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?

Solution 1

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.

Solution 2

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

Solution 3

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.

Solution 4

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.

Solution 5

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).

View more solutions