Issues installing usb driver in OSX

Hi Evan,

The problem is historical I believe. In the "olden days" they used to use what was called an RS232 serial interface to connect equipment together. Somehow this became entrenched and when new technologies came along they had to create "USB to serial" converters and the like. They used to be a hardware dongle that you would connect to your computer but over the years it became possible to do it in software entirely.

All this stuff is proprietary so I am only guessing about all this but it seems to me that the business of creating a USB to serial converter is such a specialist "edge case" that manufacturers have off loaded the problem onto third parties. Now no one wants to pay for anything anymore so these companies are severely understaffed. So when Apple decides to change how a utility has to work they don't coordinate with anyone they just do it. It is then up to these poor software dudes to figure out that something has changed and they have to scramble (with short staff) to fix the problem. In this case I found a discussion thread where a developer was working through a problem with SiLabs and it turns out that this "signing" business is probably the issue. Apple never told them that they had to put the driver in a new place, or maybe they didn't have time to put it in the right place.

Now the issue of software is a similar thing to this. Most hardware companies consider software to be outside their area of expertise and outsource their software development. So there is a mismatch between what the company expects and what the software people produce and this causes all sorts of flakey behaviour. It isn't anyone's "fault" it is just that they come from different worlds and speak a different language.

Now back to your question, is there something about Apple in particular that is causing problems? No, not really. There are a lot more Windows computers out there and that poor software manager we talked about is going to focus on the 90% and leave the 10% for "later" and that "later" never comes. The more effort applied to a piece of software (design and testing) the better it becomes.

The ultimate solution is to grasp the nettle and put together a software team in your hardware company and test the blazes out of it before you release it. Needless to say this will make the equipment even MORE expensive than it already is but that is the price of reliability.

Now you might say, why not simplify things and forget software? Well they can do things like streamers and so forth which would be impossible without software so we are where we are.

Hope that helps,

Cheers, Jack

Jack, thanks so much for the advice and time. I will certainly try your fix on my iMac's failed attempts to update my NDS. Exactly the same problem as Evan so far.

Hi Jack,

I have tried your suggested fix above, got to 3) and the driver appears to have installed successfully so I don't get to 4) as there is no window with a magnifying glass offered to me. Anyway I restarted the iMac and powered off and on the NDS, all the time both connected with the USB to mini USB cable.

I can see the driver when I look in System Report/Hardware/USB so it 'appears' to have been successfully installed. But when I go to the installer I still only get the Bluetooth port offered to me in the drop down in the second screen in the Updater.

Maybe you can advise what window do I need to get to to enter 'Terminal' by the magnifying glass.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

N

So that's 2 hours of my life I won't get back. Shameful Naim! For the record, I've tried cables, updates, power downs etc. I'm on an up to date new MacBook Pro trying to update a NDS. Says the product isn't communicating. Will try above instructions. Really Naim, this is shockingly bad for a tech product that needs to be readily updatable. It might be a legacy problem but the fact remains I bought this box last year new for £7000.

Laurie Griffiths posted:

So that's 2 hours of my life I won't get back. Shameful Naim! For the record, I've tried cables, updates, power downs etc. I'm on an up to date new MacBook Pro trying to update a NDS. Says the product isn't communicating. Will try above instructions. Really Naim, this is shockingly bad for a tech product that needs to be readily updatable. It might be a legacy problem but the fact remains I bought this box last year new for £7000.

I know it isn’t really a consolation, but it may be worth bearing in mind that updatability is a bonus, and not a necessity - it will still play as well as it ever did without updating...  

I have a Dave, and it is forever what it was when I bought it - but as that is wonderful I couldn’t care less.

Innocent Bystander posted:

Laurie Griffiths posted:

So that's 2 hours of my life I won't get back. Shameful Naim! For the record, I've tried cables, updates, power downs etc. I'm on an up to date new MacBook Pro trying to update a NDS. Says the product isn't communicating. Will try above instructions. Really Naim, this is shockingly bad for a tech product that needs to be readily updatable. It might be a legacy problem but the fact remains I bought this box last year new for £7000.

I know it isn’t really a consolation, but it may be worth bearing in mind that updatability is a bonus, and not a necessity - it will still play as well as it ever did without updating...  

I have a Dave, and it is forever what it was when I bought it - but as that is wonderful I couldn’t care less.

That maybe so, but when you read reports of worthwhile upgrades in SQ from a free update, then naturally you want to try it for yourself. Let's face it, Naim gear isn't cheap and when you are denied a free upgrade due to technical issues, it is only natural to get frustrated.

BTW Laurie, I have the same problem as you and having up to date Hardware and software with your MacBook could be part of the problem. When Apple update their OS, they don't always think or care about overwriting legacy elements that make them malfunction with the new update.

I have exactly the same issue as you and feel your frustration. Others saying 'why fret?' is not helpful.

For clarification, I did not exactly mean ‘why fret’, but just tried to put in perspective. It is not that long until Monday when Naim support may be able to assist.

Innocent Bystander posted:

For clarification, I did not exactly mean ‘why fret’, but just tried to put in perspective. It is not that long until Monday when Naim support may be able to assist.

Your post came across as 'why fret?' to me.

So you maintain you are an innocent bystander then......

But of course! 

nigelb posted:

Hi Jack,

I have tried your suggested fix above, got to 3) and the driver appears to have installed successfully so I don't get to 4) as there is no window with a magnifying glass offered to me. Anyway I restarted the iMac and powered off and on the NDS, all the time both connected with the USB to mini USB cable.

I can see the driver when I look in System Report/Hardware/USB so it 'appears' to have been successfully installed. But when I go to the installer I still only get the Bluetooth port offered to me in the drop down in the second screen in the Updater.

Maybe you can advise what window do I need to get to to enter 'Terminal' by the magnifying glass.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

N

nigelb,

The magnifying glass referred to is simply the OSX search function located in the far right side of the menu bar.  It’s the simplest way to find and launch Terminal.

Tried the instructions kindly supplied by Jack but to no avail. Just tried it on my wife's Macbook (old syle USB not C) and once I updated the drivers worked straight away. Thanks everyone. 

Am having exactly the same problem. MacBook can see the driver (it is listed under USB) but it is not listed in the drop down box on the naim updater.

jack from Adelaide - at the point in your instructions where you type the first sudo command and enter password I get a message ‘driver not found’.

Jack,

Just tried your suggested solution, but I get ‘no such file or directory’ after the first terminal command (step 6).  

Hard to believe I can’t even get as far as others who have also not been able to make it work.

Evan

Update: forgot to leave a space after "cd".  Now I'm getting this:

/Library/Extensions/SiLabsUSBDriver.kext failed to load - (libkern/kext) dependency resolution failure; check the system/kernel logs for errors or try kextutil(8).

The driver does show up in the system profile, however.

Weirdly, after 2 days of trying with the same issue as Evan, Finkfan and Reburner I have successfully updated the new firmware. Sorry to say, I have no idea why the sudden success. I was unable to go through Jack from Adelaide's suggestion and suggestions from Naim Support were also unsuccessful.

My only theory is that my USB to Mini USB cable has an intermittent fault but I also tried with another cable with the same issue, which would mean a fault with both cables and I would suggest that is unlikely or very unlucky.

From reading the various threads on the 4.6 firmware update, it does appear there is a particular problem with later versions of OSX. I am on the latest Sierra. But why did I suddenly have success today?

Confused of Chesham.

Well done. I'm on the latest Sierra too and still no luck. And I've tried 5 different cables. 

Really not good enough.

Well I would bet that Naim are now all over this, especially our particular issue as it has its own thread.

Hopefully they will come up with a proper fix rather than trusting to luck. Hope you get it sorted soon and I wish I could offer some advice but I simply don't know if did anything in particular to make it suddenly see the new driver/port in the Updater. It just suddenly appeared in that drop down menu in the second screen in the Updater after 2 days in hiding! Plain weird.

Had exactly the same issue as Evan & Nigel using a MacBook Pro running El Capitan 10.11.6

After much faffing, had success using a MacBook Air running Sierra 10.12.6

Hopefully Phil and team can find a solution for this.

Cheers

Ricky.

Yes, Nigelb - I concur.  I understand Jack’s explanation as to how newer versions of OS X differ from older ones, and how this could understandably cause issues,  but when things just seem to ‘fix themselves’ after two days we’re getting into voodoo territory.  That aside, so glad you guys got it sorted.  Thanks to Jack for coming up with a workaround which has helped some (though not me, unfortunately).  I think the best course of action for me is to be patient, and hope that naim are working on a solution.  I posted a ticket with naim support a couple of days back, so I hope to hear from them soon.

Regards,

Evan

I don’t think any of this is down to cables; I’ve tried with two known good ones, without success.  And reburner has tried 5!!  It has to be a function of the all the many different versions of OSX that are out there in the field.

Out of curiosity, I would love to hear any feedback regarding perceived sound quality differences (both good and bad) from those lucky souls who have managed to update in the last day or two.

Cheers,

Evan

Even, I tend to agree that cables are an unlikely source of the problem. It is also weird that Ricky had success with Sierra but not with El Capitan. I too had (eventual) success with Sierra (version 10.13.1) which blows my theory that it is the later versions of OSX that are causing the problem. There are of course many other variables out there, not least what other software we are all using on our Macs.

If you have a quiet moment, it might be worth trying the driver download and Updating again. I eventually had success through perseverance. No particular knowledge or skill involved!

Once I have had a chance to actually sit down and listen to 4.6, I will report back my findings on the current thread dedicated to 4.6 SQ.

Good luck chaps, hopefully Niam will have this nailed this coming week. Plenty of feedback on 4.6 updating issues on here now to help them with a diagnosis and cure.

Liking the results of the new firmware. Seems like a positive uplift. I’d like to think I’m hearing better detail and separation and dynamic range. Listening to Down The Way by Angus and Julia Stone. Never heard anything sound better on a Naim and I love the album. I’m sure it’s never sounded better. 

I've been too busy the last few days to do anything more than read the forum posts about the update but decided today was the day to update our NAC-N 272. In case it may be of help to others here is my experience.

Following the procedure precisely, everything went to plan and the firmware update was completed at the first attempt. This was using an old MacBook Pro, that's about to be EOL'd, running El Capitan (version 10.11.6). The only anomaly was that I could not see the USB driver listed on the MacBook system report under USB and neither was it shown under Disabled Software. However, having previously had a pop-up confirmation that the driver was successfully installed. I pressed on and tried the firmware updated anyway - hey presto it worked.

Only just done it so now comment yet on the impact.

I had the same problem - drivers for my macbook - finally has been solved.

I guess I must be a glutton for punishment, but I dug out my wife’s MacBook Air running 10.10.5, figuring I might as well give it a try on a THIRD Mac.  Same as before; System sees the driver and the naim installer doesn’t.

Sigh.