iPodLinux
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| iPodLinux | |
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|
 Mandelbrot set in iPodLinux |
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| Website | www.ipodlinux.org |
|---|---|
| OS family | Linux |
| Latest stable release | 2.2l (x86) / 2006-07-09 |
| Supported platforms | see Compatibility |
| Kernel type | Modified µClinux |
iPodLinux is a µClinux-based Linux distribution targeted specifically to run on Apple Inc.'s iPod. When the iPodLinux kernel is booted it takes the place of Apple's ipod operating system and automatically loads Podzilla, an alternative GUI and launcher for a number of additional included programs such as a video player, an image viewer, a command line shell, games, emulators for video game consoles, programming demos, and other experimental or occasionally unfinished software.
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[edit] Basic structure
iPodLinux in a nutshell consists of a graphical boot loader, a linux kernel built from µClinux sources using the uClibc C standard library with driver code for iPod components or reverse engineered drivers where available, userland programs from µClinux and/or busybox, a unix style file system (can be created within hfs+ formatted iPods, or an ext2 partition on fat32 formatted iPod), and the Podzilla GUI and its modules. iPodLinux's default behaviors borrow elements from the familiar iPod OS, Linux, and the imaginations of the coders. Apple's proprietary iPod OS in contrast uses an invisible boot loader and is based on an ARM processor kernel originally written by Pixo and the iPod browser program, a GUI written by Apple and Pixo using the Pixo application framework, and other firmware and component drivers written from manufacturer's reference code to support the standard behavior Apple wanted iPod to have.
[edit] Features
Besides the kernel, iPodLinux features as a primary component podzilla and podzilla2, applications which provide:
- An iPod-like user interface
- Video playback with sound
- Support for AAC, MP3 and basic OGG playback (4G & 5G Music Player Daemon is malfunctional, but can be fixed).
- Many games, including TuxChess, Bluecube (Tetris clone), Chopper, StepMania (a Dance Dance Revolution clone) and more.[1]
- Recording through audio jack at much higher quality than Apple's firmware
- Ability to play the games Doom and Doom II (and presumably any Doom Total Conversion; Chex Quest for instance), as well as games for the Nintendo Game Boy (with appropriate add-on software, for instance iBoy) and Game Boy Advance (this is unstable and in Beta stages)
- Color scheme support
- Many emulators, such as iBoy (Game Boy Emulator), iNES (Nintendo Entertainment System Emulator), iDarcNES (port of the multiple system emulator DarcNES), iMAME (port of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), and iGPSP (Game Boy Advance emulator).
[edit] History
A German computer science student Nils Scheider got his iPod for Chrismas and decided to try to install Linux on Apple's player. The hardware on Scheider's iPod had given him some problems, so he decided to find out how he could adjust the system itself. With a program from the British software developer Bernard Leach, Schneider discovered that the iPod produced a click-sound when it followed a command. For every byte he made a new click-sound, loaded his clicks on a new computer and wrote, on base of the sounds, the computercode. After 20 hours of coding he installed µClinux and got audio applications and some simple games to run on his iPod.
[2] [3]
[edit] Suspended
As of June 11th 2008 the organization's website was suspended. Error "http://cpanel2.sys-techs.net/suspended.page/" is received when one attempts to access the website. The iPodLinux-team is migrating the website over to a new dedicated host on a new location.
[edit] Compatibility
A list of working/non-working iPods;
| Generation | LCD | Input | Serial[4] | Hard Drive | Piezo | Audio Playback | Recording | Firewire | USB | Power Management | Video Out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | — | No | — |
| 2nd | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | — | Yes | — | No | — |
| 3rd | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | [5] | [6] | — |
| 4th | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | [7] | Yes | [8] | [5] | [5] | [6] | — |
| 5th[9] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | [7] | Yes | No | — | [5] | [6] | No |
| 6th[10] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| iPod Touch[11] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 1st mini | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | [7] | Yes | — | [5] | [5] | [6] | — |
| 2nd mini | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | [7] | Yes | — | [5] | [5] | [6] | — |
| Photo / Color | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | [7] | Yes | [8] | [5] | [5] | [6] | No |
| 1st nano | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | [7] | Yes | No | — | [5] | [6] | — |
| 2nd nano[10] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | — |
| 3rd nano[10] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | — |
As of 5 August 2006, only the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation iPod are officially supported by iPodLinux, although newer generations are also partially compatible.[12] The iPodLinux project does not plan support for iPod shuffles due to the lack of a GCC compiler for the shuffle's DSP57000 core, as well as the fact that the iPod shuffle lacks a screen. While later generations work fine for many uses of iPodLinux, not all features work; these later generations will not be officially supported by the project until most or all features from the earlier iPods work on them. Installers are in the process of being made. As of now, there is Installer 2.3 for Microsoft Windows or Linux which can install on any generation iPod (except for the iPod shuffle and iPod nano 2nd generation). As of April, 2008, iPodLinux does not work on the new iPod firmware included with the second and third generation iPod nano or the 6th generation iPod Classic, and installer 2 cannot be used to install iPodLinux on 5.5th generation iPod.
Arguably one of the project's more notable accomplishments is its video player, released months before rumors about Apple's Video iPod began to spread. This video player only plays uncompressed AVI files, which are basically just a series of bitmap formatted frames with an audio overlay that commonly loses sync with the video output. A new compression technique called MoviePod, released in 2006, enables people to put more video content on their iPod. This function continues to be developed and is a useful function for users of older iPod (especially nano users that, with the help of iPodLinux, can get an extremely small media center that can be held in the palm of the hand).[13]
podzilla 2, the second generation of podzilla, and commonly known as pz2, is currently in development and has recently superseded the original version of podzilla. It includes several new features, most notably modularity; users can install new applications, such as those below, without recompiling all of podzilla. This version is the only working set of Podzilla official that will run on 5.5G iPods.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Modules - wikiPodLinux
- ^ Article from Newscientist.com
- ^ Newarticle from hcc managzine - HCCMagazine
- ^ Serial is required for the remote to work.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Neither USB nor FireWire communication drivers exist yet for these models. Instead when a USB device is plugged in, the ipod prompts the user to restart the ipod into disk mode.
- ^ a b c d e f g A basic battery meter and deep sleep functions are available.
- ^ a b c d e f Currently podzilla accesses the piezo directly - there is no kernel driver.
- ^ a b Only recording via microphone works on these models, no line in.
- ^ February 2007 5.5G iPods (Brighter backlight, AKA 5.1/5.5/5th Gen Enhanced) work with a special kernel developed by DataGhost.
- ^ a b c Will probably never be supported due to encrypted firmware.
- ^ Will probably not be supported. iPhone OS homebrew software is already possible.
- ^ Manual Installation - wikiPodLinux
- ^ Mv player - wikiPodLinux
[edit] External links
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