Understand the role of drivers in bridging the gap between software and hardware, ensuring smooth hardware functionality.

Drivers Documentation

Posts under Drivers subtopic

Post

Replies

Boosts

Views

Activity

Issues accessing UserDefaults and performing API calls in CarPlay while iPhone is locked
I'm developing a CarPlay Fueling app with CarPlay entitlement properly configured. While testing, I ran into two issues and would appreciate any guidance: UserDefaults access while iPhone is locked: In my CarPlay implementation, I read values from UserDefaults that were previously saved in the iOS app. However, when the iPhone is locked and the CarPlay session is active, it seems that the CarPlay extension cannot read the stored values. Is this the expected behavior? If so, how can I persist and access data across the app and CarPlay reliably? API calls while iPhone is locked: The CarPlay interface in my app communicates with a server to display lists and detail views. When the iPhone is locked, are network calls still allowed from the CarPlay extension? Currently, I do not have any background modes enabled in the app capabilities. If I enable background modes and implement background network logic to ensure API calls complete properly, would this be considered acceptable usage for CarPlay in App Store review? Or could it raise any rejection concerns during the approval process? Thanks in advance for your help.
3
0
102
Jun ’25
Technical Inquiry Regarding DriverKit USB Serial Communication Issues on iPadOS
I am currently developing a kiosk system that incorporates an iPad along with a custom peripheral device. The two components are intended to communicate via USB serial. I have encountered a critical issue while working with the official DriverKit sample code provided at the following link: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/driverkit/communicating-between-a-driverkit-extension-and-a-client-app Model info : iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation / M1 chipset) iPadOS 18.4.1 App Stops Functioning After Repeated Builds When I first build and run the sample code without any modifications, it works as expected. However, after making changes and running the app repeatedly on the iPad, it eventually reaches a state where the app stops functioning completely — no logs are printed, and device communication fails. Reinstalling the app or rebooting the iPad does not resolve the issue. Even when I revert to the original, unmodified sample code, the problem persists. Surprisingly, if I generate a new Bundle Identifier, the app functions normally again. I would like to ask: What could be causing this behavior? Have similar cases been reported before? For your reference, I’ve attached a video demonstrating the issue and the source code used during the recording: Source Code: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14whvWwuhrmS5VoR3sSKyNT-GpTPC_c_8/view?usp=sharing Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SfqIkEphSDrvg-CKS6KBcJ1VBP3cPqCC/view?usp=sharing Request for USB Serial Communication Reference Currently, due to the issue above, I am unable to obtain a device instance at all. Even assuming this is resolved, I noticed that the sample code does not include any implementation or reference material for USB serial communication itself. Is there any official sample code or documentation available that demonstrates USB serial communication between an iPad and an external device using DriverKit? Difficulty Debugging Due to Missing os_log Output Another challenge I'm facing is the inability to view os_log output while connecting the USB device to the iPad. This significantly hinders the debugging process during DriverKit development. Are there any recommended or supported methods for accessing logs and debugging effectively in this environment?
2
0
120
Jun ’25
iTunes Asks for an update that doesn't exist
I want to update my iPhone 15 Pro to iOS 26 from iOS 18.5. I downloaded ipsw firmware. But iTunes and Apple Devices App requires update version of app for update to iOS 26. But I use last version of iTunes / Apple Devices, which was realised 2 May, 2025. That mean Apple need to update their apps for adaptation it to iOS 26 update?
2
0
104
Jun ’25
Why does CPListItem show a loading indicator when tapped, even with no configuration?
I'm using CPListItem like this: CPListItem( text: "test", detailText: "test", image: nil, accessoryImage: nil, accessoryType: .none ) However, when I tap the item in the list, a loading indicator appears on the right side, as shown in the image I attached. I didn’t configure anything that should cause this behavior. Why is the loading indicator shown by default when tapping a list item? Is there a way to prevent it from appearing?
1
0
98
Jun ’25
Apple Maps directions not starting on first launch in CarPlay
In my app, I want to launch Apple Maps and start turn-by-turn navigation when the user taps a button. I referred to Apple’s documentation and sample projects and implemented the following code: if let url = URL(string: "maps://?t=m&daddr=(addr)") { self.carplayScene?.open(url, options: nil, completionHandler: nil) } This works only if Apple Maps has been launched at least once on the iPhone or in the CarPlay environment. If Apple Maps has never been opened before, it launches the app but does not automatically start navigation. However, once the user has opened Apple Maps at least once — either on the phone or through CarPlay — then navigation starts as expected from that point on. Is this behavior expected? Or is it a bug?
3
0
98
Jun ’25
Trigger UserAbortTaskRequest method in IOUserSCSIParallelInterfaceController subclass
Hello, I have DriverKit SCSI driver (PCI through Thunderbolt). And there is some logic and command which should be send to device in UserAbortTaskRequest method. But I cannot find out a way UserAbortTaskRequest to be called by system, so cannot debug the code inside. In which cases IOUserSCSIParallelInterfaceController/DriverKit framework calls UserAbortTaskRequest ? Is there a way to imitate situation (in driver or in some external tool), so that UserAbortTaskRequest be called to debug such case?
3
0
111
Jul ’25
USB communication with a pre-OS system
Hello everyone, We're working on an iOS app that needs to connect to a non-Apple pre-operating system using USB for serial communication. Our goal is to send and receive data between an iPhone and a UEFI-based system directly over USB. We've created a proof of concept using the USBMux protocol, which let us exchange basic messages. However, we're running into problems with the USB endpoint setup. In some cases, the USB communication doesn't start or stay connected. Since this is for a pre-boot environment, it might not fit into the usual iOS USB communication frameworks. We're looking for help with the following: Any guidance or documentation on setting up USB serial communication between an iPhone and a non-Apple pre-boot system Information on system APIs, frameworks, or protocols that iOS supports for direct USB communication in this scenario Access to official USBMux documentation or specs to understand its limitations and capabilities better Whether this communication requires MFi certification or if there are other Apple-supported interfaces we can use Thank you!
1
0
193
Jun ’25
bInterfaceNumber for multiple interface usb-cdcacm device
Hi, I have a usb composite device with multiple interfaces that support cdc-acm UARTs. My custom driver (.dext) loads and works for single channel usb-cdcccm device with these entries in the info.plist: bInterfaceNumber 1 But there is no option to define multiple "bInterfaceNumber" key. I tried bInterfaceClass also, as given below, but no success. Option-1: bInterfaceClass 10 bInterfaceSubClass 0 bInterfaceProtocol 0 Option-2: bInterfaceClass 10 bInterfaceSubClass 0 bInterfaceProtocol 0 Both the above options yield no result. But as I said in the beginning: <key>IOProviderClass</key> <string>IOUSBHostInterface</string> <key>IOClass</key> <string>IOUserSerial</string> <key>IOResourceMatch</key> <string>IOKit</string> <key>IOUserClass</key> <string>MyDriver</string> <key>IOUserServerName</key> <string>$(PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER)</string> <key>idVendor</key> <integer>VENDORID</integer> <key>idProduct</key> <integer>PRODUCTID</integer> <key>bInterfaceNumber</key> <integer>1</integer> <key>bConfigurationValue</key> <integer>1</integer> "MyDriver" loads for interface-1 and works fine. The default AppleCDCACM driver loads for the 2nd channel. I want the same driver load for both the channels. Any help/suggestions \is very much appreciated. Thank you.
5
0
145
Jul ’25
DriverKit issue with TestFlight
Hi, We’re developing a DriverKit extension for iPadOS. In local Debug and Release builds, everything works as expected, but the same build uploaded to TestFlight fails at IOServiceOpen with the following errors: -536870212 (0xE00002EC) kIOReturnUnsupported -536870201 (0xE00002F7) kIOReturnNotPermitted What we’ve verified so far App entitlements We checked our main app entitlements file, and it has the correct capabilities for the driverkit communication &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt; &lt;!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"&gt; &lt;plist version="1.0"&gt; &lt;dict&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.driverkit.communicates-with-drivers&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.driverkit.userclient-access&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt; &lt;string&gt;abc.def.ABCDriver&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.system-extension.install&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.security.app-sandbox&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.security.device.usb&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;/dict&gt; &lt;/plist&gt; we also checked the Provisioning profile (as shown on the portal) and the “Enabled Capabilities” seems to have the correct DriverKit Capabilities enabled. Enabled Capabilities Access Wi-Fi Information, DriverKit, DriverKit (development), DriverKit Communicates with Drivers, DriverKit USB Transport (development), DriverKit USB Transport - VendorID, DriverKit UserClient Access, iCloud, In-App Purchase, Sign In with Apple, System Extension When we download and inspect the provisioning profile as plain text, we notice that some expected DriverKit entitlements appear to be missing from the section. &lt;key&gt;Entitlements&lt;/key&gt; &lt;dict&gt; &lt;key&gt;beta-reports-active&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.networking.wifi-info&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.driverkit&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.driverkit.communicates-with-drivers&lt;/key&gt; &lt;true/&gt; &lt;key&gt;application-identifier&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;ABC123456.abc.def&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;keychain-access-groups&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt; &lt;string&gt;ABC123456.*&lt;/string&gt; &lt;string&gt;com.apple.token&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;get-task-allow&lt;/key&gt; &lt;false/&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.team-identifier&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;ABC123456&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.ubiquity-kvstore-identifier&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;ABC123456.*&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.icloud-services&lt;/key&gt; &lt;string&gt;*&lt;/string&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.icloud-container-identifiers&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt;&lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.icloud-container-development-container-identifiers&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt;&lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.ubiquity-container-identifiers&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt;&lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt; &lt;dict&gt; &lt;key&gt;idVendor&lt;/key&gt; &lt;integer&gt;1234&lt;/integer&gt; &lt;/dict&gt; &lt;/array&gt; &lt;key&gt;com.apple.developer.applesignin&lt;/key&gt; &lt;array&gt; &lt;string&gt;Default&lt;/string&gt; &lt;/array&gt; &lt;/dict&gt; We have a couple of questions: Could the missing com.apple.developer.driverkit.userclient-access entitlement in the provisioning profile alone explain the kIOReturnUnsupported / kIOReturnNotPermitted failures from IOServiceOpen? Why do some DriverKit capabilities appear in the Apple Developer portal UI but vanish from the actual profile we download? Is there an extra step we’re overlooking when regenerating profiles after toggling those capabilities? Thanks
8
0
238
Jul ’25
External Accessory
Hi, we are listed for the MFI program as a licensed manufacturer. We have now started with the IAP3 sample code and the IAP chips to build up a USB communication between our accessory and an iOS device. We are looking for a sample project for the iOS part. Is there some available? The only official I can find is this: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/samplecode/EADemo/Introduction/Intro.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/DTS40010079 This app is somehow outdated and from 2016. Is there something else available as a starting point? And how does this relate to IOKit since it is available for serial communication on iOS16 as well? Kind regards,
3
0
135
Jul ’25
USBSendSetLineCoding failing in DeviceRequest with error code 0xe0005000
Hi, This is the code snippet in my driver for an usb uart device. I am trying to call standard cdc-acm command to set the Line Coding in the device, but fails with this error: "USBSendSetLineCoding - Failed : 0xe0005000, bytes transferred: 0" I guess the USB device is returning this error due to incorrect buffer or format. There is no proper documentation on how to use IOMemoryDescriptor when the data has to be passed down in a buffer to the usb stack. (IOUSBHostInterface->DeviceRequest()) Can anyone please point out what is wrong with this code and suggest a right method? void MyDriver::USBSendSetLineCoding(uint32_t BaudRate, uint8_t StopBits, uint8_t TX_Parity, uint8_t CharLength) { kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess; LineCoding *lineParms; uint16_t lcLen = sizeof(LineCoding)-1; lineParms = (LineCoding *)IOMalloc(lcLen); if (!lineParms) { MyDebugLog("USBSendSetLineCoding - allocate lineParms failed"); return; } bzero(lineParms, lcLen); lineParms->bCharFormat = StopBits - 2; lineParms->bParityType = TX_Parity - 1; lineParms->bDataBits = CharLength; OSSwapBigToHostInt32(BaudRate); lineParms->dwDTERate = BaudRate; IOBufferMemoryDescriptor* bufferDescriptor = nullptr; _controlInterface->CreateIOBuffer(kIOMemoryDirectionOut, lcLen, &bufferDescriptor); IOMemoryMap *map = nullptr; bufferDescriptor->CreateMapping(kIOMemoryMapReadOnly, 0, 0, 0, 0, &map); if(map == nullptr) { MyDebugLog("USBSendSetLineCoding - Failed to map memory in CreateMapping\n"); IOFree(lineParms, lcLen); bufferDescriptor->release(); return; } uint64_t ptr = map->GetAddress(); if(!ptr) { MyDebugLog("USBSendSetLineCoding - Failed to get Memory Address\n"); IOFree(lineParms, lcLen); bufferDescriptor->release(); map->release(); return; } memcpy(&ptr, lineParms, lcLen); uint8_t bmRequestType = kIOUSBDeviceRequestDirectionOut | kIOUSBDeviceRequestTypeClass | kIOUSBDeviceRequestRecipientInterface; uint16_t wValue = 0; uint16_t wIndex = _bControlInterfaceNumber; uint16_t bytesTransferred = 0; ret = _controlInterface->DeviceRequest(bmRequestType, kUSBSET_LINE_CODING, wValue, wIndex, lcLen, bufferDescriptor, &bytesTransferred, 1000); IOFree(lineParms, lcLen); map->release(); bufferDescriptor->release(); if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) { MyDebugLog("USBSendSetLineCoding - Failed : 0x%x, bytes transferred: %d\n", ret, bytesTransferred); return; } return; } I am able to call DeviceRequest() successfully on the same interface for any other setting that requires no data buffer, such as, "ret = _controlInterface->DeviceRequest(bmRequestType, kUSBSEND_BREAK, wValue, wIndex, 0, NULL, &bytesTransferred, 1000);" So I think the "bufferDescriptor" is not properly created or the data is not copied correctly in this function for the failure. "ret = _controlInterface->DeviceRequest(bmRequestType, kUSBSET_LINE_CODING, wValue, wIndex, lcLen, bufferDescriptor, &bytesTransferred, 1000);" Any help is very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
3
0
120
Aug ’25
Using alternate DriverKit SDKs in Xcode
After some experimentation with copying multiple DriverKit SDKs into /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/DriverKit.platform/Developer/SDKs/DriverKit, it's become clear that Xcode only supports the DriverKit version that ships with it. There is no way to configure an alternative SDK within a project and changing to a different one results in strange build warnings and errors. This begs the question - how are developers supposed to develop and support dexts? Here's one example scenario: SCSIDriverKit introduced a breaking change in DriverKit 24.4 (macOS 15.4 and Xcode 16.3) due to a new feature. Once a dext is built against that kit, it will not function on macOS 15.0-15.3 whether that feature is implemented or not. We found a similar thing with NetworkingDriverKit as well. So, over the course of maintaining a Sequoia product while working in Sequoia itself, simply updating Xcode breaks the product. Not to mention trying to maintain a Sequoia product in Tahoe when it is released. How is this a good developer experience? Are developers resigned to having a myriad of Xcode versions which may require booting into multiple macOS versions to use? That would in turn produce a myriad of product versions that would need to be deciphered by the user or an installer? Shouldn't developers be able to use the latest tooling while still being able to produce products for OSes that are just a year or two old? Or should DriverKit files be conditionalized so configuring a deployment version in Xcode actually builds the right thing even with the latest SDK? I just don't get it. Help me understand. Replacing kexts with dexts seems like a development nightmare.
1
0
102
Aug ’25
driverkit.transport.usb
I’m creating my first DriverKit extension and I ran into an entitlement issue when trying to load my driver. Error 0x0 8397 7 taskgated-helper: (ConfigurationProfiles) [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] App.Dext: Unsatisfied entitlements: com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb I have already registered the entitlement com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb with my vendor ID in the Apple Developer portal. However, when I download the provisioning profile, it doesn’t include the idVendor value. Screenshot from the developer portal (provisioning profile without idVendor) ? <key>com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb</key> <array> <dict> <key>idVendor</key> <integer>1356</integer> </dict> </array> -Is this error caused by me registering the vendor ID incorrectly? -Or is there an issue with how the entitlement is reflected in the provisioning profile? Any guidance would be appreciated.
1
0
133
Aug ’25
driverkit.transport.usb
I’m creating my first DriverKit extension and I ran into an entitlement issue when trying to load my driver. Error 0x0 8397 7 taskgated-helper: (ConfigurationProfiles) [com.apple.ManagedClient:ProvisioningProfiles] App.Dext: Unsatisfied entitlements: com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb I have already registered the entitlement com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb with my vendor ID in the Apple Developer portal. However, when I download the provisioning profile, it doesn’t include the idVendor value. Screenshot from the developer portal (provisioning profile without idVendor) ? <key>com.apple.developer.driverkit.transport.usb</key> <array> <dict> <key>idVendor</key> <integer>1356</integer> <!-- Sony --> <!-- Có thể bổ sung: <key>idProduct</key> <integer>XXXXX</integer> --> </dict> </array>
1
0
134
Aug ’25
Trouble with OSDeclareDefaultStructors.
Hi guys! OK, reaching out for some help here. I am having all kinds of trouble with OSDeclareDefaultStructors. I have seriously been at this for nearly a week now and have come to the conclusion that I need to reach out for help from people that are more experience using Xcode. I believe entirely that my issue is just that I can't for whatever reason see how to set up includes and libraries and things like that. I have this line: OSDeclareDefaultStructors(NukeVirtualGamepad) No matter what I do, Xcode will not recognize OSDeclareDefaultStructors. The project builds a DriverKit &gt; Driver extension. I have literally tried absolutely everything with this. I am at a loss for words. I even set up a new blank project and it still will not recognize OSDeclareDefaultStructors. I did a lot of research and it looks like expo needs OSDeclareDefaultStructors in order for the extension to build with a binary in it instead of being just a codeless extension. Here is the code with the issue: #pragma once #include &lt;DriverKit/OSMetaClass.h&gt; #include &lt;HIDDriverKit/IOUserHIDDevice.h&gt; #include &lt;DriverKit/OSData.h&gt; class NukeVirtualGamepad : public IOUserHIDDevice { OSDeclareDefaultStructors(NukeVirtualGamepad) // The problem is right here! This line! public: // Keep it minimal; no 'override' keywords since the .h types may not mark them virtual bool init(); void free(); kern_return_t Start(IOService* provider); void Stop (IOService* provider); OSData* newReportDescriptor(); // (Optional) helper you’ll use later to inject input matching your report kern_return_t PostInput(uint16_t buttons, int8_t x, int8_t y); }; I do have to mention to everyone that I am still very new with Xcode. So there is a ton that I don't know yet or might be misunderstanding. Has anyone seen this before? Thank you in advance.
4
0
193
Aug ’25
Blocking USB Devices on macOS – DriverKit or Other Recommended Approach
Hi Apple, We are working on a general USB device management solution on macOS for enterprise security. Our goal is to enforce policy-based restrictions on USB devices, such as: For USB storage devices: block mount, read, or write access. For other peripherals (e.g., USB headsets or microphones, raspberry pi, etc): block usage entirely. We know in past, kernel extension would be the way to go, but as kext has been deprecated. And DriverKit is the new advertised framework. At first, DriverKit looked like the right direction. However, after reviewing the documentation more closely, we noticed that using DriverKit for USB requires specific entitlements: DriverKit USB Transport – VendorID DriverKit USB Transport – VendorID and ProductID This raises a challenge: if our solution is meant to cover all types of USB devices, we would theoretically need entitlements for every VendorID/ProductID in existence. My questions are: Is DriverKit actually the right framework for this kind of general-purpose USB device control? If not, what framework or mechanism should we be looking at for enforcing these kinds of policies? We also developed an Endpoint Security product, but so far we haven’t found a relevant Endpoint Security event type that would allow us to achieve this. Any guidance on the correct technical approach would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.
6
0
189
Sep ’25
External PCIe based storage device is not getting relinked with SCSI passthrough command
We have a management application which manages security enable and disable for an external PCIe based storage device using Kernel Extension(SCSI Architecture Model Family for External USB Mass Storage devices which deals with IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice, IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00 and IOBlockStorageService) Now the issue we are facing is when we try to unlock the device using security code (already being set) , we will relink the device using VU command (RelinkBridge). Even-though both the commands are successful , the device is not getting relinked due to which we are not able to use the device for storage. If someone have faced similar issue or any pointer on how to resolve this issue , it would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
1
0
73
Oct ’25
Should UserSendCBD work on UAS interfaces?
The device I am trying to develop a firmware updater for is an NVMe drive with a USB4 interface. It can connect in USB4 mode (tunneled NVMe), in USB 3 mode or in USB 2 mode. In USB 2 and USB 3 mode, the device descriptor shows one interface with two alternates. Alternate 0 uses the bulk-only protocol, with one IN and one OUT pipe. Alternate 1 uses the UAS protocol, with two IN and two OUT pipes. I use identical code in my driver to send custom CDBs. I can see using IORegistryExplorer that in USB 2 mode, macOS chooses alternate 0, the bulk-only protocol. My custom CDBs and their accompanying data pay loads are put on the bus, more or less as expected. In USB 3 mode, macOS chooses alternate 1, the UAS protocol. My custom CDB is put on the bus, but no payload data is transferred. Is this expected behavior? If so, is there a way to force the OS to choose alternate 0 even when on USB 3, perhaps with another dext? I'll file a bug about this when Feedback Assistant lets me.
8
0
298
Oct ’25
Custom USB Network Device Driver on iPhone
Hi, We are using the AX88772C as a USB->Ethernet bridge in a product we are developing. Due to the chip not following the NCM protocol, it is not supported by the default networking drivers on the iPhone. Initially, we intended on using DriverKit to develop a userspace driver for this device. However, we have been informed DriverKit is only available on iPad OS, not iOS. As such is the case, we have found two possible alternatives. First being IOkit, and the second being External Accessory Session (EASession). What are the limitations of each of these options? We need the ability to send and receive USB packets to Control and Bulk endpoints. Is this possible with either of the options defined above? Would either of these options require the device to be MFi certified? We have read that some APIs within IOkit require the apple device to be jailbroken. Is there a list of features that can be used without a jailbroken device? Documentation on these 2 options is limited, so any official documentation would be great. Thanks!
5
0
197
Oct ’25
DriverKit. Data Integrity issue.
Dear Apple engineers and DriverKit developers, We have developed a DriverKit (DEXT) driver for an HBA RAID controller. The RAID controller is connected to hosts through Thunderbolt (PCIe port of the Thunderbolt controller). We use an IO script to verify the developed driver. The test fails after a few (10-12) hours of running with an error: “BUG IN CLIENT OF LIBDISPATCH: dispatch_sync called on queue already owned by current thread”. We inspected the stack trace of the crash report. This error happens in the interrupt handler. Thread 5 Crashed: 0 libdispatch.dylib 0x19671aa8c __DISPATCH_WAIT_FOR_QUEUE__ + 484 1 libdispatch.dylib 0x19671a5d0 _dispatch_sync_f_slow + 152 2 DriverKit 0x195d3fc1c IODispatchQueue::DispatchSync_f(void*, void (*)(void*)) + 296 3 DriverKit 0x195d40860 IOInterruptDispatchSourceThread(void*) + 380 4 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x1968a3738 _pthread_start + 140 5 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x1968ac6c8 thread_start + 8 On our side we created 5 DispatchQueue(s) for the interrupt processing and configured 5 interrupt handlers using ConfigureInterrupts(kIOInterruptTypePCIMessagedX, 1, 5). It gives 5 interrupts, as requested and it is not clear what is the reason for the issue. Our code samples are below uint32_t configureInterrupts(uint32_t requested, uint32_t required)  {      const kern_return_t ret = ioPCIdevice->ConfigureInterrupts(kIOInterruptTypePCIMessagedX, required, requested);      if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess)          return 0;      uint64_t interruptType = 0;      uint32_t interruptsCount = 0;      uint32_t interruptIndex = 0;        for ( ;; ++interruptIndex) {          if (IOInterruptDispatchSource::GetInterruptType(ioPCIdevice, interruptIndex, &interruptType) != kIOReturnSuccess)              break;          if ((interruptType & kIOInterruptTypePCIMessagedX) == 0)              continue;          ++interruptsCount;      }      return interruptsCount;  }  ..... // Create DQs     for(int i = 0; i < maxInterrupts; ++i) {          ret = IODispatchQueue::Create(INTERRUPT_DQ_NAME, 0, 0, &ivars->interruptQueue[i]);          if (kIOReturnSuccess != ret || nullptr == ivars->interruptQueue[i]) {              GH_PRINT_ERR("Interrupts queue %d creation failed with error %d", i, ret);              return false;          }      } ..... // Link DQ with interrupt   for(int index = 0; index < maxInterrupts; ++ index) {      kern_return_t ret = CreateActionHandleInterruptRequest(size, &ivars->interruptActions[index]);      if (kIOReturnSuccess != ret) {          GH_PRINT_ERR("Create action for interrupt handler %u failed.", index);          return ;      }      ret = IOInterruptDispatchSource::Create(ivars->PCI_io.dev, index, ivars->interruptQueue[index], &ivars->interruptSources[index]);      if (kIOReturnSuccess != ret || nullptr == ivars->interruptSources[index]) {          GH_PRINT_ERR("Creating interrupt source %u failed for interrupt index %u.", index, index);          return ;      }      ret = ivars->interruptSources[index]->SetHandler(ivars->interruptActions[index]);      if (kIOReturnSuccess != ret) {          GH_PRINT_ERR("Setting the handler for interrupt source %u failed.", index);          return ;      }      ivars->contexts[index] = ivars->interruptActions[index]->GetReference();      }  ..... // definition for interrupt handler void    HandleInterruptRequest ( OSAction *action, uint64_t count, uint64_t time) TYPE (IOInterruptDispatchSource::InterruptOccurred);  Do you have any clue how we can fix this error? Or directions and ways for investigation? Please let us know if you need more details.
7
0
229
Oct ’25