netmuxd

A replacement/addition to usbmuxd which is a reimplementation of Apple's usbmuxd on MacOS

This project used to be network-only (hence the name), but USB support was later added.

Building

Run cargo build --release to generate binaries. They will be generated at target/release/netmuxd

USB support

netmuxd talks to iOS devices directly over USB via nusb. There is no dependency on a separate usbmuxd daemon: plug a device in and the daemon will discover it and start serving the usbmuxd protocol on its Unix socket / TCP port.

Windows

There are two backends for Windows because Windows is a garbage operating system with a garbage driver model.

Apple's mux

By default, netmuxd will connect to Apple's kernel driver like Apple Mobile Device Services does. This will evict iTunes etc. No installation is needed, it works a lot better than libusb.

Apple's own daemon (AppleMobileDeviceService.exe) holds the usbmux listener on TCP 127.0.0.1:27015. Pass --kill-amds to terminate it at startup so netmuxd owns the device and the listener. Add --restart-amds-on-exit to start the Apple Mobile Device Service back up (via the Service Control Manager) when netmuxd shuts down with Ctrl+C, restoring Apple's usual stack.

--kill-amds needs admin every run, because it terminates a SYSTEM-owned service process. To pay that cost only once, take over the service instead:

# from an admin PowerShell, once:
.\netmuxd.exe install-service

install-service repoints the Apple Mobile Device Service at netmuxd (ChangeServiceConfig) so the Service Control Manager launches netmuxd as a proper Windows service

The original ImagePath is saved under HKLM\SOFTWARE\netmuxd; restore Apple's binary with:

.\netmuxd.exe uninstall-service

Notes:

• An Apple/iTunes update may rewrite the service back to Apple's binary. Just re-run install-service. Or maybe it doesn't, who knows. Untested.
• Under the SCM there's no console, so service-mode logs go to %ProgramData%\netmuxd\netmuxd.log (RUST_LOG still applies; default info).

libwdi/libusb

Apple's stock USB driver claims the iOS interface, so libusb can't open it. netmuxd ships a one-shot installer that binds the libusb0 kernel driver to every Apple iOS device class. Run from an admin PowerShell (or admin cmd):

.\netmuxd.exe install

This must be done with the device plugged in: Windows ranks Apple's WHQL-signed INF above netmuxd's self-signed one, so the only way to win is to force-bind via UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices with the device present. If iTunes / Apple Mobile Device Support is installed, uninstall it first and reboot. To revert, run .\netmuxd.exe uninstall from the same elevated shell.

ARM64 note: Windows on ARM64 rejects libwdi's self-signed CA. Either turn on test signing (bcdedit /set testsigning on) for development, or ship the package with a Microsoft-attestation signature for production.

Usage

Options can be listed with --help

License

This code is licensed under the LGPL 2.1 license. You may use netmuxd's code how you will, but binaries must be distributed under and with that license.