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November 29, 2008 12:00 AM PST

Linux on the iPhone

by Ben Wilson
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A group of developers, led by someone using the handle "planetbeing," have produced a method to load Linux 2.6's kernel to the iPhone. The hack is supported on all generations of the Apple iPhone and the first generation of the iPod Touch. According to the announcement, however "many drivers are still missing, but it's enough that a real alternative operating system is running on the iPhone."

According to the post the following are completed: Framebuffer driver, Serial driver, Serial over USB driver, Interrupts, MMU, and Clock, etc. Items still in progress include: Read/Write NAND support, wireless LAN, touchscreen, sound, accelerometer, baseband support.

A video demonstration has been posted.

There are some instructions and a download, but they are not for the inexperienced.

It's clear that this port of Linux is in its infancy and not of much use to most iPhone users. Above all there is no phone support in this port so you'll end up with an iPhone that won't make calls, etc.

Feedback? http://www.iphoneatlas.com/contact.

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by Simply Olly November 30, 2008 10:43 AM PST
Wow! This is so cool..
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by charlotmizzi December 3, 2008 5:46 AM PST
I am so pleased to have wasted my time:
having read the (no) news
having posted this
AND
having wasted your time dear reader!
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by cnet.aaron December 10, 2008 11:24 AM PST
Is this actually useful? Seems like it's a long way from something that might actually have a purpose int eh computing world....then again, if this is proof of concept for Android in iPhone it's kinda cool.
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