TorchLock

Illustration, not a screenshot. The real button is a dark circle with a white bolt when the torch is off, and a white circle with a yellow bolt when it's on. The clock and date shown are invented.

A lock screen flashlight button for jailbroken iOS 6, written to replace FlashLock, which lags on iOS 6.

Tap the bolt above the slide-to-unlock bar and the torch comes on immediately, then stays on when the screen goes to sleep. With FlashLock on the same phone you got one blink, a frozen lock screen that then went dark, and the light a few seconds later.

Built and tested on an iPhone 4 (iPhone3,2), iOS 6.1.3.

What it does

• A button on the lock screen, just above the left or right end of the unlock slider. It's always visible by default, or it can appear only after you double-click Home. It shows a dark circle when the torch is off, and a white circle with a yellow bolt when it is on.
• An optional camera-icon replacement. Tap the camera shortcut to toggle the torch and swipe up from the same spot to open the camera. The native camera gesture stays in place; enabling this option removes the separate torch button.
• Five selectable icon styles: the original bolt, an embossed iOS 6 Classic flashlight, Metal, Outline, and Light Bulb. Each has distinct off/on artwork and applies to both buttons and the camera shortcut.
• Drives the torch directly. It sets torchMode on the camera device, so no AVCaptureSession runs, nothing blocks SpringBoard's main thread and the camera doesn't stream frames while the light is on.
• Doesn't let the screen dim right after a tap. A tap counts as activity, so the lock screen dim timer restarts.
• Turns the torch off when you unlock. You can keep it on instead, see Settings.
• A Settings pane, like FlashLock's. Settings → TorchLock has a switch that turns the whole tweak on or off, plus the lock screen options.
• An optional Notification Center button, off by default, for toggling while unlocked. It stays at the bottom, just above the grabber, even while the list scrolls. Only the icon is drawn; the native background and shading remain. Choose Left or Right for both buttons in Settings.
• Adds an Activator action. "Toggle Flashlight" (com.aurelio.torchlock.toggle) appears under TorchLock in Activator, so you can give it a gesture for use while unlocked.

Requirements

On the phone:

• jailbroken iOS 6 with MobileSubstrate
• Cydia, to install from the source, or OpenSSH, to install from a PC
• Activator, optional, for the gesture action and for make smoke

On the PC:

• Linux on x86_64
• git, curl, make, perl
• libimobiledevice, for iproxy (USB to SSH)

Install

From Cydia (easiest)

1. In Cydia, go to Sources → Edit → Add and enter:

   https://aurelioochoa.github.io/torchlock/repo/
   

2. Open the TorchLock source, then the TorchLock package, and tap Install.

TorchLock conflicts with FlashLock, so if FlashLock is installed, Cydia will offer to remove it as part of the install.

GitHub Pages only speaks modern HTTPS, which stock iOS 6 may not be able to negotiate. The test phone had TLS Fix (com.skyglow.tlsfix, from http://cydia.skyglow.es/) and already loaded another github.io source. If Cydia can't load this source, install that fix first.

Updates arrive the same way: when a new version is published, refresh Cydia's sources and it shows up under Changes.

From a PC

1. Remove FlashLock

TorchLock declares Conflicts: com.filippobiga.flashlock. Unlike Cydia, plain dpkg doesn't resolve that for you, and it refuses to install TorchLock while FlashLock is present. That's deliberate: two buttons fighting over one torch don't work. Remove FlashLock in Cydia (Installed → FlashLock → Modify → Remove), or over SSH:

dpkg -r com.filippobiga.flashlock

Skip this step if you never installed FlashLock.

2a. Over USB

Plug the iPhone in, then from the repo:

make setup   # once: Theos + Linux iOS toolchain + iOS 10.3 SDK into ~/theos
make run     # build, copy to the phone, dpkg -i, respring

make run starts iproxy on PORT (default 2222), then SSHes to the phone as root and asks for the root password once. When it finishes, SpringBoard restarts and the lock screen comes back with the button.

2b. By hand, over Wi-Fi

If you already have a .deb (make build puts it in tweak/packages/), you can install it over Wi-Fi with one command. It copies the package, installs it and resprings. To find PHONE_IP, go to Settings → Wi-Fi and tap the blue arrow next to your network.

ssh -o HostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa -o PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa root@PHONE_IP \
    'cat > /tmp/torchlock.deb && dpkg -i /tmp/torchlock.deb && killall -9 SpringBoard' \
    < tweak/packages/com.aurelio.torchlock_1.3.0_iphoneos-arm.deb

The phone's OpenSSH only offers an ssh-rsa host key, which current OpenSSH refuses unless those two options are given. Over USB instead of Wi-Fi, run iproxy 2222 22 first and use -p 2222 root@localhost.

Check it worked

Lock the phone and wake it. A round bolt button sits just above the left end of the slide-to-unlock bar: tap it to turn the torch on, and tap again to turn it off. To check from the PC, run make smoke. The torch should light for about three seconds.

If the button doesn't appear, confirm the package is installed (dpkg -s com.aurelio.torchlock). Also check that SpringBoard isn't in Substrate safe mode, which shows as a "Safe Mode" alert after a respring.

Settings

Open Settings → TorchLock. Changes take effect straight away, with no respring. The existing switches default to on; Notification Center and camera replacement default to off, button position defaults to Left, and icon style defaults to Original Bolt.

Setting	What it does
Enabled	Turns TorchLock on or off. When it's off, both buttons are removed and the Activator action is ignored. A lit torch is also turned off.
Always Show Button	When this is off, the button stays hidden until you double-click Home on the lock screen. While the torch is on, the button always shows, so you can turn it off.
Turn Off on Unlock	Turns the torch off when you unlock. Switch it off to keep the light on after unlocking.
Replace Camera Icon	Off by default. Puts the torch in the native camera shortcut: tap to toggle, swipe up for camera. Removes the separate lock screen button. The camera shortcut stays visible regardless of Always Show Button; if the native shortcut is unavailable, the separate torch button remains.
Show in Notification Center	Off by default. Pins a torch button at the bottom of Notification Center while unlocked, just above the grabber. The list can scroll its final notification above the button. Turning this option off removes the row and keeps the current torch state.
Button Position	Left (default) or Right, for the separate lock screen and Notification Center buttons. The camera shortcut keeps its native position.
Icon Style	Original Bolt (default), iOS 6 Classic, Metal, Outline, or Light Bulb. Updates the lock screen, camera replacement and Notification Center immediately. Yellow indicates the torch is on.

The values are stored in /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.aurelio.torchlock.plist under the keys Enabled, AlwaysShowButton, TurnOffOnUnlock, ShowInNotificationCenter, ButtonPosition (left or right), ReplaceCameraGrabber, and IconStyle (bolt, classic, metal, outline, or bulb). Deleting the file restores the defaults. Unknown icon styles fall back to the original bolt.

FlashLock had a fourth switch, Hide Slider Label. TorchLock doesn't need it: FlashLock's button sat inside the unlock slider and covered its text, but TorchLock's sits above it.

Toggle with a gesture. With Activator installed, open Settings → Activator, choose where the gesture should work (anywhere, the home screen, in apps or the lock screen), and pick an event, for example a short hold of Volume Up. Then choose Toggle Flashlight under TorchLock. This works with the phone unlocked too. You can also enable Show in Notification Center for a button while unlocked.

Uninstall

make uninstall                     # from the PC, over USB
dpkg -r com.aurelio.torchlock && killall -9 SpringBoard   # or on the phone

Or remove TorchLock in Cydia. Afterwards you can reinstall FlashLock from Cydia if you want it back.

Development

Target	What it does
make dev	Debug build, install, respring. Adds a second Activator listener, com.aurelio.torchlock.debug, which writes the torch state and the lock screen view tree to /tmp/torchlock-debug.txt and a screenshot to /tmp/torchlock-screen.png on the phone
make check	Check that the Cydia index matches repo/debs/, then a clean compile with -Werror
make verify	check, then a release package
make deploy DEB=<path>	Install any package on the phone
make uninstall	Remove TorchLock from the phone and respring
make cydia	Copy the release package into repo/debs/ and regenerate the Cydia index

Testing runs inside SpringBoard on a device: make smoke, or in a debug build, activator send com.aurelio.torchlock.debug followed by reading /tmp/torchlock-debug.txt. The debug dump includes both buttons and the Notification Center view tree.

After installing a DEBUG=1 package, run python3 scripts/device-check.py for automated device checks of both buttons, live settings, torch state, bottom placement, transparent background, touch handling and scroll-space restoration. It uses SSH over port 2222, preserves the preference file and restores the original torch and lock state. For password access, set TORCHLOCK_SSH_PASSWORD in your environment; sshpass is required in that case. The test probe is included only in debug packages. To validate release contents and the iOS 6 deployment target, run python3 scripts/package-check.py after building both a debug and a release package.

docs/BUILDING.md explains the toolchain choices (why the 10.3 SDK, why -Wl,-U,_memset, why gzip packages).

Publishing a new version

1. Bump Version in tweak/control. make cydia won't replace a version that is already published, because phones that installed it would never see the new build.
2. Run make cydia. It builds, adds the .deb to repo/debs/, and rewrites Packages, Packages.gz, Packages.bz2 and Release.
3. Commit repo/ and push. GitHub Pages serves it within a minute or two.

Verified

All on the iPhone 4 / iOS 6.1.3 above:

• SpringBoard loads it with no crash and no safe mode, for both debug and release builds.
• Toggling through Activator switches the torch at once. torchMode and isTorchActive still matched after 6, 8 and 30 seconds.
• The backlight turned off (kernel log) eight seconds after the torch came on, and the torch stayed lit until it was toggled off 30 seconds later.
• The button is drawn above the left end of the unlock slider. This was checked with the debug build's screenshot.
• Each setting was checked by writing the preference file and sending the pane's change notification:
  • Turning Enabled off switched off a lit torch and removed the button, and Activator toggles were then ignored. Turning it back on restored both.
  • With Always Show Button off, the button was hidden, showed while the torch was on, and hid again once it was off.
  • Deleting the preference file brought the defaults back.
• Device checks also verified:
  • Camera replacement toggles the real torch on completed taps, leaves canceled taps/pans unchanged, and opens the camera through the original pan callback. Native recognizers and delegates remain intact during live preference changes.
  • The replacement survives native lock-screen recreation; disabling it or the tweak restores the camera image, and disabling replacement restores the separate torch button.
  • All five icons update live on the lock screen, camera shortcut and Notification Center. Each additional design has distinct off/on artwork; unknown style values fall back to the original bolt.
  • Notification Center defaults off; enabling it adds one row and disabling it restores the original scroll space without turning off a lit torch.
  • Both buttons toggle the real torch, and each reflects changes from the other.
  • Left/Right updates both buttons without a respring.
  • Master disable removes both buttons, turns the torch off and ignores Activator.
  • Existing table headers stay in place when the option is enabled or disabled.
  • Unlock turns the torch off by default; disabling Turn Off on Unlock keeps it lit and Notification Center shows the current state.
  • The Settings pane opens and renders inside the Settings app.

Not yet checked by a test:

• the Home double-click reveal, which hooks -[SBAwayController handleMenuButtonDoubleTap]
• changing the new options by tapping the Settings controls (the automated checks write preferences and post the same change notification)

Layout

Makefile          standard verbs; wraps the Theos project
tweak/
  Makefile        Theos project (target, arch, flags)
  Tweak.x         the tweak (Logos)
  TorchLockIcons.h native-scale vector drawing for the four additional icon styles
  TorchLock.plist Substrate filter: SpringBoard only
  control         Debian package metadata
  layout/Library/PreferenceLoader/Preferences/TorchLock/
                  Settings pane (PreferenceLoader plist + 29/58px icons)
docs/
  assets/         README banner (WebP)
  BUILDING.md     toolchain notes
  FLASHLOCK.md    why FlashLock misbehaves on iOS 6
repo/             the Cydia source, served by GitHub Pages
  debs/           every published .deb
  Packages*       index (plain, gzip, bzip2), generated
  Release         source metadata + index hashes, generated
  CydiaIcon.png   source icon shown in Cydia
  index.html      what Safari shows at the source URL
scripts/
  cydia-index.py  builds the index (stdlib only, no dpkg needed)
  device-check.py device integration checks (requires an installed debug build)
  package-check.py release contents and iOS 6 compatibility checks
tests/
  DeviceProbe.m  debug-only SpringBoard integration probe
index.html        Pages root, redirects to repo/
.nojekyll         serve files as-is, no Jekyll