Installing Android on the iPhone 2G or 3G

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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.
• iPhone must be jailbroken with blacksn0w, PwnageTool or redsn0w ONLY! Cydia and OpenSSH must also be installed.
• I used OS X 10.6.3
• I used Ubuntu 9.10 (via Virtual Box).

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.

This is a time consuming process. You should also know that the version of Android being used isn't fully functional. When running Android the phone stays hot, the battery will not last long at all, and 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 will be addressed.

Step 1.

Download VirtualBox here. Get this version: VirtualBox 3.1.6 for OS X hosts. Then go here and download Virtual Box image number 10 (Ubuntu Linux 9.10 codename Karmic Koala x86). Then go here and download Ez7z. You should now have these files on your desktop.




Double click the eZ7zv1.642.zip file. Go into the folder it created and drag the Ez7z.app to your Applications folder on your Mac.




Right click the ubuntu-9.10.vdi.7z file and select Open With Ez7z.app. If it is not listed then select Other... and find the application in your Applications folder. When the application opens, click the lower left button to decompress the file.




At the drop down screen I checked Keep full paths, then click Go. Select a location to save the file. I created a new folder called Ubuntu. Then click Choose. You will see the status Processing... for about four minutes. When it has finished it will say Idle. You can then click the Close button when it appears. Close the application when you are done.

Step 2.

Double click the VirtualBox-3.1.6-59351-OSX.dmg file. Double click the VirtualBox.mpkg icon. Follow the instructions for installing the program. Note the uninstall icon.




Go to your Applications folder and launch VirtualBox.app. In the menu bar click File, then select Virtual Media Manager.




Ensure the Hard Disks tab is highlighted, then click the Add button.






Find your ubuntu-9.10.vdi file, select it and click Open.




Then click OK.




In the menu bar click Machine, then select New...




Click Next.




Enter Ubuntu under name, then select Linux in the Operating System drop down box, then select Ubuntu in the Version drop down box. Click Next.




At this screen I left the default RAM setting alone. What you will do works just fine with 384 MB. Click Next.




Make sure the Boot Hard Disk (Primary Master) box is checked. Then check the button for Use existing hard disk. Click Next.




Click Finish.




Click Start.