iPhone dual-boot solution surfaces, not for the faint of heart

This one's definitely not for the casual iPhone unlocker, but if for some reason you're looking to toy around with a couple of different firmware versions at a time, you can now apparently set up a dual-boot system of sorts on the phone. As Jonathan "NerveGas" Zdziarski notes in his how-to, the hack in question has actually been in use by the iPhone Dev Team for "several months" now, but he says that "now that several more advanced techniques have been developed," they've decided to let it loose for all to use. Needless to say, there's some partition-making and a good deal of command line work involved in the feat (all of which could cause you some serious headaches), but once you've got everything set up, you'll apparently be able to switch between different OS versions just by changing your root-device with a simple command. As iPhone Atlas points out, that option will likely become a lot more attractive once the SDK-compliant 2.0 firmware is released, but if you've got some ideas of your own in the meantime, you can find all the details you need at the link below.

[Via iPhone Atlas, thanks Shan]

[Oliver @ Mar 13th 2008 5:10PM]

haha, at first, when i read the title, i thought it would let me boot windows......... mobile! lol

[404error @ Mar 13th 2008 5:16PM]

LOL

[The General @ Mar 13th 2008 5:19PM]

Boot Camp for the iPhone!

[swatx @ Mar 13th 2008 5:24PM]

If hackers actually managed to get WinMo on iphone.

OMG! that would have been freakin awesome!

[Chris Aubeck @ Mar 13th 2008 5:54PM]

Wow, handy, reach an anticlimax at will, anywhere.

[JohnTitor @ Mar 13th 2008 6:03PM]

"OMG! that would have been freakin awesome!"
or you could get one of the many real WinMo devices...

[CraigJ @ Mar 13th 2008 6:25PM]

"or you could get one of the many real WinMo devices..." That would defeat the point of the hack.

[js @ Mar 13th 2008 5:18PM]

iErection

[Alex R @ Mar 13th 2008 5:40PM]

Eeeww...

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 13th 2008 8:14PM]

iRection might have been better.
but a little less obvious.

[andres @ Mar 13th 2008 10:24PM]

iLoled

[Zach @ Mar 13th 2008 5:37PM]

doesn't the latest dev team hack let you install both legit and not so approved programs anyway?

[paragraph @ Mar 13th 2008 7:04PM]

2.0's final release will probably thwart that for a little while,

also: this seems more useful for having the 2.0 firmware and an older "workable" firmware.

:\

If it ain't broke don't fix it?

[Adam @ Mar 13th 2008 5:37PM]

i still dont get it though, why whould i want to switch between os', why wont i be able to have jailbroken apps and official apps, or is that not the point of it, cuz if someone knows please share.

[Shan @ Mar 13th 2008 8:18PM]

Well I guess if you are making some app and need to see how it works on older firmwares - then it could be useful. There will always be people who dont want to upgrade their firmware or are too scared to do it etc.

[Blaktornado @ Mar 13th 2008 5:38PM]

I don't really see how useful it would be but hey, I guess it's useful to have the option.

[Sal @ Mar 13th 2008 5:44PM]

Does these lads get laid at all?

[Esat @ Mar 13th 2008 5:46PM]

Hell, if they managed to hack and slash the iphone to a modded 3G version, I'd almost be wiling to sweep aside my sexual orientation.

Almost.

[Reader @ Mar 13th 2008 8:16PM]

I don't understand why someone always finds it necessary to insult hackers/DIYers. Why is your hobby any better than theirs? Or is it just that you feel insecure and need to put them down since they actually accomplished something?

[John @ Mar 13th 2008 9:20PM]

Sal's upset that his hobby doesn't get international recognition on the intertubes.

[Nam @ Mar 13th 2008 11:07PM]

Jonathan "NerveGas" Zdziarski's autobiography: http://www.zdziarski.com/aboutme.html

I'm willing to bet my fortune that he has more going for him than you'll ever have in your lifetime.

[Chris @ Mar 13th 2008 6:10PM]

I miss the days of going to jaiilbreakme.com for iphone hacking. Just downgrading was enough to freak me out. And whats with the program names, iphuk!? (Some of you are saying WTF but others are laughing)

[phanbouy @ Mar 13th 2008 6:54PM]

ya. uh huh. sure. ok, Towelie.

[manohar dudda @ Mar 13th 2008 6:20PM]

title is kind of misleading..

[paragraph @ Mar 13th 2008 7:05PM]

About as misleading as calling a computer with two windows installs "dual boot"

really, what did you expect? Blackberry's OS on your iPhone?

[manohar dudda @ Mar 13th 2008 9:39PM]

thats exactly what i thought..

and btw i dont think i ever considered having 2 "windows" installations in recent times...

[ethana2 @ Mar 14th 2008 1:54AM]

Yeah, I thought it was ubuntu mobile, openmoko, android, qtopia, or some other phone distro.

Theoretically it could be though, if you wanted to. But then, we aren't the people who support Apple with our money in the first place if we can help it.

[ma5t3rw1tt @ Mar 13th 2008 7:33PM]

Dualboot huh, sounds like a sweet concept. Now, what about porting Ubuntu or some other linux distro onto the iPhone & iPod Touch? That would be freaking awsome!

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 13th 2008 8:16PM]

I want to see Rockbox on the touch.
i put it on my sansa, and it rocked. SO MANY OPTIONS.
hell, you could invert and flip the screen if you wanted.

[S.P. Gass @ Mar 13th 2008 11:06PM]

I don't think the iPhone is worth its expensive pricetag, even after watching a recent Apple iPhone commercial: http://lowtechtimes.com/2008/03/13/apple-ad-demonstrates-that-the-iphone-is-unnecessary/

[James @ Mar 16th 2008 9:58PM]

Forget Windows Mobile. If I can dual boot my iPhone, I will have OpenMoko on the other partition. Windows Mobile is crap compared to the Moko.