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Linux boots on iPhone 11 with fully custom bootloader

Linux boots on iPhone 11 with fully custom bootloader

New Capabilities

Developer claims first A13 Linux boot, plans upstream kernel patches and consumer hardware

Today: Achievement announced on Patreon

Overview

Updated 2 hours ago

A developer booted Linux on an iPhone 11, running a mainline kernel on all six cores of Apple's A13 chip. The boot path contains zero Apple code — the bootloader is entirely his own.

The achievement matters because it bypasses Apple's locked boot chain without the checkm8 exploit, which only works on A11 and older chips. The developer plans to release the kernel patchset upstream and sell hardware that makes the process accessible to non-experts.

Why it matters

If the patchset merges upstream, A13 iPhones could run Linux — a capability Apple's locked boot chain was designed to prevent.

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Key Indicators

6
CPU cores online
All 4 Thunder efficiency and 2 Lightning performance cores
4 GB
RAM visible to Linux
Full memory of the iPhone 11
6 months
Development time
From project start to successful boot
7.1.0
Linux kernel version
Mainline kernel, aarch64

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People Involved

Organizations Involved

Timeline

September 2019 October 2026

5 events Latest: Today
Tap a bar to jump to that date
  1. Achievement announced on Patreon

    Today Announcement

    Torres published the boot details on Patreon, saying the team believes it is the first to boot Linux on an A13 device. Lobsters commenters disputed the 'first' claim.

  2. Linux boots on iPhone 11

    Milestone

    Mainline Linux 7.1.0 boots on an iPhone 11 with all six A13 cores online and 4 GB RAM visible. The boot path contains zero Apple code.

  3. Development begins on iPhone 11 Linux boot

    Development

    Jose Angel Torres and team set out to boot mainline Linux on the iPhone 11 with a fully custom bootloader.

  4. Project Sandcastle runs Android on iPhone 7

    Milestone

    Corellium's Project Sandcastle booted Android on iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and 7th-gen iPod Touch using checkm8 and PongoOS.

  5. checkm8 BootROM exploit released

    Security

    Security researcher axi0mX released checkm8, a BootROM exploit for A11 and older Apple chips. Apple cannot patch it because it lives in silicon.

Scenarios

1

Linux kernel patchset merges upstream

Likely Resolves by Apr 1, 2027

Discussed by: Jose Angel Torres via Patreon

Torres said 'Our initial upstream kernel patchset is coming soon.' If the patches are accepted into mainline Linux, A13 device support becomes part of the kernel. Anyone with the right hardware could then reproduce the work.

2

Pwnie hardware ships to consumers

Possible Resolves by Oct 1, 2027

Discussed by: Jose Angel Torres via Patreon

Torres said 'Pwnie hardware is coming to mypwnie.com, with no deep Linux internals knowledge required.' If the hardware ships, non-experts could boot Linux on their own iPhones without writing code.

3

Independent tech press covers the iPhone 11 Linux boot

Uncertain Resolves by Jan 1, 2027

Discussed by: Lobsters commenter gnunicorn

A Lobsters commenter said the team is 'not the first ones to achieve this.' The commenter pointed to a Reddit post about Linux booting natively on an iPhone 11. Independent tech press coverage could confirm or dispute the 'first A13 Linux boot' claim.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

2020

Project Sandcastle (2020)

Corellium's Project Sandcastle ran Android on iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and 7th-gen iPod Touch using the checkm8 BootROM exploit and PongoOS. The project took over a year and involved many top iOS engineers.

Then

Android booted on A10 devices with limited hardware support. GPU, audio, camera, and cellular were not functional.

Now

Demonstrated that Apple's locked boot chain could be bypassed on checkm8-vulnerable chips, but only A11 and older.

Why this matters now

Sandcastle relied on checkm8, a hardware exploit. The new iPhone 11 work uses a fully custom bootloader with zero Apple code, on a newer A13 chip that checkm8 doesn't cover.

September 2019

checkm8 BootROM exploit (2019)

Security researcher axi0mX released checkm8, a BootROM exploit for A11 and older Apple chips. Because it lives in the BootROM, burned into silicon, Apple cannot patch it with a software update.

Then

Enabled jailbreaks and custom boot on A11 and older devices. Became the foundation for checkra1n, PongoOS, and Project Sandcastle.

Now

Created a permanent boot path for older iPhones that Apple cannot close.

Why this matters now

checkm8 was the key that unlocked older iPhones. The new work doesn't use checkm8 — it's a custom bootloader for a newer chip.

Ongoing

Hoolock Linux project (ongoing)

The Hoolock Linux project maintains an experimental mainline Linux port for A7-A11 and T2 Apple devices, building on checkm8-era tooling.

Then

Provides a working Linux environment on older Apple devices with partial hardware support.

Now

Shows the state of the art for Linux on Apple silicon before the A13 work.

Why this matters now

Hoolock covers A7-A11, all checkm8-vulnerable. The new work extends to A13, which checkm8 doesn't cover. It uses a custom bootloader instead.

Sources

(5)