Jitterbug VS UTM

Efficient VMs on iPhone would be great. I experimented with sideloading Jitterbug (1) and using it to launch qemu, but the process currently requires a second device or setting up a VPN - in practice it was annoying.

I just want/need a Linux environment; coming from my laptop, I really miss rsync… FTP/SMB over VPN work but rsync is usually faster!

Fingers crossed that easily sideloading apps becomes a thing here in the US.

1: https://github.com/osy/Jitterbug

If you’re using a Developer certificate or some other certificate, that has VPN entitlements you can use Jitterbug.

You can still self host with JITStreamer, then theirs two alternatives, SideStore, made by the same devs, also lets you sideload and refresh on any Wi-Fi network. Then theirs JITterbug, that you just have to be on any Wi-Fi network, with (you need TrollStore, or paid dev cert to do with just one device or any other way to get VPN entitlements.) Or have another device other than the one you want the app with JIT on, and pair the two.

Jitterbug Pair (Windows 64)

For the last: UTM + JIT. Unfortunately it’s not on the AppStore, but those utilities will allow you to run any operating system (that doesn’t mean they’ll be useable). I use Debian ARM64 (with LXQt environment) on my iPad mini (A12) which runs fast enough to handle sublime text and one terminal window (but not a web browser ;_;). Some software won’t run on it like PSEint (unless you figure out how to compile it), but it’s faster than iSH and has more software compatibility than a-shell

you're going to need to get on your computer and download JitterbugPair (https://github.com/osy/Jitterbug/releases/latest). download the zip file that works on your device.

https://github.com/osy/Jitterbug Here's the recommended app for enabling JIT in UTM. There are instructions on the main page. The key point I found a little confusing is that the instructions are for setting it up on two separate devices, but if you're using TrollStore, the "primary device" and "secondary device" can be the same device (your iPhone). The end result is that launching UTM normally will open it without JIT, and using Jitterbug to launch UTM will enable JIT.

Jitterbug v.1.3.1

If you have TrollStore then install the HV version of UTM to try for yourself: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/releases/latest/download/UTM.HV.ipa

Researching a little showed that this is basically what can be expected running x86 emulation and the systems will just be wonky and slow, although it was running flawlessly, just slow.

There seem to be ways to use Rosetta2 inside a VM [0] to then translate binaries but I found no official support or documentation (using UTM+QEMU that was), this would be such a cool feature, at least there are discussions about it [1,2]

- [0] https://mybyways.com/blog/using-rosetta-in-a-utm-linux-vm-wi...

- [1] https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/discussions/4939

- [2] https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/5460

UTM is open source too though: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM#license

UTM makes it easy to set up and manage macOS and Windows virtual machines. This can be especially useful for developers such as Tauri contributors who need to test their applications across multiple platforms, or for those looking to experiment with different operating systems without affecting their primary system.

If you don't need high performance and want to use the OS only occasionally, check UTM.app, at https://mac.getutm.app/ (or https://github.com/utmapp/UTM ). Free, open source.