Kernel-User Notification

Once in a while a driver—or for that matter any type of kernel extension—may need to communicate some information to the user. In some circumstances, it might even have to prompt the user to choose among two or more alternatives. For example, a USB driver might gently remind the user that, next time, they should dismount a volume before physically disconnecting it. Or a mass storage driver might ask a user if they’re really sure they want to reinitialize the device, giving them an option to cancel the operation.

For these situations you can use the Kernel-User Notification Center (KUNC). The APIs of the KUNC facility enable you to do the following:

The KUNC APIs should be used sparingly. You should send notifications to user space only when it is essential that the user knows about or reacts to a particular situation related to hardware. For example, a mass media driver should not put up a notification dialog when it encounters a bad block. However, if the user mounts an encrypted disk, the driver should provide some user interface enabling the user to unlock the disk.

Of course, any communication carried out through the KUNC facility can only be initiated by a kernel extension. If you have a user program that needs to communicate with a driver, you must use a suitable alternative, such as an Apple-provided device interface, a custom user client, POSIX I/O calls, or I/O Registry properties.

The KUNC APIs are defined in Kernel.framework/Headers/UserNotification/.

Presenting Notification Dialogs

For the simpler forms of notification, the KUNC APIs provide a function that displays a notice dialog (KUNCNotificationDisplayNotice) and a function that displays an alert dialog (KUNCNotificationDisplayAlert). The distinction between a notice and an alert is straightforward:

Figure 5-1  A KUNC notice
A KUNC notice
Figure 5-2  A KUNC alert
A KUNC alert

The KUNCUserNotificationDisplayNotice and KUNCUserNotificationDisplayAlert functions have similar signatures, the latter’s parameter list being a superset of the former’s. Listing 5-1 shows the prototype for KUNCUserNotificationDisplayNotice.

Listing 5-1  Definition of KUNCUserNotificationDisplayNotice

kern_return_t
KUNCUserNotificationDisplayNotice(
    int     timeout,
    unsigned    flags,
    char        *iconPath,
    char        *soundPath,
    char        *localizationPath,
    char        *alertHeader,
    char        *alertMessage,
    char        *defaultButtonTitle);

Table 5-1 describes the parameters of this function.

Table 5-1  Parameters of the KUNCUserNotificationDisplayNotice function

Parameter

Description

timeout

Seconds to elapse before KUNC dismisses the dialog (and the user doesn’t click the default button). If zero is specified, the dialog is not automatically dismissed.

flags

Flags that represent the alert level (stop, note, caution, or plain), and that indicate whether no default button should appear. These flags can be OR’d together. Check the constants defined in Core Foundation’s CFUserNotification for the constants to use.

iconPath

File-system location of a file containing an ICNS or TIFF icon to display with the message text. Specify an absolute path or NULL if there is no icon file.

soundPath

File-system location of a file containing a sound to play when the dialog is displayed. Sounds in AIFF, WAV, and NeXT ".snd" formats are supported. Specify an absolute path or NULL if there is no icon file. (Currently unimplemented.able

localizationPath

File-system location of a bundle containing a Localizable.strings file as a localized resource. If this is the case, the text and titles specified for the dialog are keys to the localized strings in this file. Specify an absolute path or NULL if there is no Localizable.strings file.

alertHeader

The heading for the dialog.

alertMessage

The message of the dialog.

defaultButtonTitle

The title of the default button (the only button in this dialog). The conventional title “OK” is suitable for most situations.

The KUNCUserNotificationDisplayAlert function appends three more parameters (Table 5-2).

Table 5-2  Additional parameters of KUNCUserNotificationDisplayAlert

Parameter

Description

alternateButtonTitle

The title of the alternative button (for example, “Cancel”).

otherButtonTitle

The title of a third button.

responseFlags

A constant representing the button clicked: kKUNCDefaultResponse, kKUNCAlternateResponse, kKUNCOtherResponse, kKUNCCancelResponse.

Listing 5-2 illustrates how you might call KUNCUserNotificationDisplayAlert and (trivially) interpret the response. If the kern_return_t return value is not KERN_SUCCESS, then the call failed for some reason; you can print a string describing the reason with the mach_error_string function.

Listing 5-2  Calling KUNCUserNotificationDisplayAlert

kern_return_t ret;
unsigned int rf;
ret = KUNCUserNotificationDisplayAlert(
    10,
    0,
    NULL,
    NULL,
    NULL,
    "Something's Gone Terribly Wrong!",
    "Do you want to do anything about it?",
    "Yes",  // Default
    "No", // Alternative
    "Think About It", // Other
    &rf);
 
    if (ret == KERN_SUCCESS) {
        if (rf == kKUNCDefaultResponse)
            IOLog("Default button clicked");
        else if (rf == kKUNCAlternateResponse)
            IOLog("Alternate button clicked");
        else if (rf == kKUNCOtherResponse)
            IOLog("Other button clicked");
    }

Launching User-Space Executables

Your kernel code can use the Kernel-User Notification Center to launch applications. You can thereby engage the user’s involvement in complex installation, configuration, and other tasks related to a driver or other kernel extension. You can use KUNC not only to launch applications, but to present preference panes and run daemons or other (non-GUI) tools.

The KUNC function that you call to launch an application is KUNCExecute. This function takes three parameters:

The code shown in Listing 5-3 launches the Text Edit application and opens the Internet preferences pane.

Listing 5-3  Launching applications from a KEXT

kern_return_t ret;
ret = KUNCExecute("/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit", kOpenAppAsRoot, kOpenApplicationPath);
ret = KUNCExecute("Internet.prefPane", kOpenAppAsConsoleUser, kOpenPreferencePanel);

It’s usually a good idea to put up a notice (function KUNCUserNotificationDisplayNotice) at the same time you launch an application or open a preference pane to inform users what they need to do with the application or preference pane.

Presenting Bundled Dialogs

The dialogs created through the KUNCUserNotificationDisplayNotice and KUNCUserNotificationDisplayAlert functions have a limited collection of user-interface elements to present to users. Apart from the header, icon, and message, they permit up to three buttons, and that’s it. The only information they can elicit is the choice made through the click of a button.

The KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle function, however, enables you to present a much richer set of user-interface controls and to gather more information from the user. The elements that you can have on a bundled dialog include the following:

Your kernel extension can obtain the selections that users make and any text that they type and process this information accordingly.

The controls and behavior of these kernel-user notification dialogs are captured as XML descriptions stored in a file within a bundle (typically the KEXT bundle itself). By virtue of being bundled, the XML descriptions are localizable. You can also update them without the need for a recompile. The XML file can be named anything. It consists of an arbitrary number of dictionary elements, one each for a dialog that the kernel extension might present. Each dialog description itself is a dictionary whose keys can be any of those described in Table 5-3.

Table 5-3  KUNC XML notification dialog properties

Key

Type

Description

Header

string

The title of the dialog.

Message

string

Text of the message in the dialog. The text can include “%@” placeholders that, when the bundle is loaded, are replaced by “@”-delimited substrings in the tokenString parameter of the function KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle. See Table 5-4 for this and other parameters.

OK Button Title

string

The title of the default button of the dialog (usually entitled “OK”). This button is the one closest to the right edge of the dialog.

Alternate Button Title

string

The title of the alternate button of the dialog (often entitled “Cancel”). This button is the one closest to the left edge of the dialog.

Other Button Title

string

The title of the third allowable button, which is placed between the other two buttons.

Icon URL

string

An absolute POSIX path identifying a file containing a TIFF or ICNS image to display next to the message text.

Sound URL

string

An absolute POSIX path identifying a file containing a sound to play when the dialog is displayed. Sounds in AIFF, WAV, and NeXT ".snd" formats are supported. (Currently unimplemented.)

Localization URL

string

An absolute POSIX path identifying a bundle containing a Localizable.strings file from which to retrieve localized text. If this property is specified, all text-related values in the XML description are assumed to be keys to items in Localizable.strings.

Timeout

string

A number indicating the number of seconds before the dialog is automatically dismissed. If zero is specified, the dialog will not time out.

Alert Level

string

Takes “Stop”, “Notice”, or “Alert” to identify the severity of the alert. Each alert level has an icon associated with it. If you don’t specify an alert level, “Notice” becomes the default.

Blocking Message

string

Either “0” or “1”. If “1”, the dialog has no buttons regardless of any specified.

Text Field Strings

array of strings

A list of labels to display just above the text fields they identify. See Figure 5-3 to see the size and placement of these fields.

Password Fields

array of strings

One or more numbers identifying which of the text fields (which must also be specified) is a password field. In other words, each number is an index into the array of text fields. A password field displays “•” for each character typed in it.

Popup Button Strings

array of strings

A list of the titles for each element in a popup button.

Selected Popup

string

A number (index) identifying the element to display in the popup button. If this is not specified, the first element is displayed.

Radio Button Strings

array of strings

A list of the titles for each radio button to display. The radio buttons are aligned vertically. Only a single button can be selected.

Selected Radio

string

A number (index) identifying the radio button to show as selected.

Check Box Strings

array of strings

A list of the titles for each check box to display. The check boxes are aligned vertically. Multiple checkboxes can be selected.

Checked Boxes

array of strings

A number (index) identifying the check box (or check boxes) that are selected.

As indicated in the description of the Localization URL property above, you can access localized text in two ways. You can have localized versions of the XML description file itself. Or you can have a single XML description file and a Localizable.strings file for each localization. In the latter case, the Localization URL property points to the bundle containing the Localizable.strings files and the values of textual properties in the XML description file are keys into Localizable.strings.

A welcome aspect of the bundled-notifications feature of KUNC is that it is asynchronous. When you call the KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle function to request a dialog, the call returns immediately. Your code can go on to do other things. KUNC handles delivery of the request to user space, where the dialog is constructed and displayed. Throughout its journey, the request is identified by a notification ID that you supplied to KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle. When a user clicks one of the dialog buttons, a callback function implemented in your KEXT is invoked. There you can identify the request through its notification ID and handle the user’s response.

Listing 5-4 shows the signature of the KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle function.

Listing 5-4  Declaration of KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle

kern_return_t
KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle(
    KUNCUserNotificationID      notificationID,
    char                        *bundleIdentifier,
    char                        *fileName,
    char                        *fileExtension,
    char                        *messageKey,
    char                        *tokenString,
    KUNCUserNotificationCallBackcallback,
    int                         contextKey);

Table 5-4 describes the parameters of this function.

Table 5-4  Parameters of KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle

Parameter

Description

notificationID

A value of type KUNCUserNotificationID that identifies the dialog request. You obtain this value through the KUNCGetNotificationID function.

bundleIdentifier

The location (specified as an absolute path) of the bundle containing the file with the XML descriptions of notification dialogs. An example of such a path might be “/System/Library/Extensions/MyDriver.kext”.

Upcoming versions of KUNC will permit the specification of the bundle’s CFBundleIdentifier instead; this will be the preferred way to identify bundles.

fileName

The name of the file from which to retrieve the XML descriptions of dialogs. This name should omit the file’s extension.

fileExtension

The extension of the XML file, minus the period; this can be anything, such as “dict” or “xml”.

messageKey

Name of the XML key identifying the dialog description you want to have KUNC retrieve from the file.

tokenString

A string that can contain one or more token substrings. Each substring, which is separated from adjacent substrings by the “@” character, is substituted in turn for each “%@” placeholder in the message text of the dialog (XML key “Message”).

Here is an example: if the message text is “Access denied after %@ attempts to access account %@.” and the token string is “4@jdoe”, the displayed string is “Access denied after 4 attempts to access account jdoe.”

callback

The callback function that is invoked when the user clicks one of the buttons of the dialog. The function must conform to the KUNCUserNotificationCallback prototype.

contextKey

Any context information you wish to provide to help your kernel extension identify the notification request (in addition to the notification ID).

The final step in implementing bundled notifications for your kernel extension is to implement a callback function to handle user responses. This function must conform to the KUNCUserNotificationCallback prototype:

typedef void (*KUNCUserNotificationCallBack)(
    int     contextKey,
    int     responseFlags,
    void    *xmlData);

A couple of the parameters may seem familiar. The contextKey parameter is the same value you passed into the KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle function to help identify the request. The responseFlags parameter holds one of the constants that identify the dialog button the user clicked; these constants are discussed inPresenting Notification Dialogs. What is new is the xmlData parameter. This is the XML string data associated with the user’s response; if the user has entered any information (such as user name and password) or has selected a popup item, radio button, or checkbox, your code should parse the XML and extract this information.

When you parse the XML, you should look for the corresponding element of the array you passed into KUNC. For example, if you have a user-name field and a password field, you have a Text Field Strings array with two elements. When you parse the xmlData parameter, the first element of Text Field Strings is the user name entered by the user; the second element is the password. Similarly, you parse the Selected Popup array to see which index into that array has been selected.

To illustrate how you might use the KUNC APIs for bundled notification dialogs, let’s step through a couple of examples. You create an XML file called Messages.dict and put it in your KEXT’s localized .lprojdirectories. This file contains the key “Password Message”; Listing 5-5 shows the associated XML description for this key.

Listing 5-5  XML description of a password dialog

    <key>Password Message</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Alternate Button Title</key>
        <string>Cancel</string>
        <key>OK Button Title</key>
        <string>OK</string>
        <key>Header</key>
        <string>Authentication Message</string>
        <key>Message</key>
        <string>Please enter a user name and password.</string>
        <key>Timeout</key>
        <string>0</string>
        <key>Alert Level</key>
        <string>Stop</string>
        <key>Text Field Strings</key>
        <array>
            <string>User Name:</string>
            <string>Password:</string>
        </array>
        <key>Password Fields</key>
        <array>
            <string>1</string>
        </array>
        <key>Blocking Message</key>
        <string>1</string>
    </dict>

In the code of your kernel extension, you call KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle, specifying “Password Message” as the message key (Listing 5-6).

Listing 5-6  Displaying the bundled password dialog

context = 2;
ret = KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle(KUNCGetNotificationID(),
    "/tmp/ExampleDriver/ExampleDriver.kext",
    "Messages",
    "dict",
    "Password Message",
    "",
    MyKUNCBundleCallback,
    context);

When this code is executed, the dialog shown in Listing 5-6 appears on the user’s screen, as in Figure 5-3.

Figure 5-3  The password dialog
The password dialog

Of course, you can have even more complicated dialogs with a mix of user-interface elements. Listing 5-7 shows the XML description of a dialog that includes text and password fields and radio buttons.

Listing 5-7  XML description of a dialog with various controls

    <key>Mixed Message</key>
    <dict>
        <key>OK Button Title</key>
        <string>OK</string>
        <key>Header</key>
        <string>Authorization</string>
        <key>Message</key>
        <string>Please log in at required level.</string>
        <key>Timeout</key>
        <string>20</string>
        <key>Alert Level</key>
        <string>Stop</string>
        <key>Text Field Strings</key>
        <array>
            <string>User Name:</string>
            <string>Password:</string>
        </array>
        <key>Password Fields</key>
        <array>
            <string>1</string>
        </array>
        <key>Radio Button Strings</key>
        <array>
            <string>User</string>
            <string>Local Admin</string>
            <string>Network Admin</string>
        </array>
        <key>Selected Radio</key>
        <string>1</string>
    </dict>

When your loaded kernel extension calls the KUNCUserNotificationDisplayFromBundle function, supply this time “Mixed Message” as the XML dictionary key, the dialog shown in Figure 5-4 appears on the user’s screen.

Figure 5-4  Display of a mixed control dialog
Display of a mixed control dialog