I have a custom hardware board that I want to communicate serially with from an iPad. Should I use the DriverKit route or the MFi route?

I’m prototyping a personal-use system that lets an iPhone with a physically attached controller act as an input device for a Mac. End goal: Use the iPhone as the transport and sensor host Use the attached physical controller for buttons/sticks Map the iPhone gyroscope to the controller’s right stick to get gyro aim in Mac games / cloud-streamed games such as GeForce NOW that don't support the gyro. What I’m trying to understand is whether Apple supports any path for this on macOS that does NOT require restricted entitlements or paid-program-only capabilities. What I’ve already found: CoreHID virtual HID device creation appears to require com.apple.developer.hid.virtual.device HIDDriverKit / system extensions appear to require Apple-granted entitlements as well GCVirtualController does not seem to solve the problem because I need a controller-visible device that other apps can see, not just controls inside my own app So my concrete question is: Is there any supported, entitlement-free way for a personal macOS app to expose a game-controller-like input device that other apps can consume system-wide? If not, is the official answer that this class of solution necessarily requires one of: CoreHID with restricted entitlement HIDDriverKit/system extension entitlement some other Apple-approved framework or program I’m missing I’m not asking about App Store distribution. This is primarily for local/personal use during development. I’m trying to understand the supported platform boundary before investing further. Any guidance on the recommended architecture for this use case would be appreciated.

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?

Investigating a kernel panic, I discovered that Apple Silicon Panic traces are not working with how I know to symbolicate the panic information. I have not found proper documentation that corrects this situation. Attached file is an indentity-removed panic, received from causing an intentional panic (dereferencing nullptr), so that I know what functions to expect in the call stack. This is cut-and-pasted from the "Report To Apple" dialog that appears after the reboot: panic_1_4_21_b.txt To start, I download and install the matching KDK (in this case KDK_14.6.1_23G93.kdk), identified from this line: OS version: 23G93 Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 23.6.0: Mon Jul 29 21:14:04 PDT 2024; root:xnu-10063.141.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8122 Then start lldb from Terminal, using this command: bash_prompt % lldb -arch arm64e /Library/Developer/KDKs/KDK_14.6.1_23G93.kdk/System/Library/Kernels/kernel.release.t8122 Next I load the remaining scripts per the instructions from lldb: (lldb) settings set target.load-script-from-symbol-file true I need to know what address to load my kext symbols to, which I read from this line of the panic log, after the @ symbol: com.company.product(1.4.21d119)[92BABD94-80A4-3F6D-857A-3240E4DA8009]@0xfffffe001203bfd0->0xfffffe00120533ab I am using a debug build of my kext, so the DWARF symbols are part of the binary. I use this line to load the symbols into the lldb session: (lldb) addkext -F /Library/Extensions/KextName.kext/Contents/MacOS/KextName 0xfffffe001203bfd0 And now I should be able to use lldb image lookup to identify pointers on the stack that land within my kext. For example, the current PC at the moment of the crash lands within the kext (expected, because it was intentional): (lldb) image lookup -a 0xfffffe001203fe10 Which gives the following incorrect result: Address: KextName[0x0000000000003e40] (KextName.__TEXT.__cstring + 14456) Summary: "ffer has %d retains\n" That's not even a program instruction - that's within a cstring. No, that cstring isn't involved in anything pertaining to the intentional panic I am expecting to see. Can someone please explain what I'm doing wrong and provide instructions that will give symbol information from a panic trace on an Apple Silicon Mac? Disclaimers: Yes I know IOPCIFamily is deprecated, I am in process of transitioning to DriverKit Dext from IOKit kext. Until then I must maintain the kext. Terminal command "atos" provides similar incorrect results, and seems to not work with debug-built-binaries (only dSYM files) Yes this is an intentional panic so that I can verify the symbolicate process before I move on to investigating an unexpected panic I have set nvram boot-args to include keepsyms=1 I have tried (lldb) command script import lldb.macosx but get a result of error: no images in crash log (after the nvram settings)

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, "> %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->host = OSDynamicCast(IOUSBHostDevice, provider); __Require_Action(NULL != ivars->host, Exit, ret = kIOReturnNoDevice); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ret = ivars->host->Open(this, 0, 0); __Require(kIOReturnSuccess == ret, Exit); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ret = CopyProperties(&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->getObject("IOProviderMergeProperties")); mergeProperties->retain(); __Require_Action(NULL != mergeProperties, Exit, ret = kIOReturnError); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); OSSafeReleaseNULL(prop); ret = ivars->host->CopyProperties(&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->getObject("USB Product Name"))->getCStringNoCopy()); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s : %s", "USB Vendor Name", ((OSString *) prop->getObject("USB Vendor Name"))->getCStringNoCopy()); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); success = prop->merge(mergeProperties); __Require_Action(success, Exit, ret = kIOReturnError); os_log(OS_LOG_DEFAULT, "%s:%d", __FUNCTION__, __LINE__); ret = ivars->host->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, "< %s %d", __FUNCTION__, ret); return ret; }

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 Everyone, I'm encountering an issue while setting up a timer event in DriverKit and would appreciate any guidance. Here's my current implementation: void DRV_MAIN_CLASS_NAME::SetupEventTimer() { // 1. Create dispatch queue kern_return_t ret = IODispatchQueue::Create("TimerQueue", 0, 0, &ivars->dispatchQueue); if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) { LogErr("Failed to create dispatch queue: 0x%x", ret); return; } // 2. Create timer source ret = IOTimerDispatchSource::Create(ivars->dispatchQueue, &ivars->dispatchSource); if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) { LogErr("Failed to create timer: 0x%x", ret); OSSafeReleaseNULL(ivars->dispatchQueue); return; } /*! * @brief Create an instance of OSAction. * @discussion Methods to allocate an OSAction instance are generated for each method defined in a class with * a TYPE attribute, so there should not be any need to directly call OSAction::Create(). * @param target OSObject to receive the callback. This object will be retained until the OSAction is * canceled or freed. * @param targetmsgid Generated message ID for the target method. * @param msgid Generated message ID for the method invoked by the receiver of the OSAction * to generate the callback. * @param referenceSize Size of additional state structure available to the creator of the OSAction * with GetReference. * @param action Created OSAction with +1 retain count to be released by the caller. * @return kIOReturnSuccess on success. See IOReturn.h for error codes. */ // 3: Create an OSAction for the TimerOccurred method // THIS IS WHERE I NEED HELP OSAction* timerAction = nullptr; ret = OSAction::Create(this, 0, 0, 0, &timerAction); if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) { LogErr("Failed to create OSAction: 0x%x", ret); goto cleanup; } // 4. Set handler ret = ivars->dispatchSource->SetHandler(timerAction); if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) { LogErr("Failed to set handler: 0x%x", ret); goto cleanup; } // 5. Schedule timer (1 second) uint64_t deadline = mach_absolute_time() + NSEC_PER_SEC; ivars->dispatchSource->WakeAtTime(0, deadline, 0); cleanup: if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) { OSSafeReleaseNULL(timerAction); OSSafeReleaseNULL(ivars->dispatchSource); OSSafeReleaseNULL(ivars->dispatchQueue); } } Problem: The code runs but the OSAction callback binding seems incorrect (Step 3). According to the OSAction documentation, I need to use the TYPE macro to properly bind the callback method. But I try to use TYPE(DRV_MAIN_CLASS_NAME::TimerOccurred) kern_return_t TimerOccurred() LOCALONLY; TYPE(TimerOccurred) kern_return_t TimerOccurred() LOCALONLY; kern_return_t TimerOccurred() TYPE(DRV_MAIN_CLASS_NAME::TimerOccurred) LOCALONLY; All results in Out-of-line definition of 'TimerOccurred' does not match any declaration in 'DRV_MAIN_CLASS_NAME' Questions: What is the correct way to declare a timer callback method using TYPE? How to get the values targetmsgid & msgid generated by Xcode? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Best Regards, Charles

I have a custom USB Audio Class 2 (UAC2) compatible device. When I connect this custom device to a MacBook with a configuration of up to 10 channels (16-bit), everything seems to work fine. However, when I increase the channel count to 12, the MacBook does not recognize the 12 channels. It only shows the channel count as 0. TN2274 is the only source where I found some information about Apple's Audio Class Drivers, but it doesn't mention any limitations regarding channel counts. Could you let me know the current limitations of the Audio Class Drivers on the latest macOS versions? What configuration should I use to get 12 channels working? P.S. I also found that a 12-channel, 8-bit configuration is detected by the MacBook, bit I want it to work with 16bits. For more detail please check FB17098863

When I develop the system extension tool, I need to subscribe to the remote thread creation event. When the remote thread injection is triggered, I want to get the id, module name and starting function name of the remote thread. How can I get this information from es_event_remote_thread_create_t? If I can't get this information from es_event_remote_thread_create_t, is there any other way to get it?

Hi Everyone! I want to block the USB wired mouse from accessing my machine. Which framework is used to implement ? PS: I have already tried DriverKit Framework but it requires Apple's paid developer account. What will be alternative ?

Hello, I recently created an app with the Calldirectory Extension. It worked all good as long as I was on my development iphone. I tried to install the app on my privat iphone (same phone/same os version), but then I faced an issue. I couldn't enable the Calldirectory Extension with an error (Error Enabling Extension Failed to request data for APPNAME. You may try enabling the extension again, and if the problem persists, conatact the application developer.)

Hi, our virtual CoreAudio server plugin creates and removes dynamically CoreAudio devices. Each time it does so it leaves traces in /Library/Preferences/Audio com.apple.audio.DeviceSettings.plist com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist The files on the test machine now have become >1Mb and the system keeps recreating them. How can I manually remove/cleanup these files? (This is for development only. It already became pretty tedious to evaluate current device settings for debugging purposes.) How can the CoreAudio server plugin make sure once a device has been removed also its entries are removed from the .plist (It already removes it's storage, but the system still keeps other settings.) Is there some documentation about what gets stored and how the settings are organized in these preferences? (This is also for development and debugging only. We are not intending to access these settings directly ) Thanks!

Hello everyone. I have been developing PCIe device driver through Thunderbolt. However, it was confirmed that up to three devices connected to the daisy chain worked normally, but the fourth device failed to operate the _CopyDeviceMemoryWithIndex() function for connection with the BAR0 App and did not work properly. The standard specification of Thunderbolt 3/4 is said to be supported by daisy chain connection up to 6-device, but in reality, it is only 3 units, so I ask the forum for technical confirmation. Of course total 4 device by 2-port x 2-device daisy chain connecting has working well. The PCI entry in System information indicates that all devices have normal load of the PCIe device driver. Thank you.

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

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?

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?