Tahoe Sound Support with AppleHDA

Tip

There is a simpler method which is installing the VoodooHDA drive.

Background

macOS 26 Tahoe removed support for HDA Audio as the only supported Intel Macs are now T2 based which provides the sound capabilities to the machine. The AppleHDA.kext, which is used for non-T2 audio, was removed in beta 2 of Tahoe. To add VMware HDA sound back to Tahoe, the system will need to be patched after installation with root patches to restore the beta AppleHDA.kext. This KEXT cannot be loaded via OpenCore as it must be placed in the /System/Library/Extensions folder to function correctly.

A good overview on how to achieve this is documented by Perez987 on GitHub. The method chosen for VMware is to use the MyKextInstaller app. The alternative app SimpleLoader did not work in testing.

Step 1 - Getting Ready to Patch

Before starting the patch process we need to download 3 things:

1. Kernel Debug Kit - the KDK that matches the installed version of Tahoe must be download from the OCLP KDK Repo.
2. MyKextInstaller app.
3. AppleHDA.kext from the Tahoe beta.

Ensure the downloads are copied to the Tahoe VM, and MyKextInstaller and AppleHDA.kext are unzipped. Now shut down the VM.

Step 2 - Disable SIP

The SIP settings will need to be changed to allow successful root patching as the folders we need to modify are under SIP protection. The SIP value we need is the same as used for OCLP and is 0x803. This is not a standard value that can be easily set with csrutil in Recovery mode, so we will use the OpenCore UEFI shell to set it.

Boot the VM and at the selector screen press the SPACE key to stop the automatic boot.

Using the RIGHT ARROW key select the "OpenShell" icon and press ENTER.

Wait for the shell to initialise and then we wll run the CsrUtil.efi tool to set the SIP value. If the VM is built with the supplied templates this file will be found on the FS7: mapped drive. If you have a bespoke VM you will need to find the mapping for the OC4VM drive and replace FS7: with the drive mapping for your system.

At the prompt we will first check the current status by running:

fs7:\EFI\OC\Tools\CsrUtil.efi status

Next the same tool will be used to set the 0x803 value needed for root patching.

fs7:\EFI\OC\Tools\CsrUtil.efi disable 0x803

Finally we will reboot back into macOS by running:

reset

Step 3 - Root Patching

Next we are to going to setup and run the root patching. Using the System Information and System Settings apps we can see there is no audio device available to the VM.

Next, and most important, step is to install the KDK that matches the installed version of Tahoe. In the screenshots it is Tahoe 26.2 (25C56). Double click the downloaded KDK DMG file and then run the installer from the mounted DMG. The installation takes a few minutes as it writes quite a large number of files to the system drive.

Time to start the actual patching process. Open the MyKextInstaller app and check the status screen.

"Kernel Debug Kit", "System Integrity Protection" and "System Information" sections should all have a green inidcator. Ignore the "AppleALC" section we do not need that for VMware and installing it will break sound output.

Click "Install Kexts" in the sidebar and authorise the privileged helper tool.

Select the downloaded and decompressed AppleHDA.kext and press the "Selects Kexts" button.

The patching process does take a few minutes so wait until you see the reboot message. Reboot the system to load the audio driver.

Checking with the System Information and System Settings apps we can see there is now an audio device available to the VM.

If you want to recover disk space, re-run the MyKextInstaller app and select "Uninstall KDKs" from the sidebar.