JSLinux Mobile – Linux for iOS

A mobile version of a PC emulator written in Javascript, with a running, fully functional Linux system.

The emulator can be run offline in full-screen mode on iOS and Android devices. Apple does not allow hardware emulation in iOS – the AppStore has no such software, so I have transformed the perfect Linux emulator by Fabrice Bellard (with his kind permission) so that it works properly with iOS device keyboards and bluetooth keyboards in ordinary web browsers (a lot of Javascript tricks :) . All is available in full-screen mode simultaneously emulating modern terminals – appropriate fonts and window appearance.

For full-screen mode open JSLinux Mobile in the Safari browser and look in its menu for an option named “Add to Home Screen” – a new icon will be created in your applications.

The default preset is intended for iPad with a bluetooth keyboard, but you can change the appearance of the application. Each change of the settings will be saved in cookies and stored.

This basic Linux can be used to practice programming in C, bash, support for awk and sed, create a pseudo-network (because this version of the emulator does not allow Linux to connect to the Internet), and learn the basic Linux commands thanks to the Busybox software.


* Waiting time: approx. 30 seconds.

For offline mode use free inuX application, run ftpd on it, upload JSLinux files to /etc folder with FileZilla, run httpd and open address http://localhost/etc/jslinux-mobile/index.html.

Screenshots:





In the video bellow, I present the capabilities of the emulator in conjunction with iPad Mini Retina and a bluetooth keyboard:

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