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41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
01-03-2019, 05:51 PM
Post: #1
41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
After a long downtime, seeing the recent messages about the 41CL updates, I decided to get my 41CL updated.

I purchased a new MacBook Pro back in November, and I am on the most up-to-date Mac OS 10.14.2.

My problem is that my USB-to-serial device no longer shows up in the /dev list. It used to show up as /dev/tty.usbserial, but it does not show up at all anymore.

I have a serial terminal application that I use for my MacBook Pro to be the terminal for some of my vintage computers, and that detects my USB-to-serial device and works fine. My Parallels application pretends to be a Windows machine and also detects my USB-to-serial device just fine. So, all is well with my system. It's working as expected.

BUT since I need to name the serial device for the Java updater, and I can no longer find the device name for my USB-to-serial device in the /dev list, I am stuck dead in the water.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? How have you solved it?

Thanks very much in advance for your thoughts.

smp
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01-03-2019, 06:24 PM (This post was last modified: 01-03-2019 06:25 PM by Sylvain Cote.)
Post: #2
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
First you need to find what USB-to-serial chip that you have in your dongle.
  1. start a terminal session (aka command line or shell session)
  2. unplug your USB-to-serial dongle
  3. type: system_profiler SPUSBDataType [RETURN]
  4. plug your USB-to-serial dongle
  5. type: system_profiler SPUSBDataType [RETURN]
  6. comparing the two list should reveal the USB-to-serial chip that you have in your dongle

Chip information should look like this:
Code:
TTL232R-3V3:
Product ID: 0x6001
Vendor ID: 0x0403  (Future Technology Devices International Limited)
Version: 6.00
Serial Number: FTDO73M5
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: FTDI
Location ID: 0x14140000 / 10
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 90
Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Excluding the Chinese clones, the two main USB-to-Serial chip manufacturers are FTDI and Prolific.

FTDI VCP drivers for macOS can be found HERE
Prolific drivers for macOS can be found HERE

Warning: the FTDI drivers for macOS are generally so bad that Apple decided to write one for themselves, so if you have a FTDI chip macOS should normally see it, if not then the procedure is more involved.

Sylvain
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01-03-2019, 06:51 PM (This post was last modified: 01-03-2019 06:53 PM by smp.)
Post: #3
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
Thanks very much, Sylvain, for your response.

I do not need drivers. Mac Mojave has built-in support for my Prolific device. My problem is, even though I can plug my USB-to-serial device in, and my computer will work with it just fine, it does not show up in the /dev list, so I cannot direct the 41CL update where to go.

It used to be that in the /dev list I would see tty.usbserial after I plugged in my device. This no longer happens in Mac Mojave 10.14.2. When I use /dev/tty.usbserial in my Java command for the update, it responds with an error message that it couldn't open the serial port.

My other Mac applications find the USB-to-serial device automatically, without me having to direct them to it. But the Java Update application needs some direction in the command line.

Thanks for trying... Looks like Mac Mojave has done me in.

smp
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01-03-2019, 07:57 PM
Post: #4
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
Can you try running the java app under Windows/Parallels?

You'll still need to figure out the com port number, but perhaps the Windows Device Manager will be more forthcoming? (If not, try COM1)
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01-03-2019, 08:30 PM (This post was last modified: 01-03-2019 08:32 PM by Sylvain Cote.)
Post: #5
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
If you do not see your USB device in /dev it means that you need to install a driver.

I just tried a USB-to-Serial dongle from TI that I do not have the driver on macOS 10.14.2.
When I do a USB enumeration (system_profiler and lsusb from macport) I can see the chip information, but the device is not shown in /dev because I do not have the serial driver for the USB device.

So my suggestion will be to install the prolific serial driver for your prolific chip if you want to update your 41CL on macOS.

Sylvain
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01-04-2019, 05:05 PM (This post was last modified: 01-04-2019 05:40 PM by smp.)
Post: #6
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
(01-03-2019 07:57 PM)BobVA Wrote:  Can you try running the java app under Windows/Parallels?

You'll still need to figure out the com port number, but perhaps the Windows Device Manager will be more forthcoming? (If not, try COM1)

Thanks very much for your suggestion, Bob.

That's exactly what I am doing now. I had to hunt around a bit in Windows XP for what COM port my USB-to-serial device showed up on - I finally remembered to start up my TeraTerm program and see where it was connecting. It turned out to be COM8.

I am running the updater now. I'll post back in a few hours when it's finished (hopefully successfully).

smp
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01-05-2019, 05:27 PM (This post was last modified: 01-05-2019 05:31 PM by smp.)
Post: #7
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
I've been at this since yesterday... I've had a variety of problems, including batteries dying, timeouts, the calculator going to sleep unattended, and the computer going to sleep unattended. Sigh!

This morning, I performed a complete update (without using the CPONLY command) and the 41CL did the complete check (1h, 25m, 58s), and finished off indicating that NUT0-N, TIME-3A, and YFNZ-4F still need to be updated. BUT, when I did the * and FLUPD, the 41CL screen goes blank for a couple of seconds, and then beeps showing UPD DONE. BUT, no commands were ever sent over to the PC to download the files.

I'm stumped at this point. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

TIA

smp
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01-05-2019, 05:45 PM
Post: #8
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
(01-05-2019 05:27 PM)smp Wrote:  I've been at this since yesterday... I've had a variety of problems, including batteries dying, timeouts, the calculator going to sleep unattended, and the computer going to sleep unattended. Sigh!

This morning, I performed a complete update (without using the CPONLY command) and the 41CL did the complete check (1h, 25m, 58s), and finished off indicating that NUT0-N, TIME-3A, and YFNZ-4F still need to be updated. BUT, when I did the * and FLUPD, the 41CL screen goes blank for a couple of seconds, and then beeps showing UPD DONE. BUT, no commands were ever sent over to the PC to download the files.

I'm stumped at this point. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

TIA

smp

Those three images are in the OS sector. This sector will never be updated unless you explicitly enable the sector for updating. I will update the manual to make this more obvious. Right now it's only described in the P8UPD function description. If you execute the OSUPDT command before you do the FLUPD it will proceed with updating the OS sector.
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01-05-2019, 06:26 PM (This post was last modified: 01-05-2019 06:26 PM by smp.)
Post: #9
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
(01-05-2019 05:45 PM)Monte Dalrymple Wrote:  Those three images are in the OS sector. This sector will never be updated unless you explicitly enable the sector for updating. I will update the manual to make this more obvious. Right now it's only described in the P8UPD function description. If you execute the OSUPDT command before you do the FLUPD it will proceed with updating the OS sector.

Thanks a million, Monte!

I went back and executed the OSUPDT command and then executed the FLUPD command again, and the process went ahead and successfully completed. Whew!

smp
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01-06-2019, 05:17 AM (This post was last modified: 01-06-2019 05:20 AM by rprosperi.)
Post: #10
RE: 41CL and Mac Mojave - USB-to-serial device no longer in /dev
(01-05-2019 06:26 PM)smp Wrote:  I went back and executed the OSUPDT command and then executed the FLUPD command again, and the process went ahead and successfully completed. Whew!

smp

Once the OS is succesfuly updated, you should use the OSPROT command to restore the default state of OS protection. In any case, this is restored upon every power-on, so it's probably already taken care of on you machine, just mentioning it to be complete for future readers.

And now that you're fully updated, do another scan after setting CPONLY, just to see it. It's worth it to see a full scan complete in about 1.5 minutes. Smile

--Bob Prosperi
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