iPhone not Showing in Companion VM

[Opuqide]

I got Arch Linux installed on the Companion VM, and install the necessary dependencies for the restore to work. As soon as I launch Arch before iOS, then launch the iOS VM, the iPhone does NOT show up, according to ideviceinfo, nor idevicerestore. Am I doing something wrong or is something broken?

[chris-pcguy]

Am I doing something wrong

Argh, most likely yes. You need to make sure that usbmuxd is running.

[Opuqide]

@chris-pcguy

usbmuxd DID start, yet it does not show up.

[chris-pcguy]

Just run lsusb. The next most likely reason is that you either didn't configured the connection between the iOS VM and the companion correctly or that you started the companion after the iOS VM.

[Opuqide]

So, I ran the through the steps correctly, and I installed the necessary dependencies. I always know to run the Companion VM before running the iOS VM. I'll give lsusb a try.

[RomashkaTea]

try start usbmuxd

[Opuqide]

try start usbmuxd

I did before, but the device wouldn't pop up.

[chartersamster]

Worked for me, but now I'm getting the "unable to discover device type" error

[Opuqide]

@chris-pcguy I ran lsusb, the iPhone was not listed. I even ran usbmuxd. I typed in everything correctly, but to no avail. What is going on with the emulator? Is it fucked up or am I doing something wrong?

[chartersamster]

am I doing something wrong?

well did you add ",usb-conn-type=ipv4,usb-conn-addr=127.0.0.1,usb-conn-port=8030" to the -M flag when you're running the emulated iPhone and also add -usb -device usb-ehci,id=ehci "-device usb-tcp-remote,conn-type=ipv4,conn-addr=127.0.0.1,conn-port=8030,bus=ehci.0" to the command line of the companion VM? these must be added for the vm to recognize the iphone

[Opuqide]

Yes, I am sure. I added the first piece of the arugments to the iOS booter, and the second part of arguments to the Companion booter. Neither of them worked.

[chartersamster]

I see, but I don't know if this sounds obvious, but have you made sure you installed all of the required libimobiledevice tools?

…

On Fri, Jun 27, 2025 at 22:12 Tyler ***@***.***> wrote: *Opuqide* left a comment (ChefKissInc/QEMUAppleSilicon#110) <#110 (comment)> Yes, I am sure. I added the first piece of the arugments to the iOS booter, and the second part of arguments to the Companion booter. Neither of them worked. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#110 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BPEDGBRZXXIUJOQBWLKGBYD3FX22BAVCNFSM6AAAAACAJW7ANGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTAMJUHAZTSNRZG4> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[chris-pcguy]

I ran lsusb, the iPhone was not listed.

That means running usbmuxd wouldn't help, because there's nothing for it to work with.

Neither of them worked.

Neither? You need to use both at the same time. Not only a listening socket where nothing connects to or some connect() syscall that tries to connect to nothing.

[Opuqide]

Neither? You need to use both at the same time.

How am I supposed to do that? What step was that discussed in?

[chris-pcguy]

I see, but I don't know if this sounds obvious, but have you made sure you installed all of the required libimobiledevice tools?

That won't help if he can't even see the virtual iPhone using lsusb to begin with.

How am I supposed to do that? What step was that discussed in?

Let's say it that way, the Companion VM is the web server in this comparison and the iPhone VM the web browser. You need both existing at the same time, otherwise you wouldn't have much to do.

[Opuqide]

I literally run the Companion VM first before the iOS VM. It still does not work. They still run at the same time, but the damn thing still doesn't appear in the Companion VM.

[chris-pcguy]

I literally run the Companion VM first before the iOS VM. It still does not work. They still run at the same time, but the damn thing still doesn't appear in the Companion VM.

I'm saying that you can't start both VMs, but only tell the companion vm to start the server without telling the iOS vm to start the client, and then only tell the iOS vm to start the client without telling the companion vm to start the server. both components need to be used, argh.

[Sam2159]

I literally run the Companion VM first before the iOS VM. It still does not work. They still run at the same time, but the damn thing still doesn't appear in the Companion VM.

Have you tried recreating the disks? I had the same problem, and that solved it.

[chartersamster]

Sorry for the necrobump, but I think I've just found the issue of your problem:

Are you sure that usbmuxd is actually running? You did not check the status of it though. Check by entering sudo systemctl status usbmuxd in your companion and you'll usually see "active (running)" or "failed" upon execution.

If you get the error Dropping privileges failed, check if user 'usbmux' exists! resulting in the service not starting then I think the tools to install usbmuxd is "broken" and does not add the "usbmux" user group, that's what I got when using arch to restore. You'll need to reinstall usbmuxd via pacman (unfortunately?), it solved the issue for me.