Signed Drivers for Mac OS El Capitan

[kaleberg]

Mac OS El Capitan prefers signed drivers. This means that one has to turn off kernel extension signing security for programming a number of your products including several Arduinos, Floras, Trinkets and probably others. It looks like Apple is catching up with Microsoft on this security requirement. Any word of on if / when there will be signed Mac OS drivers?

For the Mac user who has upgraded and just wants to get on with it:
- Reboot into recovery mode by holding down Command-R while rebooting
- Bring up a terminal window from the tools menu item
- Type: csrutil enable --without kext
- Reboot into El Capitan
You'll be no less secure than with Yosemite.

[adafruit_support_mike]

The only problem we've seen among OS X users involves the drivers for USB-to-Serial cables, and Prolific has a signed driver for El Capitan on their website.

[adafruit2]

yah - kaleberg, has this come up for you using el capitan? because those devices *dont need drivers* so theres nothing to sign :)

[kaleberg]

Yes, you are correct. My problem is that I cannot connect the Trinket directly to the Mac as I used to. I need to connect through a USB hub. There must be something a bit different with the El Capitan USB stack. Luckily I have all sorts of el cheapo USB hubs lying around.

[adafruit2]

ok thx for the details - will suggest that when necessary! :)

[adafruit_support_mike]

I think the problem is related to Macs using USB-3.

The device registration process for USB-3 is more complicated than for USB-2, and the Trinket's bootloader is the simplest emulator our USB guru was able to create. A hub acts as a USB-3 to USB-2 translator.

[KevinKarney]

I have this problem. El Capitan does not see the USB port to which the Trinket is connected. I have tried the method suggested by kaleberg. Still no connection. So what is the proposed way forward - connecting a USB hub seems a little unnecessary - but I'll try that if there is no other solution. (I'll also try to get another Trinket, in case the one I have is faulty). The little green LED lights up and the red LED lights up for a while when connected)

[adafruit_support_mike]

I have the same problem getting a 2015 Macbook Pro to recognize Trinkets if they're connected directly. Running the signal through a cheap 4-port USB expander works every time.

[KevinKarney]

Bought a cheap USB Hub and found I had to connect to a standard Arduino first. This found the USB port.
Switched to Trinket and connected but ONLY when I switched the IDE to AdaFruit Metro. Something uploaded and I now have to connect the Trinket (or is it Metro) to my electronics top see if it actually works..........

[adafruit_support_mike]

A Trinket doesn't register as a Serial port. The Arduino IDE thinks it's a programmer.

Make sure you have 'usbtiny' selected under the Tools -> Programmer menu, and do the reset-button-and-upload thing.

[ptiger]

I have this problem as well. Used to be able to program trinkets from my MacBook Pro, but then updated to El Capitan, and cannot do so now. Doesn't seem to be due to the USB3 which was there before I updated the OS as well. On my wife's MacBook Air, which also has USB 3.0, but running Yosemite, I am able to upload to the Trinket. Would be great if there was a solution that didn't involve a USB hub. I have hundreds of trinkets to program and would like to be able to do so on my own computer.

[adafruit2]

el cap completely rewrote their USB stack, and introduced some incompatibility. there's no fix at this time other than to use a hub or try a different USB port