iPhone Hacked to Run Linux

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Planetbeing, a lead developer on the iPhone Dev Team, announced on their blog that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the Apple iPhone.

Openiboot, as the release is called, has support for the Linux shell on the first and second generation iPhones and the first generation iPod Touch (no mention of the 2nd generation iPod Touch). The developers have made it clear that this is a “first draft of the port” but they have included such features as, “framebuffer driver, serial driver, serial over USB driver , interrupts, MMU, clock, etc.”

This is far from a functional build of the Linux OS on the iPhone (as touchscreen support is absent) but it is a step towards having an alternative OS running on the closed iPhone platform. The iPhone OS is a derivative of OS X, which is built on the Darwin foundation. Darwin is an open sourced platform that is compliant with the Single UNIX specification, of which Linux is also compatible with. This does not mean the iPhone hardware is automatically compatible with the Linux kernel, but rather that reverse engineering device drivers are. The iPhone Dev Team plans on implementing features such as “write support to the NAND, Wi-Fi, touchscreen, sound, accelerometer, and baseband support in future releases.”

The possibilities of an open sourced OS running on an iPhone is exciting, especially after the controversy over Apple’s application approval processes for the iPhone Apps Store. It would be a welcomed change for developers and users alike to have options and open access similar to Google’s open-sourced platform, Android. Further justification for the development of the openiboot package can be read here.

A video of openiboot is available on the project’s blog along with instructions for installation and a download link to obtain the release package. The iPhone Dev Team is not affiliated with Apple and are the same developers responsible for the PwnageTool used for the jailbreaking of the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Marcus Yam

Marcus Yam is a technology evangelist for Intel Corporation, the latest in a long line of tech-focused roles spanning a more than 20-year career in the industry. As Executive Editor, News on Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, Marcus was responsible for shaping the sites' news output, and he also spent a period as Editor of Outdoors & Sports at Digital Trends.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Pei-chen
    Apple might just ask AT&T to block non-OS X phone from accessing the network.
    Reply
  • igot1forya
    Pei-chen, that may be true initially. But with any time, a simple work-around would be to emulate the needed call-outs that AT&T is looking for. The other option is to go to another network entirely.
    Reply
  • WOOO LINUX! HELL YEA!!! SIGN ME UP!!

    Wait... this actually just cripples the device? Wouldn't you get the same effect by throwing your iPhone off the side of a building?

    I understand that it is a work in progress, but how about getting a bit more progress before you go public, eh?
    Reply
  • frenchy
    Wouldn't it be easier to just wrap apps for Android? Isn't that linux based already? I guess I don't see the point of buying an expensive iPhone and replacing the OS as that software that originally comes with it is why the iPhone is so great.
    Reply
  • cruiseoveride
    Lets put it this way. If you had Linux on the iPhone. You could:

    1. Run almost any linux software (probably including all the nice openGL desktops too)
    2. Play any format of video or audio that exists.
    3. Encrypt your personal data.
    4. Probably use wine and run StarCraft, Colin McRae... well basically any game that wine supports and the graphics hardware on the iPhone could handle.
    5. Have a full featured desktop environment
    6. Basically do anything you wanted to.

    If you can already do everything you wanted to, then you dont want much :)
    Reply
  • It will be nice if we can run linux and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Open Office, Star craft you name it. Pretty much a nettop with better battery life and phone function.
    Reply