howto: install native apple ios clock and/or weather on ipad 2

Share

This is how you can install the native Apple IOS Clock Application and/or the Weather Application on the iPad 2. Though it may seem obvious, I'll state it anyway: you'll also need a source device and both the source and target need to be jailbroken. I used an iPod Touch 4G running 4.3.1 and an iPad 2 running 4.3.3. It's probably best for the source and target to have the same IOS, but at least with these two versions, it wasn't necessary.

This guide assumes a very, very basic knowledge of SSH and the command line. I use the Windows Secure Shell Client and can perform all the instructions below in a Windows GUI except the creation of the symbolic link. For editing the plist file, I use plist Editor Pro. That’s literally a double-click, scroll, edit, and save.

1. SSH into the source device and change the directory to the root. If using the Secure Shell Client, change the directory to / and you'll see /Applications.
The rest of instructions below refer to the target device.
2. SSH into the device and change the directory to the root.
3. Create a subdirectory called Weather.app in the /Applications directory. Or if you're copying the Clock application, create a subdirectory called MobileTimer.app. It may not be necessary, but I set the permissions of my new Weather.app and MobileTimer.app subdirectories to 775 to match the others in the /Application directory.
4. Copy all the files and directories from the source device's Weather.app or MobileTimer.app directories. I suggest working on one application at a time.
5. Once all the files are copied, you'll need to adjust file permissions. Set the copied subdirectory permissions to 775 and the copied file permissions to 664. In the Windows Secure Shell Client, you can select multiple items simultaneously, so this takes less than a minute.
6. Some files need extra permissions. For the Clock application: in the MobileTimer.app subdirectory set the MobileTimer's file permissions to be 775. For the Weather application: in the Weather.app subdirectory, set the Weather file permissions to be 775.
7. On the source device, you'll notice the file CodeResources is actually a symbolic link. When you bulk copy all of the files and subdirectories, it may not copy as a symbolic link. If it doesn't, make a new file via the command line after you remove the original using these three commands:

cd /Applications/MobileTimer.app 
  rm CodeResources 
  ln -s _CodeSignature/CodeResources CodeResources 

When it's created, set the file permissions to 664.

8. Finally, in the Weather.app directory, you'll need to remove one line from the Info.plist. In the UIDeviceFamily key, remove the entire line with the 2 in it.

The original looks like this:

<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
   <array>
     <integer>1</integer>
     <integer>2</integer>
   </array>

When done, it looks like this:

<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
   <array>
     <integer>1</integer>
   </array>

Finally, you'll notice the file permissions on the source device are all set to 664 within the _CodeSignature and language subdirectories. When I bulk copied, I noticed the file permissions arrived set to 644. I know there are command lines available to bulk copy and keep file permissions, but I was hesitant to experiment so I didn't try them.

I haven't tested changing the device language or a tried variety of use cases - but so far, everything seems to be ok. I even installed WeatherIcon from Cydia and it still works, even though the icons from WeatherIcon are a bit smaller than other iPad icons. If something stops working, it may be necessary to modify the file permissions to 664.

filed under: clock,ios,weather