I have seen a couple people around the net complaining that Winterboard will not activate any themes and that the fix was to rejailbreak and then install everything fresh. Well...

I did a jailbreak on my 3G (3.1.2) and everything works fine until I install Winterboard from Cydia. When the iphone resprings, I am presented with the "sad iphone" and taken into Safe Mode with the standard message that the mobile substraight /did not/ cause this but prevented blah blah blah...

Does anyone know of a way to fix this problem? As soon as I uninstall Winterboard, everything is fine. So logic would say don't install winterboard but that is not an option since that is really the only reason I jailbreak my iphone. Sure there are a couple apps I love (ie SBSettings, MxTube etc), but it is driving me crazy that Apple in all their amazing design gifts, make the ugliest UI with a god awful dock. ewwww.

So, any ideas?

Did you use blackraln to jailbreak?
I heard it has problem with winterboard n other stuff.
I use Pwnage Tool for 3.1.2.
Winterboard works fine on my 3gs.
3G should work too.

I only use the Dev Team's jailbreaks. Pwnage 3.1.4.

Argh, this is frustrating, I have created new custom ipsw's probably 20 times or so.

Ok, new chain of events. When I tried this morning, probably the 20th time or so, something totally new happened. Normally when you install winterboard, you get the message to respring. this time it said "Reboot Device"

I don't know if Suriak changed something with cydia or winterboard, but it works now. WOOHOO!!!

I haven't had the luck you had. My 3G keeps on starting up in Safe Mode. Any other ideas people?