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For the time being, there is up to now, no way to install Ubuntu (or any Linux http://www.techhive.com/article/239059/linux_now_runs_on_ipad_tuxedo_optional.html system for that matter) on the iPad as easily as rooting an Android. Since a year and half ago in an article about Linux running on Ipad (August 2011) there has been only small changes and steps to provide a final way of installing Ubuntu to an iPad (Or any other Mac hardware for that matter).

The team behind this, the iDroid team has a webpage where you can see their status and how far they have gotten: http://www.idroidproject.org/wiki/Status

They also provide a way called Bootlace to install the bootable part of the system (iBoot) called OpeniBoot. It currently supports only 3 devices from the different that exist.

Of course, at the end, you are limited to only accomplishing the boot part in the devices it supports. The good news is that, as far as the history of Linux is concerned, there is no ¨iCan´t¨, there is only I CAN! so in the future this could possibly be done in an out of the box manner.

Thanks to a link provided by mateo_salta, there is no legal way right now (There is a debate about it from the FSF) to jailbreak an iPad. The information can be read HERE.

http://www.idroidproject.org/wiki/Status

For what it is worth, this is just another attempt from the DMCA to stop something they should not be stopping. If you buy an iPad, it is YOUR iPad. Maybe just hop into a plane out of the US, buy the iPad, do whatever you like with it and then come back ^^.

UPDATE: So here is some information regarding a neighbor I have that, apart from looking like Steve Jobs without the glasses, also knows about the idroidproject and has every Mac device since the palm. He showed me the iPad 1 and 2 and explained A LOT of stuff about how Mac works in regards to, let’s say, blocking, ways of trying to root, jailbreak or any other word you would like to use to change how the system behaves or even change the actual system (Like installing Ubuntu on an iPad). So here are the key points that I could write about:

The iPad and any other new hardware needs to first be compatible or supported at least first with the Linux kernel. If not, then it will be very tough to get it working on Ubuntu. This creates a problem for the correct detection of the CPU, motherboard, video card, sound card, wireless card, battery detection and usage and any other hardware found on the device.

There is a strong force behind not allowing any way to be able to overwrite the actual system with another or any apps that can do this. Everything is very tight, sandboxed and checked to make sure it conforms to the way the iOs works. There are alternatives like Cydia but it needs the device to be jailbroken first.

There is a strong legal pressure from Mac to force any attempts to do something like installing Ubuntu on iPad be denied or very tough to do as one can see from the links above.

Since Mac focuses on a specific type of hardware and works only on a small group of devices (Compared to Linux on how open it is with hardware types), it makes it even tougher to guarantee that the new system, be it Ubuntu or any other Linux, will actually work correctly with all the hardware every time.

Since bootlace only works with Phone 2G, iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 1G and with a specific version of the iOs, it makes it the more difficult to get the iPad working in the present time (With all the points above pushing in on the problem)

With the slow development of the openiBoot project and seen how it can actually only detect the CPU used in the iPad as of this writing we can only see that it will be a long way until a proper boot, load and install procedure can be made to get any Linux distro into an iPad. Here is the image from the status page:

So it is sad to see such a strong wish against using Linux on this type of hardware and I should say such a good hardware indeed would actually enjoy Linux on it.

As an addition to this, today I found out about Evasi0n which is a tool used to Jailbreak several Apple devices. The download can be found here

So sorry for the negative answer and the pessimist approach I bring to it. Most of this information is thanks to a heavy Mac user that also delves himself in the Ubuntu world and knows much about this. He almost convinced me to leave Ubuntu and jump to Mac (Mac evangelist hehe) but he also made good points (From the Mac side of course) regarding the reasons behind such a close sourced way of focusing on this devices. Not my kind of answer since I tend to look for an answer but I got curious and started asking many Mac users and well.. you can see how my answer changed to a more clear one… if I can call it clear.

Posted on October 29/2018 by Ricardo Luis Santana for Team Contact us United States 🇺🇸 United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Canada 🇨🇦 and Germany 🇩🇪