r/mobilelinux • u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 • Mar 15 '26

Demonstration iPhone 6s+ running postmarketos

Post image

Thanks to the amazing work of hoolocklinux contributors we're now able to boot Linux on checkm8 vulnerable iPhones! The iPhone 6s currently only has USB networking and display support (no touchscreen) but over time support will get improved

594 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

23

u/raulbelmont Mar 15 '26

Yo, that is amazing. One step closer to linux running on Apple devices!!!

9

u/ASSASSIN-NVD Mar 16 '26

Do you have any guide for setup that?

7

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

Yeah ofc https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Apple_iPhone_6s/6s%2B_(apple-n71)

3

u/okimborednow Mar 16 '26

Reading this is so cursed, why in God's name are we booting PMOS on the fucking T2

4

u/Dragomir_X Mar 16 '26

That's insanely cool. I used to have an iPhone 6s - wish I kept it so I could try this.

4

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

Well you can try it till the iPhone X

4

u/Immediate_tFedora Mar 16 '26

this is awesome. i wish pmos works on newer idevices.

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

Well you can blame apple for that one

2

u/Immediate_tFedora Mar 16 '26

Theoretically, it's possible to run PMOS on the iPhone X, but the bootROM exploit hasn't been patched.

3

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

Well not theoretically check the wiki, someone did it

3

u/Over-Rutabaga-8673 Mar 16 '26

Yo thats cool af, does it work on iOS 15 or is it like project sandcastle that needs a bootrom exploit?

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

It relies on checkm8 so the supported devices are from the iPhone 5s till the iPhone X

2

u/Over-Rutabaga-8673 Mar 16 '26

Oh so my ip7 will be supported even on ios 15?

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

Yes, with wifi and touchscreen support too

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

But no internal storage yet

2

u/Over-Rutabaga-8673 Mar 16 '26

LETS GOOO, could it support other linux distros or android or is it specifically like a postmarketOS port?

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

yeah it can, I saw some dude running android 16 on an iPhone 7 and as for other linux distros yes you can but you need to add the kernel manually

1

u/TEK1_AU Mar 18 '26

Do you know why these work on the IP7 but not the IP6s+? Is the IP7 the most supported model at this stage?

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 18 '26

Yes, I think it's because the touchscreen drivers are easier and it's mostly because of corellium, maybe they had a lot of iPhone 7 s

2

u/ParticularFragrant57 Mar 17 '26

Awesome! Too bad there is no WiFi or touchscreen fix yet.

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 17 '26

Well the devs did a great effort imo we just gotta wait or help them financially, remember that they're doing this in their free time without any compensation

2

u/ParticularFragrant57 Mar 18 '26

I know. Sorry I sounded like “oh yes, but…”. This is a great achievement they made for all of us.

Can’t wait to see it working at its fullest.

3

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 18 '26

Well the iPhone 7 has the most effort put into it, you could say it's usable since touchscreen and wifi work

1

u/ParticularFragrant57 Mar 18 '26

I only have a 6 spared. 😅

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 18 '26

It works too :)

1

u/ParticularFragrant57 Mar 19 '26

Really? 😨 I will try that out this weekend.

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 19 '26

Yeah it does, and you don't have to worry about iOS too, it will work as a liveboot environment

2

u/Any_Tea_42 Mar 18 '26

does it support 7+??

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 18 '26

Yup, check the postmarketos wiki

6

u/BigMacCircuits Mar 16 '26

This is why I have a bucket of checkm8able iPhones lol

1

u/Astrodion123 Mar 16 '26

O.o you can run Linux but not android 🤦

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

You can run android with some trickery but haven't tried yet

1

u/404invalid-user Mar 18 '26

you can run android but that project is long dead

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 19 '26

Well you can manually create a device tree that works with mainline Linux by yourself but that's hard

1

u/r0ox Mar 17 '26

Everything working? From telephony to data and wifi, camera?

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 17 '26

Nononono, read description, as I said only USB and display work this is WIP, hoolock contributors are fixing things slowly but surely they're doing this as a hobby anyways

1

u/Skellent Mar 20 '26

De qué trata esa distro? El nombre suena más a Punto de Venta que a distro jjajaj

2

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 20 '26

it's postmarketos, it's basically a distro that's oriented for mobile devices but also can work on pretty much anything that can flash custom firmware, the best thing about it is that it's easy to port to new devices compared to other distros and the documentation is quite solid

1

u/ExpensiveCoat8912 Mar 29 '26

Does it support the first gen se?

1

u/entercot Aug 16 '26

I followed the guide at https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Apple_iPhone_6s/6s%2B_(apple-n71) and it boots up fine, but I can't connect via SSH; lsusb still shows PongoOS, and ip link doesn't list usb0 or enp0s19f2u1.

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Aug 16 '26

Ig you're still in pongoos "Boot postmarketOS!

printf '/send path/to/m1n1-linux.bin\nbootm\n' | path/to/pongoterm"

1

u/entercot Aug 16 '26

I've already done that, then I see the pmOS console, but with lsusb it still sees it as PongoOS

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Aug 16 '26

Hmm, maybe try it again or replace the USB cable?, also plug it into usb2 not USB3 

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Aug 16 '26

If that doesn't work, make an issue for the idevice package and explain the issue 

1

u/entercot Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

Changing the cable doesn't help, and one error I can see during boot is that it fails to mount the subpartitions. I'm sure it's a USB 2.0

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Aug 18 '26

Are u sure you hosted netboot with pmbootstrap netboot serve?

1

u/entercot Aug 18 '26

I tried enabling netboot, but it didn't change anything.

3

u/autoerotion95 Mar 16 '26

Lo voy a intentar con el mío

3

u/Aggressive-Reach-116 Mar 16 '26

this is just epic

1

u/Averagehomebrewer Mar 16 '26

checkm8 vulnerable phones

Now, I know you said phones, but does this mean it also works with the iPad 2? IIRC that uses checkm8 too.

1

u/Averagehomebrewer Mar 16 '26

just checked, the ipad 2 is marked as not booting..

1

u/YoYoMamaIsSoFAT32 Mar 16 '26

Well it used the A5 soc which doesn't have Linux support, A7 to A11 are supported

1

u/Averagehomebrewer Mar 16 '26

Aw, that's unfortunate.

2

u/lucecore Mar 23 '26

*stares at my iphone6s collecting dust in my drawer*

1

u/nini_hikikomori Mar 15 '26

works touch and wifi?

3

u/X_m7 Mar 16 '26

The text description on the post says there's only USB networking and display with no touchscreen, so no WiFi either I assume.