iPhone Simulator from 2.2.1 SDK on PowerPC

[Amethyst1]

The iPhone Simulator that comes with the iPhone OS 2.2.1 SDK is the last version to secretly have shipped as a Universal Binary; so that it works on PPC machines running Leopard.

This is how to get it to run:

1. Find the SDK. The name of the disk image released by Apple is iphone_sdk_for_iphone_os_2.2.1_9m2621a_final.dmg.

2. Mount the image and open the Packages folder.

3. Open iPhoneSimulatorPlatform.pkg using Pacifist and tell it to "install" the package.

4. In Finder, go to /Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications and finally launch iPhone Simulator.

5. Have fun surfing with Mobile Safari or whatever

edit: Removed link. Better be safe than sorry.

 

[z970]

Is it illegal?

 

[miksat]

Is it illegal?

Does it even matter?
[doublepost=1536955215][/doublepost]I have to say, this is probably one of the most complicated ways to watch youtube ever

 

[KawaiiAurora]

It must be noted that the simulator can't run ARM code so sadly, you can't grab ancient IPA files off the internet and play your favourite old mobile games through this.

That being said, I think that some very old open-source projects could be compiled via XCode and run in the simulator.

 

[AmazingHenry]

Nice! Does it run earlier iOS versions, such as 1.0? I've always wanted to try 1.0 but my 2G only goes down to 1.1.1.

 

[Altemose]

@Amethyst1 Better hold onto that disk image - it is difficult to find on the net.

 

[Amethyst1]

Nice! Does it run earlier iOS versions, such as 1.0? I've always wanted to try 1.0 but my 2G only goes down to 1.1.1.

It doesn't. Strictly speaking it doesn't run iOS at all since it can't run ARM binaries as @KawaiiAurora said; the applications it ships with are compiled for x86.
[doublepost=1537031180][/doublepost]

@Amethyst1 Better hold onto that disk image - it is difficult to find on the net.

I have acquired Erik's habit of never discarding anything I download.

 

[miksat]

It doesn't. Strictly speaking it doesn't run iOS at all since it can't run ARM binaries as @KawaiiAurora said; the applications it ships with are compiled for x86.

Yeah, there's a reason why it's called iPhone Simulator.

 

[z970]

Removed because better be safe than sorry?

I guess it does matter.

Wish I picked it up before.

 

[647156]

Ah the iPhone Simulator, I took this screenshot a few years ago showing all 4 of the processor architectures that Apple has used over the years simultaneously on a G5 (yes yes I know the iPhone Simulator doesn't actually emulate ARM but instead runs natively-compiled code, but you know what I mean...)

I think the SDK that included the Simulator used to be downloadable from the Apple Developer site but probably isn't there any more, I can't remember if it was free like Xcode or if you had to be a paid developer to access it - I don't have the whole SDK, just a ~150 MB zip containing enough to run the Simulator (might be necessary to install Xcode first).

 

[nglevin]

I wonder if you could take Landon Fuller's old SimLauncher project for launching iOS Simulator apps as Mac OS X binaries and turn it into a Leopard sort-of-like-Marzipan layer, with this really old iPhone OS 2.x SDK for PowerPC.

https://github.com/landonf/simlaunch

You'd still need source code for the apps you want to run, so, not an emulation solution by any means, as many have said above. But, could be fun for a few (very slow) laughs if you have some iOS source code lying around.

 

[Amethyst1]

[...] (might be necessary to install Xcode first).

Xcode doesn't have to be installed for the Simulator to run, it works fine as a stand-alone application.

 

[AphoticD]

I just installed the 2.2.1 iPhone simulator on my G5 to test a responsive CSS layout I'm working on... and well, the results weren't great... This old version of mobile Safari can't see my custom fonts and the "background-size: contain" property doesn't seem to work. I'll need to render some <320px wide assets just to see the layout running on the old iPhone OS.

Safari 4.1.3 on Tiger on the other hand has actually performed in 9 out of 10 aspects of my layout.. Almost everything I'm trying to achieve is working on the old cat.

My goal (as many of you may have come to expect [from me]) is to get things to render (in at least an acceptable manner) and perform well on all Mac hardware capable of running at least Tiger all the way through to High Sierra (with Retina assets), while maintaining the same code-base and stylesheets.

I have leveraged jquery animations and fades and everything runs well on the G5 and performs acceptably on the G4s.. It's not impossible to create modern websites and front-end designs that can perform well on a PowerPC.

I would love to see modern web designers doing what they can to get their sites working well on older hardware. Even if it means dropping a few bells and whistles. The results can still look great and the end users will appreciate the optimizations even when using modern hardware.

It's pretty obvious when you have 70+ tabs open and a particular bloated site brings your browser to a crawl hey @LightBulbFun

​

 

[LightBulbFun]

thats why to handle this lot

I have this beast

on a more related note in one of my many posts here I have a picture of my Pismo G4 running Leopard 10.5.8 with the iOS 2.2.1 Simulator running

IIRC @647156 has done something similar on his G3 beige which i found pretty cool

 

[AphoticD]

on a more related note in one of my many posts here I have a picture of my Pismo G4 running Leopard 10.5.8 with the iOS 2.2.1 Simulator running

I remember you doing this, but did you post it? Pics or it never happened....

IIRC @647156 has done something similar on his G3 beige which i found pretty cool

That must be a G4 upgraded beige? No G3 support by the looks of it;

$ file /Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone\ Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone\ Simulator
/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator (for architecture ppc7400):   Mach-O executable ppc
/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator (for architecture i386):   Mach-O executable i386

 

[Amethyst1]

That must be a G4 upgraded beige? No G3 support by the looks of it;

It's a G4-upgraded Beige indeed – no love for G3 from Leopard either...

 

[LightBulbFun]

I remember you doing this, but did you post it? Pics or it never happened....



That must be a G4 upgraded beige? No G3 support by the looks of it;

$ file /Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone\ Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone\ Simulator
/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator (for architecture ppc7400):   Mach-O executable ppc
/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone Simulator (for architecture i386):   Mach-O executable i386

heres the picture (I cant find the original post where I first posted this picture for the first time) (the Max CPU load ya see is from an istatmenu bug not from the iOS simulator FYI)

as for the G3 beige indeed his was G4 upgraded and running leopard

 

[weckart]

heres the picture (I cant find the original post where I first posted this picture for the first time) (the Max CPU load ya see is from an istatmenu bug not from the iOS simulator FYI)

as for the G3 beige indeed his was G4 upgraded and running leopard

Very impressed with the iPhone Simulator. It appears to be simulating the capacity of the largest iPhone XS Max.

 

[iModFrenzy]

Nice! Does it run earlier iOS versions, such as 1.0? I've always wanted to try 1.0 but my 2G only goes down to 1.1.1.

I assume iPhone Simulator wasn’t developed till after 1.0, as web apps were the solution at the time for developers. Anyone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[miksat]

I assume iPhone Simulator wasn’t developed till after 1.0, as web apps were the solution at the time for developers. Anyone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

Jobs first announced the SDK in 2008 alongside iPhone OS 2.0, so no, you can't have iPhone OS 1.0

 

[AphoticD]

Out of curiosity, I dusted off my iPhone 3G running the final OS it could handle (4.2.1 iirc) and to my surprise it still performs really well. I was even able to bring up street view in the default maps app, which is something the current iOS can’t do. The css layout I mentioned earlier loaded quickly and rendered near perfectly in Safari. I had a few quick games of N.O.V.A, Flight Control and Driver and then switched it off.

Not bad for 412MHz, single core, 32-bit smartphone with only 128MB of RAM.

From what I recall, it did nearly everything my iPhone 6 can do, except the camera was rubbish.

Remind me again Apple, why I need to buy the new XS and more importantly, why all new app submissions must be built with XS Max support on an Xcode 10 capable Mac with an iOS 12 SDK base??

It seems the 3rd party developers are forced to be the first in line to “cough up” in order to stay relevant. It feels like a well planned trap, really.

 

[z970]

It seems the 3rd party developers are forced to be the first in line to “cough up” in order to stay relevant. It feels like a well planned trap, really.

They should join the Penguin Side. No more "coughing up" for them.

 

[weckart]

Remind me again Apple, why I need to buy the new XS and more importantly, why all new app submissions must be built with XS Max support on an Xcode 10 capable Mac with an iOS 12 SDK base??

It seems the 3rd party developers are forced to be the first in line to “cough up” in order to stay relevant. It feels like a well planned trap, really.

Can you imagine forking out £1500 for a phone only to find you can't run the latest software or even some apps at all because the developers didn't have to consider your hardware? Apple would be never hear the end of it. Your job as a developer is to encourage people to buy new phones to make Apple money. And to pay Apple 30% of your proceeds for the privilege. Know your place.

 

[AphoticD]

Your job as a developer is to encourage people to buy new phones to make Apple money. And to pay Apple 30% of your proceeds for the privilege. Know your place.

“All your base are belong to us” With Love, Apple.

 

[AphoticD]

On an earlier thread, I stumbled across an install script which provides the PowerPC Leopard / Xcode 3.1.4 host with the appropriate links, etc to enable iPhone xcode projects to be compiled on ppc and tested in the simulator.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150909125054/http://www.bandlem.com/iPhonePPCEnabler.dmg

By default, only the Intel installation of the SDK allowed the iPhone project options and build targets. I've tested the "iPhonePPCEnabler" and it works perfectly fine.

This might be a bit of fun for someone wanting to build older opensource iPhone projects to run in the simulator natively on the ppc architecture... Are there any doorways of software possibilities here?

NOTE: distcc compiling fails with the iPhone simulator target, so I disabled it via Xcode prefs. Falling back on the default GCC compiler works fine. I haven’t tested LLVM.