Sim26Booter with Dopamine Jailbreak
The jailbreak community has witnessed another breakthrough — developer Duy Tran has successfully booted the Sim26Booter iOS 26 simulator on a jailbroken iPhone XS Max. Using his newly released open-source tool, Sim26Booter, and a custom fork of the Dopamine jailbreak, Tran demonstrated how Apple’s latest iOS frameworks can be re-engineered to run on older hardware.
How It Works
To make this possible, Tran forked the official Dopamine jailbreak repo and created a dedicated branch called 2.x-sim26. This custom build provides the patches and environment needed for the iOS 26 simulator to launch on iOS 16.5 devices.
Key Features Already Working
Early reports confirm that several essential system services are functional inside the simulator, including:
- ✅ launchd mach port passing
- ✅ Metal XPC
- ✅ IOSurface rendering
These are major components that suggest future compatibility with apps and advanced graphics inside the iOS 26 simulator.
Why the iPhone XS Max?
The iPhone XS Max, powered by the A12 Bionic chip, was chosen for this project because it’s still powerful, widely available, and popular among jailbreak users. It’s also a great test device for exploring new jailbreak-based experiments.
Open-Source Release
Tran has open-sourced Sim26Booter on GitHub, giving other developers the chance to test, experiment, and expand on his work. This follows his history of transparency with earlier tools like LiveContainer and SparseBox, which also pushed the limits of system customization without full jailbreaks.
Why It Matters
Running the iOS 26 Jailbreak Alternative simulator on iOS 16 hardware isn’t just a proof of concept — it’s a research tool that shows how modern iOS frameworks can be adapted for older devices. While not yet practical for everyday use, it demonstrates the innovation and persistence of the jailbreak community.
Conclusion
Duy Tran’s Sim26Booter marks a significant step forward in jailbreak research. Booting the iOS 26 simulator on an iPhone XS Max running iOS 16 highlights what’s possible when creativity meets technical expertise. As more features like app compatibility and rendering expand, this project could become a valuable bridge between old devices and Apple’s newest frameworks.