Linux successfully ported to the iPhone, iPod touch

View this article at: http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/12/01/linux.on.iphone/

Monday, Dec 01, 2008 4:20pm

Linux successfully ported to the iPhone, iPod touch

Devteam member planetbeing has successfully reverse-engineered the iPhone and iPod touch platforms to run the open-source Linux 2.6 kernel. The port is still in the beginning stages of development, with limited functionality that lacks support for the touchscreen, sound, accelerometer, baseband and wireless networking. When the device is powered-on, OpeniBoot gives the choice of booting the iPhone operating system or a separate mode for the Linux kernel.

So far, the system works with the first and second-generation iPhones and the first-generation iPod touch. Users can dabble with the operating system by connecting another device for input via USB cable.