iOS 26.1

[pstulzer]

I successfully installed gadget-mode on my Raspberry Pi 5 using sudo apt install rpi-usb-gadget and can see the device on my MacBook Pro as an Ethernet device. So far, so good. Unfortunately, I can't see the device on my iPad Pro (iOS 26.1), which was actually the goal. Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong?
As a possible solution, I wanted to turn off the watcher and run the Raspberry Pi “only” as a client, but unfortunately I didn't manage to do that either.
Can anyone give me a tip or describe a solution?
Best regards,
Peter

[Atair1]

got it working on iPadOS 26.2 and an RPi 4.

Nothing special that i did, there was some configuring going on later for the RVNC viewer (x11, etc.) but it should show up as 'Ethernet' pretty much out of the box once connected with an usb-c cable (iPad to RPi 4)

Sometimes the static ip assignment does not work and the ipad gets some random dhcp ip, but 4 out of 5 times connecting its fine:

[Atair1]

I have to add - there is quite some problem with the IP and ipadOS - Below is an summary of what needed to be done - written by Claude Opus 4.5. It seems to have fixed it for me.. the exact steps i cant reproduce, there were too many, and i dont know enough about the topic, but in any case - this is a good starting point for future investigations:

Summary:

The problem was a race condition: iPadOS sends DHCP requests immediately when the USB Ethernet link appears, but NetworkManager's built-in DHCP server (dnsmasq) only starts after the connection activates - about 8-13 seconds too late. By then, the iPad has already given up and fallen back to a link-local address (169.254.x.x).

The fix:

1. Installed standalone dnsmasq with port=0 (DHCP only, no DNS) and bind-dynamic (waits for interface)
2. Changed NetworkManager's "USB Gadget (shared)" profile from ipv4.method shared to manual (so NM doesn't spawn its own dnsmasq)
3. Removed g_ether from /etc/modules-load.d/usb-gadget.conf (prevents early loading)
4. Created a systemd service usb-gadget-late.service that loads g_ether after dnsmasq starts

This ensures dnsmasq is listening before the USB gadget comes up and the iPad connects.

[Atair1]

On further discovery - to keep the wifi (internet) working, you need to change to static ip on the ethernet adapter settings of the ipad, and leave the gateway empty. I also restricted the ip range that the pi gives out to exactly one ip, just to be sure..

But just setting to static alone is not enought - you need to do the stuff above too. (dnsmasq timing fix)

[Atair1]

regarding a simple fix for the Pi5:
#11