iPod Linux

iPodLinux is an open source venture into porting Linux onto the iPod. It is based on the µClinux kernel.

Compatibility

According to the iPodLinux wiki, "developers have succeeded in getting [the following features] to work- it does not imply that the feature is ready for widespread use."

iPodLinux compatibility chart

Generation	date	LCD	Input	Serial	Hard Drive	Piezo	Audio Playback	Audio Recording	FireWire	USB	Power Management	Video Out
classic 1	02001-10-01October 2001	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes	N/A	No	N/A
classic 2	02002-07-01July 2002	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes	N/A	No	N/A
classic 3	02003-04-01April 2003	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial	N/A
classic 4	02004-07-01July 2004	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	N/A
classic 5	02005-10-01October 2005	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	N/A	Partial	Partial	No
classic 5.5	02005-10-01October 2005	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	N/A	Partial	Partial	No
classic 6	02007-09-01September 2007	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Touch	02007-09-01September 2007	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
mini 1	02004-01-01January 2004	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	N/A	Partial	Partial	Partial	N/A
mini 2	02005-02-01February 2005	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	N/A	Partial	Partial	Partial	N/A
classic 4 Photo/Color	02004-10-01October 2004	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	Partial	Partial	Partial	Partial	No
nano 1	02006-02-01February 2006	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Partial	Yes	No	N/A	Partial	Partial	N/A
nano 2	02006-09-01September 2006	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	N/A
nano 3	02007-09-01September 2007	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
nano 4	02008-09-01September 2008	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

As of August 5, 2006, only the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation iPod are officially supported by iPodLinux, although newer generations are also partially compatible. The iPodLinux project does not plan support for the iPod shuffle due to the lack of a GCC compiler for the shuffle's DSP57000 core, as well as the fact that the iPod shuffle lacks a screen. While later generations work fine for many uses of iPodLinux, not all features work; these later generations will not be officially supported by the project until most or all features from the earlier iPods work on them. Installers are in the process of being made.

Arguably one of the project's more notable accomplishments is its video player, released months before rumors about Apple's Video iPod began to spread. This video player only plays uncompressed AVI files, which are basically just a series of bitmap formatted frames with an audio overlay that commonly loses sync with the video output. A new compression technique called MoviePod, released in 2006, enables people to put more video content on their iPod. This function continues to be developed and is a useful function for users of older iPod (especially nano users that, with the help of iPodLinux, can get an extremely small media center that can be held in the palm of the hand).

podzilla 2, the second generation of podzilla, and commonly known as pz2, is currently in development and has recently superseded the original version of podzilla. It includes several new features, most notably modularity; users can install new applications without recompiling all of podzilla. This version is the only working set of Podzilla official that will run on 5.5G iPods.

Sources

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