Posted by planetbeing on under command line interface, candy thanks, boot menu, menu graphics, somee, eye candy, banging my head, working model, opti, bleeding edge, iboot, userland, gimp, grub, ibot, butt | 
Well, that was quick. See, I can actually get things done pretty quickly when it doesn't consisting of banging my head against machine code until it starts making sense. When I actually have the drivers, things like this are easy.
You can use the Hold button to toggle between the menu items (and the option will be highlighted). You can choose the home button to select it. The "openiboot console" option takes you to the command-line interface similar to the one I demonstrated in the last post (you do have to be plugged in via USB and using the openiboot client to talk to it). The "iPhone OS" option chainloads a copy of iBoot stored in NOR under another identifier ('ibot' becomes openiboot and 'ibox' becomes the actual iBoot). I got that set up with a slightly modified version of the QuickPwn ramdisk, but in the future an installer made from a modified version of LogoMe can be run from userland to install openiboot. It's also possible to get openiboot to install openiboot (much like the way GRUB can do it); I'll probably work on that next.
So if anyone likes living on the bleeding edge, they could do that. =P
Most of the hard part was me failing at GIMP putting together the boot menu graphics. I appealed to you blog readers for graphics before, but basically no one responded. Now that there is a working model of what I sort of want, I hope there will be more of a response.
So,
please please please redesign the boot menu for me. And possibly come up with a logo for the project we can stick on there. If you're good at this sort of thing, or know someone who is, please put them in touch. This stuff will obviously get a lot of attention in the future and we need nice eye-candy. Thanks!
Tagi: command line interface, candy thanks, boot menu, menu graphics, somee, eye candy, banging my head, working model, opti, bleeding edge, iboot, userland, gimp, grub, ibot, butt
Posted by planetbeing on under kernel patches, volatile storage, package managers, serial terminal, csts, myriads, iphone, ftl, device driver, iphe, userland, gadget, shells, operating system, linux, pool |
NAND writing is now semi-reliable (although one has to be VERY careful not to interrupt the device in the middle of a write operation), but it is enough to have something akin to a full-functional OS, backed by non-volatile storage.
People interested in the project should be familiar with the myriads of Linux "distributions" floating around. An operating system consists of two major domains: one is the kernel, which is what manages the hardware, and one is the userland which contains things like shells and other UIs, package managers, etc. Software that help users install and run useful programs. Ubuntu is a popular distribution that I run on my personal machine. Android could also be considered a distribution (though I believe it has some
apparently messy kernel patches).
I decided that Debian would be an interesting thing to try, since we would then instantly have a userland and a pool of ready-compiled applications. Using a slightly dated root filesystem here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2007/01/msg00034.html, a initrd and further kernel configurations were sufficient to get it to run. Thus, we can now
compile programs for iPhone Linux
on iPhone Linux. The process is rather slow due to the processor and inefficient NAND device driver (pending a real FTL), but at least theoretically, iPhone Linux is now
self-hosting.
This should be pretty much enough for those who are more into the userland development side of things to come in, possibly using Debian as a base to build anything else (as I believe it is standard enough).
I will be offering instructions on how to get this all to work soon. The (modified for gadget serial terminal) rootfs is fairly hefty (around 130 MB), so I'm not sure how we'll handle distribution of that.
Tagi: kernel patches, volatile storage, package managers, serial terminal, csts, myriads, iphone, ftl, device driver, iphe, userland, gadget, shells, operating system, linux, pool
Posted by planetbeing on under alternative operating system, linux readme, iphe, channel irc, busybox, serial driver, cmw, accelerometer, iphone, nand, wireless networking, glibc, first draft, sudo, userland, amp, kernel, chill, osx86, buildroot |
I'm pleased to announce that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to Apple's iPhone platform, with support for the first and second generation iPhones as well as the first generation iPod touch. This is a rough first draft of the port, and many drivers are still missing, but it's enough that a real alternative operating system is running on the iPhone.
<br>
What we have:
- Framebuffer driver
- Serial driver
- Serial over USB driver
- Interrupts, MMU, clock, etc.
What we have in openiboot (but hasn't been ported yet):
- Read-only support for the NAND
What we don't have (yet!):
- Write support for the NAND
- Wireless networking
- Touchscreen
- Sound
- Accelerometer
- Baseband support
The current userland we're using, in the interest of expedience, is a Busybox installation created with buildroot, but glibc works fine as well, and we're going to build a more permanent userland solution.
A demonstration video can be seen here:
http://www.vimeo.com/2373142Instructions here:
http://www.iphone-dev.org/planetbeing/LINUX-README.txtDownload here:
http://91.186.26.18/iphone/files/iphonelinux-demo.tar.gz (look for mirrors in the comments)
EDIT: The instructions are missing the step that you have to select openiboot console from the menu before performing the "sudo ./oibc" step. Just be aware you have to do that if it seems like you're not getting a response from the oibc client.
Project lead: planetbeing
Contributors: CPICH, cmw, poorlad, ius, saurik
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. Come chill in the #iphonelinux channel on irc.osx86.hu. Thanks. :)
EDIT: I was asked a couple times by people who wanted to donate (financially) to the project. I made a post discussing this possibility, if you are interested.
Tagi: alternative operating system, linux readme, iphe, channel irc, busybox, serial driver, cmw, accelerometer, iphone, nand, wireless networking, glibc, first draft, sudo, userland, amp, kernel, chill, osx86, buildroot
