failure to connect with virtual device from companion VM

[aviumcaravan]

issue description

host hardware

• motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX
• cpu: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 hexa-core @ 3.4GHz
• ram: 2x 16GB HyperX Fury @ 2667MHz
• storage: WD Blue SN570 500GB NVMe (system drive), Seagate ST2000NM0011 2TB 7200RPM (software/backup storage), goodram CX400 256GB (games and virtual machines)
• gpu: Sapphire NITRO+ RX Vega 56 8GB HBM2
• os: Arch Linux (last updated around 2025-07-07)

companion VM

quite literally every OS i've tried has the same issue. no point in listing all of them because there's way too many of them, but it includes Arch, Void, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Alpine Edge.

description + log

when i attempt to restore the device, i get three different errors.

• idevicerestore returns ERROR: Unable to discover device type
• ideviceinfo freezes until the 120 second timeout ends, at which point it will either return an usbmuxd failure or simply state that no device was found

as soon as the iPhone VM is started (yes, the companion VM is booted up way before that) the following appears:

waiting for host to trigger start of restore [timeout of 120 seconds]
recv(9, 4) failed: connection closed
unable to read message size: -1
could not receive message

once i attempt to run the restore command past the error, this happens instead (i included the bottom 3 lines to show that they always pop up no matter what i do):

libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: Image4Supported
2025-07-14 16:23:28.627402+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: Image4Supported
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: Image4Supported : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.629959+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: Image4Supported : 1
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: CertificateSecurityMode
2025-07-14 16:23:28.633920+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: CertificateSecurityMode
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: CertificateSecurityMode : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.639505+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: CertificateSecurityMode : 1
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveProductionStatusAp
2025-07-14 16:23:28.643231+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveProductionStatusAp
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveProductionStatusAp : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.648097+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveProductionStatusAp : 1
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveSecurityModeAp
2025-07-14 16:23:28.650180+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveSecurityModeAp
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveSecurityModeAp : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.657294+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveSecurityModeAp : 1
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: Image4Supported
2025-07-14 16:23:28.699122+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: Image4Supported
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: Image4Supported : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.702501+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: Image4Supported : 1
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: CertificateSecurityMode
2025-07-14 16:23:28.704743+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: CertificateSecurityMode
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: CertificateSecurityMode : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.707096+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: CertificateSecurityMode : 1
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveProductionStatusAp
2025-07-14 16:23:28.710002+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveProductionStatusAp
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveProductionStatusAp : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.714414+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveProductionStatusAp : 1
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:711: RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveSecurityModeAp
2025-07-14 16:23:28.716981+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Query: EffectiveSecurityModeAp
libMobileGestalt MobileGestalt.c:743: RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveSecurityModeAp : true
2025-07-14 16:23:28.719302+0000 restored_external[7:550] RestoreLog: Client Response: EffectiveSecurityModeAp : 1
recv(9, 4) failed: connection closed
unable to read message size: -1
could not receive message

i genuinely am lost at this point. if anyone has any ideas, please be my guest. i'm not even sure where to begin, because i can't tell if the issue is a host one or a guest one. thanks upfront.

[aviumcaravan]

update: after a lot of messing around on both host and guest side, i got this (also looping):

executing /usr/libexec/seputil --ping
AppleSEP:WARNING: attempt to send message to SEP in non-receptive state 5
AppleSEP:WARNING: _cmsgSend: send failed: result 0xe00002d8 opcode 0 endpoint 0 tag 8

also should note, idevicerestore returns -256.

[aviumcaravan]

another thing: using the -d guest_errors flag showed the following result when getting to sending NORData (same point at which seputil fails):

SEP AESS_BASE: aess_handle_cmd: Unknown command 0x211
SEP AESS_BASE: aess_handle_cmd: Unknown command 0x251

[aviumcaravan]

fixed by rebuilding all the images, probably got a key wrong somewhere (99% sure i lost one character while copy-pasting). still, the version of the emulator i was using seemed to be slower and less receptive, so i guess that made things worse.

[chris-pcguy]

fixed by rebuilding all the images

good

[chris-pcguy]

i genuinely am lost at this point. if anyone has any ideas, please be my guest. i'm not even sure where to begin, because i can't tell if the issue is a host one or a guest one. thanks upfront.

most likely user error (99.9999% recurring).

update: after a lot of messing around on both host and guest side, i got this (also looping):

executing /usr/libexec/seputil --ping
AppleSEP:WARNING: attempt to send message to SEP in non-receptive state 5
AppleSEP:WARNING: _cmsgSend: send failed: result 0xe00002d8 opcode 0 endpoint 0 tag 8

broken or mismatching sepfw, most likely.

also should note, idevicerestore returns -256.

so what? you think it should return error code 0 here?

another thing: using the -d guest_errors flag showed the following result when getting to sending NORData (same point at which seputil fails):

SEP AESS_BASE: aess_handle_cmd: Unknown command 0x211
SEP AESS_BASE: aess_handle_cmd: Unknown command 0x251

same point? nah, before. fully unrelated. those are from my understanding, yet unimplemented, sync commands.

to quote myself, from the unrelated #149:

Let me guess, it works for most other people, but not for you, so it must be clearly a problem with the code?
"Geisterfahrermeldung im Radio: Was, einer?! Hunderte, hunderte!"