iosc (Wayland compositor)

iosc is a Wayland compositor for the Xios desktop on jailbroken iOS. It is a small clean-room compositor built on libwayland-server that composites Wayland apps on the GPU and hands the finished frame to the Xios app to show on screen.

Where the Xios X11 server draws its clients in software, iosc runs the windows on the Apple GPU through ANGLE and Metal. Each app's contents are blended into one shared image with no per-frame copying, so GTK4 and GNOME apps render with hardware acceleration.

iosc advertises the protocols modern toolkits expect, including xdg-shell windows and popups, subsurfaces, viewporter, fractional scale, and clipboard. It stacks multiple windows, raises the one you tap, and routes touch and keyboard from the Xios app into the focused window, so you can tap and type into a live terminal.

• GPU compositing on the Apple GPU through ANGLE and Metal, with a zero-copy display path
• Multiple windows with stacking, focus on tap, and pointer and keyboard input
• Runs GTK4 and GNOME apps such as Console (kgx) as native Wayland clients
• Ships run-iosc.sh, a self-test that paints a window with no other app installed, and run-kgx.sh, which launches GNOME Console

iosc needs the Xios app installed, since that is the part that puts the desktop on screen, and at least one Wayland client to show. It installs alongside the Xios X11 server and stands in for it when you want the GPU Wayland desktop instead. Install gnome-console for a terminal to drive it with.

The compositor uses the graphics entitlement set needed for GPU access; a copy of that entitlement file is installed under /var/jb/usr/local/share/iosc for reference.