v2.9.0

vphone 2.9.0

Core Bundle

• vm create now makes each machine as a clone of a template: one per IPSW, device, preset and slimming choice, trimmed and set up once. A machine costs about 0.6 GB instead of about 20 GB, and creating one from an existing template takes under a second plus its first boot. Templates live in <library>/.templates and never boot as machines. vm template list|show|adopt|delete|trim|setup drive the steps, and --no-template keeps the old independent restore. Machines cloned from one template share its SEP root secret and Data-volume keys; use --no-template for a machine that needs its own. (#633)
• Template setup trims about 1.2 GB from the System volume, deletes the orig-fs snapshot, skips Setup, removes 10 default system apps (Camera and Phone stay) and applies a launchd service profile that disables 141 jobs. vphoned adds services.profile, setup.settle, apps.remove_system / apps.restore_system and apfs.snapshots / apfs.snapshot.delete, and a refused RPC carries vphoned's whole error object through vphone.sock. (#633)
• vm rebase <vm> --onto <base> shares identical disk blocks between machines that already exist. Only the disk image changes, and both machines must be stopped. (#617)
• Gyroscope and device attitude simulation, with live controls under Features › Motion Sensors in the VM window. (#635)
• fw prepare downloads IPSWs over four connections; --download-connections <1-16> sets the count. (#626)
• CFW keeps its scratch files beside the VM when the VM is on an external volume. cfw install, update-environment and update-kernel take --work-parent. (#632)
• Disk images are attached, ejected and converted with diskutil instead of the deprecated hdiutil. (#630)
• iOS 27 locationd no longer crashes or hangs on cohort queues as it starts. (#636)
• Flutter AOT callbacks run again where vm_remap lost RX protection. (#627)
• apps.install takes IPAs that expand to 8 GiB or hold 400,000 entries. (#637)
• cfw install and cfw update-kernel no longer fail on the work folder in an optimized build. (#628)
• vm clone, vm snapshot and vm revert no longer crash on macOS 27, whose devfs device number does not fit a signed 32-bit value.

Launchpad

• New Machine has a Slim System switch and a Template page: trim tier, kept languages, service profile, Apple Account and the apps to remove. Without a matching template, Launchpad builds one first and then clones the machine from it. (#633)
• File › Templates… lists each template's size, the machines that use it and whether it is current, and deletes templates. (#633)
• Guest System… switches a running machine's service profile and restores removed apps. (#633)
• The Machines table and the inspector show each machine's exclusive disk use. (#633)
• vphone-launchpad-cli vm create takes the template and slimming switches. (#633)
• CFW installs and updates on a machine on an external volume keep their scratch files there. (#632)
• The helper is build 16 and accepts VPhone.bundle 2.9.0 or later. Launchpad reinstalls it on the next start.

Upgrading

Launchpad 2.9.0 needs VPhone.bundle 2.9.x, because the helper passes --work-parent to the CFW commands and New Machine and Templates run vm template and vm create --template. Download the notarized vphone-launchpad-2.9.0-notarized.zip, then install VPhone.bundle 2.9.0 from Core Bundle and move your machines to it with Change Core Bundle…. Turn on Update guest environment to get the locationd fix and the Flutter remap repair. Keep Launchpad and VPhone.bundle in the same series. The vphone-launchpad-2.9.0.zip built by CI is unsigned.