Hackers boot Linux on iPhone

A new front has opened in the ongoing arms race between Apple and iPhone hackers, with one hacker group making the iPhone boot with a Linux 2.6 kernel.

The announcement of the successful kernel porting was made on the Linux on the iPhone blog, complete with instructions and source code.

Although a bootloader, kernel and a Busybox terminal are able to be loaded -- many features of the iPhone remain unimplemented: touchscreen, sound, accelerometer, networking. Input to the terminal must be made via a USB interface from another device that the iPhone is attached to (humorously summed up by Geek Hero Comic).

The group that ported the kernel is derived from the iPhone DevTeam group that has been responsible for jailbreaking previous iPhone software.

iPhone Linux Demonstration Video from planetbeing on Vimeo.

[Goodbye Helicopter]

Dear iPhone DevTeam,
Please put your fine skills to more useful and practical purposes.
How about working on making Linux as nice as Mac OS so that we can all really be free and happy.

[eagledrc]

Linux can own OSX in anything except for running programs which do not have a Linux port, and it can still do that through virtualization and WINE. Just ask yourself, what runs supercomputers? Linux.

[rapier1]

Some supercomputer run linux. Some don't. People have built supercomputer with OSX, Windows, HPUX, Solaris, etc. etc. etc. However, that doesn't really address what the original commenter is asking for - he's asking for a consistant and intuitive UI, a system that doesn't require you to play with obtuse config files, one that doesn't require you to be a sys admin (or be friends with one) in order to make the best use of it. Linux still isn't there yet.

[Mr. Dee]

I will never understand Linux, it wants to be everything to everyone. Basically, Linux is the Britney Spears going through depression of the operating system world. I guess that would make KDE and GNOME the two kids.

[vamman]

Mac OS is nice?

[bonesbautista]

I'm with GH.

I'll add that those programmers really need to get a life...

[Chapmaniac]

I have to agree that this doesn't seem to be a good use of time and talent. Polishing the current (Linux) desktop would be a far better endeavor. You're not going to be able to improve on the iPhone GUI. Why not see what can be done on a Windows Mobile device?

[rdnetto]

For starters, I can think of one huge improvement over the native iPhone OS - being able to install any app, without the App Store. While this has been implemented by jail breakers, I've heard that this gets broken everytime a new update is released. If these guys wrote a Linux-based OS, then we wouldn't have this problem. They could open up the iPhone and remove all those proprietary restrictions. Plus, any existing Linux apps could be easily ported to the iPhone.

[neighborhoodcomentator]

Why would they need to get a life? They can obviously have a life and work on amazing things like making an iphone run on another operating system as easy as bootcamp for osx. Now other people with lives will be able to make an unlocked iphone with linux apps

[rapier1]

Its a good first step but without driver support its a dead end.

[benjwah]

They need to get a life because they spent a lot of time working to make something useful into something useless. They clearly, clearly lack something better to do with their time.

[rdnetto]

benjwah, what makes you think that an iPhone with Linux is useless? It's actually very powerful, so powerful that only a few people can actually use it now. Once they produce a suitable GUI for it, it will become more functional than the native iPhone OS.

[JohnBarbagallo]

Stop all the hateresque comments and just accept it for what it is, good job team...!

[Riquez-001]

Breaking news!
Operating system designed to be installed on anything with a hard drive, gets installed on something with a hard drive.

[dapriett]

Alright, now start working on the Google Android port...

[tehrani625]

Idiot android is Linux. If you where trying to be funny it was fail. Yes I think that for people with lives this in general is not that great YET. Once they add a decent gui and maybe the ability to record video then it would be amazing. I am still stuck on the fact that apple does not believe that people record video with their phones. If I was paying money for a phone with a camera I would like it to record video. If I am paying a lot of money for a luxury phone I has to record dam good video, and send it anywhere. Just saying.

[FUNsquatch]

If you were trying to be funny, it was hilarious to me.

[this1!]

wow tehrani must not gotten his mornin wood polished today...

easy there, dont burst a vein...

[benjwah]

Wow. Where do I get my copy of "Take My iPhone and Make It Useless 1.0"?

[DrtyDogg]

@ the apple store, or AT&T

[planetbeing]

Haha, seriously, man. Do you have to flame me on every site you're on (and twice on this page?)

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081201-linux-iphone-port-could-pave-the-way-for-android.html?comments=1 (at the bottom): "Wow. Jesus Christ, I'd go under a pseudonym as well if I'd dedicated that much time to such a useless idea. Mind you, his pseudonym should have been something like "life_waster"."

And the other one on this page (!): "They need to get a life because they spent a lot of time working to make something useful into something useless. They clearly, clearly lack something better to do with their time."

Okay man, I get it! Leaving aside the sad irony of the fact that you're telling us to get lives when you're being so diligent in flaming us that you have to do it twice on the same story, this is only development code. Of course we don't expect anyone to put this on their phone right now. This is just telling people where we're at and trying to get attention from other developers who can help. And it worked.

[Penguinisto]

@Mr. Duckett:

You gotta start somewhere.

[Seaspray0]

I commend the team on their effort, but I think it could have been time better spent improving a phone that already runs a linux kernel like android. I really don't see a big demand for people buying an iphone to run linux when they can get a phone that was designed to run linux and for a fraction of the cost. This is more suited for Ripley's Believe it or Not than it is practical. Neat, but not practical.

[Penguinisto]

Maybe... I agree that with the AT&T angle, Android would make more sense on the face of things.

OTOH, there are more than enough unlocked/jailbroken iPhones out there (mostly via eBay), that a Linux client with Skype on an iPhone makes a hell of a lot of sense. You wouldn't even need a carrier, contract, or any such nonsense if you live and work in an urban setting with lots of free WiFi about.

Also, there's a ton of dev work that has already been done for PDAs and Linux not even counting Android (projects like Opie, Familiar Linux, Agenda, etc) that can be readily adapted for use on the iPhone. Then there's Rockbox, which has been happily running on iPods for years now.

That's the funny thing - these guys just barely got started, and everyone's talking about how it'll take them forever, etc etc... but I posit that drivers and features will be rather fast in coming.

Besides, it's damned fun running something on Linux - When I ran Familiar Linux on an old iPaq PDA I had (which gave me a portable media player long before theiPod came out), the look on other folks' faces was priceless.

[f.arenas]

zzzzzzzz

[rcardona2k]

Apple's hardware yearns to be free; whether it's running Linux, android or something else. It's called choice and these people time is their own, in future many will positively recognize their efforts.

[TrailBarge]

Good grief... people thought the same thing about HAM radio operators. All the holier-than-thou Democrat party wannabes trying to tell folks what is a waste of their time and what is a good use of resources. Did you know that there are millions out there who think that posting comments to a news story is also a waste of time? What, you disagree? Sorry.

For what it is worth, text messaging on a cell phone was first explored by packet radio HAM operators. Oh, yeah... the whole friggin cell network is their doing, too. Beyond Amateur radio, is anybody aware that the comet that hit Jupiter was discovered by some guy "wasting his time" as an amateur astronomer? Hold it, wait.... its coming to me.... oh yeah.... Linux, itself was born out of minix by an student programmer and the very reason for its being discussed today is the net product of millions of man-hours of amateurs "wasting their time" writing open source code.

"I have to agree that this doesn't seem to be a good use of time and talent. ".... bah! What you agree about is not worth a pile of fetid dingoes kidneys. When you have some useful breakthrough to your name, using your environment of naysaying and snobbish downtalking, perhaps I'll agree that invention can be done any other way than by "wasting time".

Thanks for getting my vitriol flowing. I'll hopefully lose my appetite and shed some pounds that have been dogging me.

[this1!]

open source has its place, darwin wouldn't exist without it, and therefore neither would mac, it also inspires innovation, forces MS and Apple to rethink and re innovate (or whatever you'd like to call it) in order to make a more appealing product. Open Source software gets upgraded and implements new features, designs, concepts and ideas so often it lights the burner on the ***** of MS and Apple to do so themselves.

[planetbeing]

Thanks for your support!

[nickh2]

Well done.

Now make a phone call with it. Oh, wait.....

[sanenazok]

Oh grow up...it's a proof of concept. I can't say that there's anything wrong with them trying to do this. I installed Linux on my Dell Axim and it went from crash happy to a solid device that I still actually use.

[nickh2]

Grow up?

I'm not the one wasting my time, ruining a perfectly good mobile telephone and turning it into a piece of junk.

[this1!]

no, but you are a narrow minded fool

[CITechnologies]

"Why would anyone want Linux on an iPhone?" simple...the same reasons anyone wants Linux on a laptop. Let's face it...the iPhone's only real downside compared to a laptop is screen size. It even runs better then most laptops I have worked on over the years. We only need stronger processors in laptops anyways is because the software is bloated, so processing shouldn't be the reason. I personally don't like Linux mainly because of software compatibility issues. People can argue programs like OpenOffice.org all they want, but they aren't truly compatible when moving docs back and forth. Try saving them in each program making a few changes each time you bounce it from to the other...you'll see what I mean. Games...sheesh...don't bother. You get Doom and Quake. (yes I know there are a few more but let's face it...choice is sadly limited for being a few decades old) Let's not forget that Linux is also a huge rip off of Unix for those trying to be suave with it origins. Mr. Torvolds gets a lot of credit for other peoples work. Read Richard Stallman's book sometime. I think porting other OS's on your hardware is great because there are a few people out there who want choice and want the opportunity to make a few million bucks out of their garage. I still play around with DOS boxes from time to time. Maybe the guys over at ReactOS.org will take a look at this and make a Windows Mobile clone. They have the right idea when it comes to an OS.

[gybognarjr]

What's the point? Why condone and applaud a crime. I find it completely stupid and idiotic to do such hacking. If you don't like Mac OSX and the iPhone, go suck a lemon and buy something else.

[CITechnologies]

Maybe you should tell Steve Jobs that since the majority of his Macs were ripped off from other people just as Microsoft did with their products. I guess if we lived by your statement, we wouldn't have an iPhone.

It seems to me, those asking "what is the point of running linux on the iphone" don't quite get the geek / hacker mentality.

The reason for doing it is simply to see if it can be done.

What are the benefits - who knows? There may be no tangible benefits. They may discover a whole new world of currently inconcievable possiblities that revolutionise modern communications.

You won't find out until you try. That's why we do things, just to see if they can be done

Fair play, guys - keep up the good work

[pmoosh]

Can you make phone calls with it?

[Lokster123]

It's a good start... lets see what's next.

[reddawnz]

Yo, idiots your not bricking (making useless) the iphone. Did you not see the bootloader? You can boot the apple os or linux.