Starting iPhone app development in Linux

Question

I ve heard that you need to get a Mac if you want to develop iPhone apps  Is this true    Is it possible to develop iPhone apps using Linux  If yes  what do I need and where do I download the necessary tools

User · Answer

To provide a differing response  I m running OS X and Xcode on a virtualised  VMware  machine on Linux   CPU is a Core2Quad  Q8800   and it is perfectly fast   I found a prebuilt VM online  I ll leave it to you to find  Xcode iPhone development works perfectly  as does debugging via USB to the phone itself   It actually surprised me a lot - but I ve had no issues at all

User · Answer

There used to be a project dedicated to solve this defect  iphone-dev     The goal of the iphone-dev project is to create a free  portable  high quality toolchain to enable development for the Apple iPhone and other embedded devices based on the ARM Darwin platform

User · Answer

There s a framework called Rhodes   The concept is based on Ruby on Rails and you develop your mobile app in Ruby and HTML  and you can write your code in a Linux environment  You can then create an account at Rhohub  where you add the code  through GitHub   and it allows you to compile it for iPhone  Blackberry  Android  Windows Mobile and Symbian  all off the same code  You don t have to code in Objective-C for iPhone  nor Java for Android  etc  It does the conversions for you  All you need to do is stick to the Rules for creating an iPhone application  or the Phone s you want to develop for  so it can be accepted at iTunes  or the equivalent market    This will allow you to add the app to iTunes as well   I have not found any emulators  however  which means that to test your app you need to put it on an iPhone  which is a mission   I am using this option as I want to create apps for all phones and I use Ruby on Rails already  If you just want to make an app for an iPhone  then invest in a Mac   Hope this helps

User · Answer

To a certain extent  yes  it is possible  You can type Objective-C code and set up your projects  You can even test the C and C   parts of your code with gcc   What you cannot do    Use Interface Builder to set up your interface  as it s Mac-only   Not required  but recommended   Compile code that uses Apple s Cocoa classes - they don t exist on Linux  Test code in the Simulator - there isn t one for Linux  Compile code for real devices or for the App Store - all this requires tools that Apple only provides for OS X

User · Answer

I did an attempt to port cocos2d-iphone to GNUstep so that you can Develop game based on cocos2d  However for publishing you need a mac  cocos2d-GNUstep

User · Answer

You can use Tersus  open source   and it lets you export the app as an Xcode project

User · Answer

The only way I know of doing development in Linux for the iPhone would be to install Vmware and work on getting OS X running in a virtual machine   With that said there are some  legal  concerns in doing that   It is reported that OS X Server can be virtualized but as far as the development story on that I don t know     If you are truly serious  that s the what I d investigate     Good luck

User · Answer

You might be able to write code on a Linux box that will eventually find itself on an iPhone or iPad  but ultimately you would need a Mac to test or deploy the code to the iPhone or to submit it to the App store   So ultimately you need a Mac  so you might as well do the work on the Mac too  with all the tools that Apple provide   There are alternatives to Xcode  amp  Objective-C  such as Monotouch - but these utilize the Apple tools too   You can with some work run OS X in a VM on Linux   However I should point out that this will break the OSX license agreement  even if you buy the copy of OSX - as it is only licensed to run on Apple hardware   Sorry to give you this news - the ecosystem around the iPhone iPad is very tightly controlled   EDIT  One major exception to this is writing a web app for the iPhone   There are some excellent web apps for the iPhone which are almost as good as user experience as a native app   However I did interpret your question to be about native app development   Web apps  although the user can create an icon for launching them - are still  second class  citizens

User · Answer

You re right non-jailbroken phones are limited to Apple s App store and Apple  has the right  to enforce whatever rule  it s totally nonfree territory  However while developing  one won t have to deal with Apple at all  You can use e g  rsync to upload the code to the device and test it

User · Answer

Regarding the alternative tool chain  Saurik s site is useful but for latest firmware development he indicates building on the iPhone itself and stays clear of indicating that you may need to copy necessary iPhone firmware files to your Linux environment  It s not impossible  but just requires additional work  especially for signing the code  there are open alternative solutions out there as well    Also  take a look at other guides  for the same tool chain  that approach it more methodically   I d suggest to still do the final build and code signing and packaging in XCode  which may mean borrowing someone s Mac  in case you run into problems when submitting the application to Apple  Using the alternative tool chain opens up  at least on the Mac  the possibility of using other IDEs other than XCode for developing the application and again resorting to XCode for the deployment and testing with the simulator    Of course if you do get the code signing   certificate generation working from the command line outside of XCode then you can install a certificate on your actual iPhone and test there  installing the app via iTunes w your certificate

User · Answer

The answer to this really depends on whether or not you want to develop apps that are then distributed through the iPhone store  If you don t  and don t mind developing for the  jailbroken  iPhone crowd - then it s possible to develop from Linux   Check this chap s page for a comprehensive  if a little complex  guide on what to do    http   www saurik com id 4

User · Answer

If you value your time  buy a Mac  I don t know enough about Linux development options to offer a viable solution  but it seems the proposed methods involve some pretty roundabout work  If you plan on seriously writing and selling iPhone apps  I think you could easily recoup the cost of a Mac Mini or Macbook   -

User · Answer

The answer to this really depends on whether or not you want to develop apps that are then distributed through the iPhone store  If you don t  and don t mind developing for the  jailbroken  iPhone crowd - then it s possible to develop from Linux   Check this chap s page for a comprehensive  if a little complex  guide on what to do    http   www saurik com id 4

User · Answer

You will never get your app approved by Apple if it is not developed using Xcode  Never  And if you do hack the SDK to develop on Linux and Apple finds out  don t be surprised when you are served  I am a member of the ADC and the iPhone developer program  Trust  Apple is VERY serious about this   Don t take the risk  Buy a Macbook or Mac mini  yes a mini can run Xcode - though slowly - boost the RAM if you go with the mini   Also  while I ve seen OS X hacked to run on VMware I ve never seen anyone running Xcode on VM  So good luck  And I d check the EULA before you go through the trouble    PS  After reading the above  yes I agree If you do hack the SDK and develop on Linux at least do the final packaging on a Mac  And submit it via a Mac  Apple doesn t run through the code line by line so i doubt they d catch that  But man  that s a lot of if s and work  Be fun to do though

User · Answer

It seems to be true so far  The only SDK available from Apple only targets the macOS environment  I ve been upset about that  but I m looking into buying a mac now  just to do iPhone development  I really dislike what they are doing  and I hope a good SDK come out for other environments  such as Linux and Windows  Obstacles regarding the SDK   The iPhone SDK and free software  not a match Apple s recently released a software development kit  SDK  for the iPhone  but if you were hoping to port or develop original open source software with it  the news isn t good  Code signing and nondisclosure conditions make free software a no-go  The SDK itself is a free download  with which you can write programs and run them on a software simulator  But in order to actually release software you ve written  you must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program -- a step separate from downloading the SDK  and one that requires Apple s approval   I think it s rather elitist for them to think only macOS users are good enough to write programs for their phone  and the fact you need to buy a  100 license if you want to publish your stuff  really makes it more difficult for the hobbyist programmer  Though  if that s what you need to do  I m planning on jumping through their hoops  I d really like to get some stuff developed on my iPhone

User · Answer

If you value your time  buy a Mac  I don t know enough about Linux development options to offer a viable solution  but it seems the proposed methods involve some pretty roundabout work  If you plan on seriously writing and selling iPhone apps  I think you could easily recoup the cost of a Mac Mini or Macbook   -

User · Answer

Regarding the alternative tool chain  Saurik s site is useful but for latest firmware development he indicates building on the iPhone itself and stays clear of indicating that you may need to copy necessary iPhone firmware files to your Linux environment  It s not impossible  but just requires additional work  especially for signing the code  there are open alternative solutions out there as well    Also  take a look at other guides  for the same tool chain  that approach it more methodically   I d suggest to still do the final build and code signing and packaging in XCode  which may mean borrowing someone s Mac  in case you run into problems when submitting the application to Apple  Using the alternative tool chain opens up  at least on the Mac  the possibility of using other IDEs other than XCode for developing the application and again resorting to XCode for the deployment and testing with the simulator    Of course if you do get the code signing   certificate generation working from the command line outside of XCode then you can install a certificate on your actual iPhone and test there  installing the app via iTunes w your certificate

User · Answer

To provide a differing response  I m running OS X and Xcode on a virtualised  VMware  machine on Linux   CPU is a Core2Quad  Q8800   and it is perfectly fast   I found a prebuilt VM online  I ll leave it to you to find  Xcode iPhone development works perfectly  as does debugging via USB to the phone itself   It actually surprised me a lot - but I ve had no issues at all

User · Answer

I did an attempt to port cocos2d-iphone to GNUstep so that you can Develop game based on cocos2d  However for publishing you need a mac  cocos2d-GNUstep

User · Answer

The only way I know of doing development in Linux for the iPhone would be to install Vmware and work on getting OS X running in a virtual machine   With that said there are some  legal  concerns in doing that   It is reported that OS X Server can be virtualized but as far as the development story on that I don t know     If you are truly serious  that s the what I d investigate     Good luck

User · Answer

You re right non-jailbroken phones are limited to Apple s App store and Apple  has the right  to enforce whatever rule  it s totally nonfree territory  However while developing  one won t have to deal with Apple at all  You can use e g  rsync to upload the code to the device and test it

User · Answer

I would recommend getting a mac because the ios simulator is amazing for testing in the early stages of an app  But I do know of a small company we work with that develops using Unity so they don t need a load of macs  That way they only need one mac for the office and that s just to compile the final build  It also means it works on android but it really depends on what your building because it s a games engine  You may want to look into web apps using frameworks like Sencha Touch Mobile  Unity  http   unity3d com  Sencha Touch  http   www sencha com products touch

User · Answer

You can use Tersus  open source   and it lets you export the app as an Xcode project

User · Answer

You need to get mac for it  There are several tool chains available  like win-chain  that actually lets you write and build i Phone applications on windows  There are several associated tutorials to build the Objective C code on Windows  But there is a problem  the apps hence developed will work on Jail broken i Phones only    We   ve seen few hacks to get over that and make it to App Store  but as Apple keeps on updating SDKs  tool chains need regular updates  It   s a hassle to make it up all the time If you want to get ready app you can also take help from arcapps its launches apps at a reasonable price  iphone app development

User · Answer

I ve had success building iOS apps on linux using the iOS clang toolchain by cjacker  Basically it consists of the upstream clang and llvm tools from your linux distro  a linux port of apple s linker and some extra tools to help simplify the build process  such as converting xcode projects to Makefile format   It does take a few steps to install  but you re a software developer so you d be used to that  I posted an up to date howto for Debian 7  Wheezy  online  https   rogerkeays com how-to-build-an-ios-toolchain-for-linux-debian-7 Otherwise you want to go with the generic instructions which are a little older  http   code google com p ios-toolchain-based-on-clang-for-linux wiki HowTo en Good luck

User · Answer

The only way I know of doing development in Linux for the iPhone would be to install Vmware and work on getting OS X running in a virtual machine   With that said there are some  legal  concerns in doing that   It is reported that OS X Server can be virtualized but as far as the development story on that I don t know     If you are truly serious  that s the what I d investigate     Good luck

User · Answer

It seems to be true so far  The only SDK available from Apple only targets the macOS environment  I ve been upset about that  but I m looking into buying a mac now  just to do iPhone development  I really dislike what they are doing  and I hope a good SDK come out for other environments  such as Linux and Windows  Obstacles regarding the SDK   The iPhone SDK and free software  not a match Apple s recently released a software development kit  SDK  for the iPhone  but if you were hoping to port or develop original open source software with it  the news isn t good  Code signing and nondisclosure conditions make free software a no-go  The SDK itself is a free download  with which you can write programs and run them on a software simulator  But in order to actually release software you ve written  you must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program -- a step separate from downloading the SDK  and one that requires Apple s approval   I think it s rather elitist for them to think only macOS users are good enough to write programs for their phone  and the fact you need to buy a  100 license if you want to publish your stuff  really makes it more difficult for the hobbyist programmer  Though  if that s what you need to do  I m planning on jumping through their hoops  I d really like to get some stuff developed on my iPhone

User · Answer

There s a framework called Rhodes   The concept is based on Ruby on Rails and you develop your mobile app in Ruby and HTML  and you can write your code in a Linux environment  You can then create an account at Rhohub  where you add the code  through GitHub   and it allows you to compile it for iPhone  Blackberry  Android  Windows Mobile and Symbian  all off the same code  You don t have to code in Objective-C for iPhone  nor Java for Android  etc  It does the conversions for you  All you need to do is stick to the Rules for creating an iPhone application  or the Phone s you want to develop for  so it can be accepted at iTunes  or the equivalent market    This will allow you to add the app to iTunes as well   I have not found any emulators  however  which means that to test your app you need to put it on an iPhone  which is a mission   I am using this option as I want to create apps for all phones and I use Ruby on Rails already  If you just want to make an app for an iPhone  then invest in a Mac   Hope this helps

User · Answer

The answer to this really depends on whether or not you want to develop apps that are then distributed through the iPhone store  If you don t  and don t mind developing for the  jailbroken  iPhone crowd - then it s possible to develop from Linux   Check this chap s page for a comprehensive  if a little complex  guide on what to do    http   www saurik com id 4

User · Answer

You need to get mac for it  There are several tool chains available  like win-chain  that actually lets you write and build i Phone applications on windows  There are several associated tutorials to build the Objective C code on Windows  But there is a problem  the apps hence developed will work on Jail broken i Phones only    We   ve seen few hacks to get over that and make it to App Store  but as Apple keeps on updating SDKs  tool chains need regular updates  It   s a hassle to make it up all the time If you want to get ready app you can also take help from arcapps its launches apps at a reasonable price  iphone app development

User · Answer

It seems to be true so far  The only SDK available from Apple only targets the macOS environment  I ve been upset about that  but I m looking into buying a mac now  just to do iPhone development  I really dislike what they are doing  and I hope a good SDK come out for other environments  such as Linux and Windows  Obstacles regarding the SDK   The iPhone SDK and free software  not a match Apple s recently released a software development kit  SDK  for the iPhone  but if you were hoping to port or develop original open source software with it  the news isn t good  Code signing and nondisclosure conditions make free software a no-go  The SDK itself is a free download  with which you can write programs and run them on a software simulator  But in order to actually release software you ve written  you must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program -- a step separate from downloading the SDK  and one that requires Apple s approval   I think it s rather elitist for them to think only macOS users are good enough to write programs for their phone  and the fact you need to buy a  100 license if you want to publish your stuff  really makes it more difficult for the hobbyist programmer  Though  if that s what you need to do  I m planning on jumping through their hoops  I d really like to get some stuff developed on my iPhone

User · Answer

You might be able to write code on a Linux box that will eventually find itself on an iPhone or iPad  but ultimately you would need a Mac to test or deploy the code to the iPhone or to submit it to the App store   So ultimately you need a Mac  so you might as well do the work on the Mac too  with all the tools that Apple provide   There are alternatives to Xcode  amp  Objective-C  such as Monotouch - but these utilize the Apple tools too   You can with some work run OS X in a VM on Linux   However I should point out that this will break the OSX license agreement  even if you buy the copy of OSX - as it is only licensed to run on Apple hardware   Sorry to give you this news - the ecosystem around the iPhone iPad is very tightly controlled   EDIT  One major exception to this is writing a web app for the iPhone   There are some excellent web apps for the iPhone which are almost as good as user experience as a native app   However I did interpret your question to be about native app development   Web apps  although the user can create an icon for launching them - are still  second class  citizens

User · Answer

To a certain extent  yes  it is possible  You can type Objective-C code and set up your projects  You can even test the C and C   parts of your code with gcc   What you cannot do    Use Interface Builder to set up your interface  as it s Mac-only   Not required  but recommended   Compile code that uses Apple s Cocoa classes - they don t exist on Linux  Test code in the Simulator - there isn t one for Linux  Compile code for real devices or for the App Store - all this requires tools that Apple only provides for OS X

User · Answer

You will never get your app approved by Apple if it is not developed using Xcode  Never  And if you do hack the SDK to develop on Linux and Apple finds out  don t be surprised when you are served  I am a member of the ADC and the iPhone developer program  Trust  Apple is VERY serious about this   Don t take the risk  Buy a Macbook or Mac mini  yes a mini can run Xcode - though slowly - boost the RAM if you go with the mini   Also  while I ve seen OS X hacked to run on VMware I ve never seen anyone running Xcode on VM  So good luck  And I d check the EULA before you go through the trouble    PS  After reading the above  yes I agree If you do hack the SDK and develop on Linux at least do the final packaging on a Mac  And submit it via a Mac  Apple doesn t run through the code line by line so i doubt they d catch that  But man  that s a lot of if s and work  Be fun to do though

User · Answer

I ve had success building iOS apps on linux using the iOS clang toolchain by cjacker  Basically it consists of the upstream clang and llvm tools from your linux distro  a linux port of apple s linker and some extra tools to help simplify the build process  such as converting xcode projects to Makefile format   It does take a few steps to install  but you re a software developer so you d be used to that  I posted an up to date howto for Debian 7  Wheezy  online  https   rogerkeays com how-to-build-an-ios-toolchain-for-linux-debian-7 Otherwise you want to go with the generic instructions which are a little older  http   code google com p ios-toolchain-based-on-clang-for-linux wiki HowTo en Good luck

User · Answer

Regarding the alternative tool chain  Saurik s site is useful but for latest firmware development he indicates building on the iPhone itself and stays clear of indicating that you may need to copy necessary iPhone firmware files to your Linux environment  It s not impossible  but just requires additional work  especially for signing the code  there are open alternative solutions out there as well    Also  take a look at other guides  for the same tool chain  that approach it more methodically   I d suggest to still do the final build and code signing and packaging in XCode  which may mean borrowing someone s Mac  in case you run into problems when submitting the application to Apple  Using the alternative tool chain opens up  at least on the Mac  the possibility of using other IDEs other than XCode for developing the application and again resorting to XCode for the deployment and testing with the simulator    Of course if you do get the code signing   certificate generation working from the command line outside of XCode then you can install a certificate on your actual iPhone and test there  installing the app via iTunes w your certificate

User · Answer

You will never get your app approved by Apple if it is not developed using Xcode  Never  And if you do hack the SDK to develop on Linux and Apple finds out  don t be surprised when you are served  I am a member of the ADC and the iPhone developer program  Trust  Apple is VERY serious about this   Don t take the risk  Buy a Macbook or Mac mini  yes a mini can run Xcode - though slowly - boost the RAM if you go with the mini   Also  while I ve seen OS X hacked to run on VMware I ve never seen anyone running Xcode on VM  So good luck  And I d check the EULA before you go through the trouble    PS  After reading the above  yes I agree If you do hack the SDK and develop on Linux at least do the final packaging on a Mac  And submit it via a Mac  Apple doesn t run through the code line by line so i doubt they d catch that  But man  that s a lot of if s and work  Be fun to do though

User · Answer

There used to be a project dedicated to solve this defect  iphone-dev     The goal of the iphone-dev project is to create a free  portable  high quality toolchain to enable development for the Apple iPhone and other embedded devices based on the ARM Darwin platform

User · Answer

The answer to this really depends on whether or not you want to develop apps that are then distributed through the iPhone store  If you don t  and don t mind developing for the  jailbroken  iPhone crowd - then it s possible to develop from Linux   Check this chap s page for a comprehensive  if a little complex  guide on what to do    http   www saurik com id 4

User · Answer

The only way I know of doing development in Linux for the iPhone would be to install Vmware and work on getting OS X running in a virtual machine   With that said there are some  legal  concerns in doing that   It is reported that OS X Server can be virtualized but as far as the development story on that I don t know     If you are truly serious  that s the what I d investigate     Good luck

User · Answer

You will never get your app approved by Apple if it is not developed using Xcode  Never  And if you do hack the SDK to develop on Linux and Apple finds out  don t be surprised when you are served  I am a member of the ADC and the iPhone developer program  Trust  Apple is VERY serious about this   Don t take the risk  Buy a Macbook or Mac mini  yes a mini can run Xcode - though slowly - boost the RAM if you go with the mini   Also  while I ve seen OS X hacked to run on VMware I ve never seen anyone running Xcode on VM  So good luck  And I d check the EULA before you go through the trouble    PS  After reading the above  yes I agree If you do hack the SDK and develop on Linux at least do the final packaging on a Mac  And submit it via a Mac  Apple doesn t run through the code line by line so i doubt they d catch that  But man  that s a lot of if s and work  Be fun to do though

User · Answer

Regarding the alternative tool chain  Saurik s site is useful but for latest firmware development he indicates building on the iPhone itself and stays clear of indicating that you may need to copy necessary iPhone firmware files to your Linux environment  It s not impossible  but just requires additional work  especially for signing the code  there are open alternative solutions out there as well    Also  take a look at other guides  for the same tool chain  that approach it more methodically   I d suggest to still do the final build and code signing and packaging in XCode  which may mean borrowing someone s Mac  in case you run into problems when submitting the application to Apple  Using the alternative tool chain opens up  at least on the Mac  the possibility of using other IDEs other than XCode for developing the application and again resorting to XCode for the deployment and testing with the simulator    Of course if you do get the code signing   certificate generation working from the command line outside of XCode then you can install a certificate on your actual iPhone and test there  installing the app via iTunes w your certificate

User · Answer

It seems to be true so far  The only SDK available from Apple only targets the macOS environment  I ve been upset about that  but I m looking into buying a mac now  just to do iPhone development  I really dislike what they are doing  and I hope a good SDK come out for other environments  such as Linux and Windows  Obstacles regarding the SDK   The iPhone SDK and free software  not a match Apple s recently released a software development kit  SDK  for the iPhone  but if you were hoping to port or develop original open source software with it  the news isn t good  Code signing and nondisclosure conditions make free software a no-go  The SDK itself is a free download  with which you can write programs and run them on a software simulator  But in order to actually release software you ve written  you must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program -- a step separate from downloading the SDK  and one that requires Apple s approval   I think it s rather elitist for them to think only macOS users are good enough to write programs for their phone  and the fact you need to buy a  100 license if you want to publish your stuff  really makes it more difficult for the hobbyist programmer  Though  if that s what you need to do  I m planning on jumping through their hoops  I d really like to get some stuff developed on my iPhone

User · Answer

I would recommend getting a mac because the ios simulator is amazing for testing in the early stages of an app  But I do know of a small company we work with that develops using Unity so they don t need a load of macs  That way they only need one mac for the office and that s just to compile the final build  It also means it works on android but it really depends on what your building because it s a games engine  You may want to look into web apps using frameworks like Sencha Touch Mobile  Unity  http   unity3d com  Sencha Touch  http   www sencha com products touch

[ios] Starting iPhone app development in Linux?

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