Codec Commander

What is the purpose of this?

Used for updating EAPD (External Amplifier) state on HDA (High Definition Audio) codecs that use given amp on Speaker or Headphone nodes (both, or even extra ones in some cases). In OS X EAPD gets powered down across sleep so audio remains non functional after waking the machine up.

Usually, this external amp is present on laptops and ITX board, most common on machines with ALC269, ALC665 and similar codecs. When machine falls asleep the amp is powered down and after waking up, even though it seems like audio is working, there is no sound coming from speaker/headphones because amp requires a codec command verb sent to it in order to powered up.

This kext is intended to take care of this.

Additionally, starting from v2.2.0, Codec Commander can now solve a problem that plagues some desktop boards without EAPDs, but with a problem that causes to loose jack sense and sometimes audio upon wake. One of these boards is H87-HD3 with ALC892 onboard audio codec. For workaround, the codec is reset at wake, much like VoodooHDA acts, in order be treated by AppleHDA the same way as before sleep.

How is this useful over patched IOAudioFamily?

People used to rely on custom IOAudioFamily - Apple's open source files were altered, incorporating a method (originally coded by km9) to update the EAPD after sleep. What's bad about this kind of approach is that it required sources for modification to happen… and as everyone probably knows by now, Apple tends to delay the release of sources for 3 weeks to 2 month after OS updates get released.

No more waiting for sources, no need to be searching for a kext that matches your node layout and no need to have different kexts for different OS X versions (generations, if you will).

How do I enable it?

You have to edit settings inside Info.plist - see Profiles sections as well. There are multiple Default settings defined which have values of:

			<key>Default</key>
			<dict>
				<key>Check Infinitely</key>
				<false/>
				<key>Check Interval</key>
				<integer>3000</integer>
				<key>Custom Commands</key>
				<array/>
				<key>Perform Reset</key>
				<true/>
				<key>Perform Reset on External Wake</key>
				<true/>
				<key>Perform Reset on EAPD Fail</key>
				<false/>
				<key>Send Delay</key>
				<integer>300</integer>
				<key>Update Nodes</key>
				<true/>
				<key>Sleep Nodes</key>
				<true/>
			</dict>

About these in more details:

• Check Infinitely - CC will keep monitoring the codec power state transitions, as of today this is useless as CodecCommanderPowerHook attached to AppleHDADriver to detect power state changes on demand.

• Check Interval - the time in ms for above setting to check the codec power state, again, as of today this is useless.

• Perform Reset - whether to perform complete codec reset (returns codec in cold-boot state) at wake from sleep if codec behaves weird after sleep.

• Perform Reset on External Wake - same as above, but for fugue-sleep, when you break the machine entering sleep prematurely.

• Perform Reset on EAPD Fail - self explanatory - if EAPD update fails at wake then CC will perform complete codec reset in an attempt to recover the codec.

• Send Delay - the time in ms that CC needs to wait before sending commands to the codec, otherwise it may not respond, if sent too early (depends on PC computing power).

• Update Nodes - codec can report EAPD capability for certain nodes, but EAPD may not actually physically be there. You want this enabled to update EAPD nodes.

• Sleep Nodes - according to Intel's EAPD handing specifications, EAPD capable nodes have to be suspended properly when machine transitions to sleep .. it's up to you to follow the spec, no harm if it's not done.

Upon resuming from semi-sleep I loose audio

The only scenario when this can happens is when you have audio playing and suddenly decided you want to put the machine to sleep. If you break out of the it entering sleep you will loose audio until you stop whatever was left playing and allow codec to enter idle.

Custom Commands & Commander Client

You can send the codec your custom commands during boot, upon sleep or at wake. This functionality is part of the customizations coded in by @the-darkvoid to mimic automated hda-verb scripts. CommanderClient (which technically is hda-verb osx clone) is a more adequate tool for experimenting, though - once you polish the command and know it works you can add it to the custom commands section.

The structure of the commands is as follows:

			<key>Custom Commands</key>
			<array>
				<dict>
					<key>Command</key>
					<data>AhcIgw==</data>
					<key>Comment</key>
					<string>0x21 SET_UNSOLICITED_ENABLE 0x83</string>
					<key>On Init</key>
					<true/>
					<key>On Sleep</key>
					<false/>
					<key>On Wake</key>
					<true/>
				</dict>
			</array>

The actual command is specified in any of the plist editors (don't try deciphering base64 as is), be it Xcode or PlistEdit. You can opt to execute the command on cold boot, on sleep and on wake by setting respective flags.

Profiles

The easiest way to create profiles, again, is via a proper plist editing tool, opposed to notepad or similar.

You have to define a new profile, which is vendorid_deviceid, followed by profile Name

			<key>10ec_0269</key>
			<string>Realtek ALC269</string>

If there's already a profile for your codec, but you have a different variant and that config doesn't suite you, then you can use extended profile definition like this

			<key>10ec_0269_HDA_1028_04d9</key>
			<string>Realtek ALC269</string>

which uses the subvendor id of your board as well. To know your subvendor you can look in IORegistry or log in Console for the log of CC:

			CodecCommander: Version 2.4.0 starting.
			CodecCommander: ....CodecVendor Id: 0x10ec0269
			CodecCommander: ....Codec Address: 0
			CodecCommander: ....Subsystem Id: 0x102804d9
			CodecCommander: ....PCI Sub Id: 0x102804d9

Then, to set up a profile you need to create a dictionary referencing the name you just assigned.

Default profile is merged with your custom profile, so all you have to do is override the setting that you don't feel like suite your codec with default values configured.

			<key>Realtek ALC269VB</key>
			<dict>
				<key>Custom Commands</key>
				<array>
					<dict>
						<key>Command</key>
						<data>AhcIgw==</data>
						<key>Comment</key>
						<string>0x21 SET_UNSOLICITED_ENABLE 0x83</string>
						<key>On Init</key>
						<true/>
						<key>On Sleep</key>
						<false/>
						<key>On Wake</key>
						<true/>
					</dict>
				</array>
				<key>Send Delay</key>
				<integer>20</integer>
				<key>Sleep Nodes</key>
				<false/>
			</dict>

HDMI codecs

By default HDMI codecs re disabled in order to prevent CC attaching on them. If for some reason you feel the need to tamper with HDMI, feel free to remove this restriction.

			<key>8086</key>
			<string>Disabled HDMI</string>
			<key>10de</key>
			<string>Disabled HDMI</string>
			<key>1002</key>
			<string>Disabled HDMI</string>				

Changelog

May 22, 2015 v2.4.0

• CodecCommander PowerHook to monitor codec power state transitions opposed to doing it from Infinite Loop

• Change of providers, again.. using IOHDACodecFunction

• Codec profile lookup rewritten, extended wit subvendor id matching, profile merging with Default corrected

• Not attaching to HDMI codecs by default

• getUpdateNodes used to return an integer due to typo .. corrected

• Not starting the timer when it's not needed

• Perform Reset on External Wake option added

• EAPD node updates disabled by default for Gigabyte and Intel desktop boards and ALC892 codec

April 26, 2015 v2.3.4

• Compatibility with Mavericks, needs IOAudioFamily 1.1

• Couple of specifics for ALC269/283 profiles

April 11, 2015 v2.3.2

• Code re-factoring and logging cleanups

• Shell scripts for dumping info for codec nodes

• Fix for Sleep Nodes functionality

April 5, 2015 v2.2.2

• Codec Commander Client introduced (hda-verb analog for OSX)

• Complete code refactoring by @the-darkvoid

• Support for memory mapped IO and TCSEL update for IntelHDA

• Change of providers to IOAudioDevice and implements IOKit matching

• Using CodecProfile instead of Platform Profile specific to EOMs

• Perform Reset and Sleep Nodes toggles added

September 22, 2014 v2.2.1

• Added customizable delay before getting node count from codec, adjust it if kext fails to start, especially on slower hardware (Intel Core 2 or Atoms)

• Added the ability to cancel updating EAPD status on nodes, because even though node may report EAPD capability it doesn't mean EAPD is actually there - common case for most of desktop codecs that would report 0x14 and 0x1b as being EAPD capable..

September 4, 2014 v2.2.0

• Removed virtual keyboard class that was used for popping audio at wake

• Got rid of audio stream simulation which was using mute/resume NX system events at wake

• Eliminated headphone jack plug/unplug simulation due to being useless

• New algo to prevent jack sense loss and unpredicted codec power state transitions by performing the following at system wake (see extract from HDA spec in performCodecReset() for details):

  1. resetting codec function group (NID=0x01)

  2. forcefully setting codec power state to D3 Hot

• Added Gigabyte OEM name support

• CodecCommander can now be used on desktop boards with problematic codecs (some ALC892 implementations), where jack sense and audio loss is a problem after sleep, even though there are no EAPDs to enable. Codec will be reset and set to D3 power state, thus simulating a scenario as if the codec was started cold

• Not monitoring EAPD state when audio stream is active anymore, since resetting the codec causes it to be enabled properly after first PIO.

• MCP workaround removed due to being useless with new reset functionality. MCP chipset can also use the setting to prevent audio loss after fugue sleep, which was previously limited to 4 PIOs

• Node configuration no longer needed as EAPD enabled nodes are determined automatically when Codec Commander starts

• Fixed a bug with memory allocation which would cause system to lock up and restart when unloading the kext manually

July 13, 2014 v2.1.2:

• Add a procedure to set PinCaps on headphone node to Hpone enable, then Hphone disable to trigger a jack insertion event. Helps with audio loss on Intel controllers

• Add extra node to update in case codec utilizes more than 2x EAPDs on output nodes

• Add an ability to specify HDEF device address (location), Default Intel location is @1B

• Platform Profiles are brought back to support multiple machines with a single kext. Default config serves as a base, OEM config overrides default config. See examples…

• CodecCommander will first try to read OEM data reported to IODeviceTree by Clover/bareBoot, if none are reported it will try to get OEM info from IOService on PS2K device (RM,oem-id\RM,oem-table-id) and only then from DSDT header.

• Detect HDEF Controller chipset based on vendor-id data reported from IORegistry

• Properly power down EAPDs across sleep on Intel chipset

• Add support for nVidia MCP79/MCP7A HDA controllers that do not report EAPD state when reading response from IRR. A workaround is applied if such a chipset is detected to limit PIO count to 4, which is enough to keep speaker and headphone EAPDs enabled in 10.9.2+

• Remove unnecessary probing in order to prevent unresolved symbols when compiling with earlier SDKs for newer system version.

Feb 06, 2014 v2.1.1:

• Now monitoring codec power state from HDADriver, EAPD will re-enable after fugue-sleep state now too!

• Add a workaround to jack sense loss after 2 PIO operations (use Apple - Sleep and tap any key after 5 seconds, jack sense should work thereafter).

• Got rid of Platform Profiles as this function has little to no use

• Implement the ability to specify the EngineOutput number (Engine Output Number in config)

• EAPD status checking loop can go infinitely

• Get EAPD status bit if multiple updating is not requested, but bezel popping is

Feb 01, 2014 v2.1.0:

• Implement virtual keyboard, add an ability to invoke mute-unmute event at wake to produce an audio stream at wake (Generate Stream toggle in config)

• Parse IORegistry to determine if audio stream is up on EngineOutput, if stream is up we are going to check whether EAPD bit is set

• Ability to get response from IRR register in order read EAPD status bit

• Added option to update EAPD status bit multiple times upon wake (Update Multiple Times in config), timeout will be called after 2 PIO operations

• Almost a complete rewrite, antipop no longer required (unless user decides otherwise)

Oct 15, 2013 v1.0.1:

• Performs PIO operation at cold boot as well as wake that will set EAPD status bit

• Required antipop 1.0.2 to generate audio stream upon wake or there will be no jack sense at wake

• Initial release

Credits

• EAPD fix (resumable-mutable-sound-v1 for IOAudioFamily): km9

• Revamp of the project: RehabMan, the-darkvoid

• Codec Function Group reset at wake idea: EMlyDinEsHMG