Hacker publishes steps to upgrade unsupported iPad (6th generation) to iPadOS 18

At the end of last year, we talked about an interesting attempt by hackers to port iPadOS 18 to the iPad (6^th generation) – a device that seems to be capable of running the firmware based on substantial similarities to the officially-supported iPad (7^th generation), but has simply been left off the table by Apple in an effort to force planned obsolescence on its users.

This afternoon, hacker and security researcher Nick Chan (@riscv64), one of the palera1n team’s members, officially shared their work via their GitHub page, outlining exactly what’s required, how to go about it, and denoting some of the limitations that performing this unofficial upgrade can impose on the iPad (6^th generation) tablet.

A brief skim through the notes on the GitHub page reveals that this process isn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, it’s a particularly involved and lengthy process that involves a slew of Terminal commands. Another caveat? The iPad (6^th generation) in question must already be running iPadOS 17.7.x before starting.

There are a number of drawbacks to undertaking this procedure, as outlined in the GitHub page, such as:

• This is a tethered process (requiring the use of a computer)
• This will cause Lightning and VGA adapters to stop working with your iPad
• Storage space will be wasted on your iPad due to lack of SSV checks in iBoot
• The native Camera app will not be able to record videos
• The “Erase All Content and Settings” feature in the Settings app will invoke a boot loop
• Cellular activation won’t work, so service should be set up on these models before proceeding

You might be asking yourself, why should anyone even bother with such a feat? And the answer is simple: because doing so could make the iPad (6^th generation) the second-supported iPad capable of being jailbroken by way of palera1n on iPadOS 18, allowing it to join the only other iPad that can currently be jailbroken with palera1n on the latest firmware – the iPad (7^th generation).

These devices are nearly end of life (EoL) at this point given their hardware and performance on the latest firmware versions, so the existence of these types of tools exists merely for the fun and enjoyment of tinkerers rather than for the casual use of regular iPad (6^th generation) users.

In any case, if you want to learn more about what’s involved in getting this working, you can head over to the project’s GitHub page.