User:Falkirks/sandbox/respring
Respring is a term used by the IOS jailbreak community to describe a Warm boot or a soft reboot on a device running IOS. This feature is mainly accessed by jailbreak users to install new packages to the system without the need of a full reboot. It is also used by IOS to fix system crashes without a full reboot. The name respring is used because in respringing a user will reset their SpringBoard. This allows for the install of new system apps (apps that can't be deleted through the GUI of IOS). This takes around 10 seconds to complete varying on devices.
Trigger[edit]
A respring is often invoked when the IOS of the device encounters a fatal error. This is uncommon for devices whose kernels haven't been modified but does happen. This error is often referred to as a springboard crash. Resprings are also automatic after most .deb installs using Saurik's Cydia. Resprings can be invoked by IOS processes using the Killall Backboard command (see below). Users running an unmodified kernel sometimes may invoke a respring to fix various issues with the device SpingBoard. This is accomplished with a complex procedure involving moving apps around in certain ways to cause the system to crash entirely. A respring is also triggered when changing the IOS language.
Apperance[edit]
Non Jailbroken[edit]
The graphical look of a respring is much the same over all devices that aren't jailbroken. The user will see the apple spinner while the device closes the system. The spinner will freeze and stay frozen for a few seconds will the SpringBoard reboots. When the device finishes a respring the device will be in a locked position requiring the user to enter their password if one was created.
Jailbroken[edit]
Jailbroken tweaks can strain the system and cause a variety of system problems. These sometimes cause the system to crash randomly rendering the device unusable unless the user has Substrate Safe Mode installed. Jailbroken devices also respring to install new software that requires a soft reboot. When a Jailbroken device resprings it is common to see a black screen, a frozen apple spinner or an apple spinner that has much degraded quality and such has little lines if static running across it. Jailbroken devices also may take longer and longer to respring depending on how much of the system partition is occupied by third part software. In IOS 6 and above the springboard is split into tow processes, backboard and springboard. If a jail broken tweak wants to respring the device it is better to kill the new backbaord process as the other will cause an issue with the backlight.
Hard vs. Soft Respring[edit]
Although both types of respring are considered to be warm reboots or soft reboots they have different effects on the device, a hard respring is triggered when an app or process issues the Killall SpringBoard (or Killall Backboard for IOS 6) command. The system will them immediately attempt to restart the springboard and return the user to the device lock screen. A soft respring on the other hand returns the user to the home screen instead of the lock screen. A common example of a soft respring is when changing the language on an IOS device.