john.pithed.org

I’m finding myself more and more engrossed in the ongoing efforts to make the iPhone/iPod touch usable with Linux. As it stands, they can’t mount via USB, and can’t be synced over ssh under the 2.0 firmware. I know that I could easily revert the firmware on my ipod and do it that way, but I thoroughly enjoy the apps, whether they’re from the App Store, Cydia, or Installer. So I’m resigned to tracking the efforts of others.

The first effort is the ipod hash project. There’s not a lot of information there, but the goal is to break the hashing algorithm used on iPhone OS 2.0 so that Linux users can sync their iPods/iPhones. I’m wondering if they will contribute this back to the gtkpod team, they don’t have much information about this.

The other effort is iFuse and libiphone, a project to mount an iPhone/iPod touch via USB. It looks like they have been successful to a degree, but are only recommending that developers install it. Syncing via USB is also still impossible because of the new hashing algorithm. This interests me because I’ve tried using my Touch with iTunes on VirtualBox, but since it doesn’t mount to USB, it can’t be connected to the VM. If the hash-breaking efforts take longer, I may have this to fall back on.

In the meantime, I’ll try to learn more useful and scholarly stuff. That oughtta kill some time.