uClinux Ported to the iPod

ucdot writes "Here is the announcement for a port of uClinux to the Apple iPod, checkout the project page for extra details. Currently the frame buffer, audio and IDE devices are working. Still plenty of work to do."

Comments

Re:And this is useful, how?

[Anonymous Coward]

first off, I don't see that this has been done for anything other than a bit of fun. the pleasure of the hack. However, going a bit further... ...part of the iPods appeal to me is the multipurpose aspect. It's not just a music player, it's a -fast- external HD. Now that's well and good, but more features never hurt.

Adding in the possibility of tcp over firewire gives you, essentially, an entire portable linux box that's a good sized firewire HD, music player, and terminal-accessible machine with a battery life measured in DAYS.

That doesn't mean it could ever completely replace a good laptop for example, but to me a lot of the little uses of a piece of hardware are those that go beyond what it was designed/made/intended for.

It is what it is, and someone shall find a use for it. And it's cool :)

Re:Enjoy while it lasts

[fiftyvolts]

Its sad to think that people are so anti-cooperate that they don't know a good thing when it bites them on the nose. It's OK to make money. If we didn't make money we would all be starving on the corner of some streetor "working" behind a supermarket. Apple traditionally doesn't tell people to stop hacking their devices unless they have a good reason. As long as we don't see an article like "Linux used to pirate boatloads of music on the iPod" on /. and the linux hackers have followed all the details outlined in the EULA we won't hear Apple cry shennanigins. I contribute to opensource free software projects; don't let yourself get overzealous with this anti-corporate thing.

Re:Impressive

[troc]

not really..... Apple are fundamentally a hardware company, they only have software on the iPod so people will buy an iPod. They probably don't really mind what software people run s long as it's an iPod that Apple sold 'em ;)

They can't even be pushing Mac-only compatibility as they sell a Windows version etc etc.

So will Apple be miffed if you buy an iPod and install a random os on it? I doubt it, just like they don't send the boys round when you buy a Mac an install Yellow Dog or something.

Troc

Re:And this is useful, how?

[drunkenbatman]

And this is useful, how?

What a curious statement... I bet they had a lot of fun creating it and learned a ton in the process. Since when does hacking something have to be useful? :)

It didn't exist before, and they made it exist, even if all it will ever do is show the penguin logo. Kudos to them.

At the same time, you could fit a lot of iPods in a server rack...

Re:And this is useful, how?

[biglig2]

I have to say that this is potentially a hell of a lot more practical than hundreds of other odd projects to port Linux to wierd hardware.

Some ideas, most of which are based around the principle that this allows the Linux community to add features to the pod that apple haven't gotten round to yet:

Stuff Apple might very well do anyway:
Ogg support, and perhaps other freaky formats.
Playlist editing on the Pod

Stuff Apple are very unlikely to do:
Ipod's store the files on the disk but name them randomly so you cannot access them easily when it is operating as a firewire drive; a TuxPod (I'll want royalties on that name please) could store them as regular files so you no longer need special software to load a pod up and can use it to play your songs on a PC without needing to keep a copy on the PC.
It should be possible to put something together to allow you to use the scroll wheel to enter text (I'm thinking something like the system Stephen Hawking uses to enter text into his voice synth) making it capable of all sorts of PDA functions.
AvantGo client.