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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."
Ogg vorbis support via Tremor decoder, for one.
Or you can install apache on it and serve webpages. It'll still be more stable than IIS.
when i got the nomad jukebox it was ok, but i had to trade up for the beautiful UI of the iPod.
the only thing i miss about the NJB is the ability to make realtime playlists, and to be able to delete songs away from the computer. i would love to see that come to my iPod via this port!!!
also a dual boot would be incredible, but doubt the 2 firmwares could co-exist unless the firmware would be a booter (ala lilo or grub), and the iPod/Linux firmware be made virtual and put onto the ide harddrive.
For anyone bored to check their website here are the two screenshots they include.
1
and
2
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
Apple's reaction will be interesting. If they jump on these developers, they will be sending a strong message about exactly what they are selling with the iPod. If - and I think this is more likely - they ignore or even help the project, the iPod will become immensely popular.
Ogg support (or even just a shell prompt!) would be reason enough for me to buy the iPod today.
Hope this message gets through to Apple.
So, what's next: will some intelligent company build a DVD player that can be extended with IDE drives internally and run Linux so that we can load it with mplayer and freenet and build that "your grandmother can fileshare" set-top DVD/VR I'm dreaming about?
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
1. Get it to continue working with iTunes. Imagine, once this matures and the music capabilities are running at full speed, how nice it will be to be able to sync and use both your ogg vorbis and mp3 files on the iPod using iTunes to organize everything.
2. Figure out the remote pin-outs, so hardware hackers, or at least those with soldering skill can make their own remotes. I'm thinking I would like to modify my snowboarding jacket since I can't afford that Burton/Apple iPod jacket. Granted, this request goes out to anyone who is interested as it really doesn't have anything to do with the iPod linux project. If I can find some time, I may look into it myself.
If anyone has any info on the above, please feel free to chime in. Oh, yeah, and I noticed this from the FAQ. Perhaps this can waylay all of the "WHY?!?" trolls:
Cheers. :)
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Once you have control over the OS you can run almost any software you want on it. You could turn it into a complete organizer, not just a portable audio player and storage device.
Yes, more info in the FAQ. See section 4.1 for the bit on reloading Apple firmware.
I'm really very interested in tracking this - my iPod is behaving horribly with VBR-encoded files (firmware 1.2.1, mine cuts off the end of the track if you pause or fast forward/rewind) and short of re-ripping 40Gigs-worth I'm stuck without a solution. Quite keen to see what happens here.
Cheers,
Ian
As long as you've got access to a Windows machine with Firewire, you can convert a Mac iPod to Windows by using the Windows iPod software installer from Apple. And it'll still work on the Mac -- Windows iPods work just fine with Macs, although not vice versa -- the only thing you lose is the desktop icon.
How so? You still need to actually buy the iPod from Apple...
I can see it now. Two geeks in a bar looking at each others linux equipped ipods. One pulls out a firewire cable and says "I'll share you mine if you share me yours"
EGG, the Electronic Gamers Guild
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.
100% Crunchier
Its not like it is breaking any agreement with Apple. Read the software license that comes with the iPod, its a simple software license, nothing else. Just like Apple has not squished the Linux on PowerPC programs, Apple will not got after someone wanting to write something for the iPod. iCommune was a person breaking their agreement with Apple, they had all the right in the world to tell him to cease and desist. My 2 cents.
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
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
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...
Why is the penguin on their website stoned? Was he making one of the switch ads too?
The ultimate is efficient servers, barely larger than the hard drives inside them - having only one cable acting as both data and power, capable of being stacked 595 to a standard 42U rack, giving and incredible density of almost 12 terabytes, double that if you use a back-to-back storage configuration.
Yes, the iPodServe is the most incredible, albeit expensive, server technology available. At just under $300,000 per 42U rack, you couldn't manage more if you had the staff to do so.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
This is, AFAIK, a known problem with MP3's without the Xing VBR header. There are utilities out there to 'repair' your existing mp3's to add the appropriate header. My experience with just such a tool was a success (but it was such a pain that I didn't bother doing it with the whole library yet).
You know the developer is a slashdot frequent when you read the FAQ.
"3.4 Can you imagine a Beowolf cluster...
There was an April fools about a bunch of Buddhists ordering a heap of iPods. Too bad... if it were true perhaps they could have clustered them to solve the ancient mysteries...
Translation, yes, but its just silly. "
---- The geek shall inherit the Earth.
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.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
It does this already. iSync lets you store Address Book and iCal data on your iPod. Pretty slick too.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
No, it decodes mp3s in software. The board has two arm processors, and it's probably safe to bet that one is used for decoding the audio while the other is used for everything else.
Surely you mean apple made the UI so sexy, that it would be hard not to play with it
You know, this isn't very useful. We already have linux based mp3 devices that are far cheaper than the iPod. The iPod's appeal is that it acts as a tool, not a computer...that is, it's simple and performs its duty infallibly. Adding a bunch of hacked features to it may be cool to some, but to me it's basically eliminating all the appeal of this type of mobile jukebox.
I mean, come on. We all laugh when we see a porsche with a big coffee can exhaust pipe slapped onto it. This is the same idea -- taking the expensive, high quality "performance player" in the market, and rendering it an alpha-quality linux box. All for the sake of playing OGG files, which you can't even generate with iTunes.
For $500, you can get a fucking sweet linux box. Or you can get an iPod. Don't wreck the latter trying to get the former.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
man vfork
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Actually, how they react might depend on what can be done with the software. While they didn't make it impossible to get mp3's back off of it, they didn't make it easy either. If the work looks like it might get them flak, they may react or in the very least put out the message that installing unauthorized software violates the warranty, and possibly a license. Don't have one {sniff} so I'm not sure about any licenses, and I don't recall that they have much of a manufacture's warranty, but issuing a statement to that effect would probably be the least offensive method of covering they're butts.
R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
This article is a dupe of a story that Taco is going to post a few hours from now