Linux now running on an iPhone and the first-gen iPod touch
Posted by Daniel East 
Dec 1, 2008 at 10:30am
iPhone DevTeam member planetbeing has done a phenomenal job reverse engineering Apple’s hardware drivers and now for the first time ever, Linux is available on the iPhone and the first-gen iPod touch.
The Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to Apple’s iPhone platform, with support for the first and second generation iPhones as well as the first generation iPod touch. This is a rough first draft of the port, and many drivers are still missing, but it’s enough that a real alternative operating system is running on the iPhone.
From the iPhone DevTeam:
What we have:
• Framebuffer driver
• Serial driver
• Serial over USB driver
• Interrupts, MMU, clock, etc.
What we have in openiboot (but hasn’t been ported yet):
• Read-only support for the NAND
What we don’t have (yet!):
• Write support for the NAND
• Wireless networking
• Touchscreen
• Sound
• Accelerometer
• Baseband support
The current userland we’re using, in the interest of expedience, is a Busybox installation created with buildroot, but glibc works fine as well, and we’re going to build a more permanent userland solution.
Instructions here: http://www.iphone-dev.org/planetbeing/LINUX-README.txt
Download here: http://91.186.26.18/iphone/files/iphonelinux-demo.tar.gz (look for mirrors in the comments)
EDIT: The instructions are missing the step that you have to select openiboot console from the menu before performing the “sudo ./oibc” step. Just be aware you have to do that if it seems like you’re not getting a response from the oibc client.
Project lead: planetbeing
Contributors: CPICH, cmw, poorlad, ius, saurik
If you’re experienced with hacking/porting Linux and especially if you’re experienced with porting Android, I’d definitely like to hear from you. Come chill in the #iphonelinux channel on irc.osx86.hu. Thanks. :)
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Daniel East
Daniel M. East is a technology author, freelance writer, presenter/trainer and consultant with more than 20 years experience in professional photography, design, pro-audio and music industry marketing. East is also founder and president of The Apple Groups Team support network for user groups.
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