Mac OSX Yosemite

[musicbydesign]

Hello all - Anybody know if the Beta Firewire card drivers will continue to work in Yosemite? They work fine in 10.9.5
---Thanks

 

[Gravity Jim]

Because RedBus said that the main problem was the signing procedure, and it should be the same in 10.9.5 and in 10.10, I'm trying it now, and so far, it does work. Stereo tracks, a couple of 16 track projects, all ran just fine. I'll try some larger, more complicated projects in the morning.

 

[waterstrum]

Thanks Jim,
That's great to hear.
Keep us posted.

 

[Gravity Jim]

I've been e-mailing with RedBus, and he says that it shouldn't work, and if it does I probably have "the dev flag set in the nvram, that bypasses all these kinds of kernel checks." A utility I use, Trim Enabler, may have flipped this bit. So, according to RedBus, under normal conditions this should NOT be working. Proceed with caution.

 

[Gravity Jim]

Further conversation confirms it. Trim Enabler disabled the part of OS X 10.10 that kills the driver. This is only working on my machine... don't upgrade yet.

RedBus believes he has found the problem, and something that works for real with 10.10 should get released fairly soon. Do nothing til you hear from him.

 

[musicbydesign]

Further conversation confirms it. Trim Enabler disabled the part of OS X 10.10 that kills the driver. This is only working on my machine... don't upgrade yet.

RedBus believes he has found the problem, and something that works for real with 10.10 should get released fairly soon. Do nothing til you hear from him.

Thanks Jim - Trim Enabler sounds interesting - is there a thread on what you did to allow use of the driver?

-edit- looked it up and it's all about "signed" drivers. So Trim Enabler defeats the OS 'lockout" of unsigned drivers and allows the Tascam firewire kext to function?

 

[waterstrum]

Aha! That's why I've had no problems with 10.9.5.
I'm using Trim Enabler for my SSD's.

Jim, are you having smooth sailing with DP and all of your plugins and VIs?

 

[Gravity Jim]

Likewise. So far, it all runs fine, but RedBus advised that it's okay to run this way "for the time being." I am guessing that letting your software run wild and unsigned could cause kernel trouble down the road, or would allow you to install things you shouldn't. There should be a fully operational version real soon.

 

[musicbydesign]

Likewise. So far, it all runs fine, but RedBus advised that it's okay to run this way "for the time being." I am guessing that letting your software run wild and unsigned could cause kernel trouble down the road, or would allow you to install things you shouldn't. There should be a fully operational version real soon.

How long have the Yosemite betas been out? Did Tascam not know that the kext signing requirement would disable their firewire card driver? Am I being a little pissy?
I have received tremendous benefits from your posts Gravity Jim and REALLY appreciate the time you put in on this forum.
To pick your brain a little more:
1. Do you know if you have to have and SSD drive installed to use Trim Enabler (I do not).
2. if (heaven forbid!) Tascam does not get the driver fixed in a timely fashion, is the ONLY option you know of to get the card to work in Yosemite to install Trim Enabler and risk the instability everyone is warning about?
3. If I wanted to update to Yosemite using the latest build of the Tascam driver and Trim Enabler, do you know if I can revert to the "normal" OS functions by turning Trim Enabler off or on as needed?
4. It ought to be interesting to see how many other boot loader mods will start coming out to address this issue...
You da man!

 

[Gravity Jim]

Yes, I think you are overreacting just a hair. Running your Mac in dev mode is probably not a good idea in the long term, and Tascam has been working diligently to bring the driver up to speed.... which you can expect very shortly, according to what RedBus said (just FYI, he's the software engineer who writes the DM drivers). Yes, they've known about the signing requirement for some time, but solving the problem was tougher than you think.

Most of what makes 10.10 so slick won't matter util iOS 8.1 drops, so why rush? Hang loose for a few days and the real driver will arrive. There is no "issue" to be addressed, so no boot mods are are coming. Also, Trim Enabler isnt an on/off switch for dev mode... It doesn't work that way.

Chill. The fix is in.

 

[Gravity Jim]

For a fairly coherent explanation of kext signing, why it needs to be defeated and stay that way to use Trim on 3rd party SSDs, and what thar means for security, check this:

http://www.cindori.org/trim-enabler-and-yosemite/

Running in dev mode isn't unstable or dangerous... You just have to be careful that you only install drivers you totally trust.

 

[musicbydesign]

For a fairly coherent explanation of kext signing, why it needs to be defeated and stay that way to use Trim on 3rd party SSDs, and what thar means for security, check this:

http://www.cindori.org/trim-enabler-and-yosemite/

Running in dev mode isn't unstable or dangerous... You just have to be careful that you only install drivers you totally trust.

Thanks. As I was pretty bored this morning (and impatient) I did that same research, installed Yosemite on a backup drive, followed the Trim Enabler (free version) directions and voila! It works as you have mentioned. I am aware this is a NVRAM semi hack and that it does not depend on the drive (ie using another startup disk does not change the setting since it is not stored on the disk). but i have copies of the "in case the computer will not boot now" directions and will play with it a bit more. As I have now officially hacked my OS on my own head be it! Thanks again for your input and I'll give a shout here if things go south...

 

[musicbydesign]

As an interesting side note, Trim Enabler also allowed my Kensington Trackball software to load where Yosemite would not. That's handy 'cause the last Kensington software update for Macs that I could find was 4 or 5 years old...

 

[captdan]

As a life long, mouse-hating TrackBall-luvin' ball-twiddlin' fool, I greatly empathize with your success.

CaptDan

 

[goodflow]

I always thought that the area of the DM4800 to the left of the "Encoder Mode" section/directly under the Jog wheel would be a good spot to mount a trackball.

As a life long, mouse-hating TrackBall-luvin' ball-twiddlin' fool, I greatly empathize with your success.

CaptDan

 

[captdan]

So long as the ball is removable for cleaning that would be okay.

As a TrackBall fan, you know that skin tissue residue, dirt, oil, fly wings, ants, and the remains of spiderwebs intent on trapping all of the above tend to form unholy alliances with the 'sphere,' necessitating removal and cleaning. This is an easy process with a dedicated TrackBall platform, but likely a major dismantling if the unit were drilled into the DM's ops panel.

Apologies for the graphic description and naysayer attitude. But I'd prefer to keep things as they are.

CaptDan

 

[Arjan P]

I use a trackball every day, though not in the studio. IMO, the major ergonomic advantage is that you can lay your arm resting on a flat surface, without the need to move around. This purpose would be defeated by installing a trackball in a position on the desk that can only be reached by holding one's arm in 'open air', with no way to rest..