Libimobiledevice: idevicepair fails — ipheth takes over iPhone USB interface

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1

Environment

  • Fedora 43 (kernel 6.x)
  • iPhone 15, iOS 18
  • libimobiledevice + idevicepair installed via dnf

Problem

I’m trying to do a full iPhone backup on Linux using idevicebackup2, but I can’t get past the pairing step.

When I connect the iPhone via USB, the kernel loads the ipheth module and registers the device as a USB Ethernet interface (enp2s0f0u3c4i2). This prevents usbmuxd from seeing the iPhone, so idevice_id -l returns nothing.

dmesg output:

[ 4780.601562] ipheth 1-3:4.2: ipheth_enable_ncm: usb_control_msg: 0
[ 4780.601873] ipheth 1-3:4.2: Apple iPhone USB Ethernet device attached
[ 4780.609628] ipheth 1-3:4.2 enp2s0f0u3c4i2: renamed from eth0

Errors encountered during troubleshooting:

  • idevicepair pair → ERROR: Could not connect to lockdownd, error code -8
  • ideviceinfo → ERROR: Could not connect to lockdownd: Invalid HostID (-21)
  • After modprobe -r ipheth + systemctl restart usbmuxd → idevice_id -l still returns nothing, idevicepair pair → No device found

What I’ve tried

  1. Unloaded ipheth with modprobe -r ipheth
  2. Restarted usbmuxd via systemctl
  3. Reconnected iPhone while unlocked
  4. Checked /run/usbmuxd socket — usbmuxd appears to be running
  5. Verified lsusb shows the device (idVendor=05ac, idProduct=12a8)

Even after removing ipheth, idevice_id -l returns no output.

Question

Is there an additional step needed on Fedora 43 to let usbmuxd claim the iPhone after ipheth is unloaded? Do I need specific udev rules, or is there a known compatibility issue with recent iOS versions and libimobiledevice on Fedora?

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

2

I’m having the same issue on Fedora 44 KDE, trying to use my iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 26.6) as a virtual camera with the DroidCam plugin for OBS. When I plug in the phone the first time, it usually appears only as a camera for photo transfer (PTP mode). Hotspot is disabled in the phone’ settings.

The only workaround I was able to find is the following:

  1. Plug in the phone to load all the services
  2. Stop the usbmuxd service with systemctl stop usbmuxd
  3. unload ipheth with modprobe -r ipheth
  4. Unplug the phone, wait for a few seconds, then plug it back
  5. usbmuxd should restart automatically
  6. idevicepair should run automatically if needed (authorization prompt on phone)
  7. Checks with idevicepair validate and idevice_id -l should be okay now