If you haven’t used an iPad in 2013 or 2014, some developers are working on an alternative software solution for you because it doesn’t receive updates from Apple and stops running the apps you need. Developer Konrad Depsio And go Linux lovers”earthquake 723“They worked together to get Linux kernel 5.18 releases on older iPod Air 2A great achievement for a device designed not to run on any operating system other than Apple.
The project appears to be using Alpine Linux, a so-called “PostmarketOS”-based distribution, which is a relatively small but active distribution primarily for Android devices. Dybcio used the hashtag “checkm8” in his initial tweet about the project. The bootrom exploit “Checkm8” was re-released in 2019 reaching devices. At the moment, developers are only running Linux on some older iPads that use A7 and A8-based chips — including the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and some generations of iPad mini. However, subsequent tweets indicate that Linux can be enabled on any A7 or A8-based device, including the iPhone 5S. The original HomePod.
This isn’t the only software meant to run Linux on Apple devices. A plan, Asahi Linux, is sending support for reverse engineering and connections to the M1 chipsets on Apple Macs so they can be integrated into the Linux kernel. Another, Project Sandfort, has Android development running on the iPhone 7. iSH provides you with a Linux shell that runs on iOS or iPadOS — not the same as running Linux directly on devices, but it’s useful in some situations.
Development work on the latest Linux-on-iDevices initiative It’s still in its early days. Images shared by both developers show a basic boot process that cannot mount a file system, and Dybcio Notes Basic things like USB and bluetooth support didn’t work. Networking, audio and graphics acceleration will all work properly and it will be a long line. But the ability to run Linux will attract the attention of other developers who want to help with the project.
Compared to recent devices with an Apple M1 chip, A7 and A8 powered devices may not be as good as general purpose Linux devices. While impressive at the time, their CPUs and GPUs were significantly slower than recent Apple machines, and they all come with either 1GB or 2GB of RAM. But they do better alongside the slower processors on devices like the Raspberry Pi 4, and most (if not all) A7s and A8s have stopped receiving the latest iOS and iPadOS updates from Apple at this point; Linux support will give a second life to some of these devices, such as old game consoles, simple home servers, or other low-power arm hardware.
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