Jailbreak iOS device with Android Phone – One Tap checkra1n TWRP App

One tap to jailbreak iOS with Android (checkra1n TWRP) - Watch my video guide here!

Download on GitHub: checkra1n TWRP: Jailbreak iOS with Android

Long time no see iOS/Android enthusiasts. I wanted to share a useful app I created to automated the process of running checkra1n for arm64 (Android Phone/Tablet) in TWRP (Team Win Recovery Project). This is a fully open source program (excluding the checkra1n binary) licensed under Zero Clause BSD. View it on GitHub here.

TWRP has a built in functionality to queue commands for the next recovery boot. These commands are located in /cache/recovery/command which is just a text file that TWRP reads. This is the same functionality that allows Over The Air (OTA) updates for custom ROMs to boot and reflash themselves.

Using this queue system the checkra1n TWRP app copies an Open Recovery Script (flashable .zip) to /data/checkra1n/checkra1n.zip and boots to recovery by invoking reboot recovery. The included checkra1n.zip then executes and boots back to system reboot system after the checkra1n log message of [*]: All Done is received.

This will not increase the comparability of checkra1n for Android devices but my 2015 Nexus 5X and 2018 Mi Mix 3 both run this application flawlessly. If you were already using your Android device to run checkra1n this should make things easier for you as you don't need to interact with a shell at all on invoke/remember commands.

To flash the .zip within TWRP without running the app, which is useful if you leave your Android turned off until you need it for a retether, you can find the flashable Open Recovery Script in /data/checkra1n/ and flash it from the Install menu within TWRP.

Happy jailbreaking! (please report bugs on the Github Bug Tracker)

Edit: Removed from Google Play for TOS https://github.com/downthecrop/checkra1n-twrp/issues/3

If you would rather run the binary directly you can follow my old guide here: https://downthecrop.xyz/blog/jailbreak-ios-device-with-android-phone-checkra1n-for-android-tutorial/

Jailbreak iOS device with Android Phone – checkra1n for Android Tutorial

How to run checkra1n on Android to jailbreak iOS - Watch my video guide here!

Edit : 9/9/2020 I've made an app to easily run the required commands! Check out my updated guide here: https://downthecrop.xyz/blog/jailbreak-ios-device-with-android-phone-checkra1n-twrp-app/

Did you know you can use an Android Phone to jailbreak iOS using checkra1n? Here's the step by step guide and tutorial to explain how to run checkra1n on Android.

Rooted Android device
USB-C to USB-A Adapter
Lightning cable
TWRP Custom Recovery

When you have gathered the supplies navigate to the official checkra1n website and download the lastest arm64 Linux binary of checkra1n

https://checkra.in/

Note the location you downloaded the file to. You will need to know the absolute path the file is located so you can execute it from a terminal command line.

Once you have the file downloaded boot your Android phone into Custom Recovery. Running the tool from Custom Recovery instead of directly inside Android you don't need to worry about a conflict between different processes fighting over the USB controller. I wasn't able to run checkra1n from a fully booted Android 10 but I was able to run it from Custom Recovery! Your luck may vary but Custom Recovery is the most reliable option.

Open a Terminal in Custom Recovery (TWRP 3.3.1-17 was used in my video) and change directory to where you saved checkra1n

cd /sdcard/Download

Next we need to add the execute flag to the binary so it can be run as a program

chmod +x checkra1n

Finally we can run checkra1n from Android

./checkra1n -c -v

Connect your iOS device using your USB-C to USB-A adapter and your Lightning cable.

Now we need to manually enter DFU mode on our iOS device. This is done differently on different devices so if you are unsure just look up "How to put iPhone X into DFU mode" replacing iPhone X with your model and you should find some button combinations to enter DFU.

If you have successfully put your iOS device into DFU and it is connected to your Android Phone running checkra1n the program should recognize the DFU mode USB device and run the exploit!

For a complete step by step guide of using the new checkra1n for Android you can follow my YouTube guide here

Best Linux Distributions For Gaming 2020

Best Linux Distros for Gaming 2020 - Best Performance Compared - Watch my video here!

Hey gamers, this is downthecrop and today we have a very special video explaining the best Linux Distro recommendations for gaming in 2020.

I'll be explaining some more technical reasons for why the distribution you decide to choose is not that important. The most important thing to remember for gaming on GNU+Linux is that you need to have your Window Manager Compositor or DE Compositor disabled for your games. This can be done in Compton (Picom) compositor and the GNOME Mutter Compositor. The performance impact of an incorrectly configured compositor will outweigh any effect the light weight Desktop Environment might provide.

Linux Gaming Drivers

Using the latest drivers will very likely have an effect on performance, as of writing this, Ubuntu LTS 18.04 is using Nvidia Linux Driver Version 430.64 and Manjaro is using Nvidia Linux Driver Version 440.59. Bleeding edge distros like Arch Linux, Void Linux, and Manjaro will all provide up to date Kernels and the latest Linux Drivers for both AMD and Nvidia. Slow annual releases like Ubuntu are known to be more stable due to them waiting to push updates to driver and applications until they have been tested for a longer time. You can bypass this slower release cycle with third-party PPA's or installing through the .run script available from Nvidia/AMD's websites.

Compositors and Gaming Performance in Linux

A compositor is in charge of an off screen buffer for each application window in a desktop environment. Compositing windows managers are responsible for things like desktop transparency and drop shadow effects.

Without a compositor each application is rendered directly which allows for better gaming performance.

GNOME uses a compositor called Mutter

Compton (now forked to Picom) can be used for OpenBox/LXQt

Your compositor settings will have the largest impact on performance. This is to say that the distribution of GNU+Linux you choose is not very important. The settings of your compositor can greatly affect your FPS. Make sure that all fullscreen applications are ignored or bypass the Compositor. Completely disabling the compositor is the best option as it may increase performance by removing the background buffer of your application windows (X11 Clients) and the output to your screen.

Recommendations

Really just disable your compositor and you can use anything you like. Fedora Linux, Gentoo, Elementary OS, use anything you like for gaming. If you have the RAM overhead available most DE's really won't make a difference in gaming performance.

Manjaro Linux

Manjaro is probably the best option for most people new or returning to gaming on GNU+Linux. Easily to install. Easy to use. Easy to update.

Manjaro is a rolling release which means that it will always have the latest versions of software after you've updated. There is no Manjaro 19.04 ect because ALL versions are the latest version you just need to re-sync with the update server.

Manjaro has out of the box support for non-free drivers and a graphical utility for installing them as well. 32-bit libraries which are a common issue among those new to Linux gaming are easy to install too.

https://manjaro.org/

MX Linux

MX Linux by its design is going to be a little bit out of date compared to Manjaro/Arch/Void and that's because it's not rolling release, and it's based on Debian which is a very slow to update, stable distro.

MX Linux comes with options for non-free drivers during the install and is also systemd free. Yes! No systemd to mess with your gaming.

I suggest MX Linux to people who are uncomfortable with Arch/Manjaro and just want a system they are familiar with. The XFCE default spin is very similar to Unity or GNOME on Ubuntu so it should be easy to figure out for anyone new to Linux gaming.

https://mxlinux.org/

Dota 2 OpenGL vs Vulkan FPS – Linux Performance Test

Dota 2 Performance Test - OpenGL vs Vulkan on Ubuntu Linux 18.04 Watch my Video here

Dota 2 is one of the many games officially supported on Linux. But which graphics rendering API offers the best performance? In this side by side comparison I show the FPS (Frames Per Second) difference between OpenGL and Vulkan for Dota 2 on Linux. These tests were run on the same machine using the options toggle to switch between the two API's. Testing was done at 1080p resolution with the quality slider set to Max.

Hardware

RTX 2080 8GB
i7 9700K @ 4.6Ghz
16GB DDR4 RAM
NVMe SSD

Drivers

Ubuntu - 430 nonfree
OpenGL 4.6
Vulkan 1.1.126

Dota 2

Maxed Settings
240 FPS Framerate Limit (Recommend)
Patch 7.24

Results

OpenGL Average: 114
OpenGL 1% Low: 100
Vulkan Average: 135
Vulkan 1% Low: 101

Recording Settings

Note: The impact of OBS with these settings is as low as ~5FPS. When running the tests I had no additional software running other than OBS and Dota 2. In a real use case even if you don't record/stream the performance impact should be similar to having Chrome/Firefox open with a YouTube video or Discord ect.

H.265 NVENC Encoder Max Quality preset, 5000kbps Bitrate, 1920x1080

League of Legends DX9 vs DX11 Performance Comparison: https://downthecrop.xyz/blog/league-of-legends-directx-9-vs-directx-11/

checkra1n Linux Live USB (Minimal Linux)

When it was first announced that the iOS and tvOS jailbreaking tool checkra1n would get an official release I had a new idea for a project. An absolute bare-bones minimal Linux environment that could be used to kick start your device back to a jailbroken state. The original goal of the project was to keep the complete ISO file including Linux 5.4 and the latest checkra1n binary under 50MB. I was unable to squeeze in under my goal but the total required disk size for install is 64MB. Still substantially smaller than any other live environment with a modern Linux Kernel. Read more about my project or download from my GitHub page downthecrop/checkra1n-linux

EDIT: Version 0.9.8.2 has been reduced in size to 44MB and boot times have been reduced! Please update if you are using 0.9.8

Installation Guide

Writing Instrutions:
Download Rufus: https://rufus.ie/
Burn to USB Flash Drive or CD/DVD

When booting please wait for the timeouts of both prompts to ensure correct mounting.

You can run checkra1n again while in Linux with #: ./checkra1n or #: ./checkra1n -c

Write using DD mode instead of ISO mode.

Want to jailbreak iOS using your Android phone? Check out my checkra1n Android TWRP app here: https://downthecrop.xyz/blog/jailbreak-ios-device-with-android-phone-checkra1n-twrp-app/