| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Telemin
l33t
Joined: 25 Aug 2005
Posts: 600
|
 Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:40 pm Post subject: Gentoo on the iPad? |
 |
|
So, now apple have finally taken the wrappers off of their new gizmo, which seems to have met its match in a rolling pin it got me thinking about how well linux would take to this thing.
Good things:
beautiful to look at
huge multitouch screen
might be a reasonable price even though it's an apple product
only thing of it's kind at the moment (i think?)
Shortcomings:
hugely limiting iPhone OS - no multitasking - no flash
no stylus
no physical keyboard
only wireless networking
only the proprietary apple connector - no usb
doubtless will be horribly locked down
So in view of that, what does everybody think about how linux would actually run on this thing? Are there any projects out there designed to take full advantage of multitouch, suitable on screen keyboards and so on?
Obviously I think any would be linux hacker would have to wait until the thing is rooted or similarly opened up but nevertheless - opinions anyone?
-Freestyling-
_________________
The Geek formerly known as -Freestyling-
When you feel your problem has been solved please add [Solved] to the topic title.
Please adopt an unanswered post |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
XavierMiller
Moderator
Joined: 23 Jul 2004
Posts: 3913
Location: ~Brussels - Belgique
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
The iPad is yet another iPod. Installing Gentoo wil break the closed Apple EULA.
_________________
Xavier Miller
(FR) Merci de respecter les règles du forum.
http://www.xaviermiller.be |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
albright
Veteran
Joined: 16 Nov 2003
Posts: 1705
Location: Near Toronto
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
doesn't the ipad have a proprietary apple designed processor
in it? What makes you think you could compile on it?
_________________
.... there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth
doing as simply messing about with Linux ...
(apologies to Kenneth Graeme) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
genstorm
Veteran
Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 1840
Location: Austria
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Afaik it's an ARM design.
My opinion: wait for an actually useful tablet where you don't have to carry several adaptors with you to plug in even basic things like USB. Stupid, this.
_________________
backend.cpp:92:2: warning: #warning TODO - this error message is about as useful as a cooling unit in the arctic |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Kollin
l33t
Joined: 25 Feb 2006
Posts: 883
Location: Sofia/Bulgaria
|
| Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 10:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| genstorm wrote: | Afaik it's an ARM design.
My opinion: wait for an actually useful tablet where you don't have to carry several adaptors with you to plug in even basic things like USB. Stupid, this. |
+++++++
_________________
"Dear Enemy: may the Lord hate you and all your kind, may you be turned orange in hue, and may your head fall off at an awkward moment."
"Linux is like a wigwam - no windows, no gates, apache inside..." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ruivilela
Apprentice
Joined: 05 Oct 2004
Posts: 236
Location: Łódź
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
| For me it looks like a huge iPhone. At least my eee701 has a non-removable keyboard (and costed much less). As someone said installing something there, is a violation of copyrighted stuff. One thing is sure. S.J. is quite good seller. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
monsm
Guru
Joined: 26 Sep 2007
Posts: 438
Location: London, UK
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
The main chip on the iPad is a custom built one called Apple A4. Websites say this is a chip that contains and ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU and ARM Mali 50-Series GPU. Samsung has apparently produced the thing.
So in theory, not sure if there is Linux support for those 2 components and even if it is, would Linux be able to identify those on that special A4 chip?
Of course legal issues there, but at least theoretical speculation is free and legal  . Practically I wouldn't think this device is worth the trouble. Plenty of others are in production and are likely to have a more standard Intel or AMD chips. The tablet market is going through a bit of an explosion this year, so in a few months there will be lots more options. Keep your eyes open.
Mons |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
timeBandit
Administrator
Joined: 31 Dec 2004
Posts: 2667
Location: here, there or in transit
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:12 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Moved from Gentoo Chat to Off the Wall.
Stuffing any flavor of Linux, let alone Gentoo, onto this thing is pure fantasy at this point, so  OTW.
_________________
Plants are pithy, brooks tend to babble--I'm content to lie between them.
Super-short f.g.o checklist: Search first, strip comments, mark solved, help others. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
sts
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 02 Jul 2007
Posts: 97
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| XavierMiller wrote: | | The iPad is yet another iPod. Installing Gentoo wil break the closed Apple EULA. |
So don't ever boot it into OSX. Isn't a EULA just a software agreement?
_________________
I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Naib
Advocate
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 3882
Location: UK - Birmingham
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Kollin wrote: | | genstorm wrote: | Afaik it's an ARM design.
My opinion: wait for an actually useful tablet where you don't have to carry several adaptors with you to plug in even basic things like USB. Stupid, this. |
+++++++ |
Well google are believed to be working on one(HTC has the contract and it will be ARM based)
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2010/01/05/47714/arm-hopes-for-googles-chrome-tablet-breakthrough.htm
_________________
| Quote: | | Voting holds no real power, he who counts the votes has the true power. |
Weaver Projects
whats the difference between 9/11 and a cow?
u stop milking a cow after 10 years |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rtomek
Apprentice
Joined: 05 Jan 2007
Posts: 209
Location: Chicago
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| sts wrote: | | XavierMiller wrote: | | The iPad is yet another iPod. Installing Gentoo wil break the closed Apple EULA. |
So don't ever boot it into iPhone OS. Isn't a EULA just a software agreement? |
fixed
People haven't even been able to write drivers for the iphone touchpad yet and afaik that's had linux for a while. I could see them using the same/similar hardware design and IMO that's the most important thing.
Considering it's only a 1Ghz ARM processor (with no mention of how much memory it has), I would imagine linux would run like ass.
Google chrome OS is basically just insta-boot to web browser, not quite a full-blown GNU/linux installation so I could definitely see something like that working well. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Naib
Advocate
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 3882
Location: UK - Birmingham
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:15 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| rtomek wrote: |
Considering it's only a 1Ghz ARM processor (with no mention of how much memory it has), I would imagine linux would run like ass.
|
o.O I have a 133MHz, 32Meg RAM ARM system here and linux runs great on it
_________________
| Quote: | | Voting holds no real power, he who counts the votes has the true power. |
Weaver Projects
whats the difference between 9/11 and a cow?
u stop milking a cow after 10 years |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
big dave
n00b
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 0
Location: in your base, killin all your doodz
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| genstorm wrote: | Afaik it's an ARM design.
My opinion: wait for an actually useful tablet where you don't have to carry several adaptors with you to plug in even basic things like USB. Stupid, this. |
++
people are acting like this will be iphone all over again, where the iphone was on the market for 3 years before anything even remotely competitive came out. but the ipad won't be out for at least another month, and there are at least a dozen other ~10inch slates to be released throughout this year running various [non-gimped] OSs. then there are midsizers like the dell mini 5, which looks utterly amazing. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
monsm
Guru
Joined: 26 Sep 2007
Posts: 438
Location: London, UK
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Looks like a very similar ARM chip to the Apple one (except they have hidden theirs in that A4 chip). I found this on kernel.org:
| Quote: | | Newer ARM processors run older instruction sets, and are thus backwards compatible. The advantage of newer instruction sets is that they execute faster (and are thus more energy efficient), and some produce smaller binary sizes (the "Thumb" extensions are designed specifically for small code size, but may exchange performance to get it). Recompiling an ARMv4 program as ARMv5 usually results in a 25% performance improvement. |
So they would be able to run Linux, but ARMv6 and 7 will not run as well on Linux as closed-source OSes, thanks to ARM NDA policies.
I recon, I'll wait with an Intel or Amd based tablet before I go shopping...
Mons |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
wswartzendruber
Veteran
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 1129
Location: California, USA
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Wait, are you guys saying the iPad is an ARM-based machine that can't even run native Mac OS X programs like a ThinkPad X200 tablet can run Windows/Linux programs? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
monsm
Guru
Joined: 26 Sep 2007
Posts: 438
Location: London, UK
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| wswartzendruber wrote: | | Wait, are you guys saying the iPad is an ARM-based machine that can't even run native Mac OS X programs like a ThinkPad X200 tablet can run Windows/Linux programs? |
I think so yes. Although some reports mentioned and intel chip hiding in that A4, I think the ARM version looks more likely. This is one of the pages I found: http://www.osnews.com/story/22805/Apple_s_A4_ARM_CPU_GPU
Mons |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jho
Apprentice
Joined: 24 May 2007
Posts: 153
Location: Jyväskylä, Finland
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 3:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| wswartzendruber wrote: | | Wait, are you guys saying the iPad is an ARM-based machine that can't even run native Mac OS X programs like a ThinkPad X200 tablet can run Windows/Linux programs? |
The iPad will be runnin the iPhone OS, and AFAIK it can't run OSX programs.
_________________
"I'm sorry, I only accept criticism in the form of sed expressions." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
big dave
n00b
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 0
Location: in your base, killin all your doodz
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 4:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| wswartzendruber wrote: | | Wait, are you guys saying the iPad is an ARM-based machine that can't even run native Mac OS X programs like a ThinkPad X200 tablet can run Windows/Linux programs? |
where have you been? that's one of the biggest criticisms of it. we were saying weeks ago that it will suck ass because it would probably use the same OSXmo that is on iphone and ipod touch. and then apple confirmed it.
* you can only run software that is available on apple's app store. there will be no MS office, or firefox, or photoshop, or your favorite IDE, or even flash.
* you'll have to buy a dongle just to get a usb port or plug in flash memory, and even then, it won't support any of your printers, or webcams, or mice, or gps dongles (and you certainly can't charge your phone from it).
* the only keyboard you'll be able to use is the docking keyboard (which doesn't have a mouse, so you'll constantly be reaching between the keyboard and screen).
* nothing can run in the background, which means 3 things. you can't multitask at all, so forget about switching between applications for anything. you also can't have background syncing other than with apple's mobileme. and finally, you can't have location/time aware apps like locale.
* seeing as iWork is shittier than OOo, apple announced they're coming out with a new version of iWork which can at least import MS office formats... but this new version specifically won't be able to save files in any MS office or ODF formats.
this thing is not a computer. it's just a big screen ipod touch. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ndse2112
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 100
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
big dave
n00b
Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 0
Location: in your base, killin all your doodz
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ndse2112 wrote: | | http://i.imgur.com/oRffH.jpg |
no... if you had 4 iphones/itouches, that would mean you get to multitask... which the ipad cannot do. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
shickapooka800
Guru
Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Posts: 304
Location: houston, tx <--best city evar
|
| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| big dave wrote: | | ndse2112 wrote: | | http://i.imgur.com/oRffH.jpg |
no... if you had 4 iphones/itouches, that would mean you get to multitask... which the ipad cannot do. |
going to need aloe for that burn....
_________________
The Dose Makes the Poison |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
pigeon768
l33t
Joined: 02 Jan 2006
Posts: 617
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:15 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| wswartzendruber wrote: | | Wait, are you guys saying the iPad is an ARM-based machine that can't even run native Mac OS X programs like a ThinkPad X200 tablet can run Windows/Linux programs? |
Man, Apple's marketing department is *awesome*.
The ipad is nothing, nothing more than a 10" ipod touch, but people are running around thinking it's not only not a expensive piece of shit, but they think it's actually good. What the fuck? These people are amazing.
_________________
My political bias. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
truekaiser
l33t
Joined: 05 Mar 2004
Posts: 617
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 4:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| pigeon768 wrote: | | wswartzendruber wrote: | | Wait, are you guys saying the iPad is an ARM-based machine that can't even run native Mac OS X programs like a ThinkPad X200 tablet can run Windows/Linux programs? |
Man, Apple's marketing department is *awesome*.
The ipad is nothing, nothing more than a 10" ipod touch, but people are running around thinking it's not only not a expensive piece of shit, but they think it's actually good. What the fuck? These people are amazing. |
thus is the reality distortion field and charisma of apple and Steve jobs. wazniack was the better of the two, wish he was in charge.
_________________
"My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane. His son will ride a camel."
Saudi saying
Too late to do anything about it, so just sit back and enjoy the fireworks. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
wswartzendruber
Veteran
Joined: 23 Mar 2004
Posts: 1129
Location: California, USA
|
| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| big dave wrote: | | wswartzendruber wrote: | | Wait, are you guys saying the iPad is an ARM-based machine that can't even run native Mac OS X programs like a ThinkPad X200 tablet can run Windows/Linux programs? |
where have you been? that's one of the biggest criticisms of it. we were saying weeks ago that it will suck ass because it would probably use the same OSXmo that is on iphone and ipod touch. and then apple confirmed it.
* you can only run software that is available on apple's app store. there will be no MS office, or firefox, or photoshop, or your favorite IDE, or even flash.
* you'll have to buy a dongle just to get a usb port or plug in flash memory, and even then, it won't support any of your printers, or webcams, or mice, or gps dongles (and you certainly can't charge your phone from it).
* the only keyboard you'll be able to use is the docking keyboard (which doesn't have a mouse, so you'll constantly be reaching between the keyboard and screen).
* nothing can run in the background, which means 3 things. you can't multitask at all, so forget about switching between applications for anything. you also can't have background syncing other than with apple's mobileme. and finally, you can't have location/time aware apps like locale.
* seeing as iWork is shittier than OOo, apple announced they're coming out with a new version of iWork which can at least import MS office formats... but this new version specifically won't be able to save files in any MS office or ODF formats.
this thing is not a computer. it's just a big screen ipod touch. |
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
* Clears throat. *
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
freelight
Apprentice
Joined: 12 Jun 2004
Posts: 295
Location: NYC, NY, USA
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 12:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
If Google does release one of these, it will most likely run Android rather than ChromeOS or a full OS. But then again, Android can multitask and will have Flash soon, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.
A big-screen iPod Touch is not necessarily a bad thing either, but it's too expensive for what it is.
_________________
"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?" --Thomas Jefferson
"Let the gremlins eat your soul... it's invigorating." --LD |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Off the Wall
