cydia Store for jailbroken iOS apps by adding http://thebigboss.org/semitether to your list of sources.

SemiTether lets you reboot a device that’s been jailbroken using a tethered message without getting stuck at the boot logo. Once you reboot you won’t have access to all of your device’s functions: You won’t be able to run jailbroken apps, the web browser won’t work, the Mail app doesn’t work, and some other apps may not function.

But you should be able to make calls or send text messages and use some built-in apps and that may be enough to tide you over until you can perform your next tethered boot.

While hackers search for a way to perform an untethered jailbreak on iOS 5, SemiTether is probably the next best thing.

SemiTether does not work with the iPhone 4S or iPad 2 — because there’s currently no way to jailbreak either device if its running iOS 5.

via iDownloadBlog

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...

22 replies on “SemiTether for iOS 5 relieves some of the tethered jailbreak pain”

    1. I tried it semi-tether jailbreak, and it’s a mess. I am using a iPhone 4 on IOS 5 with a Gevey Sim unlock. My iPhone is jailbroken. I also make sure I tried this while I was home with Mac, it took forever to reboot and after it rebooted there was no icons not even to make a call or to send a txt.

      So I just went back and reboot with redsn0w. I can wait until the DevTeam come up with an exploit.

      Better yet I will just walk with a cheap back up phone, this way if my iPhone reboot for any reason I can still have phone service until I get to my Mac.

  1. We need goehot to sort this issue out.
    Otherwise I don’t think we will see another untethered jailbreak.
    Limera1n is still bein used now in current jailbreaks. The mans a genius

    1. right but unless you know why limea1n’s still being used, don’t go around trolling.

      sure, geohot’s a genius but he also has a big ego and loves fame. we could all use SHAtter instead of using limera1n but it’s just preferable to use limera1n since SHAtter brings up de bad memories ;)

      there are plenty of great hackers out there like pod2g and p0sixninja that can still give us jailbreaks, with or without geohot or comex.

  2. Worked perfectly on my iPhone4.  Doesn’t take too long to boot up.  When I go back to my Mac to “just boot”, it comes up with my settings all jacked up, after about 20 seconds or so, springboard restarts and everything is how I had it set up before rebooting.

    On my wifes iPhone4, same thing but after going back to jailbroken stat and after the automatic respring, her settings and folders are not like it was before rebooting.

    Also tried on my OG iPad.  It worked perfectly.  

  3. There is a way to avoid ‘reboot’ when you are downloading an app from cydia. all you need is sbsettings. when the option comes up to reboot, just slide down from the status bar for your notification center, and make sure you set sb settings in the center. then just click respring, and it should do the reboot job without rebooting.

  4. i installed it any now it would only boot in the semitethered mode. i tried to boot it regularly through redsnow but it still boots in the semitethered mode

  5. Its so funny how people are trying ways to alleviate people from the pain of no untether jailbreak and doing little fixes of the tether jailbreak until the untether comes out, xD

  6. Still getting stuck at Apple logo after install. semitether won’t reboot after it installs, any ideas?

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