2015-09-21, 10:30
This is a superseed of the old information thread.
This is the current status.
1. iOS9 is released and there is no jailbreak for it atm. This means most users are not able to install Kodi on it.
2. Newest apple development tools (Xcode7) allow developers to compile and deploy apps to their devices without paying the ios Developer membership and without using the related certificate.
3. Current master branch of the Kodi code supports compilation with Xcode7 already
4. Current master branch is setup in a way to be compatible with all our supported ios versions. As of today - it doesn't matter if you compile with Xcode7 - the resulting app will NOT RUN on iOS9 devices because of major changes apple did in the way dynamic libraries are loaded on iOS9.
5. I have worked out needed changes to workaround those for now. This changes are not the final solution because it would mean that we would need to drop support for all devices which run iOS versions lower then 8.0. There are some ideas to make the resulting app compatible for all supported iOS versions but at this point we need to wait a bit more and think a bit more on how to achieve this.
6. Because of 5. there is only one way atm to let Kodi run on iOS9 and i am serious when i say - this is meant to be done by developers only which don't piss their pants just because of some errors during the build process.
7. I am not willing to support any newbies which just think they need to compile on their own just for being able to run Kodi on iOS9. If i have a feeling someone is just not up to the task and spamming this thread with support questions i will remove those posts.
Ok here we go. This is the code which should be compiled when trying to run Kodi on iOS9:
https://github.com/Memphiz/xbmc/commits/ios9_workaround
As of now it does the following:
a. It sets the deploymeant target to ios 8.0 to fix Point 4. of the upper list (and also leads to the broken backward compatibility for older ios versions)
b. It doesn't diddle the VideoToolBox.framework path in the binary (VTB framwork was private up till ios8 and real privat up to ios6). This change in addition breaks VTB support for ios5.1 runtime (instant crash)
c. Fixes switching to external screen when running on iOS9 (and the orientation mess continues...). Its
a known bug that switching back from external to internal screen will result in unusable UI (wrong orientation and wrong size).
d. Apple changed their sandboxing mechanism since iOS8. I fixed the sandbox detection so that addons and stuff like that is saved in the Documents folder of the apps sandbox. This should allow adding addons and configuration files via iTunes file deployment again.
To get my branch checkout mainline code first:
$ git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc.git
$ cd xbmc
Then add my repository as remote
$ git remote add memphiz https://github.com/Memphiz/xbmc.git -f
Checkout the ios9 workaround branch:
$ git checkout ios9_workaround
Continue with the usual build steps from the readme.
Ensure that you have really selected Xcode7 for the cmdline environment (xcode-select -s /Applications/<path to xcode7.app>/Contents/Developer
Also ensure that once you are done on the cmdline you really open Xcode7 when building (a simple open Kodi.xcodeproj might open an older Xcode version even if you selected the right one via xcode-select. Better directly start Xcode7 from the Applications folder and open the project then).
Once again - newbies stay out of this thread or at least stay quiet.
Future goal is of course to get something working for all our supported ios versions so that we can make mainline code compatible with iOS9.
This is the current status.
1. iOS9 is released and there is no jailbreak for it atm. This means most users are not able to install Kodi on it.
2. Newest apple development tools (Xcode7) allow developers to compile and deploy apps to their devices without paying the ios Developer membership and without using the related certificate.
3. Current master branch of the Kodi code supports compilation with Xcode7 already
4. Current master branch is setup in a way to be compatible with all our supported ios versions. As of today - it doesn't matter if you compile with Xcode7 - the resulting app will NOT RUN on iOS9 devices because of major changes apple did in the way dynamic libraries are loaded on iOS9.
5. I have worked out needed changes to workaround those for now. This changes are not the final solution because it would mean that we would need to drop support for all devices which run iOS versions lower then 8.0. There are some ideas to make the resulting app compatible for all supported iOS versions but at this point we need to wait a bit more and think a bit more on how to achieve this.
6. Because of 5. there is only one way atm to let Kodi run on iOS9 and i am serious when i say - this is meant to be done by developers only which don't piss their pants just because of some errors during the build process.
7. I am not willing to support any newbies which just think they need to compile on their own just for being able to run Kodi on iOS9. If i have a feeling someone is just not up to the task and spamming this thread with support questions i will remove those posts.
Ok here we go. This is the code which should be compiled when trying to run Kodi on iOS9:
https://github.com/Memphiz/xbmc/commits/ios9_workaround
As of now it does the following:
a. It sets the deploymeant target to ios 8.0 to fix Point 4. of the upper list (and also leads to the broken backward compatibility for older ios versions)
b. It doesn't diddle the VideoToolBox.framework path in the binary (VTB framwork was private up till ios8 and real privat up to ios6). This change in addition breaks VTB support for ios5.1 runtime (instant crash)
c. Fixes switching to external screen when running on iOS9 (and the orientation mess continues...). Its
a known bug that switching back from external to internal screen will result in unusable UI (wrong orientation and wrong size).
d. Apple changed their sandboxing mechanism since iOS8. I fixed the sandbox detection so that addons and stuff like that is saved in the Documents folder of the apps sandbox. This should allow adding addons and configuration files via iTunes file deployment again.
To get my branch checkout mainline code first:
$ git clone https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc.git
$ cd xbmc
Then add my repository as remote
$ git remote add memphiz https://github.com/Memphiz/xbmc.git -f
Checkout the ios9 workaround branch:
$ git checkout ios9_workaround
Continue with the usual build steps from the readme.
Ensure that you have really selected Xcode7 for the cmdline environment (xcode-select -s /Applications/<path to xcode7.app>/Contents/Developer
Also ensure that once you are done on the cmdline you really open Xcode7 when building (a simple open Kodi.xcodeproj might open an older Xcode version even if you selected the right one via xcode-select. Better directly start Xcode7 from the Applications folder and open the project then).
Once again - newbies stay out of this thread or at least stay quiet.
Future goal is of course to get something working for all our supported ios versions so that we can make mainline code compatible with iOS9.
