Installing Android on the iPhone 2G or 3G

Do you want to use the easy method where everything runs natively under OS X? Continue reading this page. If you'd rather use Ubuntu Linux running in a virtual machine on OS X to do this, then click here.

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Who is this guide for?

• First generation iPhones (2G) or second generation iPhones (3G) only.
• 3.1.2 firmware or lower. Note: Some have had luck using 3.1.3 firmware.
• iPhone must be jailbroken with blacksn0w, PwnageTool or redsn0w ONLY! Cydia and OpenSSH must also be installed.
• I used OS X 10.6.3

PlanetBeing (of the iPhone Dev Team) has been working hard to bring Linux and now Android to the iPhone. As of now you can run Android (in a limited capacity) on the iPhone. You can read his post on his website here.

This tutorial is based on PlanetBeing's tutorial here.

Be sure to check out the iDroid Project, which has a great wiki and forum section for running Android on your iPhone. The wiki is here, and the forums are here. There is also an article on the iPhone Wiki here which provides instructions for installing Android on OS X, Linux and Windows.

Some disclaimers: the version of Android being used isn't fully functional. When running Android the iPhone stays hot, the battery will not last long. In fact if you have it on a charger the charger won't even be able to keep up with the power drain, but it will still power the phone when the battery runs out. You won't be able to sleep the phone and will be forced to hard reset it just to shut it off. Of course if you install another Android build (check out those forums I mentioned) those issues may be addressed and other functionality offered

Android 2.2 "Froyo" has been leaked and ported to the iPhone by another group of people. You can read more about this over at ModMyi here. You can download the files you need from that link and still use this tutorial to install it.

Step 1.

Right click on the desktop and create a folder named firmware.

Step 2.

Download the firmware for the Wi-Fi work. Go to Marvell here. Look to the right side of the page and down a little. In the gray box where it says "DRIVERS Please select a platform for your Marvell network controller", click the drop down box and select Linux 2.6 - Fedora, then click SEARCH.





Decompress the zip file and you'll get a folder.




Go into the folder and double click the SD-8686-FEDORA26FC6-SYSKT-GPL-9.70.3.p24-26409.P45.tar file. That will create another folder. Now go into that folder. Inside of that is a FwImage folder. You should see two files in that folder: helper_sd.bin and sd8686.bin. Rename helper_sd.bin to sd8686_helper.bin.




Places these files into the firmware folder on your desktop.

Step 3.

Right click on the desktop and create a folder named idroid.

Step 4.

Download the iPhone 2G idroid binary created by PlanetBeing here, or download the iPhone 3G idroid binary here. You should have now have this file on your dekstop.




Decompress the file and you'll have one of these folders on your desktop. I'll refer to them as idroid 2G or idroid 3G to distinguish them from the idroid folder already on your dekstop that you made.

Step 5.

If you have a first generation iPhone (2G), then download the 3.1.2 firmware from Apple here, or if you have a second generation iPhone (3G), then download the 3.1.2 firmware from Apple here. Do NOT allow your browser to decompress this file. It should either end in .ipsw or .zip when downloaded.

You'll now have one of these files on your desktop. Place this file into your idroid folder on your desktop.




Your idroid folder should look like this if you are working on a 3G iPhone, which I am.

Step 6.

Download the Dripwn program here. Decompress the file and you'll have this program.




Launch the Dripwn.app. Click the Extract firmware button.




A file browser will open. Navigate to your idroid folder on the desktop. Select the firmware file you downloaded and click Open.




You'll then be asked where you want to save the Zephyr firmware files. Navigate to your firmware folder on your desktop. Click Open.




It will take the program about 20 seconds to extract the files it needs from the firmware. You'll receive this message when it is done. Click the Okay button. Close the Dripwn program.

Step 7.

On your iPhone, launch Settings. Press General, press Auto-Lock, and select Never. There are several files to upload and you don't want to lose your connection during this process. Go back to the Settings main page and press Wi-Fi, then press the blue arrow icon next to the network you are connected to. Your IP address will be shown here.