Installing Idroid on my Iphone 2G

So this past weekend I decided to go on a bit of an adventure. I had an old iphone 2G laying around and decided I'd see if I could install the android OS on it.

I started off using the guide over at idroidproject.org (http://bit.ly/baWOz5) using the Ubuntu 32bit Virtual OS. However I did make a quite a few changes along the way for the final product.

After downloading the prebuilt images / binaries, I followed the instructions here to edit the system.img file in preparation for the g-apps later on.

Also, instead of using the default kernel (zImage), I used Alex's kernel as it has a bunch of the latest fixes in it. However the one thing it does have problems with is using ADB (Android debug bridge) over wifi.

From then on, follow the rest of the instructions up to the point where it talks about SD Card emulation.

One important thing to note is that their is no real way to shut the phone down. So for a while I was simply forcing it off by pressing the hold / home button down. This of course caused my files to get corrupt which actually caused a bunch of my issues.

So, on the first boot of your phone after a fresh install. I focused on getting ADB working over usb.


Apparently their is a small problem with the dns on the phone some people have. I had this problem so using the adb instructions for SD Card emulation , I got into init.rc and made the changes required for SD card emulation as well as the dns fix detailed in this post in particular:

As soon as I got my internet working, I followed the remaining instructions on getting the G-Apps installed.

With G-apps now installed and running, I decided to forge ahead and give myself root access which I did using these instructions

and find a safer way to reboot / turn off the phone. I found these instructions.
I got it working perfectly and was able to setup

After I did a fresh reboot using the terminal I had everything working perfectly (relatively)

Keep in mind that this isn't a consumer friendly phone. It runs a lot hotter than I ever remember the iphone getting, but not unbearably so. It also can be a bit slow so don't rush it (especially on boot up) and when it gives you the option to wait / force close, be sure to wait as it shouldn't take long. From what I hear, battery life isn't very good so don't expect to use this all day.

Also, as I don't have a voice / data plan setup at the moment, I can't verify if sms or voice works. But I'll be working on that in the next week.

One final note, I would also recommend installing ADW.Launcher as a replacement home. It seems to run a lot faster (and prettier) for me. I'll post a pic of the phone running it in a few days as I'm flying out to Alaska tomorrow morning.

Enjoy, and to anyone looking to install android on their phone, good luck! If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask me on pm.