Developer Ethan R has released a very useful tweak called Gandalf. It is just 1 KB in size! Do not underestimate this tweak as it can save you from bricking your jailbroken device. Let’s find out more about this tweak.

• Update (April 18) – The latest version is 2.14.
• Update (April 12) – Gandalf has been updated to version 2.

Gandalf ingeniously prevents bad Cydia tweaks from installing. It utilizes conflicts area of Debian control file to block bogus Cydia tweaks. This keeps your device in tiptop condition by preventing bootloops and Safe Mode.

How Gandalf Cydia Tweak Works

It’s such a sweet little tool. I’m sure many people still can’t wrap their heads around this “devilry”. Here’s a clear and concise explanation of what goes on behind the scenes.

• For example, you have Anemone on your iOS device and want to install Winterboard.
• Anemone will get deleted.
• This happens because Anemone has Winterboard in its conflicts list.
• There’s an exception to this, though. One tweak has another tweak in its conflicts list while the other one doesn’t. In this case, Cydia will not install the queue’d tweak.

How to Report Bogus Tweaks

Gandalf is 100% jailbreak community driven. It is completely open source and even you can contribute to this amazing tweak! If you have found a broken Cydia tweak, here’s what you need to do.

• Visit Gandalf’s GitHub page here.
• Create a fork.
• Go to your fork and edit the conflicts.txt text file.
• Submit a pull request.
• Developer EthanR will get notified about the bogus tweak and release an update in mere minutes.

Gandalf FAQ

As Gandalf is still in early development stages, here’s what you should keep in mind.

Q. Why does it constantly ask for update?

A. You just need to deal with this issue. This makes sure you always have the latest version installed.

Q. It is not installing on my device. What am I doing wrong?

A. You aren’t doing anything wrong. This just means you have installed one of the bad tweaks. Uninstall it by using the log.

Q. I am getting the size mismatch error. How to fix it?

A. Use the latest version of Cydia Installer 1.1.28.

Q. What tweaks should I uninstall before installing Gandalf?

A. Make sure you don’t have any of the tweaks installed –

• Automuter
• Auxo 3
• Tinybar
• Appendix
• Hoppin
• Ariki
• iBlank
• Biolockdown
• com.supermamon.newpackage
• iFile
• Appsync Unified
• Noplsrecovery
• OpenSSH
• Protect My Privacy
• Andrios
• Protean
• Respringprogress
• Spin
• Vertex

It is highly recommended that you install Gandalf asap. If you find any bogus tweak, report it to the developer as shown above.

Remember, it is compatible with iOS 10.2 ONLY at the moment. Ethan R will release it for iOS 10.1.1, Home Depot jailbreak and Pangu in the future.

Gandalf 1.0.3 is available for download on https://ethanrdoesmc.github.io/repo for free.