Basic Support For Many Pre-M1 Apple Devices Coming To Linux 6.13

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Basic Support For Many Pre-M1 Apple Devices Coming To Linux 6.13

While not as exciting as if it were Apple M3/M4 device support hitting the upstream mainline Linux kernel, but for those with some older Apple (pre-M1) devices around, support for a number of older SoCs and boards is set to arrive with the upcoming Linux 6.13 kernel...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.13-Better-Apple-Pre-M1

[You-]

Interesting, I wonder if the next best test phone for mobile linux could be an idevice... there are fewer models so it might be easier to rally around. But then lightning cables.... yuck.

[V1tol]

I am interested in Apple A4 support (the very first iPad). Have one that still works but can't find an use case for it. With Linux it could act as an alternative for RPI Zero.

[jeisom]

On top of documentation, I really wish Apple would release a signed boot loader for all of the idevices. For all I care it could be an all or nothing approach that a signed bootloader prevents i*OS when used with it. Will require either the eu or other legislative body to make happen though.

[Artim]

What exactly would be the use case for this? What devices out there use those processors that support ruining anything beyond iOS/"iPadOS"? Sure, newer iPads can now run VMs, but I'd doubt that explicit support for the chip would be needed or even possible. Or is that just for some very experimental stuff like running very rudimentary Android on an iPhone?

[sophisticles]

Even more worthless than Linux on M powered Macs.

Seriously, is there anyone out there with an iPhone that is going to install Linux on it?!?

I want to meet the champion that thinks this this is a good idea.

[juxuanu]

I remember an Asahi Linux blog post stating that the camera hardware of all Apple devices hasn't changed in many years, and it would be relatively trivial to support all Apple device cameras with their work.

[schmidtbag]

I could see this being useful on EOL devices. While I'd rather use an outdated but optimized iOS over an unaccelerated Linux, having the option has its uses in the event the device is so old that you can't install any apps on it. After all, such devices don't support installing apps outside the App Store, and devs have no incentive to support EOL devices, so there will be a time these devices will become bricks despite otherwise being perfectly usable.
What I don't get is how you would go about installing it.

[stormcrow]

On top of documentation, I really wish Apple would release a signed boot loader for all of the idevices. For all I care it could be an all or nothing approach that a signed bootloader prevents i*OS when used with it. Will require either the eu or other legislative body to make happen though.

Jailbreaks. Pretty sure all of these had some form of boot chain bypass exploit released in the past several years. I still don't see this as widespread useful. It's only going to be useful for certain tinkerers. Average Apple user still using an iPhone 5, 8, etc aren't going to be the least bit interested in putting Linux on them even if this makes it to a graphical screen at some point. If they wanted Linux, they'd have gone with an Android phone to begin with.

[jeisom]

What exactly would be the use case for this? What devices out there use those processors that support ruining anything beyond iOS/"iPadOS"? Sure, newer iPads can now run VMs, but I'd doubt that explicit support for the chip would be needed or even possible. Or is that just for some very experimental stuff like running very rudimentary Android on an iPhone?

iPadOS is very limiting due mostly to Apple's policies regarding the App Store. Generally the hardware is excellent. The iPad devices they are adding are typically the 2nd gen iPad pro(3rd gen came out in 2018) and older and the equivalent iPhone models. So 6/7 plus year old devices.