On: 219 days of postmarketOS

[rsync]

I was interested in the list of compatible devices and I saw, of course, Android based phones and Nokia Nxxx series, etc.

Why not Apple iphones ? Why don't I ever see proof of concept boot loaders or linux init on an iphone ?

I understand they only run signed boot loaders / kernels / etc., but that was also true of the PS3 and that was broken wide open some years back ...

Has, truly, nobody gotten an alternative OS to boot on any of the 8+ generations of iphone ?

[shravj → rsync]

It was possible at one point to run Android on the iPhone 2G and 3G: https://youtu.be/2N2Md2qQ4pc

Since then it doesn't really look like any progress has been made on running alternative operating systems on the iPhone.

[josteink → shravj]

I tried those just for kicks many years ago.

Long story short: The lack of HW acceleration made the UI (and thus everything else) extremely sluggish. It wasn't even near usable for anything you'd like to do on a regular basis.

It was a good gag to confuse co-workers with though.

[ollieparanoid → shravj]

I think it can be done, since there was the android on iphone project. In theory, one would need to find the Linux kernel fork that was used at the time, treat it as "vendor" kernel and start the port:

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Porting_to_a_new_device

Regarding fancy 3D graphics: The cool thing is, that we have choice. Just pick a UI that has no high performance demand.

[MartijnBraam → rsync]

There is the iphonelinux project and we have the beginnings of a port to the ipod touch 1G, but the main issue with that port is that we can't get openiboot to build with GCC6

[rsync → MartijnBraam]

Thank you - that's interesting.

Again, I'd like to have some sense as to the relative difficulty involved vs. the PS3 break which, IIRC, was the same kind of cryptographic signing issue ...

Perhaps Apple just doesn't make those mistakes with their keys ?

[monocasa → rsync]

Apple def seems to have their shit together in this regard more than Sony.

Sony managed to leak their private key by screwing up the math for instance.

[madez → rsync]

The problem aren't the developers of alternative systems. The culprit is Apple.

[khedoros1 → rsync]

> I understand they only run signed boot loaders / kernels / etc., but that was also true of the PS3 and that was broken wide open some years back ...

That was due to security flaws in Sony's software, though. Apple's software may have security flaws, but if it does, the flaws apparently either haven't been found yet or haven't been publicly published by anyone who did find flaws.

[bitmapbrother → rsync]

I'm guessing all of the projects rely on the Android source code being open and free to use.

[ollieparanoid → bitmapbrother]

Most phones consist of similar chips, so as long as the Linux kernel has support for these, it is possible to run something like postmarketOS on closed devices as well.

It is harder, sometimes you need to hack the bootloader to get it done (or kexec-boot from the proprietary kernel like done on the PS4, get creative), but this has been done enough times for various devices. So with enough manpower and dedication at least booting a Linux-based OS is possible (not saying that you will be able to use all the hardware).