The following tutorial on how to install Ubuntu and dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7 is presented for educational purposes only, and no warranties are made as to its accuracy or reliability.
I spent countless hours trying to have a 3 boot system : PC-BSD, Ubuntu and Windows 7 and I can say that PC-BSD 8.2 and 9.0 is a no go for Sony Vaio. In the case of PC-BSD 9.0 beta there are some video drivers problems, while in the case of PC-BSD 8.2 the Ntfs partition are getting screwed ( I don’t know why, but I tried 3 times with same result ).
Sony Vaio S series comes with Windows 7 64-bit pre-installed and 4 Samsung ssd are configured in Raid 0 configuration. The system has one Recovery partition of 11Gb, another System Reserved 100Mb Ntfs partition that contains the boot files and a big partition for Windows 7 64 bit. In case of emergency the system can be restore easily by pushing the ASSIST button ( near power button ). If you are Windows fan and you don’t want to play with other OS-es this is perfect. Good and generous hardware, convenient recovery system – a dream. You should take care and save your Recovery partition because in the package that comes with the laptop you have only 2 Windows 7 32-bit Recovery DVD-s . It is a little out of reason to deliver a system on 64 bit with 32 bit recovery DVD, but if you backup your Recovery partition all will be fine.
So first and very important step is to backup the 11Gb Recovery Partition. You can find a bunch of free and/or commercial ghost programs to do this and you should definitely make the ghost image because once you touch the 100Mb partition, the Recovery partition is useless. If you are at this point, you will have to use the Recovery DVD, Restore the system to factory default, witch will repair the 100Mb partition, then restore the Recovery Partition from ghost and restore back Windows 7 64-bit.
Since the 100Mb partition is so important, the next smart step is to make a ghost image after this partition too. In case you do this, and problems happen, you don’t have to recover your system from DVD’s anymore (and spare a lot of time) just make one 11Gb Ntfs recovery partition that you recover from ghost image, one 100 Mb Ntfs partition that you recover from your ghost image and at this step you can use the ASSIST button to recover your system.
From my 2 days struggle I can say at this moment that touching the 100Mb partition will make the Recovery partition useless. Since I didn’t know the reason of using 3 primary partitions, though leaving no space for BSD or Linux which needs to be installed on primary partition, I erased it and got myself in a serie of problems where I couldn’t boot on windows anymore. While trying to recover the system using the Recovery partition, Windows returned the following “Windows cannot install on this hardware” error which will repeat if you try to restore again the system.

Tools needed : Usb Thumb-drive (the faster and larger the better), Yumi – a tool to install multiple ISO on the thumb-drive, Linux Mint(for gparted in order to resize your partitions), Ubuntu alternate ISO otherwise you won’t be able to install grub2 and Rescatux http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/ in case you have problems with grub ( you will have a menu on your stick named Super Grub2 Disk that have wonderful tools and will allow you to boot intro Windows or Ubuntu). Until now ( raid 0 ) I used PMagic which is a very nice portable distribution with a lot of useful tools.
Since I have been there there and found the solution for using partedmagic here is what you should do. Normally pmagic will boot without loading the soft-raid and so gparted will see the 4 sdd as empty drives.
To activate all dmraid disk arrays, the “dmraid -ay” command is used:
root@PartedMagic:~# dmraid -ay
root@PartedMagic:~# dmraid -sa -c
root@PartedMagic:~#
Now you can start gparted and you will see the raid drive and make any operation on it.
You can also start from Mint/Ubuntu live CD since bought of them load automatically the soft-raid and have gparted package.

I won’t cover the resizing partition part since is an easy going procedure, you just need to find gparted and make the necessary change. I want to mention that partitioning ssd is unbelievable quick and after installing Ubuntu I understood why Sony chose to install not one but 2 or 4 ssd in raid0. The 7200 hdd I have on my old system has an average of 60Mb/s transfer rate while the 4 ssd in raid 0 have an average of 800Mb/s which is amassing. You can check this video to see about what I am talking
Ssd vs Hdd

IMPORTANT
If you don’t touch the 100Mb Partition and don’t change the partitions order ( one partition that can be anything- this is where I installed Ubuntu, second the 100mb partition, third Windows, then doesn’t meter) everything will go smoothly. You can delete the Recovery partition ( on your own responsibility ) resize the partitions the way you want and the system will boot without any problem. As for me I resized the Recovery partition and format it EXT4 and start installing Ubuntu on it.

If you have the Sony Vaio hdd model than you can use the desktop distribution of Ubuntu, but in case you have the model with 2 or 4 ssd in raid0 you need to download the alternate distro (i386 or amd64) depending on your taste. Since there are problems with flash on amd64 distro and since you can install pae kernel that can see more that 2.4Gb of ram, I decided to go with the i386 distro. The fun part with alternate iso is that it is not as automated as the desktop one and you will have to make some manual configuration.

* don’t configure the network unless you know what you are doing. On my first attempt I have done so and the result was that I couldn’t connect to Internet with either wifi and cable. Better choose to make the config later
* Activate Serial ATA Raid chose YES
* don’t dismount /dev/sde since that is your thumb-drive ( my case ) and doing so the system cannot find the installing ISO.
* choose manual partition and select your root partition / ( I also chose my /home and /swap partitions as well ). Take care to mark down the name of the Raid disk because you will need it in order to configure Grub ( it should be something like isw_ifiblkkenn_Volume0 ) and it is located at /dev/mapper. I don’t understand why such a complicated name, why doesn’t Linux mount it automatically at /dev/dm0 in order to make the things less complicated … anyway.
* the most important step is the grub configuration, you will have to manual enter the name of the raid partition and it should look like this /dev/mapper/isw_xxxxxx_Volume0 . It is not important that your Ubuntu partition is on isw_ifxxxx_Volume0p1 or p2 etc…

If you manage to arrive at this point you have your system ready, dual boot with Windows 7 and Ubuntu. If you have more than 2 Gb of Ram and since you read this that should be the case, you can use Synaptic to install the kernel with PAE support and thou access 4,6 or 8 Gb of Ram on your laptop.

About BSD. At this stage I tried to install PC-BSD in the place of the 100mb partition ( after resizing it to 17Gb) and this experiment was a total fiasco since it destroyed the Windows partition and I had to take all the procedure from the beginning. I am a newbie on Linux and BSD and it is very likely that there is a solution to have the system up and running without the 100mb partition or with Windows 7 and BSD. If you have a better solution please let me know. I think that the 100Mb partition as primary partition is a waste and I would gladly lose it.

This mini how-to is working for the following models VPCZ217GG, VPCSA28GG, VPCSA26GG, VPCSB19GG, VPCZ21AGX/B, VPCZ21TGX/X, VPCZ21SHX/X, VPCSA2BGX/BI, VPCSA2SGX/T, VPCSA2Z9E, VPCSB1A9E .

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Filed under: Hardware products, How to, News4GSM, Uncategorized

Jailbreak iPhone 4, 3GS on iOS 4.1 with Limera1n Step by step!!!

Moments ago, we posted that Limera1n was released to jailbreak all iOS 4.1
devices forever. We promised with how-to guides and here we go, you can now use the step by step guide below to jailbreak iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS using Limera1n on Windows only.
Here’s the instructions to jailbreak iPhone 4, 3GS on iOS 4.1 using Limera1n, PLEASE read the important notes at the end of the post:

STEP 1: Download Limera1n for Windows from here.

STEP 2: Connect your iPhone to your PC via USB then launch Limera1n and hit “make it ra1n”
STEP 3: You will have to get your device into DFU mode by following the steps on the screen shown by Limera1n.

* You iPhone will now be placed in recovery mode.

* Press both the power and the home buttons.

* When Limera1n asks you to, release the power button.

* Your phone will now be in DFU mode

STEP 4: Now, Limera1n app should be shown on your iPhone’s home screen. Limera1n will pwn your device forever now.

STEP 5: The jailbreak should be done now. Tap on the limera1n icon on your device and install Cydia.

IMPORTANT:

You have to keep some points in your mind, first, Limera1n will not unlock your device (i.e. you will lose unlock if you upgraded to iOS 4.1 and used limera1n).

Second, Limera1n is not working with old bootrom devices and it doesn’t support iOS 4.2 beta, Geohot is fixing the issues right now. Stay tuned.

Limera1n would mess up GreenPois0n jailbreak release as the teams don’t want to give Apple two exploits. They would better save one of them to 5th-generation devices.

Regards
Techgsmnet

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Filed under: How to, iPhone, Jailbreak/Unlock, News4GSM, Software, Unlock Solutions

If you are reading this guide, it means that you, as me, as well as many others got stuck at some point. iPhone OS 4 is nice and it really have some new and very useful features, but than again, what features are good for if the device is impossible to use? Until Apple will release a reliable firmware 4.xx for iPhone 3G you can downgrade the firmware to one that enables you to sent messages, make phone calls, read mail, write notes.. you know , the things for what you bought your iPhone in the first place.

So what will this guide explain?

- Slow iPhone 3G iOs 4 solution
- Downgrade iPhone 3G from firmware 4 to 3.1.3
- Restore error in iTunes code : 1601, 1602, 1603, 1604, 1608, 1609, 1611, 1612.
- Restore error in iTunes code : 1002, 1011, 1013, 1014, 1015.
- In-out Restore Mode using RecBoot
- Redsn0w is unable to recognize the 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 firmware.
- Cydia error : apt.saurik.com host unreachable.
- Saurik repository : dev-team repository to Cydia (repo666.ultrasn0w.com).
- Accessing iPhone as root solution

First of all, and very important : Save (write down) all your important data like:　contacts, notes, mail, SMS. It is impossible to restore the iOs4 backup to the 3.1.3 firmware. Be warned of the risk of losing your data and act accordingly. Yes, you can restore back iOs4 or 3.1.3 Back and Forth…and Back Again as many times you need, but than again, that will make you loose time.

The problems began for me with this first step. Here are the correct information regarding the downgrade:

Download the required old ipsw firmware files. (Download links: iOS 4, 3.1.3, 3.1.2)
Put your device into DFU mode (not recovery mode).

* Connect your iPhone to your computer.
* Turn iPhone off.
* Start iTunes.
* Hold Power and Home buttons together for 10 seconds or so.
* Release Power button but keep holding the Home button until your computer recognizes a new USB device.
* iTunes will now recognize your iPhone.

Note: Your iPhone screen at this time should be blank (black in color), if not, then you are most likely in Recovery Mode, not DFU mode.

The solution is correct but you might find yourself in the situation where you cannot restore the phone and iTunes will display one of the errors: 1601, 1602, 1603, 1604, 1608, 1609, 1611, 1612. If you got one of this errors the only way is for you to downgrade iTunes to a version that allow you to restore since the last version ( 9.2.14) will make the same error again and again. I had an old version of iTunes 9.0.3 (you can download from Apple ) already installed on another computer and so was able to restore my phone to the 3.1.3 firmware. At the end of restore process iTunes will give one of the following errors : 1002, 1011, 1013, 1014, 1015. Do not worry , at this step the restore process is complete; Just use RedBoot to kick iPhone out of Restore mode (all about RecBot including links and source code can be found here: iPhone-iPod-iPad-recovery-mod-tool-RecBoot ). If something is wrong pls go to the beginning of the guide and start all over.

Now you will need to exit your device from Recovery Mode. To do this, download a program called RecBoot (Windows / Mac). Run it and the click on “Exit Recovery Mode” button. Your device will now restart normally.

This is it, you should now be able to jailbreak your device on this older OS. For iPhone 3.1.2 firmware, you can use blackra1n, PwnageTool, redsn0w, sn0wbreeze, ultrasn0w and blacksn0w to jailbreak and unlock your iPhone and iPod touch. For iPhone 3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS and iPod touch 1G/2G, you can use redsn0w 0.9.3, redsn0w 0.9.4, sn0wbreeze, PwnageTool 3.1.5. Unlocking can be done using ultrasn0w or blacksn0w. iPhone 3.1.3 (on devices with new bootrom and baseband) can use Spirit to jailbreak iPhone 3GS/3G and iPod touch 3G/2G.

Wow… we made it… For a big bunch of you Yes, the journey stops here. As for me and other unfortunate people, the journey just begins . But don’t worry, we’ve figured it all out, and we’ll give you instructions for other problems too.

So here we are, we found another problem : Redsn0w is unable to recognize the 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 firmware. Strange since before (3 mount before) it worked… Something happened in the mid-time but cannot figure out what. I tried with redsn0w 0.9.3, redsn0w 0.9.4 on firmware 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 using Windows Xp, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and with different versions of iTunes installed : 9.2.1.4 and 9.0.3.
So I decided to use Spirit to jailbreak my phone. Follow this tutorial on how to use Spirit to jailbreak iPhone3G.

Here comes another problem and this problem occurs especially for the guys who are in China at the moment of this process (like I am now ) : The Cydia version that gets installed by Spirit is an old version and have some errors making it impossible for you to install anything. While trying to upgrade the essential packages I constantly receive this error : apt.saurik.com host unreachable. I tried to unlock my phone using ultrasn0w by manual adding the dev-team repository to Cydia (repo666.ultrasn0w.com to Cydia. That last “o” is actually the number zero “0”. If you use the letter “o” you’ll get an error). Problem is that there are some dependencies that should be download from saurik’s repo… and here we are again.. impossible to unlock or use my iPhone3G.

I found the solution on the modmyi forum and I will explain how to do it.

the final host file should be like this

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
echo ”
93.184.221.133 cache.saurik.com
”

So in order to make this mod you need to access the file located at /etc/host . And in order to do this you need to be able to root-access your device. So there is a new problem and of course we’ve got an answer to it. The package that gives you root access to your iPhone is named afc2add and can be found in saurik repo ( that you can’t access for the present moment) but also on ModMyI.com repo that is available. It does come with one dependency but that will pose no problem ( at least for me it didn’t). Just follow the picture I attached and go in Cydia and enter : Manage than Sources and than navigate trough ModMyI.com repo until you find afc2add package. Install the package.

Now you are able to access your iPhone at a root level, and you can do this using iPhone Explorer or with Total Comander after installing T-Pot plugin. I use Total Commander on regular bases and for this task too.

This was the final step for me and for all the unfortunate Asian friends that struggle with the same problem. Modifying the host file will allow Cydia to update all its sources, upgrade to the latest version and so unlock your iPhone 3.1.3
I have once again an functional and quick iPhone3G.

I hope you enjoyed this journey and I hope this guide was useful for you. If you find this guide useful, please leave a comment.
News4GSM team

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Filed under: Apps, How to, iPhone, Jailbreak/Unlock, Uncategorized

Sn0wbreeze 1.8 has been released. This is by the same developer who is behind other popular iPhone jailbreak tools such as sn0wbreeze 1.6 and 1.7 for iOS 4, sn0wbreeze for iPhone 3.1.3, f0recast and BlackBreeze. Just like the PwnageTool for Mac, Sn0wbreeze 1.8 can jailbreak iPhone 3GS (old bootrom, and already pwned on iOS 4.x), iPod touch 2G (non MC model) and iPod touch 3G on iOS 4.1 Beta. iPhone 3G users will have to jailbreak using Redsn0w.
So if you have a Windows machine, you can use Sn0wbreeze 1.8 to create custom firmware files without the upgraded baseband. Again, only the following devices are supported.

* iPhone 3GS (old bootrom and already jailbroken on iOS 4.x)
* iPod touch 2G (non MC model)
* iPod touch 3G

Warning: If you rely on an unlock, DO NOT update to iOS 4.1.

Step 1: Download and install
the latest version of iTunes.
Step 2: Now start iTunes and sync your iPhone with your PC so that it backs-up all your important data including settings, apps, music, contacts and photos.
Step 3: Download Sn0wbreeze and the original iOS 4.1 firmware file for your version of iPhone or iPod touch. Move all these files to your desktop.
Step 4: Start Sn0wbreeze and select “Simple Mode”.
Step 5: Sn0wbreeze will now ask you to browse for your .ipsw file. Select the correct iOS 4.1 firmware .ipsw file by clicking the “Browse” button. Sn0wbreeze will verify the selected file.
Step 6: Click on “Yes” when Sn0wbreeze asks you “Do you want to activate your iPhone?” for hacktivation. Click on “No” only if you are on an officially supported carrier like AT&T.
Step 7: Sn0wbreeze will now create the custom .ipsw file for your iPhone which will be jailbroken.
Step 8: Now you will have to restore your iPhone to this custom firmware 4.1 that you just cooked using Sn0wbreeze for your iPhone. Click on your phone from the sidebar in iTunes and then press and hold left “Shift” button on the keyboard and then click on “Restore” (Not “Update” or “Check for Update”) button in the iTunes and then release the “Shift” button.

This will make iTunes prompt you to select the location for your custom firmware 4.1. Select that custom .ipsw file and click on “Open”.
Step 9: Now sit back and enjoy as iTunes does the rest for you. This will involve a series of automated steps. Be patient at this stage and don’t do anything silly. Just wait while iTunes installs the new iOS 4.1 on your iPhone. Your iPhone screen at this point will be showing a progress bar indicating installation progress. After the installation is done, iPhone will restart automatically and you should now have a fully jailbroken iPhone running on iOS 4.1.
Step 10: Once you are done with the jailbreak process. You can now restore all your settings, apps, music, contacts and photos to the newly installed iOS 4.1 by restoring the backup that you made in Step 2 from iTunes.
Download .NET Framework 3.5 (required to run Sn0wbreeze)
Download Sn0wbreeze 1.8 (Windows Only)
source

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Filed under: How to, iPhone, Jailbreak/Unlock