Now before you get all excited about ‘going back’ to iOS5, there are few things you should know.  First, this is a ‘TETHERED’ Jailbreak.  That means every time you restart your phone you have to go through this jailbreak again. This is not as bad as it sounds since it only a matter of time before an untethered jailbreak comes out and then you do not have to worry about it.  Personally I only restart my iPhone perhaps once every few months. Also I really hope you saved a copy of your iPhone before the upgrade, if not you need to download the older versions.

BTW:  if you have NOT upgraded,  for those devices capable of running 6.0, the 5.1.1 SHSH blob signing window will soon close, so it’s very important that you backup your 5.1.1 blobs now while you still can. Do it for every device you have (see tutorial sites like iClarified if you don’t know the process).

Here are detailed steps laid out from Redmond Pie, my go to source.  All links go to their site.

Before going through any jailbreak process it is always good housekeeping to perform a full backup of all information on the device. It is unlikely that anything will go wrong during the process but when undertaking any process that modifies the internals of a file system it is always prudent to err on the side of caution.

Compatible devices:

• A4 based iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4th-gen only.

Notes:

• This a tethered jailbreak, and is limited to the above mentioned devices only. There is currently no untethered jailbreak available for iOS 6 yet.
• iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad 3 and iPod touch 5th-gen are not supported by this jailbreak. (Author note: You may still want to do this. Its only a matter of time before there is a hack to replace apple maps with bing or some other map app.)
• If you rely on unlock, do not update to iOS 6 yet.

How-to jailbreak iOS 6:

Step 1: Download iOS 6, and then update to this latest version by following our instructions posted here. (Author note: OK, I’m going to stop you right now.  If you have already upgraded to iOS6, just dont ok?)

Step 2: Download the latest version of Redsn0w for the relevant operating system from the iPhone Dev Team (Windows/Mac).

Step 3: Extract the contents of the downloaded compressed file and save it to a familiar location on your PC or Mac.

Step 4: Run the executable Redsn0w file, making sure to run in administrator mode if using a Windows based machine. If you are on OS X Mountain Lion, start Redsn0w by Ctrl-Click on the icon and then selecting Open from the new menu.

Step 5: Select the Extras option from the main menu of the Redsn0w interface and point it to the desired IPSW file.

Step 6: Redsn0w has advanced dramatically with the last few major revisions and now has the power to whip through the jailbreak without much interaction. Follow the onscreen instructions (Redsn0w might ask you to enter DFU mode) to complete the jailbreak process.

How-to boot tethered on iOS 6:

As already mentioned above, this is a tethered jailbreak, therefore you will be required to boot into tethered-mode every time you reboot your device. This can be done by starting Redsn0w: click on the “Extras” button on screen and then simply click on “Just Boot” option and follow the on-screen instructions. Once done, you will be rebooted back into tethered-jailbreak mode.

How-to install Cydia on iOS 6:

The current release of Redsn0w doesn’t install Cydia by default. To install cydia, follow the steps below:

(Author note: This last step is not easy.  If you feed you are not up to it, just wait a few more weeks, and 1 click untethered full jailbreak should be out.)

The following steps to install Cydia is done using Terminal on Mac. You can use the same commands on Windows using a SSH program like WinSCP.

• Note down the IP address of your device.
• Make sure your device is connected to your PC or Mac. Start Terminal on Mac and type:

ssh root@<IP address of your device goes here>

• It will now prompt you to enter the root password. Type: alpine
• Once done, type:

wget -q -O /tmp/cyinstall.sh http://downloads.kr1sis.net/cyinstall.sh && chmod 755 /tmp/cyinstall.sh && /tmp/cyinstall.sh

Once done, the device will reboot and the extremely familiar looking Cydia icon will be sitting on the home screen in all of its glory. Jailbreak complete.

end.

So there is a lot here right?  Well for all you non iPhone 5 users, I hope you learned a lesson here, never upgrade right away.  EVER!  Always wait a few weeks to see how it goes.  A further note; I have been thinking of writing a post on ‘do we really need jailbreak anymore?’ given how much Apple (heck even Android) have been stealing from the work the jailbreaking community has done?  Heck, I only really on 2 apps that I cannot live without, thus I keep my phone jailbroken, but after the maps failure, I’m more convinced then ever.  Got an iPhone?  Jailbreak that puppy!

Now here is the bad part of the kinda, if you have the iphone 4s or the ‘New’ ipad, forget about it since the A5, and A5x chip is much harder to jailbreak. Yet another reason to hold on to your iphone 4.  There is a jailbreak for iphone4s running the older iOS called  Absinthe. It can be downloaded from here for Mac and here for Windows.

Right now, there is not word on an untethered jailbreak for iOS5.1, however, normally when a tethered jailbreak is working, an untethered is not too far behind.

However, nothing on hacking the A5 chipset running iOS5.1.  You may have to settle in for a long wait.

Only a few weeks after the 4.3.1 untether created by @i0n1c was released, Apple pushed out firmware 4.3.2. Thankfully, it appears Apple didn’t have a chance to fix the hole used by @i0n1c’s untether, so he ported his code over to 4.3.2’s kernel.  Today’s redsn0w has been updated to include it.

The 4.3.2 untether works on all devices that actually support 4.3.2 except for the iPad2:

• iPhone3GS
• iPhone4 (GSM)
• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad1

redsn0w 0.9.6rc14:

• OS X redsn0w
• Windows redsn0w

Update #2: redsn0w rc14 includes the fixed i4 untether from @i0n1c.  You can re-run redsn0w rc14 right over the tethered rc13b to transform the i4 JB into an untethered one.

Now read the comments.  Although it seems the bugs have been worked out though.

MuscleNerd, who earlier confirmed his plans of updating Pwnage Tool and Redsn0w with the ion1c iOS 4.3.1 Untethered JailBreak exploit may release it today as per the US time. He said that Sunday’s are most appropriate days for any release related to hacks/unlocks. They started this trend of ‘Sunday is Funday’ concept 2 years ago with ’3G Baseband Tool’.

This  of course is from the iphone dev team.  So stright from their site, some links.

The iPhone Dev Team has released a new version of redsn0w, redsn0w 0.9.6b5 that will allow you to jailbreak your device and Ultrasn0w 1.2 to unlock it.

The video guide for unlocking is below and here’s the software you’ll need to download for this unlock:
– redsn0w 0.9.6b5 (download links)
– iOS 4.1 or iOS 4.2.1 (download links here)

Now remember, like anything; I always give a new release a few days to live in wild before using it.  I would do the same here..

All good?  Ok, lets have a look at the video below..  and here the youtube link for us iphone/ipad users.

So for now, if you are unlocked, just hold tight.  I would also recommend holding off on 3.1 until a proper jailbreak version is out and tested. As for me, I’m having so many issues with AT&T around the ballpark area that I may give up jailbreak to see if 3.1 works any better.