Apple iPhone School » Installer.app

Ripdev No Longer Supporting Installer

Brooke — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:20:27 +0000

Ripdev has recently announced that is no longer going to be supporting Installer. Below is what they have to say:

“Today, a new iPhone OS, 3.0 has been released. This is obviously a big and long waited for update for all iPhone users. And we believe, it is about time to officially announce that we are discontinuing support of Installer platform for iPhone and iPod touch.

Over past 1.5 years when we were involved in the Installer project (first in 3.x versions, then in 4.x), a lot of things has happened and we believe it’s time to unify the installation platform for the iPhone — and clearly, over the past year this is DPKG, thanks to tremendous effort of Jay Freeman and his Cydia. We have also dropped our two cents by providing our own themeable and lightweight DPKG installer tool, named Icy.

So now you have a choice, which tool to use — and no matter what you choose, it will be compatible with each other. We obviously cannot speak for Jay, but we will do our best to make sure two products play nicely together.

The Installer 4 repositories we manage will be running until July 1st, 2009, then they will be discontinued and brought offline. So if you wanted to get something that is only available in the Installer — this is the time to do so.

We would like to take the opportunity and say “thank you” to everyone who has contributed and supported Installer project in any way. You rock.”

I honestly haven’t used Installer for quite some time so this doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to me but, I know that a few of you still use it. It does make me a little sad because Installer is what started it all back in the day. The very first article we ever wrote on this site, on September 19, 2007, was about Installer. *tear

Let me know in the comments how you feel about this.

You can check out Ripdev’s original post HERE.

InstallerApp

Justin — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:49:32 +0000

I was really hoping for an app that I would be able to use to backup my apps to my Mac so when firmware updates came about, I would just be able to update, jailbreak, and then sync. In fact, that is exactly what I can do. RipDev claims, “InstallerApp comes with free built-in Pusher — software that can install Installer.app on your iPhone without “jailbreaking” it, so you can use App Store and Installer simultaneously without putting your private data at risk.” We are going to get into this, but if you haven’t jailbroken your iPhone, are running OS X 10.5.6, or have a newer (2009) or unibody Mac, do not use this app!

Now a few things about this app that honestly, really bother me.

#1 Apple released an update (10.5.6 firmware upgrade on December 15, 2008) that changed the kernels for the USB drivers which disabled the DFU (Device Firmware Update) for the iPhone. InstallerApp was written for the OS X 10.5.5. What’s the issue? Well, in the words of one of RipDev’s people, “your iPhone was unsuccessful in getting into DFU mode that is required to install InstallerApp support files on the iPhone. It also means that you might be running either on 10.5.6, or have one of those unibody MacBooks. Apple has changed some system files in the 10.5.6 that prevent iPhones from getting into DFU mode (not always) and that’s where the most people have some issues.

This is my issue…Patch it yourself and not wait until 10.5.7 so “it could be fixed.” People are paying for this app; you fix it!

In an email from RipDev, they say:

Unfortunately in our case it’s not a matter of patching our application to work around the issue Apple has created with 10.5.6 update — believe me, we did our best to make is as easy as possibly. However this bug in Mac OS X often prevents people from getting into DFU mode successfully and that’s the pain in the butt for many.

#2 (in relation to #1) If you are a Mac user running OS X, you are probably already running 10.5.6 because it was released on December 15, 2008. That is almost 4 months ago. That’s like building an app for XP service pack 1 when XP service pack 3 has already been released and you hope that by service pack 4 the other guys have fixed your problem. It doesn’t work that way! Sorry! Plus I struggle with thinking this is a “bug” with OS X 10.5.6. It could very well be but this is a way to shut down the jailbreaking of the iPhone!

With that said however, this Desktop App has some real possibilities at being something very big. Here is what you need to use InstallerApp on the computer and iPhone:

1. Mac (with Intel processor) and operating system Mac OS X 10.5 or later (10.5.5 recommended)
2. An Internet connection for your computer
3. iPhone or iPhone 3G with Software version 2.1 or later (iPod touch currently is not supported)
4. InstallerApp 1.0 or later, available at: www.ripdev.com/installerapp
5. External Power USB Hub (not power by your Mac such as the dock your iPhone came with) connected to the Mac
6. InstallerApp Owner’s Manual

The installation of InstallerApp is quite simple. Please listen to me on this one. IF YOU DO NOT TROUBLE SHOOT FROM THE FOLLOWING IDEAS EXPECT A LONG AND FRUSTRATING INSTALLATION.

Those running OS X 10.5.5 and 10.5.6, jailbroke iPhone*Easiest Way*
1. Download the app from the link above.
2. Unzip it and drop it into your applications folder.
3. Click on the app and register your app by going to InstallerApp–>Purchase License (if you haven’t)/Enter License (if you have purchased a license)–>Enter License # (this will give you options for 3 iPhones)–>Shut Down InstallerApp
4. Open Installer on your iPhone–>Search–>InstallerApp Package (starred)–>Install
5. Open InstallerApp on your Mac.
6. You will have a box that says “To install and synchronize applications between your Mac and iPhone, additional software must be installed on the iPhone.” Cancel this and at the bottom of the InstallerApp you will see “iPhone Status”. It should say “Registered (…)” if it is a registered iPhone. Otherwise it will say “Connected”. You will need to register your iPhone in order to use InstallerApp for Mac.
7. Now, at the bottom, sync your iPhone with InstallerApp. This will back up all of Cydia and Installer sources, applications, and mods.

Those running OS X 10.5.5 and 10.5.6, non-jailbroke iPhone*Lucky you don’t have to go through what I went though?*

I am going to give you the easiest way to do this. Things to know:
• If you are running 10.5.5 (not sure why you would be at this point and if you are, you obviously don’t have internet and are not reading this post), you’re golden.
• If you are running 10.5.6, hold on. Your in for a ride!
• As stated earlier, (according to RipDev) there is a “bug” in the 10.5.6 upgrade that causes your iPhone to not go into DFU (Device Firmware Update) Mode. This is were iTunes recognizes the iPhone and then loads. After upgrading in December you may have noticed that iTunes will no longer open when you plug in your iPhone but will recognize it when you manually start iTunes. This “bug” is the reason why.
• Because of this “bug”, you are not going to be able to go through the initial set up for InstallerApp without a few things.
• You need to replace the 10.5.6 USB drivers with the 10.5.5 USB drivers. You can find a special “DFU enabler” utility on the internet that replaces USB drivers from 10.5.6 with the same files from 10.5.5 where everything was fine. Unless you know what your doing, DO NOT DO THIS!! You can read around the internet and find some people who have seriously screwed up their Macs (loss of keyboard, trackpad, and usb functions).
• I suggest getting an external powered (not powered by your Mac) USB Hub (like this). This will automatically set your iPhone into DFU Mode and you can proceed from there.

Now…
1. Download the app from the link above
2. Unzip it and drop it into your applications folder.
3. Click on the app and register your app by going to InstallerApp–>Purchase License (if you haven’t)/Enter License (if you have purchased a license)–>Enter License # (this will give you options for 3 iPhones)
4. Connect iPhone to your computer.
5. The alert will appear that will offer you to install supporting files on the iPhone so InstallerApp will be able to communicate with your iPhone. You can also launch “Push” procedure in menu “Window” > “Pusher” at any moment.
6. Close “iTunes” (if it opens).
7. Click “Push” button to start installation. Follow on-screen instructions.
8. Turn iPhone off. To do so press and hold the “Lock” button on the top of your iPhone for a few seconds until a red slider appears on a screen, and then drag the slider.
9. Press and hold both “Lock” and “Home” buttons for ten seconds, then release the “Lock” button while continuing to hold the “Home” button until the InstallerApp logo appears on the iPhone screen. If the iPhone’s screen is black or white while the application is saying “Installing Applications”, it means that your iPhone was unsuccessful in getting into DFU mode that is required to install InstallerApp support files on the iPhone. iPhone will automatically restart when installation is over. You will see the Apple logo.

Now you should be set to start downloading apps to your iPhone. For instructions on how to do that, click here.

Good luck and let us know how your experience goes with this.

ScreenShots

Installer Update – Version 4.0b8

Brooke — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:47:44 +0000

Available In: Installer

Price: Free

It seems that RiP Dev has updated Installer bringing it to version 4.0b8. I personally have found the upgrade to run much smoother. It does not lag as much and I do not have the crashing issues that I had with the previous version. Below is info from the RiP Dev’s blog on exactly what the update does.

“Installer 4.0b8 is out (it’s been ready for a while and even included in the last PwnageTool but we were holding off to releasing it publically). Among notable features is the switch to libcurl from the stock Foundation URL loading classes, which means more lightweight CPU and memory footprint and, more importantly, resumable file transfers. The new beta also features a plethora of little fixes which we won’t extensively list here. Enjoy. We’ll be pushing out a 4.0 release soonish…

The featured page you see when you launch Installer is actually automatically generated based on the popularity of the packages (based on the number of installations across the board), so it’s nothing like the “old” featured page that listed a set of pre-defined products. It will eventually have some “sponsored” products, but they will be easily distinguishable visually and we’ll try to keep the amount of these to the minimum – no more than 3.

Community Sources are updated as well to reflect the change in the modmyi.com domain name and to remove some outdated sources that shown promise but actually never delivered anything.”

Check out the full article HERE.

Installer 4.0b5

Douglas — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:51:23 +0000

Available In: Installer

Price: Free

There is a new version of Installer out today which also comes with updates to community sources. They include a source for modmyifone.com and iphone-notes.de Here’s a list of what’s new from the RiP Dev blog:

– Many visual enhancements and fixes in regards to source and packages display.
– Fixed an issue with failing installs with dependencies under some circumstances.
– Fixed a bug causing package information to be displayed incorrectly (size 0 bytes) on the first access, or when the custom information HTML page (such as packages from Big Boss’ repository) was not displayed.
– When updating a package, and one of its dependencies also has an update available, the dependency will be updated as well.
– The package icons will only be downloaded when on the Wi-Fi to help you save on bandwidth.
– The repositories are being refreshed upon Installer.app launch so you always stay on the bleeding edge with the updates. This is experimental behavior and we’re not yet sure it will make it to the final release.
– Fixed a script command Confirm that was returning invalid button index for the “OK” button.
– Lots and lots of both cosmetic and internal application core fixes that improve the overall performance, presentation and stability of the application.

I’m still having a lot problems with the app. When refreshing sources, sometimes it hangs for a long time. I also have had it crash randomly (a lot). Of course this is still in Beta so it’s not a surprise. Let us know you’re experience so far with Installer 4.

The sources area:
ModMyiPhone.com – http://i.modmyifone.com
iPhone-notes.de – http://i.iphone-storage.de/

Thanks to @iphonejunky for tipping me on this one via Twitter!

Sources for Installer Beta

Douglas — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 03:43:39 +0000

I found a few sources for the beta for Installer. There’s not a ton of stuff in there but a few fun things. I’m sure more to come.

Rip Dev – http://i.ripdev.com
Big Boss – http://apptapp.thebigboss.org/repofiles/installer4/
iSpazio – http://repo.neolinus.org/ispazio/
German – http://sendowski.de/iphone

Installer 4.0 Beta

Douglas — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:03:33 +0000

1. Available via download here and here.

2. Extract zip file.

3. SSH the Installer.app folder into your /Applications folder.

4. Run this command via terminal: chmod -R 777 /Applications/Installer.app

5. Also Run this command via terminal: chmod a+srx /Applications/Installer.app/Installer

6. Turn off your iPhone or iPod Touch and turn it back on.

NOTE: We do not have an iPod Touch to test this on, please let us know if this works for you, it should…

NOTE 2: It took a while longer for my iPhone to boot but it did come up like normal, be patient.

First, it looks like the opinions of Rip Dev making money on this is true. It looks like the featured section is paid for. It says, this space for rent. As I write this article there are only 4 packages available. Mobile Enhancer, Pictoore, some wallpaper and a picture for Pictoore. If anyone knows of any sources for Installer 4.0 please let us know! So far it’s working fine for me.

Watch “Installer 4.0 Beta” on your iPhone or iPod Touch

Thanks to Corey for sending this in!

Installer 4.0 Update

Douglas — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:28:59 +0000

Installer 4.0 is still not available for firmware 2.0 however, the RiPDev blog has been recently updated. It doesn’t sound like Installer is going to be available in the near future…maybe a few more weeks but, they are asking repo owners to contact them. Here is what they have to say.

Thank you very much for your support guys. We’re alive, we’re ironing out some stuff (still), and we’re ready to start kicking some serious butt in a little while.

Meanwhile, if you host a moderately big repository for Installer 3.x, this is a call for you. Please email me the URL to your repo and a brief description about it, and we’ll start sending out the new repo code along with the specs and the Installer beta on Sunday.

Please note, that picking out the repos is going to be at my own discretion, so please don’t be disappointed if we don’t pick you right away. Please also understand that I will not be able to reply to everyone personally.

Thanks!

Installer 4.0 Repo Structure

Brooke — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:31:16 +0000

The RiP Dev blog has posted an article describing how repos will be structured in Installer 4.0. The majority of us probably will not be extremely interested in this information but, if you have a repo that you would like to have in Installer 4.0, you will definately want to check it out. Below is a snippet of the article. You can get the full article HERE.

Installer 4 uses the new repository structure which is aimed at minimizing the traffic for both repo owner and the user, as well as expands the standard a little bit. It is still good old plists, but for the repo owner perspective, you don’t really have to mock with them… at all

Here’s how it works. Each package (a .zip file) now must contain a .plist file inside describing the package – including install/uninstall scripts, description, version, identifier, dependencies, and so on. It may also contain a png icon to be displayed as the package icon in the Installer.

When the repository owner puts the file in the repository directory tree (in the appropriate folder for the category), the repository engine does the rest – automagically extracts the plist (and the package icon) from the package archive, parses it, puts in the appropriate places and gets it ready to be served to Installer.

I have finished the repo engine code (it uses PHP) and is currently going to give it a test run for a few days internally, then we’ll put it in the public domain to re-use and abuse, along with a more detailed instructions on the package structure and plist keys (they are mostly the same).

Installer 4.0 Update

Brooke — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:45:58 +0000

Here is what the RiP Dev Blog has to say about the progress of Installer 4.0 and some screenshots of what it will look like!

Hi folks! Many of you are wondering what’s up with Installer 4. No, we haven’t slowed down the work on it, and are currently in the final stages of hooking the GUI to the back-end. We will be contacting the authors of the major repositories in a few days to invite them into the testing process and to prepare for the upcoming repository changes.

Meanwhile, here’s a few actual screenshots so you can check out how the new Installer 4 will look like:

Hope you’ll like the new functionality and interface when it’s out. Please bear with us and let us know if we have missed something you think is essential in Installer.

Installer 4.0 Update

Brooke — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:28:10 +0000

Even though the jailbreak for firmware 2.0 is now available, if you choose to upgrade and jailbreak…you will not see much. The only thing available in the jailbreak is Cydia with a few applications like OpenSSH. You will not even see Installer yet. Below is what the RiP Dev blog has to say about the progress of Installer 4.0.

As you surely know by now, Pwnage Tool 2.0 is out. And for now, it has no Installer 4.0 in it.

This is because we have decided to not release an undertested product into the wild – we don’t want any mess on the phone this time. So Installer 4.0 will come out soon… as soon as we’re confident it functions properly, we will release it – and trust us, we are not going to delay it for a long time.

Meanwhile, all of the popular tools that can’t get to App Store for various reasons will have to be redone for firmware 2.0 – mostly because the inner workings of the system (in large, the way user interface works) have changed a lot since 1.1.x, so it will take some time for the authors to update and test their stuff. We expect the Installer to be ready by the time there’s something to offer you.

A lyrical off-topic. Why Big Bear in the post title and what the heck has it to do with the rest? The answer is simple – every iPhone OS release has it’s own codename (the name of the volume on the disk image file containing firmware files). 1.1.4 used to be LittleBear, and 2.0, you guessed it, is BigBear.

Now what about Kate? It is 90% ported to 2.0 as of now and we are finishing the remaining work and then testing it – so expect it to be out for Installer 4.0 in a week or two. Of course, you will not have to purchase it again if you already did (and if you have changed your iPhone to 3G model, email our sales department and they will arrange the license transfer for you).

Thanks for your patience and support!