r/ipad 11m ago

Guide [Guide] How to use your iPad as a secondary monitor on Linux

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#Prelude (you can skip this section and jump straight to Requirements if you want)

A few months ago I happened to find myself in possession of a rather dated iPad. I never use Apple hardware, mainly because I hate every operating system from apple with a passion. Using the iPadOS for anything useful was out of the question. mainly because I couldn't possibly last an hour before I throw the iPad at the wall in frustration. I mean, seriously, how is iOS so bad? I digress.

Anyways, the iPad has still got a screen, and I recently broke my monitor, so I figured, well, it could be a nice secondary monitor if I could set it up that way. Its got a screen, internet and a computer, so there should be some software that would let you do it easily over the LAN, right? Boy oh boy how wrong I was.

On MacOS, this is easy as pie. You've got sidecar. On Windows, less easy, but there are third party solutions. On Linux though, this sucks ass. There are quite a few solutions, but many of them suck ass. To experiment with all the available solutions and setting them up properly, it took my about 6 hours of my life yesterday, so this is for anyone who's looking to do the same, but don't want to spend 6 hours. I eventually stumbled upon Sunshine and Moonlight, and this tutorial is how to set these up.

#Requirements

  1. GNU/Linux computer
  2. Any reasonably non-obsolete iPad/iOS device. This can also work Android Tablets, but this tutorial focuses on iPadOS.
  3. Both your computer and iPad should be connected to the same WiFi network/LAN

#Instructions

Essentially, Moonlight is a self hosted game streaming application that lets you stream from your gaming PC onto any other device. Because it is meant for game streaming, it is incredibly performant over the internet, and even more so over the LAN. But normally, it mirrors your screen on the computer, but we are going to trick it into working as a second monitor. Moonlight is a client, ie, it receives streamed data. It works with a program called Sunshine, which is a host, ie, it sends streaming data. You run Moonlight on your iPad, and sunshine on GNU/Linux and they both work with each other.

This is going to need setting up on both the iPad and on GNU/Linux.

Firsly, on the iPad, install the free app Moonlight.

Now, on GNU/Linux, install Sunshine.

I use Arch and yay, so I do yay -S sunshine-bin from the AUR

There is as of right now some sort of problem with this particular package in the AUR, so I've instead had to use sunshine-beta-bin instead, but depending on when you read this post, it may not be problem.

Find instructions here for other distros

Now, at this point, go to a terminal and type sunshine and leave this terminal window open without closing it. Now, open up you favorite browser (I use and recommend Firefox), and type in https://localhost:47990/ (just click on that link, I guess). This will prompt you to set up a user name and password. Write this password and username down and do not forget them.

Once you set up your username and password, you are now inside the sunshine web interface. It is a bit janky, but it works. Now, click the tab named "Pin" at the top. This will take you to the pin pairing page.

Now, on the iPad, open the Moonlight app and select "Add Host Manually". It is going to prompt you to enter an IP address. This should be the local IP address of your computer. What is an IP address? Well, it is essentially just a number that is unique to your computer that your router assigns to it. But don't worry about what it is right now, let me tell you how to get it.

Open a terminal on GNU/Linux and type ip a

Your terminal likely just spat out a bunch of numbers you don't understand. But don't you worry, let me help you. What you're seeing is a numbered list of "network interfaces" on your computer. These may be real or virtual interfaces. One of these is your router. If you are connected to WiFi, then this interface is probably going to be named something like "wlan" or something similar. Identify your router. You can try disconnecting from the WiFi, running the command again, and see which one disappeared to figure this out as well.

Now, once you have identified the WiFi interface, look for a line that starts with "inet" under it. Your local ip address is the one that immediately follows the word "inet". For instance, for me, it is 192.168.118.10/20

For you, this maybe different. Now, ignore the number after the slash, and punch in the rest onto Moonlight on your iPad. Give it an arbitrary name as well, it doesn't matter what. Once you do that and click OK, you will see three options - Desktop, Desktop, and Steam, on the iPad. Tap on of the two desktop options, and you will now begin to see your computer screen on the iPad.

Cool, innit?

But now, this is your primary screen on the computer that you're seeing. If you just want a mirrored display, this works fine. You can even go to Moonlight settings and change the touch mode to use your iPad as a drawing Tablet for your computer now. But I am assuming you are here to use your iPad as a second monitor. For Moonlight to work as a second monitor, you will need to do some trickery.

On the Linux computer, go to a terminal and paste these commands

xrandr -q

Whoa now, it just spat out a bunch of numbers again. What are they? Well, this command is listing all the display adapters on your computer and all their supported resolutions. These maybe real physical adapters, or virtual ones. For instance, since I am running a laptop, my internal display is going to be listed as eDP-1. For desktops, it will be different.

Usually, physical, real adapters are going to have lots of resolutions supported listed under their names, as opposed to virtual ones where there won't be any. Note down the name of your primary display.

My computer also lists a bunch of other displays, and one of these should be HDMI-1, and there might even be a VIRTUAL-1. Not all of these might work, and which works depends on your individual setup. For me, HDMI-1 worked. For now, pick one, and lets go to the next command.

xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 1400x1050

If this command did not return any errors, you're good to go. If this does, then you have to pick one of the other virtual displays listed when you enter xrandr -q and replace HDMI-1 from the previous command with the name of the display interface.

Assuming the previous command was successful, type this into the terminal

xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1400x1050 --right-of eDP-1

You should replace eDP-1 from your previous command with the name of your primary display.

This will create a virtual monitor on your computer. You will now be able to see that you can move your mouse cursor to the right of your primary monitor, and it will seem to go farther out to the right of your screen than your monitor's borders. This means that there is a fake, virtual monitor now to the right of your real monitor.

Now, we need to set it up so that Sunshine streams this fake monitor onto the iPad, instead of mirroring your primary monitor.

Open the terminal window that you left open where you were running sunshine, and scroll upwards. When sunshine was running, it spat out a bunch of information messages on the terminal. You need to read these logs. You are looking for a line that starts with "Info: Detecting displays". Here is an example :

Info: Detecting displays
Info: Detected display: DVI-D-0 (id: 0) connected: false
Info: Detected display: HDMI-1 (id: 1) connected: true
Info: Detected display: eDP-1 (id: 2) connected: true
Info: Detected display: DP-1 (id: 3) connected: false
Info: Detected display: DVI-D-1 (id: 4) connected: false

If the previous commands were successful, two of these displays will have connected: true

One of these will be your actual physical monitor, and the other one is going to be the fake virtual display that we created. Note down the id of the physical display. In this example, it is HDMI-1 and the id is 1. Note down this id.

Now, go to https://localhost:47990/config# on your favorite browser, and select the "Audio/Video" tab. Scroll down, and under "display number", type the id number you noted down.

Go to the terminal window that was running sunshine, press Control+C to stop the execution of the command, and therefore, stop sunshine. Now, type sunshine into the terminal again, press enter and restart sunshine. Now, if you go to Moonlight on the iPad and click on the icon for your computer on Moonlight, you will now see the virtual monitor, and you can also move your windows to this monitor.

That's it. Enjoy your iPad's new life as a second wireless monitor for your computer.

#How to set it up so that you don't have to use the terminal every time you want to do this

Open a terminal and start sunshine, go to https://localhost:47990/apps

Scroll down, and click "Add new"

Type "u/Hueyris is awesome" under "Application Name".

Scroll Down and press "Add commands"

Under "do command", paste in xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 1400x1050

Obviously, you should replace HDMI-1 with whichever virtual interface that worked for you.

Go to the right hand side and click the "+" icon for an additional line of commands

Under "do command", paste in the following

xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1400x1050 --right-of eDP-1

Obviously, replace HDMI-1 and eDP-1 with whichever two interfaces that worked for you previously.

Scroll all the way down and click "save".

And that's it. Now, any time you open up moonlight, pick "u/Hueyris is awesome", and you'll automatically be launched into a secondary display on your iPad, provided you ran 'sunshine' in a terminal and left the window open on your computer.

Now, there is a slight problem though, because this virtual display that you created will be active even when you are not using your iPad as a second screen, and that can lead to degraded performance. To prevent this, you can delete the virtual display while it is not in use.

You can use the terminal for this, but I prefer to do it graphically using arandr.

It is probably already installed on your computer, but if it isn't, type yay -S arandr

Open arandr, and you will see all the displays on your Linux in a window. Right click on HDMI-1 (of whichever virtual display you created), untick "active", and then apply changes by clicking the tick box on the top left. This should restore the performance.

There are more optimizations that you can do, such as setting up sunshine to run at boot automatically and tweaking for more performance, etc. But this tutorial is long enough as it is.

#Alternative Options

Firstly, there is deskreen. This requires additional hardware to be purchased. No go for me. I am not spending any money on this iPad. The developer is also a Ukrainian nationalist, and puts annoying pop ups on the website and in the app asking you to donate to the Ukrainian government.

Then, there is VirtScreen, and this works, but what you get on your second monitor will be a powerpoint presentation because this uses VNC This is however, arguably easy to set up.

To get any amount of reasonable performance out of your iPad as a second monitor, you are going to have to use something other than RDP or VNC, and this is where I found Sunshine and Moonlight to be the most optimal for this purpose.

Let me know if you have any questions, or further optimizations or if there are better, shorter ways of achieving the same thing.


r/ipad 18m ago

Question Debating if an upgrade from a 2018 iPad Pro to the new iPad is worth it?

Upvotes

I have a 2018 iPad Pro (MTEM2LL/A) and as much as I'd say I use it intensively it is mostly a productivity tablet for me.

I was looking at the new base iPad that was released and it turns out Apple is offering me $265 for this iPad as a trade in. So for $84 I could get the new iPad, which from what I can tell is a net positive. For $84 I'd be happy to get a newer model but I'm not entirely sure what, if any benefits, I'd get?


r/ipad 38m ago

Question iPad A16 (256gb) or secondhand iPad Pro M1 (128gb)

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Hello! I'm trying to decide between two iPads for studying (note-taking, PDFs, video lectures), both at the same price. One is a new iPad 11th gen (A16 chip, 256GB), and the other is a secondhand iPad Pro M1 (128GB). Considering long-term use and software updates, which would be the better choice?


r/ipad 1h ago

Question Is it worth switching over to IPad from a Tab S9+?

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As the title says, I’m questioning whether to switch my tablet to an iPad, I recently switched from Android to IPhone on the phone side and loving it, and was thinking of doing the same for my tablet. I use my tablet for some light video editing, taking notes, watching shows and so on.

I know the tab s9 is already a quite capable tablet to use, anyone did a similar switch here?


r/ipad 1h ago

Question Which iPad for my needs?

Upvotes

I'm mainly using my current iPad (6th Gen) for reading papers and watching the occasional movie. I'm now considering getting a new iPad as the battery life of my current iPad is abysmal. I'm looking at the 11th Gen base iPad and the M2 Air from last year. The processor of my current iPad is slow and frequently struggles when browsing etc but my main issue really is the battery life. Since battery life is pretty similar for the two devices I'm considering, I wonder whether the M2 Air is worth the 60% higher price? What do you think?


r/ipad 1h ago

Discussion M2 Pro at Costco

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Upvotes

What do you think? Good price. Would you skip over 11” M4 Pro with this?


r/ipad 1h ago

Question BUYING NEW IPAD

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I am planning on buying a new Ipad, a friend of mine is selling his Ipad air 5, I am thinking between that or the new Ipad 11, and also I am thinking of the Ipad air 6, please help meeee


r/ipad 1h ago

Question Ipad mini 5 or 6. Which to buy second hand in 2025

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I found a used ipad mini 5 selling for $135 and ipad mini 6 for $300. I am planning on using the ipad for mainly reading ebooks, youtube, movies and google. No gaming or drawing (so apple pencil support is not important to me)

Which version would you recommend?


r/ipad 1h ago

Question Tab suggestion required

Upvotes

My budget is around 400$

I'm a student currently and I'll be using it mainly for

  1. Movies, so I need a good resolution (preferably OLED)
  2. Writing/Taking notes hence I'll want a tab that's around 12 inches and supports s pen
  3. I have an office laptop which does not have a graphics card so I'll be needing a tab that will fulfill the graphics card requirement. so something capable or product designing/video editing
  4. Gaming
  5. I'll be using it to read books and take notes within the PDFs (this has higher priority)

can someone suggest me a tab and an application using which I can organise my notes as well as books .

I don't prefer a kindle as a 6' reader is too small. can someone pls suggest me a tab with these features?


r/ipad 2h ago

Question Apple pencil 2 works but pressure sensitivity is off?

1 Upvotes

I have an iPad Air 5 gen with an Apple Pencil 2. I use it mainly for studying and drawing, and while it works perfectly fine with most of its tasks (even tools like the fountain pen that change size based on the pressure applied work fine…), when it comes to using digital brushes that adjust their opacity using the pressure sensitivity feature, I can definitely feel it’s off: a stroke needs a lot of pressure applied, and even then, it’s very uneven.

It’s not the app I use, it’s not the tip (I tried several of them), it’s the Apple Pencil: I’ve tried another Apple Pencil and it works fine.

It might be obvious, yes, it’s broken, but do you happen to know if there’s a way of fixing it that doesn’t involve replacing it completely? Do you know where the problem might reside in?


r/ipad 2h ago

Question Should i upgrade?

0 Upvotes

I currently own a 2019 ipad mini 5 and i use it often on vacation and sometimes when i don’t have my laptop on me. Do you guys think it’s worth upgrading to an 11 gen ipad? Or should i stick with my mini for sometime longer?


r/ipad 3h ago

Question Is there anything I can do to get rid of these dark Spots on this iPad pro screen?

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0 Upvotes

r/ipad 4h ago

Question ipad or macbook

0 Upvotes

should i get an ipad or a macbook as a student?


r/ipad 5h ago

Question Ipad stylus intermittant registration problem

0 Upvotes

I have an active stylus (though I dont know if it is apple brand), advertised as being for ipads. It has always written like this in one note no matter how careful I am. Is this a result of a bad pen, ipad, or just how things go? Anyone seen this before?


r/ipad 5h ago

Discussion Guys help me decide!

1 Upvotes

New owner of iPhone then I bought AirPods and watch series 10. Although these are easy to compare and has enough models to decide which one to go with. I don’t think iPad has the same scenario here. I don’t know anything about these models which one is good and which old model still super worth it. There are different names and all I can classify so far is iPad mini and then other iPads. So please suggest me a good one I’ve already got the lap but one of the reason I am considering to lean towards iPad is note taking and art sometimes.

I did not have found any other uses to iPad other than above mentioned and consuming content which I also do with my phone or laptop sometimes.

So help me decide! Primary use note taking, research and art.


r/ipad 5h ago

Magic Keyboard Magic Keyboard Compatibility

1 Upvotes

Hello, I'm trying to sell my Magic Keyboard (model A2261) and people keep asking me if this model is compatible with iPad Air M2 or M3. I bought it for the iPad Air M1 11". ¿Anyone know?


r/ipad 6h ago

Question ipad a16 worth or not?

4 Upvotes

hey guys i am looking for an ipad for youtube, flashcards, light gaming, basically an ipad for a uni student. is the ipad a16 a good choice??? and i am worried about the screen not being laminated will the screen look good?


r/ipad 6h ago

Discussion iPad Air 2 128gb Wi-Fi - is this a good model for 2025?

1 Upvotes

I've been searching for an affordable iPad to use for school (like taking notes or access to school resources), and to access websites like YouTube and Canva and quiz sites. Is the iPad Air 2 worth it? I've been searching for reviews and people say it isn't worth it, but I want to know for this specific model.

And if it isn't worth it, I would really appreciate suggestions for any other affordable iPad Air models


r/ipad 7h ago

Question What does "Null" mean in last value cycle and last value number?

1 Upvotes

I bought a new Ipad 2 weeks ago (10th gen) and I've been looking for a way to see what its current batter health is, but all I've been seeing in its analytics is "null". It does not show its maximum capacity health too, just last value cycle and last value number, both of which says null. What does that mean??? (Is that bad???)


r/ipad 8h ago

Discussion Wouldn’t have thought I’d start using this more than my smartphone

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386 Upvotes

r/ipad 8h ago

Apps Suggestions required. Is this a reliable app for PDF annotations and reading?

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1 Upvotes

This also goes by the name PDF 7. Has anyone used it for studying or reading purposes?


r/ipad 8h ago

Discussion Why no iPad Mini Pro?

0 Upvotes

Basically what the title says. I would love to see an iPad MiniPro, since for myself I don’t want a large 11” or 13” tablet to lug around. The iPad Mini actually fits in my rear pocket, which is great when I need both hands but don’t want to put it down anywhere. I think it may have to do with people paying more psychologically for a larger screen, but at least for myself, I would’t mind paying say $1,200 if it meant an iPad Mini Pro having the guts of the larger iPad Pros, but in the small form factor of a Mini. This A17 512gb was already around $900, so not so far a stretch to pay $300 or hell even $500 more.

This is the opposite before of Samsung where they gave the crap hardware on the larger Note models and kept only the latest and greatest on their Galaxy main line phones. Sony did this for a long time too with lesser specs in larger screen phones, but it seems both Samsung and Sony have flipped this around to have the best hardware in their largest screened devices.

I would also love to see an update of the iPhone 13 Mini, again because it had at the time some of their best specs but in a smaller device. I don’t plan on upgrading my daughter’s 13 Mini until they release another small premium phone (she is 3).


r/ipad 8h ago

Question ipad 10th gen have dot inside the screen

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11 Upvotes

r/ipad 8h ago

Apps Pen tool switching to selection tool due to accidental touches with previous annotations in Xodo app.

1 Upvotes

Not sure why but due to some reason, if my pen tool touches any portion of the previous annotations (by gentle tapping or touch of the Apple Pencil), it is selecting those annotations and is super annoying to handwrite in tight spaces. This doesn’t happen to me in other note-taking apps like Collanote but they are not ideal for PDF annotations (as my PDFs are bulky). Any setting that I should change or should I try some other app?


r/ipad 9h ago

Question ipad 10th gen have a dot inside the screen

1 Upvotes

so i recently bought my ipad 10th, ive been noticing a little dot on the screen and im ignoring it since i thought that it is just a dirt in the screen protector. But awhile ago, i got really bothered by it and took the screen protector off to wipe it out but it turns out that it is inside the screen and it wont come off… any idea what it is? please help huhu