Kevin's Guide to DEXT Signing The question of "How do I sign a DEXT" comes up a lot, so this post is my attempt to describe both what the issues are and the best current solutions are. So... The Problems: When DEXTs were originally introduced, the recommended development signing process required disabling SIP and local signing. There is a newer, much simpler process that's built on Xcode's integrated code-signing support; however, that newer process has not yet been integrated into the documentation library. In addition, while the older flow still works, many of the details it describes are no longer correct due to changes to Xcode and the developer portal. DriverKit's use of individually customized entitlements is different than the other entitlements on our platform, and Xcode's support for it is somewhat incomplete and buggy. The situation has improved considerably over time, particularly from Xcode 15 and Xcode 16, but there are still issues that are not fully resolved. To address #1, we introduced "development" entitlement variants of all DriverKit entitlements. These entitlement variants are ONLY available in development-signed builds, but they're available on all paid developer accounts without any special approval. They also allow a DEXT to match against any hardware, greatly simplifying working with development or prototype hardware which may not match the configuration of a final product. Unfortunately, this also means that DEXT developers will always have at least two entitlement variants (the public development variant and the "private" approved entitlement), which is what then causes the problem I mentioned in #2. The Automatic Solution: If you're using Xcode 16 or above, then Xcode's Automatic code sign support will work all DEXT Families, with the exception of distribution signing the PCI and USB Families. For completeness, here is how that Automatic flow should work: Change the code signing configuration to "Automatic". Add the capability using Xcode. (USB & PCI) Edit your Entitlement.plist to include the correct "Development Only" configuration: USB Development Only Configuration: <key>com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb</key> <array> <dict> <key>idVendor</key> <string>*</string> </dict> </array> PCI Development Only Configuration: <key>com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.pci</key> <array> <dict> <key>IOPCIPrimaryMatch</key> <string>0xFFFFFFFF&amp;0x00000000</string> </dict> </array> If you've been approved for one of these entitlements, the one oddity you'll see is that adding your approved capability will add both the approved AND the development variant, while deleting either will delete both. This is a visual side effect of #2 above; however, aside from the exception described below, it can be ignored. Similarly, you can sign distribution builds by creating a build archive and then exporting the build using the standard Xcode flow. Debugging Automatic Code-signing In a new project, the flow I describe above should just work; however, if you're converting an existing project, you may get code signing errors, generally complaining about how the provisioning profile configuration doesn't match. In most cases, this happens because Xcode is choosing to reuse a previously downloaded profile with an older configuration instead of generating a new configuration which would then include the configuration changes you made. Currently, you can find these profile files in: ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/UserData/Provisioning Profiles ...which can make it easier to find and delete the specific profile (if you choose). However, one recommendation I'd have here is to not treat the contents of that folder as "precious" or special. What automatic code signing actually does is generate provisioning profiles "on demand", so if you delete an automatic profile... Xcode will just generate it again at the next build. Manually generating profiles is more cumbersome, but the solution there is to preserve them as a separate resource, probably as part of your project data, NOT to just "lose" them in the folder here. If they get deleted from Xcode's store, then you can just copy them back in from your own store (or using Xcode, which can manually download profiles as well). The advantage of this approach is that when profiles "pile up" over time (which they tend to do), you can just delete[1] all of them then let Xcode regenerate the ones you're actually trying to investigate. In terms of looking at their contents, TN3125: Inside Code Signing: Provisioning Profiles has the details of how to see exactly what's there. [1] Moving them somewhere else works too, but could indicate a fear of commitment. __ Kevin Elliott DTS Engineer, CoreOS/Hardware

Note: This document is specifically focused on what happens after a DEXT has passed its initial code-signing checks. Code-signing issues are dealt with in other posts. Preliminary Guidance: Using and understanding DriverKit basically requires understanding IOKit, something which isn't entirely clear in our documentation. The good news here is that IOKit actually does have fairly good "foundational" documentation in the documentation archive. Here are a few of the documents I'd take a look at: IOKit Fundamentals IOKit Device Driver Design Guidelines Accessing Hardware From Applications Special mention to QA1075: "Making sense of IOKit error codes",, which I happened to notice today and which documents the IOReturn error format (which is a bit weird on first review). Those documents do not cover the full DEXT loading process, but they are the foundation of how all of this actually works. Understanding the IOKitPersonalities Dictionary The first thing to understand here is that the "IOKitPersonalities" is called that because it is in fact a fully valid "IOKitPersonalities" dictionary. That is, what the system actually uses that dictionary "for" is: Perform a standard IOKit match and load cycle in the kernel. The final driver in the kernel then uses the DEXT-specific data to launch and run your DEXT process outside the kernel. So, working through the critical keys in that dictionary: "IOProviderClass"-> This is the in-kernel class that your in-kernel driver loads "on top" of. The IOKit documentation and naming convention uses the term "Nub", but the naming convention is not consistent enough that it applies to all cases. "IOClass"-> This is the in-kernel class that your DEXT attaches to and works through. This is where things can become a bit confused, as some families work by: Routing all activity through the provider reference so that the DEXT-specific class does not matter (PCIDriverKit). Having the DEXT subclass a specific subclass which corresponds to a specific kernel driver (SCSIPeripheralsDriverKit). This distinction is described in the documentation, but it's easy to overlook if you don't understand what's going on. However, compare PCIDriverKit: "When the system loads your custom PCI driver, it passes an IOPCIDevice object as the provider to your driver. Use that object to read and write the configuration and memory of your PCI hardware." Versus SCSIPeripheralsDriverKit: Develop your driver by subclassing IOUserSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00 or IOUserSCSIPeripheralDeviceType05, depending on whether your device works with SCSI Block Commands (SBC) or SCSI Multimedia Commands (SMC), respectively. In your subclass, override all methods the framework declares as pure virtual. The reason these differences exist actually comes from the relationship and interactions between the DEXT families. Case in point, PCIDriverKit doesn't require a specific subclass because it wants SCSIControllerDriverKit DEXTs to be able to directly load "above" it. Note that the common mistake many developers make is leaving "IOUserService" in place when they should have specified a family-specific subclass (case 2 above). This is an undocumented implementation detail, but if there is a mismatch between your DEXT driver ("IOUserSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00") and your kernel driver ("IOUserService"), you end up trying to call unimplemented kernel methods. When a method is "missing" like that, the codegen system ends up handling that by returning kIOReturnUnsupported. One special case here is the "IOUserResources" provider. This class is the DEXT equivalent of "IOResources" in the kernel. In both cases, these classes exist as an attachment point for objects which don't otherwise have a provider. It's specifically used by the sample "Communicating between a DriverKit extension and a client app" to allow that sample to load on all hardware but is not something the vast majority of DEXT will use. Following on from that point, most DEXT should NOT include "IOMatchCategory". Quoting IOKit fundamentals: "Important: Any driver that declares IOResources as the value of its IOProviderClass key must also include in its personality the IOMatchCategory key and a private match category value. This prevents the driver from matching exclusively on the IOResources nub and thereby preventing other drivers from matching on it. It also prevents the driver from having to compete with all other drivers that need to match on IOResources. The value of the IOMatchCategory property should be identical to the value of the driver's IOClass property, which is the driver’s class name in reverse-DNS notation with underbars instead of dots, such as com_MyCompany_driver_MyDriver." The critical point here is that including IOMatchCategory does this: "This prevents the driver from matching exclusively on the IOResources nub and thereby preventing other drivers from matching on it." The problem here is that this is actually the exceptional case. For a typical DEXT, including IOMatchCategory means that a system driver will load "beside" their DEXT, then open the provider blocking DEXT access and breaking the DEXT. DEXT Launching The key point here is that the entire process above is the standard IOKit loading process used by all KEXT. Once that process finishes, what actually happens next is the DEXT-specific part of this process: IOUserServerName-> This key is the bundle ID of your DEXT, which the system uses to find your DEXT target. IOUserClass-> This is the name of the class the system instantiates after launching your DEXT. Note that this directly mimics how IOKit loading works. Keep in mind that the second, DEXT-specific, half of this process is the first point your actual code becomes relevant. Any issue before that point will ONLY be visible through kernel logging or possibly the IORegistry. __ Kevin Elliott DTS Engineer, CoreOS/Hardware

We have developed an IOPCIFamily based custom KEXT to communicate with Thunderbolt interface storage device. This KEXT is working fine with Apple machines with Intel CPUs in all types of machines (iMac, iMac Pro and MacBooks). We tested this KEXT with Apple Silicon M1 machine where we are observing crash for the very first command we send to the Thunderbolt device. We observed that there is difference in number of bits in Physical Address we use for preparing command PRPs. In Intel machines we get 28-Bit Physical Address whereas in M1 we are getting 36-Bit address used for PRPs. We use inTaskWithPhysicalMask api to allocate memory buffer we use for preparing command PRPs. Below are the options we have used for this: options: kIOMemoryPhysicallyContiguous | kIODirectionInOut capacity: 16kb physicalMask: 0xFFFFF000UL (We want 4kb aligned memory) According to below documentation, we have to use inTaskWithPhysicalMask api to get memory below 4gb. https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/64bitPorting/KernelExtensionsandDrivers/KernelExtensionsandDrivers.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001064-CH227-SW1 Some devices can only handle physical addresses that fit into 32 bits. To the extent that it is possible to use 64-bit addresses you should do so, but for these devices, you can either use IODMACommand or the initWithPhysicalMask method of IOBufferMemoryDescriptor to allocate a bounce buffer within the bottom 4 GB of physical memory. So just want to know what's the difference between Intel and ARM64 architecture with respect to physical memory access. Is there any difference between byte order for physical memory address..?? Crash log is given below: panic(cpu 0 caller 0xfffffe0016e08cd8): "apciec[0:pcic0-bridge]::handleInterrupt: Request address is greater than 32 bits linksts=0x99000001 pcielint=0x00020000 linkcdmsts=0x00000800 (ltssm 0x11=L0)\n" Debugger message: panic Memory ID: 0x6 OS release type: User OS version: 20C69 Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 20.2.0: Wed Dec 2 20:40:21 PST 2020; root:xnu-7195.60.75~1/RELEASEARM64T8101 Fileset Kernelcache UUID: 3E6AA74DF723BCB886499A5AAB34FA34 Kernel UUID: 48F71DB3-6C91-3E62-9576-3A1DCEF2B536 iBoot version: iBoot-6723.61.3 secure boot?: YES Paniclog version: 13 KernelCache slide: 0x000000000dbfc000 KernelCache base: 0xfffffe0014c00000 Kernel slide: 0x000000000e73c000 Kernel text base: 0xfffffe0015740000 Kernel text exec base: 0xfffffe0015808000 machabsolutetime: 0x12643a9c5 Epoch Time: sec usec Boot : 0x5fe06736 0x0009afbc Sleep : 0x00000000 0x00000000 Wake : 0x00000000 0x00000000 Calendar: 0x5fe067fd 0x0006569d CORE 0 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015971798 CORE 1 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015972c5c CORE 2 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015972c5c CORE 3 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015972c5c CORE 4 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015972c60 CORE 5 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015972c60 CORE 6 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015972c60 CORE 7 recently retired instr at 0xfffffe0015972c60 Panicked task 0xfffffe166ce9e550: 75145 pages, 462 threads: pid 0: kernel_task Panicked thread: 0xfffffe166d053918, backtrace: 0xfffffe306cb4b6d0, tid: 141 lr: 0xfffffe0015855f8c fp: 0xfffffe306cb4b740 lr: 0xfffffe0015855d58 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4b7b0 lr: 0xfffffe0015977f5c fp: 0xfffffe306cb4b7d0 lr: 0xfffffe0015969914 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4b880 lr: 0xfffffe001580f7e8 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4b890 lr: 0xfffffe00158559e8 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4bc20 lr: 0xfffffe00158559e8 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4bc90 lr: 0xfffffe0015ff03f8 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4bcb0 lr: 0xfffffe0016e08cd8 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4bd60 lr: 0xfffffe00166bc778 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4be30 lr: 0xfffffe0015f2226c fp: 0xfffffe306cb4be80 lr: 0xfffffe0015f1e2f4 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4bec0 lr: 0xfffffe0015f1f050 fp: 0xfffffe306cb4bf00 lr: 0xfffffe0015818c14 fp: 0x0000000000000000 Kernel Extensions in backtrace: com.apple.driver.AppleEmbeddedPCIE(1.0)[4F37F34B-EE1B-3282-BD8B-00009B954483]@0xfffffe00166b4000->0xfffffe00166c7fff dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleARMPlatform(1.0.2)[5CBA9CD0-E248-38E3-94E5-4CC5EAB96DE1]@0xfffffe0016148000->0xfffffe0016193fff dependency: com.apple.driver.IODARTFamily(1)[88B19766-4B19-3106-8ACE-EC29201F00A3]@0xfffffe0017890000->0xfffffe00178a3fff dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[5187699D-1DDC-3763-934C-1C4896310225]@0xfffffe0017c48000->0xfffffe0017c63fff dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily(47)[93EC9828-1413-3458-A6B2-DBB3E24540AE]@0xfffffe0017c64000->0xfffffe0017c67fff com.apple.driver.AppleT8103PCIeC(1.0)[35AEB73B-D51E-3339-AB5B-50AC78740FB8]@0xfffffe0016e04000->0xfffffe0016e13fff dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleARMPlatform(1.0.2)[5CBA9CD0-E248-38E3-94E5-4CC5EAB96DE1]@0xfffffe0016148000->0xfffffe0016193fff dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleEmbeddedPCIE(1)[4F37F34B-EE1B-3282-BD8B-00009B954483]@0xfffffe00166b4000->0xfffffe00166c7fff dependency: com.apple.driver.ApplePIODMA(1)[A8EFA5BD-B11D-3A84-ACBD-6DB25DBCD817]@0xfffffe0016b0c000->0xfffffe0016b13fff dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[5187699D-1DDC-3763-934C-1C4896310225]@0xfffffe0017c48000->0xfffffe0017c63fff dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily(47)[93EC9828-1413-3458-A6B2-DBB3E24540AE]@0xfffffe0017c64000->0xfffffe0017c67fff dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOThunderboltFamily(9.3.2)[11617399-2987-322D-85B6-EF2F1AD4A794]@0xfffffe0017d80000->0xfffffe0017e93fff Stackshot Succeeded Bytes Traced 277390 (Uncompressed 703968) ** System Information: Apple Silicon M1 BigSur 11.1 Model: Macmini9,1 Any help or suggestion is really appreciated. Thanks

How does VMWare access USB devices without have any specifics of the USB device? Does it use the same profile/entitlement process or does it take a different approach?

Hello forum, I'm trying to build communications between a non-MFi HID device (say, a keyboard with a USB-C port) and an iOS device over a MFi-licensed cable with Swift, what framework would you suggest? The USB-C cable is MFi-licensed. The keyboard is not MFi-licensed.

We are looking for a solution (API, Frameworks) that would allow us to block any type of external device, including storage devices, HIDs, network adapters, and Bluetooth devices according with dynamic rules that comes from management server . This feature is important for endpoint security solutions vendors, and it can be implemented on other platforms and older versions of macOS using the IOKit framework and kexts. I have found one solution that can control the usage only of "storage" devices with the EndpointSecurity framework in conjunction with the DiskArbitration framework. This involves monitoring the MOUNT and OPEN events for /dev/disk files, checking for devices as they appear, and ejecting them if they need to be blocked.. Also, I have found the ES_EVENT_TYPE_AUTH_IOKIT_OPEN event in EndpointSecurity.framework, but it doesn't seem to be useful, at least not for my purposes, because ES doesn't provide AUTH events for some system daemons, such as configd (it only provides NOTIFY events). Furthermore, there are other ways to communicate with devices and their drivers apart from IOKit. DriverKit.framework does not provide the necessary functionality either, as it requires specific entitlements that are only available to certain vendors and devices. Therefore, it cannot be used to create universal drivers for all devices, which should be blocked. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I am trying to add a few properties to an IOUSBHostDevice but the SetProperties is returning kIOReturnUnsupported. The reason I am trying to modify the IOUSBHostDevice's properties is so we can support a MacBook Air SuperDrive when it is attached to our docking station devices. The MacBook Air SuperDrive needs a high powered port to run and this driver will help the OS realize that our dock can support it. I see that the documentation for SetProperties says: The default implementation of this method returns kIOReturnUnsupported. You can override this method and use it to modify the set of properties and values as needed. The changes you make apply only to the current service. Do I need to override IOUSBHostDevice? This is my current Start implementation (you can also see if in the Xcode project): kern_return_t IMPL(MyUserUSBHostDriver, Start) { kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess; OSDictionary * prop = NULL; OSDictionary * mergeProperties = NULL; bool success = true; os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "&gt; %s", __FUNCTION__); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ret = Start(provider, SUPERDISPATCH); __Require(kIOReturnSuccess == ret, Exit); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ivars-&gt;host = OSDynamicCast(IOUSBHostDevice, provider); __Require_Action(NULL != ivars-&gt;host, Exit, ret = kIOReturnNoDevice); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ret = ivars-&gt;host-&gt;Open(this, 0, 0); __Require(kIOReturnSuccess == ret, Exit); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ret = CopyProperties(&amp;prop); __Require(kIOReturnSuccess == ret, Exit); __Require_Action(NULL != prop, Exit, ret = kIOReturnError); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); mergeProperties = OSDynamicCast(OSDictionary, prop-&gt;getObject("IOProviderMergeProperties")); mergeProperties-&gt;retain(); __Require_Action(NULL != mergeProperties, Exit, ret = kIOReturnError); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); OSSafeReleaseNULL(prop); ret = ivars-&gt;host-&gt;CopyProperties(&amp;prop); __Require(kIOReturnSuccess == ret, Exit); __Require_Action(NULL != prop, Exit, ret = kIOReturnError); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s : %s", "USB Product Name", ((OSString *) prop-&gt;getObject("USB Product Name"))-&gt;getCStringNoCopy()); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s : %s", "USB Vendor Name", ((OSString *) prop-&gt;getObject("USB Vendor Name"))-&gt;getCStringNoCopy()); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); success = prop-&gt;merge(mergeProperties); __Require_Action(success, Exit, ret = kIOReturnError); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ret = ivars-&gt;host-&gt;SetProperties(prop); // this is no working __Require(kIOReturnSuccess == ret, Exit); Exit: OSSafeReleaseNULL(mergeProperties); OSSafeReleaseNULL(prop); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "err ref %d", kIOReturnUnsupported); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "&lt; %s %d", __FUNCTION__, ret); return ret; }

I have been working on a multi-platform multi-touch HID-standard digitizer clickpad device. The device uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as its connectivity transport and advertises HID over GATT. To date, I have the device working successfully on Windows 11 as a multi-touch, gesture-capable click pad with no custom driver or app on Windows. However, I have been having difficulty getting macOS to recognize and react to it as a HID-standard multi-touch click pad digitizer with either the standard Apple HID driver (AppleUserHIDEventDriver) or with a custom-coded driver extension (DEXT) modeled, based on the DTS stylus example and looking at the IOHIDFamily open source driver(s). The trackpad works with full-gesture support on Windows 11 and the descriptors seem to be compliant with the R23 Accessory Guidelines document, §15. With the standard, matching Apple AppleUserHIDEventDriver HID driver, when enumerating using stock-standard HID mouse descriptors, the device works fine on macOS 14.7 "Sonoma" as a relative pointer device with scroll wheel capability (two finger swipe generates a HID scroll report) and a single button. With the standard, matching Apple AppleUserHIDEventDriver HID driver, when enumerating using stock-standard HID digitizer click/touch pad descriptors (those same descriptors used successfully on Windows 11), the device does nothing. No button, no cursor, no gestures, nothing. Looking at ioreg -filtb, all of the key/value pairs for the driver match look correct. Because, even with the Apple open source IOHIDFamily drivers noted above, we could get little visibility into what might be going wrong, I wrote a custom DriverKit/HIDDriverKit driver extension (DEXT) (as noted above, based on the DTS HID stylus example and the open source IOHIDEventDriver. With that custom driver, I can get a single button click from the click pad to work by dispatching button events to dispatchRelativePointerEvent; however, when parsing, processing, and dispatching HID digitizer touch finger (that is, transducer) events via IOUserHIDEventService::dispatchDigitizerTouchEvent, nothing happens. If I log with: % sudo log stream --info --debug --predicate '(subsystem == "com.apple.iohid")' either using the standard AppleUserHIDEventDriver driver or our custom driver, we can see that our input events are tickling the IOHIDNXEventTranslatorSessionFilter HID event filter, so we know HID events are getting from the device into the macOS HID stack. This was further confirmed with the DTS Bluetooth PacketLogger app. Based on these events flowing in and hitting IOHIDNXEventTranslatorSessionFilter, using the standard AppleUserHIDEventDriver driver or our custom driver, clicks or click pad activity will either wake the display or system from sleep and activity will keep the display or system from going to sleep. In short, whether with the stock driver or our custom driver, HID input reports come in over Bluetooth and get processed successfully; however, nothing happens—no pointer movement or gesture recognition. STEPS TO REPRODUCE For the standard AppleUserHIDEventDriver: Pair the device with macOS 14.7 "Sonoma" using the Bluetooth menu. Confirm that it is paired / bonded / connected in the Bluetooth menu. Attempt to click or move one or more fingers on the touchpad surface. Nothing happens. For the our custom driver: Pair the device with macOS 14.7 "Sonoma" using the Bluetooth menu. Confirm that it is paired / bonded / connected in the Bluetooth menu. Attempt to click or move one or more fingers on the touchpad surface. Clicks are correctly registered. With transducer movement, regardless of the number of fingers, nothing happens.

Trying to use IOLog to print out a message from a dext. When I try to use IOLog, I get , though I did not or thought I did not tag it as private. I have tried to update the info.plist file for the dext according to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/705810, but that has not helped, or perhaps I am not defining it correctly since it's a dext. Anyone else had this issue, and how did you fix it?

Hello every one good day :) My project uses a mouse driver handling all events from the mouse produced by our company. In the past the driver is a kext, which implement acceleration by HIDPointerAccelerationTable, we prepare data in the driver's info.plist, while our app specifies a value to IOHIDSystem with key kIOHIDPointerAccelerationKey, the driver will call copyAccelerationTable() to lookup the HIDPointerAccelerationTable and return a value. In current DriverKit area, the process above is deprecated. Now I don't know to do. I've read some document: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/hiddriverkit/iohidpointereventoptions/kiohidpointereventoptionsnoacceleration?changes=__7_8 https://developer.apple.com/documentation/hiddriverkit/kiohidmouseaccelerationtypekey?changes=__7_8 https://developer.apple.com/documentation/hiddriverkit/kiohidpointeraccelerationkey?changes=__7_8 but no any description in those articles. Please help!

Hello, We are experiencing some issues with our USB accessory unexpectedly charging the iOS device it is connected with only when the iOS device supports USB-C and is on iOS 18+ The following is a description of the discrepancy we note between iOS versions: After performing a USB Role switch, our Accessory becomes a typical USB Device and the Apple device becomes the USB host. with iOS 17: 
 The Accessory then sends a PowerSourceUpdate message to the iOS 17 device via iAP2 protocol. Apple device has a USB Type C Connector. * We are specifying: AvailableCurrentForDevice = 0 mA  DeviceBatteryShouldChargeIfPowerIsPresent = 1. Three observations: iPad Battery Settings page -  we observe  'Last charged to…' (indicating no charging) On the Lumify App running (iOS 17), we observe that UIKit.current.batteryState indicated 'Not charging' Battery icon on top right of the screen indicates 'No Charging' with iOS 18: The same Accessory sends the same PowerSourceUpdate message to the iOS 18 device via iAP2 protocol using USB Type C Connector. We are specifying the same: AvailableCurrentForDevice = 0 mA DeviceBatteryShouldChargeIfPowerIsPresent = 1. We observe: iPad Battery Settings page -  we observe  'Charging'  On the Lumify App running (iOS 18), we observe that UIKit.current.batteryState indicated 'Charging' Battery icon on top right of the screen indicates 'No Charging' Please could you help us understand why the Battery status is showing as 'Charging' in the Settings page and with the 'UIKit.current.batteryState' even though we have specified 'AvailableCurrentForDevice = 0 mA'?
 Since our accessory is heavily reliant on the Battery status / Charging state, is there potentially another way we get an accurate battery charging status that we are missing? Or are there other suggestions outside of what we do currently to ensure our accessory does not place the iOS18 device into a charging state?

Hello everyone, I’m working on implementing hardware interrupt handling in DriverKit and came across the InterruptOccurred method in IOInterruptDispatchSource. I noticed that its declaration ends with a TYPE macro: virtual void InterruptOccurred(OSAction* action, uint64_t count, uint64_t time) TYPE(IOInterruptDispatchSource::InterruptOccurred); This structure seems similar to how Timer Events are set up, where an event is linked to a callback and triggered by a timer. I’m attempting to use a similar approach, but for hardware-triggered interrupts rather than timer events. I’m currently in the trial-and-error phase of the implementation, but if anyone has a working example or reference on how to properly implement and register InterruptOccurred, it would be greatly appreciated! Best regards, Charles

Hi, our CoreAudio server plugin supports different clock sources. A switch might result in a change of the selectable sample rates (and other settings). On a clock source switch the plugin reconfigures the set of available kAudioStreamPropertyAvailablePhysicalFormats and announces the change via AudioServerPlugInHostInterface::PropertiesChanged(). However at least the Audio MIDI Setup seems to ignore to update it's UI. The changes are first reflected after selecting another device and re-selecting the device of interest. (Latest macOS, M4 macMini) Is this a bug? Or is our CoreAudio server plugin required to indicate the change in the list of available audio formats differently? Thanks!

We’re looking for a reliable way to determine whether an iPad device supports DriverKit. Since there doesn't appear to be a direct public API for this, our current approach is as follows: Retrieve the device’s model identifier (e.g., "iPad14,8") and the iOS/iPadOS version. Map the model identifier to a known iPad model and its associated chip. If the device has an M-series chip, we assume it supports DriverKit. For future-proofing, we plan to assume that any future iPad with a model identifier of iPad15,* or higher will contain an M-series chip and therefore support DriverKit. We have a couple of questions: Is there a more reliable or official API to determine the chip version or DriverKit support? Is it reasonable to rely on the assumptions outlined in steps 2 and 3 for determining DriverKit compatibility?

Hi everyone, I was following the Video Modernize PCI and SCSI drivers with DriverKit and the Document to implement UserMapHBAData(), and here’s my current implementation: // kern_return_t DRV_MAIN_CLASS_NAME::UserMapHBAData_Impl(uint32_t *uniqueTaskID) kern_return_t IMPL(DRV_MAIN_CLASS_NAME, UserMapHBAData) { Log("UserMapHBAData() - Start"); // Define the vm_page_size explicitly const uint32_t vm_page_size = 4096; kern_return_t ret; IOBufferMemoryDescriptor *buffer = nullptr; IOMemoryMap *memMap = nullptr; void *taskData = nullptr; // Create a buffer for HBA-specific task data ret = IOBufferMemoryDescriptor::Create(kIOMemoryDirectionOutIn, ivars->fTaskDataSize, vm_page_size, &buffer); __Require((kIOReturnSuccess == ret), Exit); // Map memory to the driver extension's memory space ret = buffer->CreateMapping(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &memMap); __Require((kIOReturnSuccess == ret), Exit); // Retrieve mapped memory address taskData = reinterpret_cast<void *>(memMap->GetAddress()); __Require(taskData, Exit); // WARNING: Potential leak of an object stored into 'buffer' // WARNING: Potential leak of an object stored into 'memMap' // Assign a unique task ID ivars->fTaskID++; // ERROR: No member named 'fTaskID' in 'DriverKitAcxxx_IVars' ivars->fTaskArray[ivars->fTaskID] = taskData; *uniqueTaskID = ivars->fTaskID; Log("UserMapHBAData() - End"); return kIOReturnSuccess; Exit: // Cleanup in case of failure if (memMap) { memMap->free(); // Correct method for releasing memory maps } if (buffer) { buffer->free(); // Correct method for releasing buffer memory } LogErr("ret = 0x%0x", ret); Log("UserMapHBAData() - End"); return ret; } For reference, in KEXT, memory allocation is typically done using: IOBufferMemoryDescriptor *buffer = IOBufferMemoryDescriptor::inTaskWithOptions( kernel_task, // Task in which memory is allocated kIODirectionOutIn, // Direction (read/write) 1024, // Size of the buffer in bytes 4); // Alignment requirements However, after installing the dext, macOS hangs, and I have to do a hardware reset. After rebooting, the sysctl list output shows: % sectl list 1 extension(s) --- com.apple.system_extension.driver_extension enabled active teamID bundleID (version) name [state] * - com.accusys.DriverKitAcxxx (5.0/11) com.accusys.DriverKitAcxxx [activated waiting for user] Questions: What could be causing macOS to halt? How should I approach debugging and resolving this issue? Looking forward to your insights, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Best regards, Charles

VirtIO provides macOS VM users on Intel with integrations like Shared Folders, Shared Clipboard or Drag and Drop files. After updating VM to macOS 15.4, the VirtIO is no longer available, and we see that the functionality listed above doesn't work. Please fix it.

I have reference some related post for this issue: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode-release-notes/xcode-16-release-notes#Foundation https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/762711 Unfortunately, I'm facing the similar issues even though using Xcode Version 16.2 (16C5032a). we have the following build environment: Xcode version: Xcode 16.2 (16C5032a) macOS Version: macOS 14.7.4 (23H420) Everything builds and install fine. But when attempting to plug on Device on macOS 14.7.4 it crashes immediately with what appears to be a missing Foundation symbol. Crashed Thread: 0 Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000 Termination Reason: Namespace DYLD, Code 4 Symbol missing Symbol not found: __ZThn48_N21IOUserNetworkEthernet25registerEthernetInterfaceE10ether_addrPP24IOUserNetworkPacketQueuejP29IOUserNetworkPacketBufferPoolS5_ Referenced from: &lt;ECE57ABF-0633-3C3B-8427-FB25CC706343&gt; /Library/SystemExtensions/*/com.asix.dext.pciedevice Expected in: &lt;CDEB3490-B1E0-3D60-80CE-59C0682A4B03&gt; /System/DriverKit/System/Library/Frameworks/NetworkingDriverKit.framework/NetworkingDriverKit (terminated at launch; ignore backtrace) Thread 0 Crashed: 0 dyld 0x1041da4c8 __abort_with_payload + 8 1 dyld 0x1041e50cc abort_with_payload_wrapper_internal + 104 2 dyld 0x1041e5100 abort_with_payload + 16 3 dyld 0x1041767f0 dyld4::halt(char const*, dyld4::StructuredError const*) + 304 4 dyld 0x1041732ec dyld4::prepare(dyld4::APIs&amp;, dyld3::MachOAnalyzer const*) + 3888 5 dyld 0x104171ef4 start + 1868 Thread 0 crashed with ARM Thread State (64-bit): x0: 0x0000000000000006 x1: 0x0000000000000004 x2: 0x000000016bdd2810 x3: 0x0000000000000172 x4: 0x000000016bdd2410 x5: 0x0000000000000000 x6: 0x000000016bdd1400 x7: 0x000000016bdd1460 x8: 0x0000000000000020 x9: 0x000000016bdd237c x10: 0x000000000000000a x11: 0x0000000000000000 x12: 0x0000000000000038 x13: 0x0000000000000000 x14: 0x0000000188e77f9d x15: 0x0000000000008000 x16: 0x0000000000000209 x17: 0x000000010416f37c x18: 0x0000000000000000 x19: 0x0000000000000000 x20: 0x000000016bdd2410 x21: 0x0000000000000172 x22: 0x000000016bdd2810 x23: 0x0000000000000004 x24: 0x0000000000000006 x25: 0x00000000000000a8 x26: 0x000000016bdd32d8 x27: 0x000000010405e090 x28: 0x0000000000000001 fp: 0x000000016bdd23e0 lr: 0x00000001041e50cc sp: 0x000000016bdd23a0 pc: 0x00000001041da4c8 cpsr: 0x80001000 far: 0x0000000000000000 esr: 0x56000080 Address size fault Binary Images: 0x10416c000 - 0x1041f7fff dyld (*) &lt;4fe051cf-29dc-3f02-890b-33144fa09253&gt; /usr/lib/dyld 0x10402c000 - 0x10403ffff com.asix.dext.pciedevice (0.1.6) &lt;ece57abf-0633-3c3b-8427-fb25cc706343&gt; /Library/SystemExtensions/*/com.asix.dext.pciedevice 0x0 - 0xffffffffffffffff ??? (*) &lt;00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&gt; ??? External Modification Summary: Calls made by other processes targeting this process: task_for_pid: 0 thread_create: 0 thread_set_state: 0 Calls made by this process: task_for_pid: 0 thread_create: 0 thread_set_state: 0 Calls made by all processes on this machine: task_for_pid: 0 thread_create: 0 thread_set_state: 0 VM Region Summary: ReadOnly portion of Libraries: Total=8612K resident=0K(0%) swapped_out_or_unallocated=8612K(100%) Writable regions: Total=12.2M written=0K(0%) resident=0K(0%) swapped_out=0K(0%) unallocated=12.2M(100%) Is it expected that this should work? Is this a known issue? Is there any workaround for it? Should I file feedback or a DTS?

Hello all, I am interested in developing a small driver that would facilitate host-to-host communication via Thunderbolt 4/5. While I am aware of features such as Thunderbolt Bridge/Thunderbolt Networking, I find that for my application the overhead is too great. I am interested in sharing a simple, static memory buffer between the two hosts for IO and with some synchronisation primitives. The idea being that the communication is facilitated between different platforms. Would it be possible to develop a driver/service like this? Currently, going through the documentation, to use PCIDriverKit specifying a Vendor and Product Ids is required, so I doubt that this is a viable path. I know that Linux exposes the "XDomain" protocol to announce thunderbolt services (This is the same protocol that is used in macOS to discover Thunderbolt Networking peers). Is this functionality exposed to macOS driver developers?

Hi All, We've been working on a new CarPlay-supported App and are hoping for advice on how to achieve this. We have completed the CarPlay Entitledment Request, but have not received any response from Apple. Given we're close to launch on Android, we'd love to have these projects completed together. Any advice on how to make contact with the approvals team, or suggestions on how long this will normally take? If they're no longer taking applications or rejection is high, any guidance would be greatly appreciated too!

We submitted a request a couple years ago to Apple through the feedback system to add 1 custom vid/pid to the com.apple.DriverKit-AppleUSBFTDI driver. They added it to Monterey and it appears in all macOS versions since Monterey. Not long after submitting this request, we sent a follow-up request to add 2 more pids (same vid, and same personality). Apple eventually added these as well. They appear as an array of pids under the same personality. We are 2 weeks from releasing one of those products (added in the second request) and are just now realizing that the second request was only honored on Sequoia (this fact was masked by us using a temporary ftdi vid/pid during development while waiting for Microsoft to resolve an issue related to adding custom vid/pids to FTDI's Windows driver). All other versions that we are supposed to support (Monterey thru Sonoma) only have the first device. None of the devices from the second request are listed, and consequently this device doesn't match and doesn't expose as a serial port as it should. Our application that works with these devices supports Monterey and up, and we desperately need all devices that we have submitted so far to be available on Monterey and up (thru system updates). I tried starting a code-level support ticket, but they don't have a category for this problem. The feedback mechanism is a black box. You submit the request and get no response. You just wait for weeks/months and then it just appears one day. That was fine then, but we're now in an emergency situation. (FTDI's own dext driver, last time we tried it at least, was unable to be installed after being customized, and they admitted to us during email support that there was some issue on the Apple side that was preventing it from being customized. They haven't updated the dext driver since then, so I assume the situation is still the same) What can we do?

I have a dext that creates a periodic timer on its own dispatch queue. The callback is declared as follows: virtual void HandleTimer( OSAction *action, uint64_t time ) TYPE(IOTimerDispatchSource::TimerOccurred); The timer is allocated as follows: CreateActionHandleTimer( size, &ivars->TimerHandler ); IODispatchQueue::Create( "TimerQueue", 0, 0, &ivars->TimerDispatchQueue ); IOTimerDispatchSource::Create( ivars->TimerDispatchQueue, &ivars->TimerDispatchSrc ); I can start up the timer and it works just fine. However, in my Stop() method, when trying to shut the timer down, I get an assertion in OSAction::Cancel() for TimerHandler: Assertion failed: (queue), function Cancel, file uioserver.cpp, line 4401. What does this assertion indicate or is the source code available? If so, where? I'm using macOS 15.5. Note I am attempting to cancel the handler after the dispatch source and queue are canceled and the cleanup methods have been called (which is working). But, cancelling TimerHandler first also asserts.

I need to implement an app that exchanges data with peripherals through TypeC on Apple 15 phones, but I have two questions that I need to ask for help: Which library is used to communicate with peripherals through the TypeC port of the Apple mobile phone? Do peripherals need to pass MFi authentication before they can communicate with the App?