- Getting Around iPod Problems
- Getting Linux onto Your iPod
- Installing Linux when Running Windows
- Now I Have Linux on My iPod, What Can I Do?
- Getting the Goods: Adding New Software to Your Linux Version on the iPod
- iPodLinux Support Groups
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Like this article? We recommend
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Now I Have Linux on My iPod, What Can I Do?
Porting Linux to the iPod is really new (it has been only a couple of months since this was achieved). The first couple of applications written for Linux/iPod are (ironically) to play music.
The two players that run and play music are the Tremor Player and the MAD Player. The Tremor Player plays OGG encoded audio, and the MAD Player plays MPEG-encoded audio. Due to the limitations of the uClinux, both of these players are not 100 percent stable. Maybe 80 percent. The cool thing is that they demonstrate a custom application working.
It's great that people are developing solutions for you, but you are braver than that, aren't you? You now have a version of Linux running on your iPod, and it's time for you to take some action. Let's start by writing a simple application.
You have to develop your applications to the ARM processor of your iPod, which is different from the processor in your PC computer. This is why you're using a custom version of Linux. You need to declare the Flags needed in your code, and a compiler at iPodLinux will do this for you.
The most effective language to use when writing Linux applications is C, and you should use your favorite C compiler. You also need to use your favorite C++ compiler. (You can get a list of free compilers for Linux here.)
The following is a simple script that you can write:
---welcome.c---
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
printf("Welcome to my iPod!\n");
return 0;
} Make file
CC=arm-elf-gcc
LDFLAGS=-elf2flt
welcome: welcome.o
$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o welcome welcome.o
Now you can place this script directly onto your iPod and then force a reboot of your iPod. When the iPod comes back up, your new script will be there.
Be aware that the ARM processor does not multitask, which limits some of the solutions you can develop. The big jump will come when the iPod hardware can support the full Linux Kernal.