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Linux Kernel Booting On the iPhone
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sat Nov 29, 2008 08:15 AM
from the there's-no-iphone-in-team dept.
from the there's-no-iphone-in-team dept.
mhm was one of many readers to note that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the iPhone.
"Planetbeing, one of the iPhone devteam members, has been working on porting Linux to the iPhone (along with a custom bootloader called OpeniBoot). Today they managed to boot the kernel! Video showing the boot process has been posted. Instructions and binaries are available on the project blog."
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Submission: Linux kernel booting on the iPhone by Anonymous Coward
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Apple's response (Score:5, Funny)
Android. (Score:5, Funny)
For all those thinking "Android," check this from the blog entry:
Oh, and read some of the blog comments. Man - I thought youtube comments were stupid, but this trumps even that:
and:
Oh - and the obligatory iphone linux comic [geekherocomic.com]
Re:Android. (Score:4, Interesting)
This isn't as stupid as it sounds (though one hopes they RTFA'd.) I recall trying to put Linux on my Nintendo DS, only to find that installing it (without using additional hardware) required... Windows. I'm not sure if that situation has changed since, but it was a major disappointment and WTF at the time.
Is CmdrTaco a wanker or what? They never fix problems with Slashdot, they only introduce them. You remember the good old days when we had nice, workable, simple, user pages? Now going to your user page brings up a set of random shit pulled from various parts of Slashdot (a few comments you recently made, coupled with random articles from the past that appear to have no relationship to you whatsover.)
What a bunch of tools.
Parent
Re:Android. (Score:4, Interesting)
>
<sarcasm>
What's wrong with that comment? If you recall from history, SCO stole linux to make Unix, which they time travelled back and sold to AT&T and Berkeley. Then Apple fired Steve Jobs, who put Linux in a black box and called it "NeXT". Then Apple bought him, made their own Linux, then retroactively created 6 major versions of FreeBSD as a front.
Then Darwin created a kernel (evolution my ass!), which he published steganographically in that ridiculous "Origin of Species". Babbage was the first to discover the hidden message when he was reading the book to to figure out why his engine got such bad gas mileage (he later discovered the flaw was that the car hadn't been invented yet, and pouring gasoline into a stationary computing engine wasn't getting him anywhere. But I digress.
Its turtles all the way down.
</sarcasm>
I used to be amazed at how many self-proclaimed geeks didn't know the difference between FreeBSD and Linux. How can you expect regular mortals to know what brand of unix-like subsystem Apple has running under the hood?
I'm a little impressed when non-technical folks know that there's some sort of open source unix behind the pretty Apple curtains, even if they don't get it exactly right.
Just like Richard Stallman says: who cares what they call it, as long as they didn't have to pay for it ;)
Parent
Obligatory (Score:2)
Man - I thought youtube comments were stupid...
http://www.xkcd.com/202/ [xkcd.com]
Linux drivers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Linux drivers? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Linux drivers? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
however Apple dislikes people actually using their hardware and therefore they try as hard as they can to break anything someone does to actually make Apple hardware do something useful
The rockbox problem (Score:2)
> However, it is more likely than not that by the time they succeed, a new version will come out, and we will be back to square one.
Yup, this is the situation rockbox finds itself in. No currently shipping hardware can run rockbox. And few of the existing ports ever get finished before the devs apparently lose interest in old obsolete hardware and begin porting to the new shiny. The lesson to be learned from this is simple. Unless you just get off on porting don't bother with closed hardware. So if
Re:Linux drivers? (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder how they plan to get the hardware specifications for the necessary drivers from Apple.
The same way many linux drivers have been written. Reverse engineering. [wikipedia.org]
Apple certainly isn't going to help - I imagine they've got the lawyer cannon trained already.
Parent
Cool. (Score:2)
Now we just need to get android running on it.
Re:Cool. (Score:4, Funny)
Now we just need to get android running on it.
Yes, the iPhone OS is clearly too user friendly.
Parent
Re:Cool. (Score:5, Interesting)
...but so locked down to the point of being programmer unfriendly?
Parent
Jailbreaking is jailbreaking. (Score:2)
It's already running UNIX, it's just a matter of getting to that root prompt. And if you're willing to jailbreak the phone to install Linux on it, why aren't you willing to jailbreak the phone to install Darwin apps on it?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The BSD subsystem isn't installed on a stock iPhone. Installing it is a part of the jailbreak procedure.
Re: (Score:2)
Installing it is a part of the jailbreak procedure.
That's an implementation detail. It's still easier than reverse engineering the whole damn thing and re-doing that every time there's a hardware update.That's all part of "And if you're willing to jailbreak the phone to install Linux on it, why aren't you willing to jailbreak the phone to install Darwin apps on it?"
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's NOT running Unix, it's running Apple's proprietary fork of BSD with no X support and a boatload of bizarre and arbitrary filesystem naming changes.
None of that means "it's not UNIX". If you think the iPhone isn't running UNIX then some of the UNIX versions I've used over the past 30 years would explode your brain like a watermelon full of liquid nitrogen.
I know the "in thing" these days is to suck Steve Jobs [...]
If you think I suck Steve Jobs, tell that to all the Apple Fanbois who regularly mod me do
This is the only thing that could make me buy it (Score:4, Interesting)
Join us now, and free the iPhones (Score:5, Funny)
It's the GNUphone [today.com] come to life!
"Really, we're not out to destroy Apple; that will just be a completely unintentional side effect."
Dialing from the command line will be the killer feature. Just type dial voice +1-555-1212 -ntwk verizon -prot cdma2000 -ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x and away you go. Simple and intuitive!
Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones (Score:5, Funny)
linux_2.6.26_AnwseringMode
linux_2.6.26_DialingMode
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Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones (Score:5, Funny)
Stop spreading nonsense! Everybody knows that a kernel maintainer updated his git repository with an experimental patch for the current release. It was all over this obscure mailing list last night -- try to keep up! After recompiling, all you have to do is figure out the right kernel boot parameters and compile and install a user mode daemon. After that, you can choose either answering or dialing mode at will by echo'ing ANSWER or DIAL to /sys/devices/system/phone_mode. Nothing could be easier!
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Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't be ridiculous. Any true geek would know that the command should be:
voice +1-555-1212 -ntwk verizon -prot GSM -ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x
Sheesh
Re: (Score:2)
Uh, no. Verizon uses CDMA.
Why we ported Linux OS for iPhone? (Score:2)
So in the other words, now we got the Linux OS ported to iPhone, we can finally get a GNU/Linux developing platform to iPhone in no time and then we can get all the wanted applications working... but does it still be a phone or toy?
I dont know is the GNU/Linux developing platform needed at all, most important thing is just that Linux OS is ported and we can develop the needed applications on the PC/Mac and then just run them on the iPhone.
Re: (Score:2)
Because the fact that it's already based on an open source UNIX isn't good enough for some people, they need to make sure it's running the politically correct open source UNIX.
Re:Why we ported Linux OS for iPhone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
> Because the fact that it's already based on an open source UNIX isn't good enough for some people...
Because the one Apple ships is crippled. If it can't run your applications it isn't much use now is it? And an iPhone can't run any applications that His Steveness doesn't like so it should be expected that that situation will be rectified. Trying to fix the origional OS to remove the evil bits is a pointless game of cat and mouse so the obvious solution is to keep the (to some people at least) nice h
Re: (Score:2)
If you don't want to play the jailbreak game you shouldn't get an iPhone.
The hardware isn't THAT good, and it's not exactly cheap, either. You can get an OpenMoko phone for less *and* support free software in the process... instead of rewarding Apple for shipping a typical closed cellphone.
Can you still call people with it? (Score:3)
iPhone-unfriendly video (Score:2)
Ironically, the video of the boot process requires Flash, which Apple in their wisdom has chosen not to support. The devs surely knew this, and probably decided not to use YouTube to tweak the noses of those of us who occasionally use our iPhones to read /. (and even post!). Their motivation for doing so escapes me, however, since presumably we are their most interested target audience. Curious.
Re: (Score:2)
You know, I dislike Flash in general because I think it's bad for the Web, and I never use a portable device to access the Internet. So I'm hardly a supporter of their decision to use YouTube. That said, if they were thinking about /. (or any other big site that might link them) at all, I'd bet all they thought is that they didn't want tons of people trying to download video off of their server at once, even on what's probably a pretty low-traffic Saturday. It's probably very easy to post video on YouTub
Will this help RockBox on 6th gen ipods? (Score:3, Interesting)
Rockbox [rockbox.org] doesn't support the latest ipods. I thought I read that the iphone and the 6th gen ipods where very similar underneath the hood (and very different from previous generation ipods). Can someone who knows more say if this development will help rockbox port to the 6th gen ipod?
Re: (Score:2)
If by "sixth generation iPod" you mean iPod Touch, then yes. The iPod Touch is the same as an iPhone but without the phone hardware or GPS.
Trade you for my iPaq (Score:2)
I already installed Linux on my iPaq, I'll trade you my iPaq for your iPhone and you can save yourself a bunch of hassles.
Question: (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Phone or computer? (Score:2)
It comes to show that modern mobile phones, especially the high-end ones (smartphones), are basically just a general purpose computer, miniaturised, with some specialised user interface (small screen, a handful of buttons, camera, speaker and microphone).
It's really an impressive hack, but hardly surprising that it is possible in the first place. After all the iPhone is running a specialised version of OS-X already.
Obligatory (Score:2)
But does it run.....
nevermind.
Re: (Score:2)
nevermind
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
//iphone/dev/* (Score:2)
The kernel is necessary but not sufficient. To run Linux apps (the point of running the Linux kernel), the iPhone HW devices must have drivers that run against the kernel. The graphics display, the touchscreen, the phone's radio and the storage filesystem all must run Linux drivers for Linux apps to use them.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
(Linked to the dead site to illustrate the fact that I'm kidding. Relax, mods.)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
And yes I run linux, and so does my wife's computer. and my neighbor's. and my
Re: (Score:2)
Not that I can afford an iPhone, but having GNU emacs, gcc, and TeX/LaTeX on such a device would be interesting.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They ported the kernel, not X.
Qt seems to be outdoing Microsoft and Apple's offerings in the UI department actually.
Your phone wouldn't be usable at all with the current Linux offering at the moment anyway. I wouldn't expect anyone to want you to switch 'yet'.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
can somebody translate this to english?
This is my best effort:
Before the iPhone came out, I used a fancy Japanese phone to play music and video. As soon as Linux is available for the iPhone, I will give my old phone to my wife. Then I will install Linux on the iPhone and use it for music and video, as well as games.