Is there any chance Virtual Buddy can virtualize iOS in future?

[porcherie]

I'm not a dev so I have no idea how double this thing is, but I find it will fill a big gap as I cannot find any valid options to achieve this.

[insidegui]

Apple's virtualization framework is perfectly capable of running any Apple platform, including iOS. I've done it before.

The main thing preventing full iOS virtualization from becoming feasible in a tool like VirtualBuddy is the lack of iOS restore images built for virtualization.

When you get an IPSW from Apple, it's built specifically for a given device model, and a virtualized iOS device has a specific board ID and chip ID for which Apple does not provide restore images.

It's technically possible to hack an iOS restore image and your Mac (because virtualization of iOS currently requires private entitlements) to the point where you're able to boot a virtualized iPhone, but the process is so involved that it's not possible to make this available as a consumer-facing (or even developer-facing) feature.

That being said, I've been seeing some (non-official and totally based on my own observations) indications that Apple might be planning on making iOS virtualization a thing for customers in the future.

[porcherie]

Great reply 👍
Thanks for taking the time to give such a nice explanation.
Hopefully iPhone Mirroring is a first step toward that

[jorgschulze73]

It's technically possible to hack an iOS restore image and your Mac (because virtualization of iOS currently requires private entitlements) to the point where you're able to boot a virtualized iPhone, but the process is so involved that it's not possible to make this available as a consumer-facing (or even developer-facing) feature.

Does this still hold? A lot of work has been invested into automating patching of iOS restore images in other projects such as vphone-cli to the point where I assume this could now be easily integrated into VirtualBuddy

[insidegui]

Does this still hold? A lot of work has been invested into automating patching of iOS restore images in other projects such as vphone-cli to the point where I assume this could now be easily integrated into VirtualBuddy

Define "easily" 😅

It is definitely not anywhere near the point where it could be integrated into a product like VirtualBuddy. There are also potential legal implications since it's not officially allowed by Apple's ToS.