iPodLinux

What is iPodLinux (iPL)? Before the iPod Touch, iPhone, Android, and others, iPL offered iPod owners a chance to run homebrew code on their portable devices. Since then iPodLinux.org has expired, and the project is practically dead. Nevertheless it was a fun time when you could load the entire Wikipedia on your iPod or play Doom.

Below is a screenshot of Podzilla2, a graphical shell for iPodLinux, running my module Drum Machine. Drum Machine is coded in C, and provides 4 samples, 4 patterns, and 32 steps. Like other Podzilla modules, it is generally compiled into the main executable along with other modules.

The screenshots show Podzilla2, running under OS X. I originally wrote this under Fedora around October 2008, but I rediscovered the source code and built it for the desktop. You may download the source code here.

Note: Building this may be tricky. Building Podzilla2 itself may be tricky since the documentation on it is scattered across the net, but the links below should suffice.

• Build Podzilla2 following the instructions at http://ipl.derpapst.eu/wiki/Building_Podzilla.
• tar xzvf xpod-drum_machine-src.tar.gz in the modules directory of the Podzilla2 source.
• Attempt to rebuild Podzilla2 with Drum Machine.
• Notice all the errors and attempt solutions.
• Successfully build Podzilla2 with Drum Machine.

So prepare to hack. I haven’t really bothered with this since high school, but it will still work with some effort.