IOS emulators: Difference between revisions

Formerly, iOS was used for both Apple's phones and tablets. Then, the iOS brand was split into two parts in 2019, with iOS now being the OS exclusively used in the iPhone and the now-defunct iPod Touch. The second half, named iPadOS, is a fork of iOS for iPads that makes use of their larger screens, hence its name. Most iOS apps and games work on iPadOS.

==Emulators==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"

|-

!colspan="9"|x86

|-

|[https://touchhle.org/download/ {{TouchHLEVer}}]

|{{Green}} {{License|MPL2}} ({{License|Copyleft}})

|{{✓}}

|align=left|{{Icon|macOS|Linux}}

|[https://github.com/devos50/qemu-ios#running-the-ipod-touch-1g git]

|N/A

|{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} ({{License|Copyleft}})

|{{✗}}

|-

|align=left|{{Icon|macOS|Linux}}

|N/A

|{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} ({{License|Copyleft}})

|[[BlackThunder]]

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|macOS}}

|?

|?

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}

|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]

|N/A

|{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}}<br>{{License|BSD3}}

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|macOS|Linux}}

|[https://github.com/zhkl0228/unidbg/releases/tag/v0.9.8 v0.9.8]

|?

|{{Green}} {{License|Apache2}} ({{License|Permissive}})

|align=left|{{Icon|macOS}}

|Feb 6, 2021 (git)

|Limited (some commercial apps work)

|{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} & {{License|LGPL-2.1}} ({{License|Copyleft}})

|{{✗}}

|{{✗}}

|align=left|{{Icon|macOS}}

|[https://github.com/zydeco/aah git]

|?

|{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} ({{License|Copyleft}})

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}

|[https://github.com/ipasimulator/ipasim/releases/tag/v1.0.1 Patch v1.0.1]

|?

|{{Green}} {{License|MIT}} ({{License|Permissive}})

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|macOS|Linux}}

|0.9.7

|?

|{{Green}} {{License|Apache2}} ({{License|Permissive}})

|align=left|{{Icon|Linux|macOS}}

|[https://github.com/TrungNguyen1909/qemu-t8030 git]

|?

|{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} ({{License|Copyleft}}) ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}

|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}

|[https://github.com/alephsecurity/xnu-qemu-arm64 git]

|?

|{{Green}} {{License|GPLv2}} ({{License|Copyleft}}) ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}

|[https://github.com/danzatt/QEMU-s5l89xx-port git]

|?

|?

|-

!colspan="9"|ARM

|-

|[https://touchhle.org/ touchHLE]

|{{Green}} {{License|MPL2}} ({{License|Copyleft}})

|{{✓}}

|{{~}}

|}

==Hypervisors [[Hypervisors|(...)]]==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"

|-

|[https://www.corellium.com/ Corellium]

|align=left|{{Icon|Web}}

|[https://www.corellium.com/ Web-based] ($)

|?

|{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}

|{{✓}}

|{{~}}<ref group=N>Would be completely recommended if it wasn’t paid and/or a local version that runs on Windows/macOS/Linux is available.</ref>

|}

==Native==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"

|-

!colspan="9"|ARM

|align=left|{{Icon|macOS}}<ref group=N>Requires Mac computers with Apple Silicon (M series) processors.</ref>

|11 Big Sur to 26 Tahoe

|?

|{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}

|align=left|{{Icon|Android}}

|Unreleased

|?

|{{Red}} {{License|Proprietary}}

==Comparison==

;Emulators

:;[[touchHLE]]

:;QEMU-iOS

:;QEMU-t8030/TruEmu

::QEMU-t8030, also known as TruEmu, is an iPhone 11 emulated in QEMU, however, the current version with a published source cannot boot. TruEmu is a software that offers support for iOS 14 up to the latest iOS 16 and is built to work on iPhone 6S SecureROM hardware. It also provides out-of-box kernel debugging support and USB support (with Firmware Restore) and utilizes Apple's custom CPU features such as SPRR/GXF and custom PAC. Additionally, TruEmu is open-source software. TruEmu is made to counteract the paid Corellium’s monopoly in iOS emulation for security reasearch. The creator’s mastodon and X (formally Twitter) shows work on full SEP emulation and it booting to SpringBoard and operating the Calculator and Settings apps, but it is currently unreleased, with only minor graphical glitches. The day videos of it’s operation were posted on social medias, a user made an issue about it and archived the repo with no comment, only with a comment before it was emulated saying that he was working on multitouch. The reason it was unreleased remains uncertain. He may be developing a very capable iOS emulator, may have been hired by Corellium (he did go to a Corellium/Magnet mixer, Magnet being unknown company but likely Magnet Forensics), or he may have been stopped by an Apple employee or has been paranoid about possible Copyright issues and decided to not release it nor make a comment.

:::Active fork of QEMU-t8030/TruEmu by ChefKissInc which aims to emulate Apple Silicon based devices (A series, M series, etc).

:::;eShard attempt

::QEMU-s5l89xx-port (also known without the -port as QEMU-s5l89xx) (2012), also known as iEmu, is another failed attempt to get an iPhone running in QEMU, this time the 1st generation. The last commits were made in 2013. Any Android app going by the name iEmu is a *scam* and should be avoided. Nowadays, a malicious APK file going by the '''iEmu''' moniker is also being circulated on blogs run by script kiddies claiming to offer a way to run iOS apps on Android. More often than not, they're uploaded with the intention of generating revenue from impressionable users (through pay-per-click URL shorteners) who fall easily for those types of scams. The project started in 2011 but got mysteriously abandoned two years later before anything usable surfaced. All pages related to the project were removed. It's speculated Apple had a hand in this. The name is based on the part number of the original iPhone, and also is known to be called iVM, however, this is unconfirmed.

::

:;ipasim

:;xnu-qemu-arm64

:;[https://github.com/LiveContainer/LiveExec32 LiveExec32]

==Hardware features==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"

|- style="font-weight:bold;"

! colspan=2 | Name

! Corellium

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{~}}

| {{?}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{?}}

|-

| rowspan=2 | Connectivity

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✓}}

| {{✓}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

|style="background:skyblue;"|[https://github.com/hikari-no-yume/touchHLE#touchhle-high-level-emulator-for-iphone-os-apps Future goal]

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

|style="background:{{{color|#FFD2D2}}};"|[https://github.com/hikari-no-yume/touchHLE/issues/181#issuecomment-1777098259 Never]

| {{✗}}

! colspan=5 | [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/application-binary-interfaces Supported ABIs]

|-

| {{✓}}[https://github.com/merryhime/dynarmic?tab=readme-ov-file#supported-guest-architectures *]

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✓}}[https://github.com/merryhime/dynarmic?tab=readme-ov-file#supported-guest-architectures *]

| {{✗}}

! colspan=5 | [https://developer.apple.com/documentation/technologies Supported APIs]

|-

| {{?}}

| {{?}}

==Enhancements==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;width:100%"

! colspan=2 style="width:50%" | Name

! TouchHLE

|-

|rowspan=6 | Post-Processing

| {{✗}}[https://github.com/touchHLE/touchHLE/issues/532]

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{?}}

| {{?}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| rowspan=4 | Input

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✓}}

| {{?}}

|-

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✓}}[https://github.com/hikari-no-yume/touchHLE/blob/trunk/OPTIONS_HELP.txt#L33 *]

| {{✗}}

| {{✗}}

|-

| {{✓}}

| {{✗}}

| colspan=11 |  Exclusive to [https://www.emuvr.net/wiki/Installation_Guide#Downloads libretro cores] at the moment. So there is no support.

|-

|{{Dunno}}

|{{Dunno}}

|-

|colspan="11" |You can use [https://docs.libretro.com/guides/ai-service/ RetroArch's AI Service] or the standalone offline [https://github.com/bquenin/interpreter bquenin's Interpreter].

|-

*[[Wikipedia:Comparison_of_mobile_operating_systems|Comparison of mobile operating systems]] (Wikipedia)

*Reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LegacyJailbreak/ r/LegacyJailbreak] (old devices) [https://www.reddit.com/r/Jailbreak/ r/Jailbreak] (new devices)

*[https://hikari.noyu.me/blog/2023-04-13-touchhle-in-depth-1-function-calls.html hikari's blog: touchHLE in depth, part 1: a day in the life of a function call]