Enthusiasts have successfully booted Linux kernel 5.18 on Apple iPad tablets powered by ARM A7 and A8 chips. Currently, the work is limited to adapting Linux for iPad Air, iPad Air 2, and some iPad mini devices, but there are no fundamental issues in applying the developments to other devices with Apple A7 and A8 chips, such as the iPhone 5S and HomePod, released in 2013-2014. Newer devices can use builds from the Sandcastle project.
To unlock the bootloader and bypass firmware verification (Jailbreak), the Checkm8 vulnerability is utilized. The development is currently in its early stages, where booting the kernel is supported, along with graphics acceleration, network functions, and sound, but USB and Bluetooth are not yet operational. The next goal of the project is to enable the boot of a user environment based on the postmarketOS distribution, built on Alpine Linux package base, standard C library Musl, and BusyBox utilities.
Source: opennet.ru
