Linux Ported to the iPhone

• Author: admin
• Filed under: Tech News
• Date: Nov 30,2008

Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the iPhone, according to an announcement by the iPhone Dev Team on Friday. It’s not complete as many drivers are missing, but it boots and you get a Linux shell.

According to the official announcement,

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 team has also created a multi-boot front end that lets users toggle between Apple’s own operating system and an alternative platform, called OpeniBoot (pictured above).

That’s just the start; the iPhone Dev Team is interested in porting Android to the iPhone; they even ask about Android porters in their announcement post.

Check out a demonstration video: