Installer.app
Encyclopedia
Installer.app was a free software installer for the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

 created by the development team RipDev, first released in summer 2007 and maintained until summer 2009. Installer allowed users to install third-party applications into the iPhone's Applications directory where native applications are kept. Users could install applications from a variety of sources (over WiFi or UMTS) provided by software developers, directly into the iPhone without requiring a computer. Users could browse lists of applications inside Installer to find ones they wanted to install. In June 2009, RipDev dropped support for Installer in favor of developing a different package manager and installer named Icy
Icy (application)
Icy is a package installer/manager for jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch, originally created and maintained by Ripdev, which allows users to browse and download applications from a range of sources. Most applications are available to download for free, with some requiring purchase after downloading,...

.

1.1.x Firmwares

Installer was originally developed by Nullriver and was available for download via JailbreakMe
JailbreakMe
JailbreakMe is a series of jailbreaks for Apple's iOS mobile operating system that take advantage of flaws in the Safari browser on the device, providing an immediate one-step jailbreak unlike more common jailbreaks, such as Blackra1n and redsn0w, that require plugging the device into another...

 which used the iPhone TIFF exploit for 1.1.1 firmwares. In the next version of the iPhone OS, 1.1.2, the exploit was patched and users could put Installer on their devices using jailbreaking software such as ZiPhone or WinPwn.

2.x.x Firmwares

When the 2.0 firmware was released, framework changes were present. All of the applications compiled for iPhone OS 1.2 and below were no longer able to run on 2.0. Therefore, Installer 3 wasn't available for 2.0 and the vast majority of users switched to Cydia
Cydia
Cydia is a large genus of tortrix moths, belonging to the tribe Grapholitini of subfamily Olethreutinae. Its distinctness from and delimitation versus the tribe's type genus Grapholita requires further study....

. At that time, RiPDev (Russian iPhone Development) took over the Installer project and started developing Installer 4.0. When Installer 4.0 was finished, it was added to the QuickPwn software as a payload. Installer 4.0 did not gain as much popularity as Installer 3.0 because most of the jailbroken devices had become accustomed to using Cydia.

Installer Ported to iOS 4 and 5

On May 23rd, 2011, a team of developers called Infini-Dev ( Sam Guichelaar, Justin iPwnM0nster and Koen Hendriks ) recreated Installer 4 so that it could be run on iOS 4 and above, although the main current repositories are only compatible with Cydia and no longer compatible with Installer.

RiPDev has put their old Installer repo back Online since Infini-Dev released Installer.

There are also some other repo's like Greek-iPhone who offer up to date packages for Installer. The repo is http://greek-iphone.com/repo.

This repo is for Installer 4 ONLY. Icy was recently dropped by Infini-Dev, which was RiPDev's Cydia alternative that supported Cydia repositories.

You can get Installer 4 via the Cydia repo : http://repo.ispazio.net

Installer works on every firmware after 2.0, and it was ported by Sam Guichelaar( @SamGuichelaar), Konstantinos(@PiratXmac ), Slavikus Karpenkulous ( @Slavikus ) ( Founder of @RiPDev )

Installer 5

Slava Karpenko announced Installer 5 a few weeks back, as you can read on http://installer5.com

The wiki about Installer 5 :
""Introduction
Installer.app used to be an installer system for the iPhone long before Apple App Store was created. Later on, an alternative installation system, Cydia, was created and effectively superceeded Installer for numerous reasons.

The main reason is obviously Installer.app dying because the group supporting it, Ripdev, has died.

The second reason is repository owners switching to Cydia because it allowed repo owners to gain income by publishing their ad banners on the package information pages; the package format used by Cydia (DPKG) thought to be easier to build, too.

However, Cydia right now is a monster. Refreshes take ages, the whole app looks like... uh. And it needs 20M of BSD subsystem just to move some files over the filesystem. Ridiculous.

We're here to change that.

Philosophy
Installer.app has to be tiny. After all, Installer is about installing files, not about having an entire UN*X command set on your phone. To install files, it has to be able to copy files and directories around, change permissions and optionally run some pre- or postflight scripts.

The packages has to be made easily. In an ideal world, you wouldn't need to create a plist or dpkg file to install something. It has to be more simple. How? We will think of that.

A repository has to be easy to create and maintain. This is essential for repo owners.

To be continued...""
Now MyGreatFest, the first Jailbreak Community party, where developers like Posixninja and iOPK showed their interests in the Russian Developer, and through a leaked DM convo on twitter they confirmed they want to get Slava Karpenko to come over to California.
To be continued ....

External links

  • http://ripdev.com/installer - Official Website
  • http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/ - NullRiver's Website
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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