Reboot/respiring.....definitions?
- Thread starter Dr.Gee
- Start date
Dannyboy85
iPF Noob
Press and release sleep/wake button=sleep
hold sleep/wake button and slide off=Off
Hold sleep/wake+home=soft reset
hold sleep/wake button and slide off=Off
Hold sleep/wake+home=soft reset
Tinman
iPF Noob
Here is the difference.... and btw there is really no difference between a "soft" and hard reboot. The same thing is actually happening whether you slide to turn off, hold down sleep till it shuts off, or hold down home and sleep till it shuts off/reboots. You are doing a complete reboot of the OS in those cases. A reboot is a complete reboot.
But what you "see" on the iPad as GUI (graphical user interface) is not the OS, it is another application running under the OS: Springboard.app. This is much like how OSX on a Mac, also running a form of BSD like iOS devices, uses Aqua as its GUI.
It is what launches apps, adds icons, lets you move them, etc. It "is" the iOS experience.
Certain jailbreak apps hook into Springboard.app and if apps like that are installed Springboard needs to be restarted.... as in a "respring."
In the old days this was a dangerous thing... If something screwed up Springboard.app, and many things could do that--even installing too many apps in iOS 1.x--you would be left with an unusable device. But since everything "else" was still running you could often SSH into the device, fix the problem with Springboard.app, and voila, it would "spring" to life again. But most people were not savvy enough to do that and had to restore their device.
Now we have Mobile Substrate to cope with these kinds of jb apps. This boots instead of Springboard if something like that happens. It's called "Safe Mode" because it is really to just fix whatever caused the problem--sometimes it was just a bad boot and needs another respring. TSometimes the last app installed is a problem and needs to be installed. So this has greatly reduced the risk of crashing due to a jb app.
Michael
But what you "see" on the iPad as GUI (graphical user interface) is not the OS, it is another application running under the OS: Springboard.app. This is much like how OSX on a Mac, also running a form of BSD like iOS devices, uses Aqua as its GUI.
It is what launches apps, adds icons, lets you move them, etc. It "is" the iOS experience.
Certain jailbreak apps hook into Springboard.app and if apps like that are installed Springboard needs to be restarted.... as in a "respring."
In the old days this was a dangerous thing... If something screwed up Springboard.app, and many things could do that--even installing too many apps in iOS 1.x--you would be left with an unusable device. But since everything "else" was still running you could often SSH into the device, fix the problem with Springboard.app, and voila, it would "spring" to life again. But most people were not savvy enough to do that and had to restore their device.
Now we have Mobile Substrate to cope with these kinds of jb apps. This boots instead of Springboard if something like that happens. It's called "Safe Mode" because it is really to just fix whatever caused the problem--sometimes it was just a bad boot and needs another respring. TSometimes the last app installed is a problem and needs to be installed. So this has greatly reduced the risk of crashing due to a jb app.
Michael
Last edited:
SweetPoison
iPF Noob
Great info once again! I have always wondered my self.
Dannyboy85
iPF Noob
So what's a soft reset?
So what's a soft reset?
Not sure TBH. Just going by what the Apple rep told me last time I was at a Apple Store.
ArthurIhde
iPF Noob
Great replies.
Dannyboy85
iPF Noob
Fixed that for you.
So what's a soft reset?
Not sure TBH. Just going by what the Apple rep told me last time I was at a Apple Store.
lol... Oh well as long as it fixes it.
Tinman
iPF Noob
Unfortunately the terms "soft" and "hard" reset have become pretty much misused on iOS devices.
When people talk about "soft reset" that is basically about the same as it has meant for smart phones and PDAs for years: the device reboots from scratch but nothing in non-volatile storage memory is erased.
That is what happens to the iPad no matter how you get it to reset. But the iPad doesn't have a physical reset button, or a removable battery, that often was used on other devices to do a soft reset.
And indeed there are times when the OS has crashed to the point where it either does not recognize holding down the sleep button, or is unable to display the slide to turn off prompt. So built into the boot loader is a failsafe and this bypasses the OS to do the same thing: reboots the device EXACTLY like it would for a normal shut down and turning back on. There is really no point to doing a so-called "hard" reboot unless you can't get "slide to power off" to come up.
Doesn't mean that all Apple reps know this much about how it works. Since "hard" reboot works in places where a "soft" reboot won't they will often suggest that as a magic cure all even if the device is perfectly capable of doing a normal shut down.
So this has been referred to as a "hard" reboot--even though the result is exactly the same as a "soft" reboot.
Hard reboot on some other devices is quite a bit different: that is akin to bringing the device back to factory fresh.... you lose everything. That is more akin to a "restore" on the iPad.
Well now this is all clear. As mud. lol
Michael
Guys, a word of caution which I have posted elsewhere before.
A reset (regardless of whether you want to call it hard or soft) is NOT SAFE so please don't consider it or recommend it to people as in the same category as the other things mentioned in this post such as sleep, respring, and reboot, which are safe to do.
A reset is done at the bios level and therefore risks corrupting files because IOS is given no opportunity to close files it is writing in a safe manner. It is exactly the same as holding down the power button on your laptop or desktop for 10 seconds (if you don't know what this does, I do not recommend you try it!)
I've met people who held both buttons down at least once a day because they thought they were keeping their iDevice nice and healthy by rebooting it!
A reset is only to be recommended when you need to get into DFU mode or when the iPad is frozen and nothing else will work. Otherwise, steer well clear.
Hope that helps.
A reset (regardless of whether you want to call it hard or soft) is NOT SAFE so please don't consider it or recommend it to people as in the same category as the other things mentioned in this post such as sleep, respring, and reboot, which are safe to do.
A reset is done at the bios level and therefore risks corrupting files because IOS is given no opportunity to close files it is writing in a safe manner. It is exactly the same as holding down the power button on your laptop or desktop for 10 seconds (if you don't know what this does, I do not recommend you try it!)
I've met people who held both buttons down at least once a day because they thought they were keeping their iDevice nice and healthy by rebooting it!
A reset is only to be recommended when you need to get into DFU mode or when the iPad is frozen and nothing else will work. Otherwise, steer well clear.
Hope that helps.
Tinman
iPF Noob
There is very little risk with doing a "hard" reboot on iOS devices. The BSD-based OS is extremely resilient to that sort of thing. It basically passes text files around to communicate--as do most 'nix OS's.
However, I would never recommend doing it just as a way to reboot the device. If you can get slide to work there is NO NEED to hold down the sleep/wake button.... it is giving you the same reboot as slide to turn off.
DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode is a whole different animal though. That is yet another safety net which is why, barring a true hardware failure, there is no such thing as a bricked iOS device: you can always use DFU mode to restore it. DFU mode is in the non-writable part of the firmware so it will always be around if needed.
Speaking of bricked.... yet another term being misused due to iOS... lol.
Oh yea, might as well bring up Recovery Mode too... That is actually at the OS level and is why, if you got into it erroneously--ie, you don't really have a problem with the firmware--you can usually kick the device out of it.
Michael
Dannyboy85
iPF Noob
Over the years of iDevices I have never had any issues with a soft reset. I even have a friend that used this method to shut down his phone. As stated below it's not recommended but it's nothing to worry about when you must do it.
(I'm going to use the term soft reset because as also stated below a hard reset is a restore)
(I'm going to use the term soft reset because as also stated below a hard reset is a restore)
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