For years, the only thing that allowed non-Apple computers to run macOS was hackintosh tool. But when it comes to iOS, few people have been able to run it on other platforms, at least until now. One developer successfully emulated the first version of his iPhone OS (remember the name?) on a computer using QEMU.
iPhone OS 1.0 emulated without iPhone hardware
Also known as Martijn de Vos devos50, after the iPhone was launched, used a lot of reverse engineering to emulate the first version of iPhone OS released for the first generation iPod touch in 2007. Describes how to simulate things like multitouch support and other hardware components.
In a blog post, de Vos explains that the tricky part was emulating the iPod touch’s hardware components. This is why the developer chose to emulate the first build of iPhone OS made for his iPod instead of his iPhone. This is because more components need to be emulated in order for the iPhone version to work.
At the same time, de Vos also chose iPhone OS 1.0. This is due to the fact that this version has much less security his mechanisms than recent versions of the operating system. “Modern Apple devices include many additional hardware components, such as neural engines, secure enclaves, and various sensors, making emulation of such devices much more difficult and time-consuming.
Interestingly, this project was made possible thanks to OpeniBoot, an open source implementation of Apple’s bootloader. This project was discontinued a long time ago, but users can now do things like install his Android on his iPhone and iPod touch of the first generation.
But is it functional?
Despite some bugs, the final project seemed to work quite well, and iPhone OS 1.0 was successfully emulated in QEMU (an open source virtualization platform).
The system is perfectly navigable using the mouse and keyboard, and most preinstalled apps work just fine. There are some situations where the system crashes, but it’s impressive to see a version of iOS emulated on another platform.
The developer says this is probably the first time someone has emulated an iPhone operating system using open source tools. CorelliumFor example, we sell virtual iOS devices, but all our tools and code are private. Creating your own virtual machine is not easy, de Vos shares all the details in a blog post For those interested in doing so.
For his next project, de Vos wants to emulate the second generation iPod touch released with iPhone OS 2.1.
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