I would like to write a driver that supports our custom USB-C connected device, which provides a serial port interface. USBSerialDriverKit looks like the solution I need. Unfortunately, without a decent sample, I'm not sure how to accomplish this. The DriverKit documentation does a good job of telling me what APIs exist but it is very light on semantic information and details about how to use all of these API elements. A function call with five unexplained parameters just is that useful to me.
Does anyone have or know of a resource that can help me figure out how to get started?
Delve into the world of built-in app and system services available to developers. Discuss leveraging these services to enhance your app's functionality and user experience.
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Crashed: com.apple.libcache.memorypressure
0 libsystem_platform.dylib 0x4ce4 _os_unfair_lock_recursive_abort + 36
1 libsystem_platform.dylib 0x1e1c _os_unfair_lock_lock_slow + 308
2 libcache.dylib 0x3a50 cache_remove_all + 56
3 CoreFoundation 0xd8d18 -[NSCache dealloc] + 84
4 Photos 0x505e4 -[PHSafeNSCacheDelegateReflector cache:willEvictObject:] + 216
5 CoreFoundation 0xbe524 __NSCacheCallDelegateWillEvictObjectCallbackWithValue + 76
6 CoreFoundation 0xbe43c __NSCacheValueRelease + 104
7 libcache.dylib 0x3998 _value_entry_remove + 120
8 libcache.dylib 0x3898 _entry_evict + 188
9 libcache.dylib 0x37c8 _evict_last + 108
10 libcache.dylib 0x3108 _cache_enforce_limits + 104
11 libcache.dylib 0x16f4 ___cache_handle_memory_pressure_event_block_invoke + 92
12 libdispatch.dylib 0x13394 _dispatch_block_async_invoke2 + 148
13 libdispatch.dylib 0x3fa8 _dispatch_client_callout + 20
14 libdispatch.dylib 0xd76c _dispatch_workloop_invoke + 2172
15 libdispatch.dylib 0x1738c _dispatch_root_queue_drain_deferred_wlh + 288
16 libdispatch.dylib 0x16bd8 _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 540
17 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x3680 _pthread_wqthread + 288
18 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x1474 start_wqthread + 8
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Core OS
I'm trying to implement a virtual serial port driver for my ham radio projects which require emulating some serial port devices and I need to have a "backend" to translate the commands received by the virtual serial port into some network-based communications. I think the best way to do that is to subclass IOUserSerial? Based on the available docs on this class (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/serialdriverkit/iouserserial), I've done the basic implementation below. When the driver gets loaded, I can see sth like tty.serial-1000008DD in /dev and I can use picocom to do I/O on the virtual serial port. And I see TxDataAvailable() gets called every time I type a character in picocom.
The problems are however, firstly, when TxDataAvailable() is called, the TX buffer is all-zero so although the driver knows there is some incoming data received from picocom, it cannot actually see the data in neither Tx/Rx buffers.
Secondly, I couldn't figure out how to notify the system that there are data available for sending back to picocom. I call RxDataAvailable(), but nothing appears on picocom, and RxFreeSpaceAvailable() never gets called back. So I think I must be doing something wrong somewhere. Really appreciate it if anyone could point out how should I fix it, many thanks!
VirtualSerialPortDriver.cpp:
constexpr int bufferSize = 2048;
using SerialPortInterface = driverkit::serial::SerialPortInterface;
struct VirtualSerialPortDriver_IVars
{
IOBufferMemoryDescriptor *ifmd, *rxq, *txq;
SerialPortInterface *interface;
uint64_t rx_buf, tx_buf;
bool dtr, rts;
};
bool VirtualSerialPortDriver::init()
{
bool result = false;
result = super::init();
if (result != true)
{
goto Exit;
}
ivars = IONewZero(VirtualSerialPortDriver_IVars, 1);
if (ivars == nullptr)
{
goto Exit;
}
kern_return_t ret;
ret = ivars->rxq->Create(kIOMemoryDirectionInOut, bufferSize, 0, &ivars->rxq);
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
goto Exit;
}
ret = ivars->txq->Create(kIOMemoryDirectionInOut, bufferSize, 0, &ivars->txq);
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
goto Exit;
}
IOAddressSegment ioaddrseg;
ivars->rxq->GetAddressRange(&ioaddrseg);
ivars->rx_buf = ioaddrseg.address;
ivars->txq->GetAddressRange(&ioaddrseg);
ivars->tx_buf = ioaddrseg.address;
return true;
Exit:
return false;
}
kern_return_t
IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver, HwActivate)
{
kern_return_t ret;
ret = HwActivate(SUPERDISPATCH);
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
goto Exit;
}
// Loopback, set CTS to RTS, set DSR and DCD to DTR
ret = SetModemStatus(ivars->rts, ivars->dtr, false, ivars->dtr);
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
goto Exit;
}
Exit:
return ret;
}
kern_return_t
IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver, HwDeactivate)
{
kern_return_t ret;
ret = HwDeactivate(SUPERDISPATCH);
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
goto Exit;
}
Exit:
return ret;
}
kern_return_t
IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver, Start)
{
kern_return_t ret;
ret = Start(provider, SUPERDISPATCH);
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
return ret;
}
IOMemoryDescriptor *rxq_, *txq_;
ret = ConnectQueues(&ivars->ifmd, &rxq_, &txq_, ivars->rxq, ivars->txq, 0, 0, 11, 11);
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
return ret;
}
IOAddressSegment ioaddrseg;
ivars->ifmd->GetAddressRange(&ioaddrseg);
ivars->interface = reinterpret_cast<SerialPortInterface*>(ioaddrseg.address);
SerialPortInterface &intf = *ivars->interface;
ret = RegisterService();
if (ret != kIOReturnSuccess) {
goto Exit;
}
TxFreeSpaceAvailable();
Exit:
return ret;
}
void
IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver, TxDataAvailable)
{
SerialPortInterface &intf = *ivars->interface;
// Loopback
// FIXME consider wrapped case
size_t tx_buf_sz = intf.txPI - intf.txCI;
void *src = reinterpret_cast<void *>(ivars->tx_buf + intf.txCI);
// char src[] = "Hello, World!";
void *dest = reinterpret_cast<void *>(ivars->rx_buf + intf.rxPI);
memcpy(dest, src, tx_buf_sz);
intf.rxPI += tx_buf_sz;
RxDataAvailable();
intf.txCI = intf.txPI;
TxFreeSpaceAvailable();
Log("[TX Buf]: %{public}s", reinterpret_cast<char *>(ivars->tx_buf));
Log("[RX Buf]: %{public}s", reinterpret_cast<char *>(ivars->rx_buf));
// dmesg confirms both buffers are all-zero
Log("[TX] txPI: %d, txCI: %d, rxPI: %d, rxCI: %d, txqoffset: %d, rxqoffset: %d, txlogsz: %d, rxlogsz: %d",
intf.txPI, intf.txCI, intf.rxPI, intf.rxCI, intf.txqoffset, intf.rxqoffset, intf.txqlogsz, intf.rxqlogsz);
}
void
IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver, RxFreeSpaceAvailable)
{
Log("RxFreeSpaceAvailable() called!");
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver,HwResetFIFO){
Log("HwResetFIFO() called with tx: %d, rx: %d!", tx, rx);
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
return ret;
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver,HwSendBreak){
Log("HwSendBreak() called!");
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
return ret;
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver,HwProgramUART){
Log("HwProgramUART() called, BaudRate: %u, nD: %d, nS: %d, P: %d!", baudRate, nDataBits, nHalfStopBits, parity);
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
return ret;
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver,HwProgramBaudRate){
Log("HwProgramBaudRate() called, BaudRate = %d!", baudRate);
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
return ret;
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver,HwProgramMCR){
Log("HwProgramMCR() called, DTR: %d, RTS: %d!", dtr, rts);
ivars->dtr = dtr;
ivars->rts = rts;
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
Exit:
return ret;
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver, HwGetModemStatus){
*cts = ivars->rts;
*dsr = ivars->dtr;
*ri = false;
*dcd = ivars->dtr;
Log("HwGetModemStatus() called, returning CTS=%d, DSR=%d, RI=%d, DCD=%d!", *cts, *dsr, *ri, *dcd);
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
return ret;
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver,HwProgramLatencyTimer){
Log("HwProgramLatencyTimer() called!");
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
return ret;
}
kern_return_t IMPL(VirtualSerialPortDriver,HwProgramFlowControl){
Log("HwProgramFlowControl() called! arg: %u, xon: %d, xoff: %d", arg, xon, xoff);
kern_return_t ret = kIOReturnSuccess;
Exit:
return ret;
}
I have an App Clip that uses SKOverlay.AppClipConfiguration to install the full app. Before I added a Live Activity call (Activity.request), the user could see “Install,” then “Open.” Now, once “Get” is tapped, the Clip immediately closes—no “Open” button appears. If I remove the Live Activity code, it works again.
I’ve confirmed that parent/child entitlements match, and tested via TestFlight. Is there a known issue or recommended workaround for combining SKOverlay + Live Activities in an App Clip so it doesn’t dismiss prematurely? Any insights are appreciated!
Note live activity is for App Clip only.
Hi.
I am developing a custom virtual file system and facing such behaviour:
Upon using some graphical apps, for example Adobe Media Encoder, attempting to navigate inside my filesystem deeper than root folder will fail - nothing will happen on "double click" on that subfolder. Another problem, is that whether I try to re-navigate into root directory, it will be empty.
The problem is not present for most GUI apps - for example navigation inside Finder, upon choosing download path for file in Safari, apps like Microsoft Word, Excel and other range of applications work totally correctly.
A quick note here. From what I have seen - all apps that work correctly actually have calls to VFS_VGET - a predefined vfs layer hook. Whether the Adobe Media Encoder does not call for it - neither in my filesystem, nor in Samba, so my guess is that some applications have different browsing and retrieving algorithm. Is there anything I should examine further ? Default routines (vnop_open, vnop_lookup, vnop_readdir, vnop_close) behave as expected, without any errors.
P.S. This application (Adobe Media Encoder) works properly on Samba.
Hello developers! I am working with a team of North Carolina State University researchers to create an app or program that can retrieve real-time traffic events, such as hazards, road closures, and road construction alerts, in a similar manner to the Apple Maps app, but with the added functionality of collecting them over a historical period given a start and end date.
I'm looking through the MapKit documentation, but there doesn't appear to be any functions exposing granular traffic data (i.e. road hazards), just travel times and level of congestion. Could anyone point me in the right direction? Is what I'm looking to do even possible using just Apple data?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Maps & Location
This crash report for one of my apps was downloaded by Xcode. Apparently the app crashed while releasing an object of type Scan.File, which is a Swift class held in an array in the Scan.Directory class. I'm not doing any manual reference counting or low-level stuff with that object.
What could cause such a crash?
crash.crash
We had a question that came up when we comparing data from WeatherKit to other sources - WeatherKit visibility was well beyond the boundaries we had historically, even from Darksky. That raises two questions:
is visibility actually in meters like the docs say?
is this visibility at ground level, 500ft, or some other height?
We were seeing visibility numbers of up to 40 miles (after converting the number the API sent to miles), where all of our other sources are usually within 10 miles
After reading Apple documentation (FamilyControls, DeviceActivity, ManagedSettings, ManagedSettingsUI, ScreenTime) and testing the API, I do not find a way to get the child's device apps on the parent device in order to block them or disable them for a certain time.
Is there a way of doing it?
Or can it only be done locally on the child device?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
General
Tags:
Family Controls
Device Activity
Managed Settings
Screen Time
I am unable to get an iPhone Xr (iOS 18) or iPhone 15 to interact with Texas Instruments RF430CL330H NFC tag. This is an ISO 14443B-compliant tag supporting NDEF. It is NFC Tag Type 4.
A Samsung S23 with Android 14 and NFC Tools v8.11 reads and writes NDEF data with this tag as expected. The iPhones with NFC Tools v2.31 do not.
For the following comparison the NDEF memory is written with a pre-loaded text data record.
NFC Tools on Android reports the following:
Tag Type: ISO 14443-4
Technologies Available: IsoDep, NfcB, Ndef
Serial Number:
Format: NFC Forum Type 4
Text Record 1: UTF-8 (en) Hello World!
NFC Tools on iOS (iPhones) reports the following:
Tag Type: ISO 7816
Technologies Available: Unknown
Serial Number:
Format: <no entry, not listed>
Text Record 1: <no entry, not listed>
Error response: "This nfc tag is not supported"
Attempting to write a text message with NFC Tools on the iPhones returns "An error occurred during writing process"
Other NDEF records (URL and Search) written into memory with the Samsung NFC Tools are also not readable with the iPhones.
The iPhones are able to obtain the tag type and serial number of the chip, so there is some limited interaction.
Is there a compatibility issue with the Type B tag, or perhaps something else?
We recently notified from Apple that our Hotspot helper is delaying device to switch Wifi Networks. To handle this issue better, we need to refactor our code a bit handle the scenario gracefully and while reading this documentation https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/Hotspot_Network_Subsystem_Guide/Contents/AuthStateMachine.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40016639-CH2-SW1
Some questions came up while responding back to evaluate and filterscanlist command. Here are our questions
What is the lifecycle of exclude_list? Does it get cleared every time Authentication State Machine goes into Inactive State?
What happens if we send commandNotRecognized/unsupportedNetwork/temporaryFailure after evaluate command? Does our app get an evaluate command next time when device joins the same network?
What is the actual time for the app to respond to network change evaluate command? Is 45 seconds the timeout limit for app to evaluate and respond?
After responding to the evaluate command, how quickly is it terminated from running in the background?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
We use Transaction.currentEntitlements in StokeKit 2 to unlock functionality based on a Non-Consumable IAP but we have a case involving a refund that seems wrong and I am trying to understand the interation between transactionId, originalTransactionId & revocationReason.
The Context:
We have a universal App on macOS and iOS that offers a shared Non-Consumable IAP. For this example I have named it "app.lifetime"
On macOS we use StoreKit 2 and I am calling the Transaction.currentEntitlements and Transaction.all functions.
On iOS we are still using StoreKit 1.
This example customer:
Originally purchased "app.lifetime" on 2024-10-27
Was refunded by Apple for "app.lifetime" on 2024-10-29
Re-purchased "app.lifetime on 2025-02-24 (I have seen an email receipt of this transaction but it never shows up in Transaction data)
(all the above happened on the mac via StoreKit 2)
The Transactions (all lightly redacted for privacy):
on macOS the following is returned from Transaction.currentEntitlements...
{
"appTransactionId" : "...8123",
"bundleId" : "app",
"currency" : "USD",
"deviceVerification" : "...",
"deviceVerificationNonce" : "...",
"environment" : "Production",
"inAppOwnershipType" : "PURCHASED",
"originalPurchaseDate" : 1729997808000,
"originalTransactionId" : "...9955",
"price" : 1,
"productId" : "app.lifetime",
"purchaseDate" : 1729997808000,
"quantity" : 1,
"signedDate" : 1740416289102,
"storefront" : "USA",
"storefrontId" : "143441",
"transactionId" : "...7511",
"transactionReason" : "PURCHASE",
"type" : "Non-Consumable"
}
Note in the above example the originalTransactionId & transactionId are different. Transaction.all however returns both transactions:
[
{
"appTransactionId" : "...8123",
"bundleId" : "app",
"currency" : "USD",
"deviceVerification" : "...",
"deviceVerificationNonce" : "...",
"environment" : "Production",
"inAppOwnershipType" : "PURCHASED",
"originalPurchaseDate" : 1729997808000,
"originalTransactionId" : "...9955",
"price" : 1,
"productId" : "app.lifetime",
"purchaseDate" : 1729997808000,
"quantity" : 1,
"revocationDate" : 1730224102000,
"revocationReason" : 0,
"signedDate" : 1740415969925,
"storefront" : "USA",
"storefrontId" : "143441",
"transactionId" : "...9955",
"transactionReason" : "PURCHASE",
"type" : "Non-Consumable"
},
{
"appTransactionId" : "...8123",
"bundleId" : "app",
"currency" : "USD",
"deviceVerification" : "...",
"deviceVerificationNonce" : "...",
"environment" : "Production",
"inAppOwnershipType" : "PURCHASED",
"originalPurchaseDate" : 1729997808000,
"originalTransactionId" : "...9955",
"price" : 1,
"productId" : "app.lifetime",
"purchaseDate" : 1729997808000,
"quantity" : 1,
"signedDate" : 1740416289102,
"storefront" : "USA",
"storefrontId" : "143441",
"transactionId" : "...7511",
"transactionReason" : "PURCHASE",
"type" : "Non-Consumable"
}
]
Note here that the original transaction ("...9955") includes a revocationDate and revocationReason that match the expected refund but the secondary transaction that seems to match on all other details is missing the revocation info.
Looking at the iOS SK1 receipt data to compare, after a receipt refresh I see only a single transaction "...9955" which includes the cancellation info and transaction "...7511" is not present at all. The impact of this is that on iOS we are considering the purchase void but on macOS we are following currentEntitlements and consdering it still valid.
Calling the inApps/v1/history/... server API with the "...7511" transactionId that is shown in the currentEntitlements response returns the "...9955" transaction with the correct revocation status but "...7511" is no returned at all.
To Summarise:
currentEntitlements on macOS shows transaction "...7511" as active and with an originalTransactionId of "...9955"
all on macOS includes both "...7511" as active and "...9955" as revoked
iOS reciept data shows only "...9955" as revoked
Server API shows only "...9955" as revoked event when explicitly called with "...7511"
Neither of them show a more recent purchase the same customer made for the same IAP product.
My questions are:
Is this a StoreKit bug or am I mis-understanding something? If it's a bug how can I work around it to ensure revoked purchases aren't still appearing in currentEntitlements?
Under what conditions can StoreKit generate multiple transactionIds for the same underlying originalTransactionId? I had assumed (and the docs suggest) this only happens for subscriptions but here it is happening for a Non-Consumable IAP.
Why would transactionId "...7511" only be present on macOS/SK2 and not visible at all on iOS/SK1 or API?
I don't understand why the latest IAP from 2025-02-24 that the customer assures me they made (and has shown me the receipt for is not showing up in the Transactions history at all. Any ideas?
is there documentation where we can find details for historical parameters / limitations - so far i've found that the days limit on single API calls days limit is 7. Any other similar specs would be good to have
where can we find documentation on the following fields included in payloads? They're not listed alongside the other fields in the documentation linked below:
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/weatherkitrestapi/hourweatherconditions
precipitationIntensity
snowfallAmount
Or if we can get the data type, unit used, and description here that would be great
So we are developing an NFC reader for a client and one of the requirements was Apple ECP. We submitted a product plan and it was approved and we were given access to the specific documentation for ECP. We are looking to only use Loyalty passes via NFC. Not Apple Pay. We wish to develop passes that have NFC capability and apparently you need another approval for NFC Entitlement. Apple just denied our application. No reason given, just denied. How are we suppose to develop a solution when we can only do one side of the development? Also we are seeing VAS mentioned and believe we also need access to this documentation as well, but no idea where to request it. Nothing in our developer portal or wpc portal. Can someone from Apple please steer us in the right direction.
As we understand it we need:
Approved hardware product plan (which we have)
Access to ECP 2.0 documentation (which we have)
Access to VAS protocol documentation (we don't have)
NFC entitlement to be able to create NFC enabled passes.
Let me know what we need to do or if I am not understanding things correctly.
Thanks
Is there any way to use AccessorySetupKit in the background to discover BLE devices?
I'm using the NEHotspostConfigurationManager to join the WiFi network of a configured accessory.
While this is all nice and dandy, I wonder why I'm still connected to said WiFi when I (force-)close the app. Wouldn't it be more useful to reconnect to the last network before?
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Networking
While troubleshooting Tap to Pay on iPhone, it is essential that the developer is able to collect logs on their device and check those logs for error messages. This is also essential when reporting issues to Apple. To gather the required data for your own debugging as well as reporting issues, please perform the following steps on the test device:
Install the Tap to Pay profile on your iPhone.
Reproduce the issue and make a note of the timestamp when the issue occurred, while optionally capturing screenshots or video.
Gather a sysdiagnose on the same iPhone.
Create a Feedback Assistant report with the following information:
The bundle ID
The serial number of the device.
For iOS, open Settings > General > About (tap and hold to copy).
The SEID (Secure Element Identifier) of the device, represented as a HEX encoded string.
For iOS, open Settings > General > About > SEID (tap and hold to copy).
The sysdiagnose gathered after reproducing the issue.
The timestamp (including timezone) of when the issue was reproduced.
Screenshots or videos of errors and unexpected behaviors (optional).
Submitting Your Feedback
After your submission to Feedback Assistant is complete, please respond to your post with the Feedback ID. Once received, I can begin my investigation and determine if this issue is caused by an error within your app, a configuration issue within your developer account, app configuration, or an underlying system bug.
Cheers,
Paris X Pinkney | WWDR | DTS Engineer
I'm using libxpc in a C server and Swift client. I set up a code-signing requirement in the server using xpc_connection_set_peer_code_signing_requirement(). However, when the client doesn't meet the requirement, the server just closes the connection, and I get XPC_ERROR_CONNECTION_INTERRUPTED on the client side instead of XPC_ERROR_PEER_CODE_SIGNING_REQUIREMENT, making debugging harder.
What I want:
To receive XPC_ERROR_PEER_CODE_SIGNING_REQUIREMENT on the client when code-signing fails, for better debugging.
What I’ve tried:
Using xpc_connection_set_peer_code_signing_requirement(), but it causes the connection to be dropped immediately.
Questions:
Why does the server close the connection without sending the expected error?
How can I receive the correct error on the client side?
Are there any other methods for debugging code-signing failures with libxpc?
Thanks for any insights!
Topic:
App & System Services
SubTopic:
Processes & Concurrency
Tags:
XPC
Signing Certificates
Code Signing
We have a PWA app developed by our company. In order to distribute this app to users' iPhones, we put this PWA app inside an XCode app. That means we put a WebView in XCode to display the PWA URL. Everything works perfect, except for location access.
The PWA app access the device location. When the first time the app acess location, it asks for user consent two times, by PWA app and by the XCode app. This is fine. When the user clicks Allow, the XCode app preserves the user choice and never asks again. However, the PWA app keeps on asking user permission every day. If we close the app open again, it will ask one more time. That means twice daily. But if we close and open the app for a third time, it will not ask. It remembers the user choice only for 24 hours.
If we install the PWA app directly in iPhone (that means if we add the URL as bookmark in home screen), it is asking for location permission only once. However, when we put this app inside an XCode app it is asking every day.
This affects the user experience, and as our users are not tech savvy, causing many issues. Is there a way to force the PWA app inside XCode app to remember the user choice?
Any help is very much appreciated.
Thanks,