| Mobility | |
| By Christian Zibreg | |
| Monday, December 01, 2008 14:41 | |
Chicago (IL) – A group of developers called The Dev Team unveiled the perhaps most significant iPhone modification so far by porting basic parts of Linux to the iPhone and iPod touch. The bare-bone Linux 2.6 kernel port shows only the command line prompt, but higher-level parts of the operating system, such as graphics and networking, are also in the works. As exciting as it sounds, running Linux on the iPhone is most likely only a basic step towards a far more ambitious goal - running Android on the iPhone.
The Dev Team originally became famous with its iPhone jailbreaking and unlocking tools that enable users to install any iPhone application on their handset and use the phone with any GSM network. Although the developers are still improving these tools, it has been an open secret that they have been working on other projects as well. Last week, the team surprised users with a successful Linux boot on the iPhone. The achievement is considered a milestone, if not groundbreaking, since this is the first time that the iPhone is reported to run an alternative operating system.
"I am pleased to announce that 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," the official announcement states. The developers claim that they have a rough first draft of the Linux port so it is missing many higher-level drivers. However, key components required for basic functionality and command line functionality have been ported, including basic graphics support and a serial and serial-over-USB driver. They now focus on porting other libraries and drivers as well to let Linux run a graphical user interface and use iPhone's hardware capabilities, including the accelerometer, touchscreen, sound, NAND flash memory and networking.
Installing Linux on an iPhone or iPod touch currently involves a series of steps the developers do not recommend to those without extensive knowledge. The process basically comes down backing up the content of the device, installing the component called OpeniBoot and a basic Linux 2.6 kernel iPhone port. The former application allows the existence of multiple operating systems on the gadget. With OpeniBoot and Linux 2.6 kernel installed on your iPhone or iPod touch, users are offered a choice between the iPhone or Linux operating system when they boot the device.
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