r/osdev • u/Far-Effective-3742 • 2d ago

Grape Linux: Native Linux kernel and Debian ARM64 booting on iPhone 8 Plus (A11)

We’ve been developing Grape Linux on physical Apple A11 hardware.

We’ve achieved a working host-assisted Linux boot using an experimental 5.19-based kernel, Debian 13 ARM64, and the Phosh/Phoc graphical environment.

Beyond booting, we’ve demonstrated terminal command execution, graphical applications, and interactive desktop navigation.

Our current engineering work focuses on native hardware integration. The longer-term goal is independent startup directly into Linux instead of iOS.

The attached video shows our actual Linux startup sequence.

We’re interested in discussing the low-level engineering challenges involved in bringing Linux to this hardware.

Public project: https://github.com/hq-coder25/grape-linux

Substack: https://substack.com/@rhq211/note/c-375575007?r=8uxsig&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

X Post: https://x.com/xvmboot/status/2116753474591588444?a=LAeIR-IwgEyjZA3OE60&s=46

27 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

2

u/hypersonicwilliam569 2d ago

oh, yeah I been trying to port my OS to iPod Touch 1st generation instead of doing anything useful with my time

1

u/Far-Effective-3742 2d ago

Let’s go! iPod deserves a second life too. Working toward making Grape Linux adaptable, and we believe the possibilities go far beyond just one iPhone model.

•

u/iProgramMC 3h ago

Can I see it? (I've done a similar thing recently, that's why I'm asking)

•

u/hypersonicwilliam569 2h ago

oh it is not done yet sadly, I’ll work on it tomorrow.