Improves OpenGL and Vulkan support for Windows VMs on x64 Windows hosts.
NVIDIA GPUs now support native OpenGL and Vulkan, including 32-bit applications.
Fixed missing AMD OpenGL and Vulkan driver files in Windows VMs.
Intel and AMD VMs now use their native graphics runtimes by default instead of Mesa.
The NVIDIA components build, sign, and bundle through the existing release process and install through the existing guest-agent file transfer. Native runtime setup requires the updated guest agent; older agents retain their existing graphics setup.
Fixed Ubuntu 26.04.1 VMs getting stuck during installation.
Fixed Firefox failing to launch in newly created Ubuntu VMs.
Fixed apt update errors caused by leftover installation-media sources.
Verified installation, Firefox launch, and apt update on fresh Ubuntu 26.04 and 26.04.1 VMs on Windows hosts.
Build and stage x64 and x86 NVIDIA shims through the existing solution and deploy them through P9 and the guest agent. Include active AMD runtime packages and prefer native OpenGL and Vulkan on NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel guests.
Correct the Xcode file reference and CoreGraphics API call. Keep creation actions disabled for invalid configuration and use the v0.1.5 ARM64 guest resource ZIP.
App Sandbox 0.1.4
- **Windows 11 (ARM64) VMs on macOS.** On an Apple Silicon Mac, App Sandbox can
now create and run Windows 11 ARM guests -- previously a macOS host could only
run macOS guests. The Windows guest gets its own display window, keyboard and
mouse, sound, clipboard (including copying files to and from your Mac),
one-click SSH, and networking, and is built from a Windows 11 ARM64 ISO you
provide. It runs on a self-contained virtual-machine engine bundled with the
app, and the guest agent and drivers are downloaded (code-signed) when you
create the VM, so no test-signed components ship inside App Sandbox.
- **Non-ASCII usernames and passwords now work when creating a VM through the
scriptable API.** Characters outside plain ASCII (for example Chinese) arrive
from the API JSON-escaped; App Sandbox stored the escape sequences literally
instead of decoding them, so a VM created via the API with such a credential
would reject the login. They are now decoded correctly. (The desktop app was
unaffected.)
- **The virtual display now recovers if it gets disabled in the guest.** The
guest agent kept trying to restart the App Sandbox display driver -- which
can't re-enable a disabled device -- so the picture never came back; it is now
re-enabled and recovers.
- Various stability and bug fixes across the Windows and macOS components.
- **Windows VMs on macOS are not GPU-accelerated.**
- **x64 (emulated) apps in ARM Windows VMs don't get the OpenGL fix** -- the Mesa
driver shipped on ARM is ARM64-only; native ARM64 apps get full GPU OpenGL.
(carried over from 0.1.2)
- **ARM Linux (Ubuntu 26.04 LTS) guests do not work -- on ARM, Windows is the
only working guest** (Ubuntu 26.04's arm64 kernel churns BPF JIT memory and
never reaches the desktop). (carried over from 0.1.2)
## Summary
Adds support for running **Windows 11 ARM64 guests on macOS (Apple Silicon) hosts**.
Until now a macOS host ran only macOS guests (Virtualization.framework); this branch boots
Windows guests on a bundled **QEMU + Hypervisor.framework (HVF)** VMM, with an **ivshmem
shared-memory transport** carrying every guest channel — agent control, display (VDD), input,
audio, clipboard, SSH, and 9P — so **no guest networking is required**. The same headless
HTTP/JSON API and GUI now create Windows guests on a Mac, and Windows-on-Windows behaviour
is unchanged.
## How it works
- **Transport** (`tools/transport`): a single guest transport API with two backends — PC
`AF_HYPERV` (unchanged) and Mac **ivshmem** — over an SPSC ring. `src/backend_mac` maps the
ivshmem BAR and runs the host side of each channel; the launcher publishes the region
directory and the guest reads its geometry at boot.
- **Guest driver** (`tools/ivshmem`): an in-house KMDF ivshmem BAR-mapping driver
(**AppSandboxSHM**, `PCI\VEN_1AF4&DEV_1110`) — no third party — built through the same VS
pipeline as VDD/VAD and MS-attestation-signed.
- **VMM**: a vendored **QEMU 11.0.1 fork** with `ivshmem-plain` (`vendor/qemu-ivshmem`),
embedded self-contained in the app bundle (codesigned with the Hypervisor entitlement), with
the LGPL source mirror for compliance. This is the bulk of the diff (vendored upstream).
- **Disk build / provisioning**: a from-scratch ISO→NTFS disk builder (`tools/iso-patch-mac`)
applies the install image and stages the payload + answer file. `unattend.xml` / `setup.cmd`
/ `SetupComplete.cmd` are generated by the **shared** `tools/provision/win_provision.c` used
by both the Windows backend and the Mac host — one generator, no platform fork.
## Guest payload
The Mac host **JIT-downloads** the signed Windows release zip (EV-signed agent EXEs +
**MS-attestation-signed** drivers, incl. AppSandboxSHM), caches it, and pulls the WHQL-signed
**NetKVM** virtio-net driver from a vendored zip (`vendor/virtio-win`). No test-signed Windows
binaries ship in the app bundle.
## Credentials
- The account credential is **obfuscated/hashed in the daemon** for all configs — the
disk-applier child only ever receives the non-plaintext result, so the plaintext never
crosses the process boundary. Win-on-Mac generates the base64 `unattend.xml` in-process;
macOS guests get a salted PBKDF2-SHA512 ShadowHash + kcpassword computed in-process
(`tools/provision/mac_account_hash.{h,m}`).
- **Non-ASCII (incl. CJK) credentials** are handled correctly: the unattend `<Password>` is
encoded as true UTF-16LE and the headless SDK's JSON `\uXXXX` escapes are decoded. Verified
with a 12-character mixed Chinese/English password (`ValidateCredentials` on Windows,
`dscl -authonly` on macOS).
## Testing
- Full **2× Windows-11 concurrent lifecycle suite green** (4 GB / 4 cores / 64 GB each):
create → disk build → boot-to-online → SSH key auto-deploy → display open/close →
edit-while-stopped → shutdown/restart → delete; snapshots correctly return `501` on macOS.
- Guests reach agent-online with the attestation-signed drivers under Secure Boot.
- CJK password authenticated inside both Windows and macOS guests.
## Deploy note
The signed-payload URL points at the **v0.1.4 release** — that release must be published, or a
Windows-on-Mac create fails with "Signed Windows guest payload download failed".
win2ntfs.c was the standalone harness that validated the WIM->NTFS apply;
that logic now lives (with real per-file SIDs) in win_disk.c. AppSandboxSHM_producer.c
was the ivshmem bring-up bandwidth POC whose host-side reader (shm-test) is gone;
the production data path is asb_transport over the AppSandboxSHM driver. Neither
file was compiled by any target or included anywhere.
build-arm64.cmd and deploy-arm64.cmd were manual dev-VM helpers (cl build
of the guest binaries + hand-copy to C:\Windows\AppSandbox); the production
pipeline builds via msbuild on AppSandbox.sln and never referenced them.
- Delete the TODO/ planning + runbook docs, and fix the four code/README comments
that pointed at them (asb_transport.c/.h; the tools/ivshmem and vendor/qemu-ivshmem
READMEs now point at the vendored QEMU directly).
- THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md: add the bundled QEMU stack (QEMU GPL-2.0; GLib +
gettext/libintl LGPL-2.1; PCRE2 BSD; EDK2/TianoCore BSD-2-Clause-Patent) and
NetKVM (BSD-3) -- shipped/staged by the app but previously absent from the
top-level notices. The QEMU entry cross-references the bundled
vendor/qemu-ivshmem/LICENSES/NOTICE.md + WRITTEN_OFFER.txt. A usage audit
confirmed every listed dependency is still in use, so nothing was removed.
Post-review fixes and release prep for the win-on-mac feature.
* asb_shm_layout.h: fix a region-sizing bug -- the AGENT (ch1) slot stride
(0x20070) exceeded ASB_AGENT_REGION_SIZE (0x20000) by 112 bytes, so the agent
host->guest ring overran into the adjacent SSH (ch7) region and corrupted its
slot state under sustained traffic. Enlarge the AGENT region to 0x21000
(downstream offsets cascade) and add per-region compile-time guards
(n_slots*stride <= region_size) so this class of overlap fails the build.
Host/publisher-side only -- the guest reads geometry from the published directory.
* headless.m: GET /display readiness now includes idd_ready for a Windows guest,
matching the open precondition (asb_core_mac.m) and the Windows host
(asb_vm_idd_ready). Before, the Mac readiness was running && agent_online only,
so it could report ready before the VDD was up and a poll-then-open would
spuriously 409 display_not_ready. macOS guests are unchanged.
* iso-patch-mac.m (stage): wipe the plaintext password buffer on the
--shadowhash-file read-failure path, matching the sibling --kcpassword-file path.
* iso_patch_mac.m: point the signed Windows guest payload at the v0.1.4 release.
* vm_lifecycle.py: raise the Windows build-stall budget to 3600 s for the
signal-less first-boot window under concurrent multi-VM load.
* tools/headless-api/README.md: document Windows guests on macOS hosts (platform
matrix, host-fixed line, requirements heading, osType field).
Update ensureSignedWinPayloadZipCached to the new GitHub attachment URL and embed
the attachment id in the cached filename, so changing the URL at the same app
version auto-invalidates the cache instead of serving the stale cached zip.
ensure_vdd_running() detected a disabled AppSandboxVDD and ran `devcon restart`,
which reports success but cannot clear CONFIGFLAG_DISABLED on a device in
CM_PROB_DISABLED -- so the device snapped straight back to disabled and the agent
looped forever (detect disabled -> restart -> still disabled, every 20s). Only
`devcon enable` (DICS_ENABLE) clears the explicit-disable bit.
Now: ENABLE a disabled device; keep RESTART for a stuck-but-enabled ("problem") one.
All three guest configs now obfuscate/hash the account credential in the daemon
and hand the disk-applier child only the non-plaintext result -- the plaintext
never crosses the process boundary, mirroring the Windows-on-Windows model.
* Win-on-Mac: the daemon generates unattend.xml / setup.cmd / SetupComplete.cmd
in-process via the shared asb_provision_* (base64 of UTF-16LE(pass+"Password"),
the same encoder the Windows backend uses) and passes build-windows only
--prov-dir; the plaintext --pass argv is gone. The child still detects the
install.wim language and reports LANG:, and the daemon re-generates unattend.xml
in-process with the detected tag -- the exact mirror of vhdx_create_thread.
* Mac-on-Mac: the salted PBKDF2-SHA512 ShadowHash + kcpassword are computed in
the daemon via the new shared tools/provision/mac_account_hash.{h,m}; the stage
child takes --shadowhash-file / --kcpassword-file. --user-password-file remains
a direct-CLI fallback.
* Verified end-to-end on live Windows + macOS guests with a 12-character mixed
Chinese/English password (ValidateCredentials / dscl -authonly), exercising the
UTF-16 surrogate path.
Also in this checkpoint of accumulated win-on-mac work:
* agent: report_idd_status re-runs on the device-check loop (force-on-connect +
on-change) so display readiness tracks the live, self-healed VDD state instead
of a single one-shot sample.
* disk builder (tools/iso-patch-mac/engine): WIM reader gains the install-image
default-language reader behind the language auto-detect; win_disk locale/apply
refinements.
* display + transport: idd_display Metal render + clipboard-reader paths;
asb_ivshmem_transport slot-reclaim hardening.
* housekeeping: remove the dev-only transport test harness (tools/transport/test/*);
update headless-api test scripts; drop changelog-style comments.
The Mac host now sources the entire Windows guest payload via JIT download + cache --
no bundled/embedded fallback, so zero test-signed binaries ship in the app.
- iso-patch-mac.m (build-windows): --signed-payload-zip is now required (its extraction
failing is a hard error, not a fallback); new --netkvm-zip. Extract the signed zip in
full -- the Windows-built zip uses backslash separators that forward-slash unzip
include-patterns never match (unzip exits 11 and stages nothing); a full extract makes
Info-ZIP rewrite them into real resources/ + drivers/. Stage our VDD/VAD/SHM from the
signed payload and NetKVM from its own zip (best-effort). Drop --payload/--devcon.
- iso_patch_mac.{h,m}: buildWindowsDiskWithISO drops payloadDir/devconExe, takes a
required signedPayloadZip + optional netkvmZip. Add ensureNetkvmZipCached (pulls the
vendored netkvm-arm64.zip from the public repo, cached like the IPSW).
- asb_core_mac.m: remove windows_payload_directory()/devcon_exe_path(); the create flow
fails if the signed payload download fails (JIT-only). NetKVM + OpenSSH best-effort.
- Remove the "Embed agent_win" Xcode phase and git rm tools/agent_win (the test-signed
EXEs + drivers). The app bundle embeds zero Windows test-signed binaries.
Fixes the staging bug where the backslash zip silently fell back to the bundled
WDKTestCert drivers, which failed DriverStore import (0xE0000243), so the agent never
came online.
Store the signed ARM64 NetKVM driver (Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter, v100.101.104.28500,
WHQL-signed) as vendor/virtio-win/netkvm-arm64.zip so the Mac app JIT-pulls it from the public
repo (raw.githubusercontent.com) and caches it, instead of bundling it. License kept visible
alongside. Redistributed unmodified under BSD 3-Clause.
The macOS host now pulls the signed Windows release zip (EV-signed agent EXEs +
MS-attestation-signed drivers, incl. the ivshmem AppSandboxSHM) and stages those
into the guest, instead of the bundled test-signed tools/agent_win payload.
- iso_patch_mac.m: ensureSignedWinPayloadZipCached mirrors ensureOpenSSHMsiCached
-- a single atomic writeToFile of the release zip to a version-named file under
the support dir (sibling of VMs/), race-safe by the same single atomic write.
Returns the cached zip path; the build extracts it.
- iso-patch-mac.m (build-windows): new --signed-payload-zip. When given, the CLI
selectively unzips resources/appsandbox-*.exe + drivers/* into its own per-build
temp and prefers them over --payload (so concurrent creates never collide);
derives binDir/drvDir/devconPath from it. Falls back to --payload on any problem.
The signed drivers carry no .cer, so SetupComplete's `if exist` certutil steps
no-op; devcon comes from the zip's drivers/.
- iso_patch_mac.{h,m}: buildWindowsDiskWithISO threads signedPayloadZip and makes
--payload conditional (a nil bundle can't crash the args array).
- asb_core_mac.m: start_windows_build_flow caches the zip off-main and passes it;
bundled payload remains the fallback. NetKVM is still not downloaded.
The bundled test-signed payload stays embedded as a fallback for now; dropping the
Xcode "Embed agent_win" phase (to fully remove test-signed binaries from the app)
is a follow-up once the download URL is durable. Mac target not compiled here.
Provisioning unification (R5):
- disk_util.c delegates generate_unattend_vhdx / generate_vhdx_setup_cmd /
generate_vhdx_setupcomplete to the shared tools/provision/win_provision.c, and
stages AppSandboxSHM + NetKVM (existence-gated) in generate_vhdx_manifest.
- Compile win_provision.c into AppSandboxCore.vcxproj. Win->Win output is
equivalent (the SHM/NetKVM install steps are if-exist no-ops on a PC host).
UTF-8 / non-ASCII credentials:
- win_provision.c: encode the unattend <Password> as true UTF-16LE (was a UTF-8
byte zero-extend that corrupted non-ASCII/CJK passwords); ASCII unchanged. Plus
case-insensitive locale-tag lookup and ComputerName truncation by UTF-8 code
points (never splitting a multibyte char).
- webview2_bridge.c json_get_string: decode JSON escapes (\uXXXX, \" \ ...) so
non-ASCII values from the headless SDK (json.dumps/ensure_ascii) are no longer
stored as literal \uXXXX text. Validated end-to-end: a CJK password now sets
correctly and Windows authenticates against it.
- disk_util.c wrapper: check the WideCharToMultiByte conversions.
Also included in the working tree:
- Reconcile user-mode .vcxproj platform toolset v145 -> v143 (VS2022).
- WINDOWS_AGENT_BRIEF.md: correct stale driver-name/symbol/devcon references.
- Rename the ivshmem guest driver asb_ivshmem -> AppSandboxSHM everywhere (files, INF
service/binary/catalog + display strings, device-interface GUID symbol with the GUID
value preserved, driver source, transport, provisioning, payload, iso-patch stage list).
QEMU's ivshmem device id and the Mac host transport (asb_ivshmem_transport.*) keep names.
- Build the driver through the VS pipeline like VDD/VAD: AppSandboxSHM.vcxproj (KMDF) +
Package/AppSandboxSHMPackage.vcxproj (Inf2Cat + TestSign + post-build copy into
bin\Release[-ARM64]\drivers), registered in AppSandbox.sln; add to submission-config.json
+ make-release.ps1 for MS attestation. INF gets a .10.0...22000 (Win11) TargetOSVersion
decoration (required by DIRID 13 / PnpLockdown).
- Install the SHM PCI driver with devcon update (not devcon install, which fabricates a
phantom ROOT devnode on a real PnP hwid) -- same pattern as NetKVM.
- Fix SetupComplete.cmd: a literal (...) in an echo inside a cmd ( ) block desynced cmd's
paren matcher and silently skipped every driver install; removed it.
- iso-patch: per-build -shadow ISO attach so concurrent VM builds get independent devices.
- Reconcile all user-mode .vcxproj to the v145 (VS 2026) toolset.
- Transport/display: guest liveness beacon + h2g-stall reclaim, zero-copy Metal render of
the IDD display, clipboard-file paste chown for the root daemon.
- Refresh the committed tools/agent_win payload; update the windows-on-mac integration plan.
Run Windows 11 ARM64 guests on macOS over QEMU+HVF, with an ivshmem
shared-memory transport carrying every guest channel (agent control,
display/VDD, input, audio, clipboard, SSH, 9P) - no guest networking
required.
- tools/transport: one guest transport API, two backends (PC AF_HYPERV,
Mac ivshmem); SPSC ring with an acquire-barrier fix for SSH integrity
- tools/ivshmem: our own KMDF ivshmem BAR-mapping driver (no third party)
- src/backend_mac: Mac-host ivshmem transport, QEMU VM lifecycle, IDD
display consumer, agent/SSH proxies, ISO->disk patcher, Windows create
- tools/agent + channel EXEs + tools/vdd: wired to asb_transport
- tools/agent_win: staged guest payload (interim, pending JIT pull)
- vendor/qemu-ivshmem: vendored QEMU 11.0.1 fork (ivshmem-plain) + LGPL
source mirror for the self-contained app bundle
- tools/sign/make-release.ps1: use the host-native ARM64 MSBuild so the
WDK driver ApiValidator runs (the x86 validator fails on ARM64)
### Added
- **Headless mode with a scriptable HTTP/JSON API (Windows + macOS).** Launch
App Sandbox with `--headless` to run a single-owner background daemon exposing
a loopback HTTP/JSON API that mirrors the GUI: create, start, shut down, edit,
and delete VMs; manage snapshots, branches, and templates (Windows); read SSH
connection info; subscribe to a live event stream; and open or close a VM's
display window -- all from a script. Ships a dependency-free Python SDK,
runnable examples, and a cross-platform test suite (bundled in the release
package under headless-api/, alongside the app). Launching normally (no
`--headless`) is unchanged.
- **One-click SSH key login.** With the SSH server enabled, the new "Deploy SSH
key" option installs an App Sandbox key into the guest (Windows, Linux, and
macOS) so the GUI's SSH button and the SDK connect without a password.
### Fixed
- **Excessive GPU usage while viewing a Windows VM.** The display window was
redrawing as fast as it could -- presenting ~2,100 frames a second and holding
the host GPU near 90% even on a static screen. It now redraws only when the
picture changes (plus a small safety refresh), dropping to the real frame rate
(~30-60 fps) with no added latency.
- **A graceful shutdown could report a false error.** On a busy guest, a
shutdown that actually succeeded could surface as a failure; shutdown and
restart now report success once the request is delivered and confirm it by the
guest exiting.
- **The headless daemon now cleans up its VMs when it exits**, instead of
leaving them running with no owner.
- **macOS: text fields no longer autocorrect or autocapitalize** VM names,
usernames, paths, and snapshot names as you type.
- Various stability and bug fixes across the Windows, macOS, and Linux
components.
### Known issues
- **Create VMs one at a time.** Creating several at once can race on the
disk-image build/staging step, causing a build to fail and the VM to be
removed; create them sequentially.
- **x64 (emulated) apps in ARM Windows VMs don't get the OpenGL fix** -- the
Mesa driver shipped on ARM is ARM64-only; native ARM64 apps get full GPU
OpenGL. (carried over from 0.1.2)
- **ARM Linux (Ubuntu 26.04 LTS) guests do not work -- on ARM, Windows is the
only working guest** (Ubuntu 26.04's arm64 kernel churns BPF JIT memory and
never reaches the desktop). (carried over from 0.1.2)
Both release packagers now place a headless-api/ folder next to the app at the
zip root (AppSandbox.exe / AppSandbox.app + headless-api/), so a user who
installs from a release gets the Python SDK, examples, and tests without cloning
the repo. The folder holds asb.py, README.md, examples/ and tests/ -- no tools/
parent, and __pycache__/*.pyc are excluded.
Windows (make-release.ps1): stage the folder into the explicit allowlist just
before zipping, and add it to the required-artifacts tripwire.
macOS (make-release-mac.sh): publish_package stages the already-stapled .app
plus the SDK and archives the staging dir contents (ditto -c -k without
--keepParent) so both land at the zip root; ditto copies the bundle verbatim,
preserving its signature and notarization staple.
The SDK is added only at the final packaging step, after the binaries and
drivers are signed and (macOS) the app is notarized and stapled.
product_version() reads CFBundleShortVersionString, which is stamped from
Directory.Build.props at build time. Change the fallback used when that key is
absent from a real-looking 0.1.2 to 0.0.0, so a missing or failed stamp reports
an obviously-invalid version instead of silently masquerading as a real one.
The Windows headless daemon reported its /version from a hardcoded
ASB_PRODUCT_VER "0.1.2" in headless.c -- a second place to edit each release
that could silently drift from the real build version.
Pass AsbVersionShort (from Directory.Build.props, the single source of truth)
into the C compile as an unquoted ASB_VERSION_SHORT define in
Directory.Build.targets, and stringize it in headless.c, mirroring how
build\version.rc already derives every binary VERSIONINFO. The /version
response now tracks the build with no per-release edit; a fallback keeps a
standalone (no-MSBuild) compile valid.
Summary
Adds a single-owner headless daemon to AppSandbox on both Windows and macOS (Apple silicon), exposing the same Docker-style loopback HTTP/JSON API the GUI drives — so VMs can be created, run, snapshotted, SSH'd into, and have their display window opened/closed entirely from a script. Ships a dependency-free Python SDK, runnable examples, and a self-contained cross-platform regression suite. A normal GUI launch is unaffected (the daemon only runs with --headless).
What's in it
1. Headless daemon (Windows + macOS)
appsandbox.exe --headless (Windows, http.sys) / AppSandbox.app/Contents/MacOS/AppSandbox --headless (macOS, BSD socket) hosts the core for the process lifetime.
host.json discovery file (endpoint + port + per-run bearer token); serialized command loop (one request to completion before the next); SSE /v1/events stream.
Single-owner model: GUI and headless are mutually exclusive (mutex / per-user flock); the daemon owns its VMs and terminates them on exit (fixed an earlier asb_detach bug that orphaned them).
Fail-fast startup: Windows (admin / Win11 build / VirtualMachinePlatform); macOS (min OS / VZVirtualMachine.isSupported / elevation, resolving SUDO_USER so it uses the invoking user's VM registry + restore-image cache).
2. HTTP/JSON API + Python SDK + examples
Endpoints mirror the GUI: create/start/shutdown/stop/edit/delete, snapshots + branches (incl. base branches), templates, sshInfo, events (SSE), and display. Input validation mirrors the GUI's JS guards.
Capability-gated: snapshots/templates are Windows-only (501 + capabilities flags on macOS), so the wire interface matches across hosts.
asb.py resolves host.json / support dir / key path per platform; examples cover list/start/stop/full-lifecycle/SSE/admin.
3. Display open/close (Windows · Linux · macOS)
POST/DELETE/GET /v1/vms/{name}/display + displayOpen on every status object — opens the same view as the GUI's Connect button.
Readiness is a latched agent flag, never a frame-channel probe. Connecting to the guest frame service is becoming its single consumer, so polling it would steal the slot and blank the display. Instead the guest agent reports driver state over the agent channel (idd_status) and the host latches idd_ready: Windows (VDD device "running" via devcon), Linux (Mutter session up). macOS has no frame channel (the VZVirtualMachineView binds the in-process VM framebuffer directly), so readiness is running && agentOnline.
A-gate: only shows a window in a session that can render one (visible window station / console Aqua session), else 409 no_display. Per-VM daemon-owned table; X-close self-teardown + reap; displayOpen read from the live window state.
Validated live on all three. macOS required swapping CFRunLoopRun() → [NSApp run] (Accessory policy) only in a console GUI session; the design's flagged spike (do VZ main-queue dispatches still fire under [NSApp run]?) was confirmed on hardware.
4. SSH key auto-deploy
sshDeployKey (requires sshEnabled): the core generates an AppSandbox ed25519 keypair once; the guest agent writes the public key into authorized_keys (Windows administrators_authorized_keys + ACL; Linux/macOS ~/.ssh) and reports sshState 4. SDK + GUI then log in password-less. The macOS agent deploys on a worker thread so heartbeats aren't blocked during a slow first-boot user lookup.
5. Graceful shutdown → fire-and-forget
vm_agent_send gains a per-command timeout; shutdown/restart return immediately (delivery confirmed by the HCS SystemExited monitor, not the ack). Fixes a false 500 when a busy guest's ack arrived late, and stops the request loop / UI thread blocking during shutdown.
6. GUI polish + fixes
Disable WebView spellcheck/autocorrect/autocapitalize (macOS was mangling VM names/usernames/paths); grey out the disabled "Deploy SSH key" checkbox. vm_agent re-resolves VMs by stable id (no stale pointers).
Validation
Windows: open the instant readiness latches, close + reopen, graceful shutdown + remove — daemon stable throughout.
Linux: validated on fresh VMs (latched idd_status); sequential creates advised (concurrent VHDX prefetch can race).
macOS: display validated live on Apple silicon.
Cross-platform regression suite (tools/headless-api/tests/) runs per-VM lifecycles concurrently, capability-gating mac vs Windows.
The Linux guest builds its agent + asb_drm/dxgkrnl source from the GitHub branch the daemon binary was built from; during development the prefetch was pinned to the feature branch. Point it at main so that once this lands, fresh Linux VMs build the guest agent/driver from merged code.
Bring macOS to parity with the Windows display feature: open/close/poll the VM's
display window over the API (POST/DELETE/GET /v1/vms/{name}/display, plus
displayOpen on every status object), so a script can show the same view the GUI's
Connect button does. Validated live on Apple silicon.
The GUI already creates the per-VM VZVirtualMachineView window on the Running
transition (gated off under --headless); the daemon now opens it on an explicit
request after two gates:
- A-gate: asb_mac_have_gui_session() (CGSessionCopyCurrentDictionary /
kCGSessionOnConsoleKey) -- a daemon with no console Aqua session (launchd /
SSH) refuses with 409 no_display instead of spawning an invisible window;
- readiness: running && agent_online. macOS has no frame channel or display
driver (the view binds the in-process VM framebuffer directly), so there is
nothing to probe -- unlike the Windows/Linux idd_status latch.
New core API asb_mac_open_display / asb_mac_close_display (asb_core_mac.m); new
codes BACKEND_ERR_NO_DISPLAY / BACKEND_ERR_NOT_READY (asb_types.h).
run_headless swaps the bare CFRunLoopRun() for [NSApp run] (Accessory policy)
ONLY in a console GUI session -- the window needs the window server; otherwise it
keeps the bare CFRunLoop so the daemon still runs headless over SSH/launchd. Both
loops drain the main dispatch queue, so every VZ op and the SIGINT/SIGTERM sources
are unaffected; cleanup_and_exit exit()s directly, so no quit-path change. The
spike the design flagged as unverifiable without a Mac was confirmed here: VZ
main-queue dispatches still fire under [NSApp run], and windows open, take focus,
and deliver windowWillClose:.
Close tracking avoids a mid-close use-after-free: VzDisplayWindow gains a
userClosed flag set in windowWillClose:; displayOpen reads display && !userClosed,
and open_display reaps a self-(X)-closed window on the next request (off the WM
close stack), mirroring the Windows reap. showDisplay also calls
activateIgnoringOtherApps: so the Accessory daemon's window comes to the front.
tests: vm_lifecycle.py now runs the display open/close check on macOS too (it
self-skips on 409 no_display or a Linux guest whose agent predates idd_status).
README documents the macOS display support (matrix row, the console-session
A-gate, and the running && agentOnline readiness).
Remove tools/headless-api/PLAN.md and display-plan.md: these were the design /
decision logs for the headless port and the display feature, both now shipped and
validated. Their dangling references in README.md and headless.m comments are
cleaned up in the same change.
edit() honors ramMb/cpuCores/gpuMode/networkMode on a stopped VM (name is fixed at create, other keys ignored; 409 if running); snap_take() requires the VM stopped (409 vm_running).
display-plan.md: the Linux display half is now implemented and validated (confirmed on fresh Linux VMs built from the pushed branch, where the agent's idd_status latches readiness and the display opens).
README.md: note that VMs should be created sequentially -- concurrent creates can race on the VHDX-build prefetch/staging and a build may fail (iso-patch.exe exit 1) and be removed.
Add POST/DELETE/GET /vms/{name}/display plus the open_display/close_display/display_status/display_ready SDK methods, so a script can open and close a VM's display window like the GUI's Connect button.
Readiness is a latched flag, not a frame-channel probe: connecting to the guest frame service is itself becoming the display's single consumer, so polling it would steal the slot and blank the display. The guest agent reports the display driver state over the agent channel (idd_status) and the host latches it as idd_ready; asb_vm_idd_ready = running && agent_online && idd_ready. The Linux agent reports idd_status:ok once the user session is up (Mutter compositing).
The display window is daemon-owned (per-VM table keyed by unique_id), gated on a visible window station, and self-tears-down on the X button; displayOpen is read from the live window state, so it is honest however the window closed.
tools/headless-api/display-plan.md: design for opening/closing a VM display window
through the headless API (POST/DELETE /v1/vms/{name}/display). Windows is implementable
(vm_display_idd_create is self-contained); macOS is design-only and unvalidated (it
swaps the daemon run loop to AppKit and needs a Mac to verify). Access model: bearer
token for auth + a runtime "can this session render a window" gate; no loopback/peer
detection.
James Stringer