LinPad 1.5.0

LinPad 1.5.0

LinPad runs a real Alpine Linux desktop on Apple Silicon iPads: Linux apps open as native
windows, and there is no VM and no jailbreak. This is an early, pre-1.0-quality release. Expect
rough edges, and back up anything important first.

Install or update

• SideStore / AltStore: add the source
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fspecii/LinPad/main/release/source.json. LinPad updates
  from there afterwards.
• iloader, Sideloadly or Xcode: download LinPad-1.5.0.ipa below. Install it with the same
  Apple ID as before; that keeps your Linux system and files.
• Linux system only: Settings › Updates downloads linpad-rootfs-1.5.0.tar.gz and installs
  it at the next launch. /root, /home and the packages you added are kept. The previous
  system stays available for rollback.

Visual Studio Code, Claude Code and the other optional apps are not in the download. Install
them on the iPad from Settings › Apps or the LinPad Store.

New in 1.5.0

• LinPad Store. Browse about 800 Alpine desktop apps with collections, search, real install
  progress and updates.
• Keyboard layouts. Linux apps follow the iPad's keyboard layout, including dead keys,
  Option as AltGr and the on-screen keyboard's text.
• Looks and themes. Paired light/dark themes, era looks (Aero, Aqua, Luna, Platinum, Classic,
  Berry and more), wallpaper matching, and icon packs applied everywhere.
• Firefox. Fullscreen works and renders at scale 1, which halves the CPU used by fullscreen
  video. Video and audio are steadier, and memory use is lower.
• Staying alive on iPadOS.
  • LinPad survives locking the screen, switching apps and being terminated: sessions are
    restored and unsaved editor text is recovered.
  • A low-memory policy closes the right Linux process before iOS would kill the whole app.
  • The "0xDEAD10CC" kills at suspension are fixed.
• System tools. Screensaver and idle lock, clipboard history, a sectioned command menu,
  backup/restore, diagnostics, Repair System, and linpad update / linpad version in a terminal.
• Hardware bridges. The camera and microphone are available to Linux apps, and Now Playing
  media controls work through playerctl.
• Emulator.
  • System V IPC (shared memory, semaphores, message queues) and membarrier.
  • Correct file locking on arm64 and fixed socket edge cases.
  • The CPU interpreter matches real ARM64 on the conformance suite.
• Linux system. Alpine 3.21 base with Mesa 26.2.4 from edge for the GPU path, CJK and emoji
  fonts, and FFmpeg decoders for Firefox.

Experimental

• Native JIT ("fast mode"). It needs StikDebug, and it has not been verified on every
  TXM device. Without it LinPad runs in compatibility mode, which is slower.
• GPU acceleration (Venus/zink on MoltenVK): GL 2.1 / GLES 2.0 only. Firefox stays on
  software rendering.
• Optional packs: Wine, Wine x86 (Box64), LibreOffice, the extra browsers and developer
  extras.
• VS Code: heavy on memory. Large projects may be closed by iPadOS on 8 GB iPads.

Known issues

• Page loads and app launches are much slower than on a real Linux machine, especially
  without the JIT.
• After a style switch, Linux apps keep their old theme until they are restarted.
• A drag of several files to another iPad app carries only the first file.

Source code (GPL)

LinPad is GPLv3. linpad-source-1.5.0.tar.gz is the source of this release (also at tag
v1.5.0). SOURCES.md and sources-manifest.json list every package in the Linux system with
the exact source it was built from, and carry the written offer of source.

Checksums (SHA-256)

9e79e12a109a52131177c20caa69180d5b23c989690b80b0670d33125402e3b2  LinPad-1.5.0.ipa
b5e852cfe2d9763863323895a6f94194ac980b226926a6f6aba27c5f5e41ea9b  linpad-rootfs-1.5.0.tar.gz

Linux system version: 202610031701