Enthusiasts who have run the latest Linux on the iPad Air 2 have appeared, and the possibility that old iPhones and iPads will play as Linux machines

by NONE NONE

A Linux user reported on Twitter that he had successfully run Linux on the iPad Air 2 released in 2014. It is reported that it is a great achievement to run Linux on a terminal that has lower specifications than recent terminals and is not designed to run on other OS.

Have an old iPad lying around? You might be able to make it run Linux soon | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/06/developers-get-linux-up-and-running-on-old-ipad-air-2-hardware/

Linux kernel developer and developer Konrad Dybcio and Linux enthusiast Markuss Broks have succeeded in running Linux on the iPad Air 2. They worked together to launch the old iPad Air 2 with Linux 5.18, which was just released on May 25, 2022.

Below is an image of Linux running on the iPad Air 2 posted by Broks.

iPad Air 2 running Linux 5.18, now with Tux :) https://t.co/qWENCvOd6e pic.twitter.com/xBGHaRvJ7L

— Markuss Broks ???? (@ quaack723) June 1, 2022

To run Linux on older devices, Dybcio and colleagues used an Alpine Linux -based distribution called 'postmarketOS.' The distribution is being actively developed primarily for Android devices.

Dybcio also posted the first tweet about this project with the hashtag 'checkm8'. 'Checkm8' is a BootROM Exploit that enables jailbreak of iOS discovered in 2019. Checkm8 is sometimes referred to as a 'game changer' because it cannot be modified by Apple and can be used on A5 to A11 processors .

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by William Hook

The iPad Air 2 with the A8X was used this time, but Broks' tweet suggests that it will cover all devices with the A7 and A8, including the iPhone 5S and the original HomePod.

However, as Broks said, 'If you look closely, you can see that part of the framebuffer is messed up,' it seems that Linux has not been fully booted at this time.

If you look closely, you'd see that a part of a framebuffer is kinda messed up. PongoOS flushes some memory cache to work properly, and because we don't have that the CPU string got multiplied. But don't worry, we 'll bring the two friends of Tux together with him soon enough :)

— Markuss Broks ???? (@ quaack723) June 1, 2022

Still, Ars Technica said, 'Most, if not all, A7 and A8 devices have been discontinued. With Linux support, those older devices can be used for retro game consoles, simple home servers, or even. It may be possible to live a second life in other areas where low-power Arm hardware is good, 'said the possibility of reusing older devices that were no longer updated by Apple as Linux machines. I had high expectations for it.