LinuxRunner 1.1.1 adds Fedora and Kali Linux, an experimental SteamOS ARM64 environment that installs from Valve's image, and a redesigned interface. It also reduces memory pressure on iPhone and iPad and fixes a long list of desktop problems.
What's New
- Redesigned interface: a new Home screen with a live desktop preview, a Distributions tab with installed cards and each distribution's own logo, and Settings grouped into clear categories. Existing preferences are kept.
- Termux-like terminal on iPhone: sharper text, true black background, a two-row key bar (ESC, TAB, CTRL, ALT, arrows, HOME, END, PGUP, PGDN) and clipboard access.
- Install screensaver for OLED screens: after 3, 4 or 5 minutes without a touch during an installation, the screen goes black with a small moving status. Touching it brings everything back; installations keep running.
- Long installations no longer stop after an hour. They now fail only after 45 minutes with no progress.
Linux Distributions
- Fedora Linux 44 ARM64: the authenticated official userspace with DNF, normal accounts, a lightweight X11 desktop and KDE Plasma.
- Kali Linux 2026.3 ARM64: Kali's official root filesystem, checked against its published SHA-256, with its Xfce desktop and optional standard tool sets. Intended for legitimate development, diagnostics and authorized security research. Monitor-mode Wi-Fi, raw packet capture and kernel modules are not available on iOS.
- SteamOS ARM64 (Experimental): Install downloads Valve's SteamFrame recovery image, verifies it and installs it with no prepared archive. It includes a terminal and a Plasma X11 desktop. See SteamOS ARM64. This is not official SteamOS support; the Steam client and Steam games are not supported.
- Debian, Arch Linux ARM and Alpine remain available.
Graphics & Performance
- Automatic now starts the Metal-backed virtual GPU with Linux and falls back to software rendering, showing why, if it cannot start.
- The KDE Plasma display bridge sends only the parts of the screen that changed and paces pointer motion to captured frames.
- Guarded shared-memory desktop capture for Arch and SteamOS, with crash-safe cleanup.
- Better virtual display timing and vblank events.
- Storage measurement pauses while a desktop is visible.
- Interpreter memory work: a bounded translation cache on devices, released discarded pages and a guest memory budget.
KDE Plasma menus are still slow when hovering. Xfce and LinuxRunner Desktop are faster. Kali's large tool packages remain slow to unpack.
Interface Improvements
- A compact landscape desktop pill with keyboard and clipboard buttons.
- Wide quick-access tiles on iPad.
- Installation progress in the task list and Live Activity, including SteamOS.
Fixes & Stability
- Plasma's panel clock (
timerfdTFD_TIMER_CANCEL_ON_SET). - Fedora's empty Applications menu and blank panel icons; desktop start no longer repeats a 14-second package check.
- Home showing Stopped while a desktop was running.
- Blurry terminal text.
- X11 sessions inheriting a Wayland display variable from a login profile.
- Hardware keyboards needing the software keyboard to be opened first.
- File capabilities preserved when importing distributions.
Known Limitations
- SteamOS ARM64 is experimental.
- SteamOS needs about 19.4 GB free during installation.
- Desktop and GPU coverage varies by distribution. Metal does not accelerate every application or graphics API.
- x86 applications, booting a Linux kernel, kernel modules and Bluetooth networking are unsupported.
- iOS can suspend or end LinuxRunner. Saved files persist; running Linux processes do not survive app termination.
Installation
Install the IPA with a compatible sideloading tool, then open Distributions and choose a distribution to install. No jailbreak or JIT activation is required. Back up important files before updating and keep the same app identity. Installation guide
Contributors
Thanks to @zachspartofaday for the storage, virtual display, input, shared-capture and SteamOS work (#18, #19, #20, #21) and @jmurth1234 for the memory and translation-cache fixes from #26. LinuxRunner derives from iSH and ios-linuxkit.
Downloads
- LinuxRunner-1.1.1-build905.ipa — ad-hoc signed, without an Apple provisioning profile. JIT remains optional.
- LinuxRunner-1.1.1-source.tar.gz — corresponding application source, required dependency sources, build instructions and notices.
- LICENSES.txt — project and third-party notices.
- SHA256SUMS — asset checksums.
The IPA is 26,429,748 bytes, SHA-256:
99497f75a6be81179c688d0cd63d30c9727481ee698551a6910accba8a9338bd