Older iPads May Soon Be Able To Run Linux (arstechnica.com) 47
Older iPads with the Apple A7- and A8-based chips may soon be able to run Linux. "Developer Konrad Dybcio and a Linux enthusiast going by "quaack723" have collaborated to get Linux kernel version 5.18 booting on an old iPad Air 2, a major feat for a device that was designed to never run any operating system other than Apple's," reports Ars Technica. From the report: The project appears to use an Alpine Linux-based distribution called "postmarketOS," a relatively small but actively developed distribution made primarily for Android devices. Dybcio used a "checkm8" hashtag in his initial tweet about the project, strongly implying that they used the "Checkm8" bootrom exploit published back in 2019 to access the hardware. For now, the developers only have Linux running on some older iPad hardware using A7 and A8-based chips -- this includes the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and a few generations of iPad mini. But subsequent tweets imply that it will be possible to get Linux up and running on any device with an A7 or A8 in it, including the iPhone 5S and the original HomePod.
Development work on this latest Linux-on-iDevices effort is still in its early days. The photos that the developers shared both show a basic boot process that fails because it can't mount a filesystem, and Dybcio notes that basic things like USB and Bluetooth support aren't working. Getting networking, audio, and graphics acceleration all working properly will also be a tall order. But being able to boot Linux at all could draw the attention of other developers who want to help the project.
Compared to modern hardware with an Apple M1 chip, A7 and A8-powered devices wouldn't be great as general-purpose Linux machines. While impressive at the time, their CPUs and GPUs are considerably slower than modern Apple devices, and they all shipped with either 1GB or 2GB of RAM. But their performance still stacks up well next to the slow processors in devices like the Raspberry Pi 4, and most (though not all) A7 and A8 hardware has stopped getting new iOS and iPadOS updates from Apple at this point; Linux support could give some of these devices a second life as retro game consoles, simple home servers, or other things that low-power Arm hardware is good for. Further reading: Linux For M1 Macs? First Alpha Release Announced for Asahi Linux
Development work on this latest Linux-on-iDevices effort is still in its early days. The photos that the developers shared both show a basic boot process that fails because it can't mount a filesystem, and Dybcio notes that basic things like USB and Bluetooth support aren't working. Getting networking, audio, and graphics acceleration all working properly will also be a tall order. But being able to boot Linux at all could draw the attention of other developers who want to help the project.
Compared to modern hardware with an Apple M1 chip, A7 and A8-powered devices wouldn't be great as general-purpose Linux machines. While impressive at the time, their CPUs and GPUs are considerably slower than modern Apple devices, and they all shipped with either 1GB or 2GB of RAM. But their performance still stacks up well next to the slow processors in devices like the Raspberry Pi 4, and most (though not all) A7 and A8 hardware has stopped getting new iOS and iPadOS updates from Apple at this point; Linux support could give some of these devices a second life as retro game consoles, simple home servers, or other things that low-power Arm hardware is good for. Further reading: Linux For M1 Macs? First Alpha Release Announced for Asahi Linux
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But only if you install iTunes. Can't transfer files without it. Sad.
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But only if you install iTunes. Can't transfer files without it. Sad.
No problem! A Linux version of iTunes will be written and painstakingly ported to all 3000 different distributions.
Re:Cool (Score:4, Insightful)
They will make a perfect kiosk if it's up to date with linux security patches, and keeps e-waste out of landfill.
Re: Biden is politicizing Uvalde (Score:2)
In fact there we're 19 "good guys" with guns standing just outside the classroom for over an hour doing Jack shit
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Are you sure he's politicising Uvalde and not one of the other 200 mass-shootings you guys have had this year (so far)? Amazing.
everyone's guns
Imagine if everyone had guns. Oh wait... this is the US we're taking about. Kill or be killed.
Happy mass-freedoming day!
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Do you still need the second amendment? Wasn't this to keep the government in check when it was written?
"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny", and all that.
If that, at the time, was to keep things balanced after independence from the British then the government had rifles and the people had rifles. Now the people can have assault weapons but the government has missiles, etc.
From the outside the USA is a weird place. The right to bear arms b
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A thing to keep in m
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When the US was founded, professional standing armies mostly didn't exist. When you needed to fight a war you rounded up the guys who could fight, "raising an army." That's what all the militia stuff is actually referring to:
The US second amendment being a check on the government is propaganda invented by minority special interests.
Polls suggest most Americ
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No! It's Grandpa-Daddy, get it right!
What about older models and other iDevices? (Score:2)
Like original iPad air, iPhone 4S, etc.? Jailbreak OSes aren't great. :(
Re:What about older models and other iDevices? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why we need comprehensive right-to-repair legislation. Older devices don't need to be useless junk.
Re:What about older models and other iDevices? (Score:5, Interesting)
It feels like something the EU could enforce, much like the charger issue.
Simply make it so that any "computing device" must have a bootloader unlock 1 year after it exits mainstream support.
No source code release, no IP infringement, just unlock whatever boot loader there is, and the community will figure something out.
I'd prefer more, but that should be doable with no issue.
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Why would right to repair help? Old doesn't mean broken.
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Old OS still works = not broken
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WTF is that? You know, there are plenty of words that you can use for this moment. "Broken" isn't one of them.
If the unit is behaving exactly as it has since manufacturing, then your use case has moved on. It's functioning fine.
Another hint: Imagine that you brought to a kiosk in a mall and asked them to repair your "broken" iPad. They said, "What's wrong with it"? And you replied, "No longer being updated by the manufacturer", would they to agree to "fix" it?
No, they'd tell you it's not broken. Imagine co
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In the scenario you depict, if it's an Android device, they will ask if you want a third party OS which allows you to keep running modern software and getting security updates.
And if you say "yes", and agree to the risks, you get exactly that.
Not so with iOS.
So yes, the device is, indeed, broken.
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You're just redefining "broken" to fit your moment. That's ridiculous.
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There are a lot of products that are essentially broken once they're no longer supported. I can't use my beloved BlackBerry PlayBook, for example, to browse the web or check my email anymore as those features require that I sign-in with my BlackBerry ID. As those auth servers no longer exist, that is now impossible. In an ideal world, right-to-repair legislation would mandate something that would transfer a device's "dependence" from the company that produced it to the users who bought it.
What that would
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Stability (Score:2)
Great news!
Iâ(TM)m using my old iPad to stabilize my wobbly desktop. Iâ(TM)ve read that stability is a core strength of Linux.
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My 1993 Quadra 650 still boots and it provides service as a nice foot rest under my desk.
I'm all for it (Score:2)
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To me, the ideal solution would be a small hardware box that simply let's you connect and use it as an external monitor by way of hdmi
Obviously the shoot-for-the moon would be making use as the digitizer as well . . .
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+1 -- for usefulness, if your family doesn't have to have the latest and greatest, iPads have really long usability to start with.
The A7 is a 9 year-old processor, and you want it to run something resembling current software? What's the oldest OS that supports a current, secure, up-to-date browser, one that you can use to access, for example, a current financial site? In a Gig of RAM? With 16 Gig of storage space?
Now, if you'd be happy with elm, lynx, and ssh on a command line only Linux iPad, fine but a graphic desktop with a current browser and the ability to stream YouTube videos, Zoom calls, etc. is a really, REALLY tall order. (I
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At this point an iPhone 5s is both cheaper and easier to order than a RaspberryPi 4B. People have lots of uses for those, which is why they're sold out everywhere that's not scalping or price gouging.
Linux on anything (Score:2)
Why? (Score:1)
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The question is? Why?
Because Apple doesn't provide iOS updates for EOL equipment. This wouldn't inherently be a problem if apps had a tendency to be written as to break on iOS releases older than maybe 2 back from the current revision; even browser-based apps aren't the bastion of compatibility they were purported to be.
If it becomes possible to run Ubuntu at any reasonable level of performance, it extends the useful life of an iPad.
If the question is why extend the useful life of an iPad, it's because anything that keeps tech
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Because Apple doesn't provide iOS updates for EOL equipment.
Does anyone?
Old devices can still get old OS installs, and any apps that support the 9 year-old iOS can be installed, but I don't think Apple lets old apps linger in the App Store.
All we really need is an App Archive of older software... But most people would have a problem running a 9 year-old browser, for example.
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Because Apple doesn't provide iOS updates for EOL equipment.
Does anyone?
Old devices can still get old OS installs, and any apps that support the 9 year-old iOS can be installed, but I don't think Apple lets old apps linger in the App Store.
All we really need is an App Archive of older software... But most people would have a problem running a 9 year-old browser, for example.
Sadly, the issue is rather circular.
"Use old iOS."
"Muh Apps!!11"
"Use last-working versions."
"Muh Security n Muh Compatibility!!1"
"Use a third party OS"
"Muh dependency on a questionable third party!!11"
"Dispose of your old device and buy a new one."
"Muh environment!!11"
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Where will you get a current browser that can run on 9 year-old hardware?
(BTW, these old tablets have 1 gig of RAM and as little as 16 Gig of storage, the old iOS software and apps were custom-built for such a constrained system, more modern software would likely require more system resources.)
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Not everything useful is your primary desktop.
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It might surprise you, but there are people who use computing devices for other purposes than surfing the web.
A high DPI, small form factor Linux machine is, for example, an excellent Emacs and ssh machine, to stick with the nerd factor of this site. Or a great way to run a secure chat client. Or run Wesnoth. Or run emulation.
It can also run basic productivity software with no issues.
And this is before even beginning to consider all the "pi replacement" tasks these devices could do. Data gathering (and repo
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Yup. My Acer C720 chromebook went out of support a couple years ago, it's got a new BIOS and a nice LXQT desktop now.
Yeah, but does it run (Score:1)
I thought this was cool. I guess slashdot is dead (Score:1)