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I am working on a project, in which the ultimate goal is to successfully wipe iOS from an iPhone and install TinyCore Linux in it's place. I expected the iPhone to function like an external drive when connected to a computer running Linux (i.e. a mountable device or partition containing the phone's entire storage, including the OS), but instead, it mounts in the phone profile's media directory (/var/mobile/Media).

How can I access the iPhone storage as a device or partition (or really just have access to the / directory) so that I can put a new OS, Boot-loader, etc. onto it?

Krii
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  • Apple has locked down access to their mobile devices quite securely, which is why you usually need iTunes to access your iDevice usefully. I wish you good luck... – wurtel Dec 23 '15 at 08:06

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I believe that Apple has locked down access to its devices quite tightly, making it relatively difficult to access the files within.

iOS also seems to use files coded with ambiguous long hexadecimal (?) names; some of which are apps, others images etc. You can explore more on these in your iPhone's backup folders (look for files with similar sizes to images and add an extension, and if you got the right file you'd usually see an image pop up). I'm not sure if the system files are somewhere in here, but it's worth a try.

Perhaps you could try looking at the process/code that iTunes uses to restore iOS .ipsw software files for some insight into how the system directory is accessed on the iPhone.

Might I ask what do you intend to use an iPhone running TinyCore Linux for?

perhapsmaybeharry
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  • Mostly for experience. I am planing to do something similar for a custom OS/software in the future. – Krii Dec 25 '15 at 02:29
  • @Krii I see. Not forgetting the challenges in mounting the disk: the device needs to respond to the host and identify itself (this is why it only mounts as a media file) as a storage device, installing new software would require overwriting the firmware and probably much more. I think as it stands your best chance is to try jailbreaking. I think it may be able to do something on device mounting. – perhapsmaybeharry Dec 25 '15 at 06:51
  • my device is already jailbroken. This is how I was able to tell you which directory the device mounted on. I will have to study the filesystem and the workings of the device OS. Thanks for your help and ideas. – Krii Dec 26 '15 at 05:25
  • I see. A good place to start would certainly be iTunes or your jailbreaking software. I think the only problem you're likely to run into is the firmware problem... Do let me know if you succeed. – perhapsmaybeharry Dec 26 '15 at 13:54
  • Well there's a tweak on Cydia called "Apple File Conduit" that does just what it need. – Krii Sep 07 '16 at 10:51
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As it turns out, there's already a tweak to do this on Cydia. It's called Apple File Conduit "2".

Krii
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