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Linux Kernel Booting On the iPhone

Posted by Soulskill on from the there's-no-iphone-in-team dept.

mhm was one of many readers to note that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the iPhone. "Planetbeing, one of the iPhone devteam members, has been working on porting Linux to the iPhone (along with a custom bootloader called OpeniBoot). Today they managed to boot the kernel! Video showing the boot process has been posted. Instructions and binaries are available on the project blog."

85 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Apple's response by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, Apple has responded by issuing an update which accidentally causes an iPhone running a Linux kernel to become inoperable. Apple apologized for this mistake, and is working on a fix.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  2. Android. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    For all those thinking "Android," check this from the blog entry:

    If you're experienced with hacking/porting Linux and especially if you're experienced with porting Android, I'd definitely like to hear from you.

    Oh, and read some of the blog comments. Man - I thought youtube comments were stupid, but this trumps even that:

    Ok, not to sound too stupid with this question, but since the iPhone is running linux already... why not use whatever drivers are there already?

    and:

    I have a biiig question. i have windows and ubuntu, can i still install linux on the iphone? i suspect that files you published are only for mac osx

    Oh - and the obligatory iphone linux comic

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
    1. Re:Android. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have a biiig question. i have windows and ubuntu, can i still install linux on the iphone? i suspect that files you published are only for mac osx

      This isn't as stupid as it sounds (though one hopes they RTFA'd.) I recall trying to put Linux on my Nintendo DS, only to find that installing it (without using additional hardware) required... Windows. I'm not sure if that situation has changed since, but it was a major disappointment and WTF at the time.

      Slow Down Cowboy!

      Slashdot requires you to wait between each successful posting of a comment to allow everyone a fair chance at posting a comment.

      It's been 53 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment

      Chances are, you're behind a firewall or proxy, or clicked the Back button to accidentally reuse a form. Please try again. If the problem persists, and all other options have been tried, contact the site administrator.

      Is CmdrTaco a wanker or what? They never fix problems with Slashdot, they only introduce them. You remember the good old days when we had nice, workable, simple, user pages? Now going to your user page brings up a set of random shit pulled from various parts of Slashdot (a few comments you recently made, coupled with random articles from the past that appear to have no relationship to you whatsover.)

      What a bunch of tools.

    2. Re:Android. by brianosaurus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      >

      Ok, not to sound too stupid with this question, but since the iPhone is running linux already... why not use whatever drivers are there already?

      <sarcasm>
      What's wrong with that comment? If you recall from history, SCO stole linux to make Unix, which they time travelled back and sold to AT&T and Berkeley. Then Apple fired Steve Jobs, who put Linux in a black box and called it "NeXT". Then Apple bought him, made their own Linux, then retroactively created 6 major versions of FreeBSD as a front.

      Then Darwin created a kernel (evolution my ass!), which he published steganographically in that ridiculous "Origin of Species". Babbage was the first to discover the hidden message when he was reading the book to to figure out why his engine got such bad gas mileage (he later discovered the flaw was that the car hadn't been invented yet, and pouring gasoline into a stationary computing engine wasn't getting him anywhere. But I digress.

      Its turtles all the way down.
      </sarcasm>

      I used to be amazed at how many self-proclaimed geeks didn't know the difference between FreeBSD and Linux. How can you expect regular mortals to know what brand of unix-like subsystem Apple has running under the hood?

      I'm a little impressed when non-technical folks know that there's some sort of open source unix behind the pretty Apple curtains, even if they don't get it exactly right.

      Just like Richard Stallman says: who cares what they call it, as long as they didn't have to pay for it ;)

      --
      blog
    3. Re:Android. by larry+bagina · · Score: 1

      Oh, and read some of the blog comments. Man - I thought youtube comments were stupid, but this trumps even that:

      Ok, not to sound too stupid with this question, but since the iPhone is running linux already... why not use whatever drivers are there already?

      You should try reading slashdot comments sometime. Stuff like "OS X uses BSD so it should be easy to recompile Microsoft Office/StarCraft/iTunes for linux."

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    4. Re:Android. by Agilo · · Score: 1

      I have a biiig question. i have windows and ubuntu, can i still install linux on the iphone? i suspect that files you published are only for mac osx

      This isn't as stupid as it sounds (though one hopes they RTFA'd.) I recall trying to put Linux on my Nintendo DS, only to find that installing it (without using additional hardware) required... Windows. I'm not sure if that situation has changed since, but it was a major disappointment and WTF at the time.

      That's been changed a long time ago.
      Actually, it isn't even that accurate of a statement, since installing doesn't require any specific type of OS (as long as you can place the files on the media).
      What you're referring to is compiling, which (as far as I know) required not Windows, but Linux (I would even goes as far as to say this was always the case as, currently, compiling DSLinux for windows instructions instruct the user/developer to download a Linux live distro).

      --
      - Agilo
    5. Re:Android. by mustafap · · Score: 1

      >Now going to your user page brings up a set of random shit pulled from various parts of Slashdot

      I second that. The new interface is shit.

      --
      Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
  3. Linux drivers? by naapo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wonder how they plan to get the hardware specifications for the necessary drivers from Apple. Booting Linux is not very useful, if you can't access most of the peculiar hardware in the iPhone.

    1. Re:Linux drivers? by cbrocious · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's being reverse-engineered, like everything else on the iPhone. None of the specs for iBoot, the baseband, etc are public either and the iPhone hackers have done just fine. I'm confident they'll succeed.

      --
      Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
    2. Re:Linux drivers? by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I wonder how they plan to get the hardware specifications for the necessary drivers from Apple.

      The same way many linux drivers have been written. Reverse engineering.

      Apple certainly isn't going to help - I imagine they've got the lawyer cannon trained already.

      --
      There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
    3. Re:Linux drivers? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 3, Insightful

      After a long enough period of time, yes, they will succeed. However, it is more likely than not that by the time they succeed, a new version will come out, and we will be back to square one.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
    4. Re:Linux drivers? by cbrocious · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Once you've reverse-engineered a hardware interface, it's rarely difficult to reverse the next iteration. The basic functionality is usually the same, it's just a slightly different version. The bigger issues are jailbreaking the new device, getting to the point where you can replace the bootloader, etc.

      --
      Disconnect and self-destruct, one bullet at a time.
    5. Re:Linux drivers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      however Apple dislikes people actually using their hardware and therefore they try as hard as they can to break anything someone does to actually make Apple hardware do something useful

  4. Cool. by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

    Now we just need to get android running on it.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    1. Re:Cool. by zenwaves · · Score: 4, Funny

      Now we just need to get android running on it.

      Yes, the iPhone OS is clearly too user friendly.

    2. Re:Cool. by pandrijeczko · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...but so locked down to the point of being programmer unfriendly?

      --
      Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
    3. Re:Cool. by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 1

      Android is for programmers. iPhone is for people who want an iPod phone. Both products are friendly to the people their makers give a damn about.

  5. This is the only thing that could make me buy it by Rikiji7 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If android and a mobile-hacked debian can use every single piece of hardware of it i will get one soon.

    --
    slashwhat?
  6. Join us now, and free the iPhones by David+Gerard · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's the GNUphone come to life!

    "Really, we're not out to destroy Apple; that will just be a completely unintentional side effect."

    Dialing from the command line will be the killer feature. Just type dial voice +1-555-1212 -ntwk verizon -prot cdma2000 -ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x and away you go. Simple and intuitive!

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
    1. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by The_Angry_Canadian · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dont forget that you have to boot the correct kernel depending on what you plan to do. The choices being :

      linux_2.6.26_AnwseringMode
      linux_2.6.26_DialingMode

    2. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by moonbender · · Score: 5, Funny

      Stop spreading nonsense! Everybody knows that a kernel maintainer updated his git repository with an experimental patch for the current release. It was all over this obscure mailing list last night -- try to keep up! After recompiling, all you have to do is figure out the right kernel boot parameters and compile and install a user mode daemon. After that, you can choose either answering or dialing mode at will by echo'ing ANSWER or DIAL to /sys/devices/system/phone_mode. Nothing could be easier!

      --
      Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
    3. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by leomekenkamp · · Score: 1

      N00b! That should be dial voice "+1-555-1212" -ntwk verizon -prot cdma2000 -ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x

      --
      Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
    4. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      why oh why does moderation have to stop at 5?

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    5. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by gladish · · Score: 1

      Anyone remember this shit? http://axion.physics.ubc.ca/ppp-linux.html

    6. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

      Dialing from the command line will be the killer feature. Just type dial voice +1-555-1212 -ntwk verizon -prot cdma2000 -ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x and away you go. Simple and intuitive!

      Don't be ridiculous. Any true geek would know that the command should be:

      voice +1-555-1212 -ntwk verizon -prot GSM -ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x

      Sheesh

      --
      This ain't rocket surgery.
    7. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by Gazzonyx · · Score: 1

      Erm... which one has the Xen modules? You know, there's never a Gentoo user around when you need one!

      --

      If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.

    8. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by Eli+Gottlieb · · Score: 1

      Uh, no. Verizon uses CDMA.

    9. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

      Uh, no. Verizon uses CDMA.

      But the iPhone is GSM only. It doesn't have the hardware necessary to connect to a CDMA network.

      --
      This ain't rocket surgery.
    10. Re:Join us now, and free the iPhones by ion.simon.c · · Score: 1

      Heh. Did someone page me?

  7. iPhone, openiBoot ... by syngularyx · · Score: 1

    iCOOL :)

  8. Yes but... by Jack+Malmostoso · · Score: 1

    Will it run Openmoko?

    Sorry, mod me into oblivion, I deserve it.

    1. Re:Yes but... by zash.se · · Score: 1

      Why not?

      Sandboxed dalvik-java aka Android is overrated

  9. Why we ported Linux OS for iPhone? by Fri13 · · Score: 1

    So in the other words, now we got the Linux OS ported to iPhone, we can finally get a GNU/Linux developing platform to iPhone in no time and then we can get all the wanted applications working... but does it still be a phone or toy?

    I dont know is the GNU/Linux developing platform needed at all, most important thing is just that Linux OS is ported and we can develop the needed applications on the PC/Mac and then just run them on the iPhone.

    1. Re:Why we ported Linux OS for iPhone? by argent · · Score: 1

      Because the fact that it's already based on an open source UNIX isn't good enough for some people, they need to make sure it's running the politically correct open source UNIX.

    2. Re:Why we ported Linux OS for iPhone? by harry666t · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What happened to "because it's fun"?

    3. Re:Why we ported Linux OS for iPhone? by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > Because the fact that it's already based on an open source UNIX isn't good enough for some people...

      Because the one Apple ships is crippled. If it can't run your applications it isn't much use now is it? And an iPhone can't run any applications that His Steveness doesn't like so it should be expected that that situation will be rectified. Trying to fix the origional OS to remove the evil bits is a pointless game of cat and mouse so the obvious solution is to keep the (to some people at least) nice hardware and put fully functional software on. Android is an obvious choice if community compiled so as to avoid Google's own evil bits.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    4. Re:Why we ported Linux OS for iPhone? by argent · · Score: 1

      If you don't want to play the jailbreak game you shouldn't get an iPhone.

      The hardware isn't THAT good, and it's not exactly cheap, either. You can get an OpenMoko phone for less *and* support free software in the process... instead of rewarding Apple for shipping a typical closed cellphone.

  10. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  11. iPhone-unfriendly video by sdhankin · · Score: 1

    Ironically, the video of the boot process requires Flash, which Apple in their wisdom has chosen not to support. The devs surely knew this, and probably decided not to use YouTube to tweak the noses of those of us who occasionally use our iPhones to read /. (and even post!). Their motivation for doing so escapes me, however, since presumably we are their most interested target audience. Curious.

    1. Re:iPhone-unfriendly video by Al+Dimond · · Score: 1

      You know, I dislike Flash in general because I think it's bad for the Web, and I never use a portable device to access the Internet. So I'm hardly a supporter of their decision to use YouTube. That said, if they were thinking about /. (or any other big site that might link them) at all, I'd bet all they thought is that they didn't want tons of people trying to download video off of their server at once, even on what's probably a pretty low-traffic Saturday. It's probably very easy to post video on YouTube (I've never done it so I don't know); is there a video hosting site that uses normal streaming video formats that's as easy to use for both the creator and viewer?

  12. Finally.... by ristonj · · Score: 1

    This is the year of Linux on the iPhone!

    1. Re:Finally.... by JohnBailey · · Score: 1

      This is the year of Linux on the iPhone!

      With cut and paste?

      --
      It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
  13. Will this help RockBox on 6th gen ipods? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Rockbox doesn't support the latest ipods. I thought I read that the iphone and the 6th gen ipods where very similar underneath the hood (and very different from previous generation ipods). Can someone who knows more say if this development will help rockbox port to the 6th gen ipod?

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    1. Re:Will this help RockBox on 6th gen ipods? by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      If by "sixth generation iPod" you mean iPod Touch, then yes. The iPod Touch is the same as an iPhone but without the phone hardware or GPS.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    2. Re:Will this help RockBox on 6th gen ipods? by WillyDavidK · · Score: 1

      I believe he's talking about the iPod Classic, tho I'm not sure how it would be similar to the iPhone 'under the hood'.

      Anyways, if you are talking about the iPod Touch, the 1st Gen is working just fine, but the 2nd Gen iPod Touch is very far behind, and the dev team hasn't even started working on it yet.

      --
      For lack of a better signature...
  14. Jailbreaking is jailbreaking. by argent · · Score: 1

    It's already running UNIX, it's just a matter of getting to that root prompt. And if you're willing to jailbreak the phone to install Linux on it, why aren't you willing to jailbreak the phone to install Darwin apps on it?

    1. Re:Jailbreaking is jailbreaking. by omeomi · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's already running UNIX, it's just a matter of getting to that root prompt. And if you're willing to jailbreak the phone to install Linux on it, why aren't you willing to jailbreak the phone to install Darwin apps on it?

      The BSD subsystem isn't installed on a stock iPhone. Installing it is a part of the jailbreak procedure.

      --
      ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack
    2. Re:Jailbreaking is jailbreaking. by argent · · Score: 1

      Installing it is a part of the jailbreak procedure.

      That's an implementation detail. It's still easier than reverse engineering the whole damn thing and re-doing that every time there's a hardware update.That's all part of "And if you're willing to jailbreak the phone to install Linux on it, why aren't you willing to jailbreak the phone to install Darwin apps on it?"

    3. Re:Jailbreaking is jailbreaking. by argent · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's NOT running Unix, it's running Apple's proprietary fork of BSD with no X support and a boatload of bizarre and arbitrary filesystem naming changes.

      None of that means "it's not UNIX". If you think the iPhone isn't running UNIX then some of the UNIX versions I've used over the past 30 years would explode your brain like a watermelon full of liquid nitrogen.

      I know the "in thing" these days is to suck Steve Jobs [...]

      If you think I suck Steve Jobs, tell that to all the Apple Fanbois who regularly mod me down for being insufficiently loyal to the Steve. Just because you don't like a UNIX implementation doesn't make it "not UNIX".

      Doofus.

    4. Re:Jailbreaking is jailbreaking. by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      How would like a watermelon full of liquid nitrogen. explode?
      I mean, to get the liquid nitrogen into a watermelon, you'll have to pull out the soft red bits and pour in the liquid nitrogen. Then it will just sit there, bubbling away.
      I just don't get it.
      Do you have a link?

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
  15. Trade you for my iPaq by argent · · Score: 1

    I already installed Linux on my iPaq, I'll trade you my iPaq for your iPhone and you can save yourself a bunch of hassles.

  16. Question: by Lord+Lode · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is it possible to call people, and send or receive SMS messages, if you put linux on it?

    1. Re:Question: by harry666t · · Score: 1

      I guess most of the hardware (including GSM, sound, etc) hasn't been reverse-engineered yet, and even then you'd need some GUI and actual userspace apps that'd talk to the drivers (or HAL, or however the stack is organized). Booting an OS vs having an usable OS are two VERY different things -- something I've learned while trying to write my own.

    2. Re:Question: by WillyDavidK · · Score: 1

      In short - once they reverse-engineer the baseband driver, yes. The dev team is already pretty intimate with the 2G baseband, and is almost there with the 3G baseband, so this may not take long.

      --
      For lack of a better signature...
    3. Re:Question: by WillyDavidK · · Score: 1

      The dev team has actually been working a lot on the baseband, you just don't hear as many updates because 1.) Apple doesn't change it as often and 2.) it's more difficult to hack

      --
      For lack of a better signature...
    4. Re:Question: by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Is it possible to call people, and send or receive SMS messages, if you put linux on it?

      In two words:

      Not yet.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  17. Phone or computer? by wvmarle · · Score: 1

    It comes to show that modern mobile phones, especially the high-end ones (smartphones), are basically just a general purpose computer, miniaturised, with some specialised user interface (small screen, a handful of buttons, camera, speaker and microphone).

    It's really an impressive hack, but hardly surprising that it is possible in the first place. After all the iPhone is running a specialised version of OS-X already.

  18. Re:Sort of like replacing toilet with outhouse - w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    People who have this on their CV can pretty much choose any megacorporation as their next employer, even during this economy meltdown. You, on the other hand will be asking whether they want fries with that.

  19. any chance by calin2k · · Score: 1

    any chance of a linux booting nokia phone that runs on symbian now?

  20. Re:OpeniBoot? by jcuervo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Name's taken.

    (Linked to the dead site to illustrate the fact that I'm kidding. Relax, mods.)

    --
    Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
  21. Obligatory by lunartik · · Score: 1

    But does it run.....

    nevermind.

    1. Re:Obligatory by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1

      Imagine a Beowulf....

      nevermind

      --
      This ain't rocket surgery.
    2. Re:Obligatory by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...Windows?

  22. Re:I understand desktops, but I am not a phone guy by hailukah · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Apparently some people can rub one off only so many times a day. Installing linux on everything around them is what they do between pr0n sessions.

    And yes I run linux, and so does my wife's computer. and my neighbor's. and my ...

    --
    "What if I got hit by lightning while walking with an umbrella? Ban umbrellas! Fight the menace of lightning!" Doctorow
  23. Purpose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And the purpose of it, is? To run a GTK or QTe UI on it? Wow!
    Linux is a great core, but unfortunately the UI bits are crap. Even the G1 UI looks like a turd compared to the iPhone.
    So as much as I like Linux on my boxes, I'll keep the OSX and the Apple UI on my iPhone. Thank you.

    1. Re:Purpose? by colinrichardday · · Score: 1

      Not that I can afford an iPhone, but having GNU emacs, gcc, and TeX/LaTeX on such a device would be interesting.

    2. Re:Purpose? by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2, Informative

      And the purpose of it, is? To run a GTK or QTe UI on it? Wow!

      They ported the kernel, not X.

      Linux is a great core, but unfortunately the UI bits are crap.

      Qt seems to be outdoing Microsoft and Apple's offerings in the UI department actually.

      I'll keep the OSX and the Apple UI on my iPhone. Thank you.

      Your phone wouldn't be usable at all with the current Linux offering at the moment anyway. I wouldn't expect anyone to want you to switch 'yet'.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
    3. Re:Purpose? by colinrichardday · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but some of us might still want xdvi for previewing .

  24. The rockbox problem by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

    > However, it is more likely than not that by the time they succeed, a new version will come out, and we will be back to square one.

    Yup, this is the situation rockbox finds itself in. No currently shipping hardware can run rockbox. And few of the existing ports ever get finished before the devs apparently lose interest in old obsolete hardware and begin porting to the new shiny. The lesson to be learned from this is simple. Unless you just get off on porting don't bother with closed hardware. So if you want Linux on your phone buy a phone that ships that way. And forget the gPhone apparently since it still doesn't appear to be fully jailbroken.

    --
    Democrat delenda est
  25. //iphone/dev/* by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    The kernel is necessary but not sufficient. To run Linux apps (the point of running the Linux kernel), the iPhone HW devices must have drivers that run against the kernel. The graphics display, the touchscreen, the phone's radio and the storage filesystem all must run Linux drivers for Linux apps to use them.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  26. Re:now my gmail acount is gona blow up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    can somebody translate this to english?

  27. Obligatory by earlymon · · Score: 1

    Man - I thought youtube comments were stupid...

    http://www.xkcd.com/202/

    --
    Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
  28. Re:This is the only thing that could make me buy i by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 1

    Are you going to wait until Android can use every piece of the G1 hardware before you get one of those?

  29. Re:now my gmail acount is gona blow up by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 2, Informative

    can somebody translate this to english?

    This is my best effort:

    Before the iPhone came out, I used a fancy Japanese phone to play music and video. As soon as Linux is available for the iPhone, I will give my old phone to my wife. Then I will install Linux on the iPhone and use it for music and video, as well as games.

  30. Developing for the touch interface will be a bitch by speakerbomb · · Score: 1

    Reminds me of when I tried and tried to run Linux on my Sega Dreamcast. Not sure why it was such an obsession for me, but it finally happened - and it had hardly any functionality whatsoever.

    I can imagine the iPhone will be much, much harder for developers to master, since RIM's Blackberry Storm OS can't even do touch interface right.

    --
    The New Book That Could Pay You Back -100 Times Over: www.Economtricks.com
  31. Re:now my gmail acount is gona blow up by Whiteox · · Score: 1

    as well as sega games.

    --
    Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
  32. iPhone hosts Linux kernal not Flash by slasher_steve · · Score: 1

    I find it ironic that I can not view the images of the Linux kernal booting on an iPhone on my iPhone, since those images were posted using Flash. Sigh....

  33. Watermelons by argent · · Score: 1

    How to make a watermelon full of liquid nitrogen explode:

    Option 1: Drop it.
    Option 2: Put a soda bottle 1/4 full of liquid nitrogen in the middle, cap it, and wait for it to warm up.

    1. Re:Watermelons by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      That's got to be a Mythbusters episode. Who do we email for that to get proved? (which is the bigger bang?).

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    2. Re:Watermelons by argent · · Score: 1

      It might have already been on Mythbusters. My kid watches those Discovery Channel pop science shows and I saw it in passing... and the image stuck in my head.

  34. CLI *is* a killer feature by CustomDesigned · · Score: 1

    Actually, a CLI makes it simple for the GUI to invoke functionality. So, while it would not be fun for an end user, a CLI is a killer feature to someone that wants an easily customized GUI written in a high level scripting language. The target audience of mobile linux would have lots of such people.

    1. Re:CLI *is* a killer feature by David+Gerard · · Score: 1

      So, per the link, version 2 will be written in Emacs on the HURD kernel and be operated by eLisp macros written on the fly.

      --
      http://rocknerd.co.uk
  35. Linux is everywhere, just another example by nulled · · Score: 1

    As usual, someone out there manages to get linux up and running on yet ANOTHER platform. Maybe, Steve Balmer was right. Linux is a virus, that spreads to every nook and crany on anything it touches. Good for Linux. Why not run on the iPhone, I say? :)

  36. I know I'm late to the party... by sootman · · Score: 1

    ... but whoever tagged this story "hardhack" is wrong. This is NOT a hard(ware) hack. A hard hack would be something like "solder a resistor across these two points and the iPhone will boot off of whatever you connect it to."

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  37. Apple Butter by kieblerh · · Score: 1

    How much of the hardware does it detect once you get linux running?