Developer gets Linux kernel booting on iPhone 7 and A10-equipped iPads
Many years after the OpeniBoot/iDroid utopia that brought early Android versions to some iDevices back in 2010, a new attempt at running a Linux kernel ("mainline" 5.4.14 in screenshots) on iDevices has been made by Twitter user @qwertyoruiopz, popular in the field of iOS "jailbreaking" thanks to his work on several tools in this niche.
Linux on T8010 via PongoOS :) /cc @CorelliumHQ @never_released pic.twitter.com/YnGvdYDik6
— qwertyoruiop (@qwertyoruiopz) January 29, 2020
According to the tweet above, the kernel is properly running (from RAM, and likely in unstable and limited state) on the TSMC-manufactured Apple A10 (T8010/APL1W24) SoC, found in iPhone 7/7+, 6/7th generation iPad and 7th generation iPod Touch and featuring a proprietary ARM 64-bit CPU and PowerVR GT7600 Plus GPU.
The kernel is running via pongoOS, a "mini-OS that can be used to have more flexibility, be faster and even load other operating systems" included in the checkra1n jailbreak tool.
pongoOS - a mini-OS that can be used to have more flexibility, be faster and even load other operating systems - coming soon to checkra1n (dev - @never_released). #checkra1n #jailbreak pic.twitter.com/i6NcT1dO4q
— Yalu Jailbreak (@Yalujb) December 8, 2019
While it is still soon to judge how far the kernel development on this device will go, and abandoned projects of this kind are not uncommon, this is the first modern Apple device where we have seen Linux booting successfully so far.
UPDATE: SimpleFB now works on the iPhone 7, meaning it is possible to get console/video output on the LCD display.
aaand simplefb pic.twitter.com/xjE8TUueKf
— qwertyoruiop (@qwertyoruiopz) January 31, 2020
Source: Reddit / #postmarketos:matrix.org
Cover picture: Twitter
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