Virtualization on iPad Pro with Apple Silicon M1

[kosmonavtika]

The M1 chip in the latest Macs support virtualization instructions, and since the new iPad Pros (2021) use the same silicon, the instructions should be available for the new iPads as well.

I'd like to request implementation of virtualization support on M1 iPad Pros, if possible.

[osy]

Not possible until Apple lets us use hypervisor.framework.

[PG26AlexG]

Hello! I was thinking of picking up a macbook, though I was thinking about virtualization and a few other things and came accross this article, I'm wondering how it worked for you?

[xerz-one]

@AC-Gul If you're lucky enough to find a 1/2TB iPad with an iPadOS old enough to apply a jailbreak or TrollStore on, it's superworth it. 512GB and lower can run Windows and Linux too, but if you want smooth graphics you might run out of RAM.

[PG26AlexG]

Thankyou very much! That really helps!!!

[tifasoftware]

@AC-Gul If you wanting to primarily do Virtualization, I recommend a macbook for that, since you can run Linux and Windows, aswell as run the lastest macOS.
I recommend a macbook air with at least 512 gb or a macbook pro 13"

[PG26AlexG]

My goal is to use it as a game dev station for school.
I would like to use blender and unity with it. I'm considering one of three options:

1. Get a m1 macbook
2. Get a windows laptop ( Something with a dedicated GPU )
3. Get an M1 ipad

And while I'm aware that for my workload the macbook would simply be better,
I've got time to decide so should a method come up that works alright then I wouldn't mind making it work.

[xerz-one]

Out of curiosity, is this possible under jailbreak, even if it doesn't come out of the box on iPadOS?

[kmeisthax]

AFAIK, no, because to use hardware virtualization on ARM64 you need to be in EL2. iPads do not actually launch iPadOS in EL2, so no virtualization can be used whatsoever.

This won't change until and unless we either get an iBoot exploit or Apple decides that iPads are worthy of virtualization. I'm not sure which one is less likely...

[saagarjha]

iPads do launch the kernel in EL2, but they don’t enable the hypervisor.

[kmeisthax]

TIL. I wonder if it's possible to enable virtualization with a jailbreak tweak, then...

[osy]

Not without an iBoot exploit or PPL bypass.