After 10.6.2 update, 'No FireWire ports were found'

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Level 1

20 points

After 10.6.2 update, 'No FireWire ports were found'

I updated to OS X 10.6.2 today, and it seems to have broken my FireWire ports. I'm running a Quad 2.66 Mac Pro 1,1. I have a LaCie external drive plugged into the FW800 port which had been temperamental ever since I updated to 10.6, and I also have a Focusrite Saffire external sound interface which is plugged into the FW400 port on the back and which has been working fine up until now.

After the update was installed, the System Profiler now shows that 'No FireWire ports were found' under the FireWire tab, which is clearly incorrect. The Saffire external sound interface still receives power but now fails to boot or to be recognised by OS X.

I've tried resetting the SMC (by both unplugging the computer for 15 seconds, and by pressing what I'm pretty sure was the SMC reset switch on the Logic board, above the PCI express card slots and to the right, yeah?), to no avail. Any bright ideas would be much appreciated.

Quad 2.66 Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.1), 3GB RAM, Focusrite Saffire, Logic S9, Final Cut Pro Studio 2

Posted on Nov 10, 2009 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 10, 2009 2:22 PM in response to EddyBoy_UK

Hello Eddy:

You have done what I would have suggested. If your computer is in warranty, I would contact Apple with a warranty issue.

Barry

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Answer 2

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,227 points

Nov 10, 2009 2:44 PM in response to Barry Hemphill

If you boot from your Snow Leopard or Software Restore disc (depending on whether you upgraded to or your machine came preinstalled with Snow Leopard) do your Firewire ports show up?

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Answer 3

EddyBoy_UK Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 10, 2009 3:27 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

I just booted from my Snow Leopard disk, and the firewire ports showed up fine and dandy. My FW400 Saffire audio interface also booted properly.

Now, if I was doing this right, this would be the time when I used my Time Machine back up to restore to pre-6.2. However, as I mentioned earlier the hard drive that I've been using for that has been a bit temperamental.

I think next thing to try is to wait for my new external to come (couple of days max hopefully), clone my boot drive, then just reinstall SL from scratch. It'll take a while to reinstall everything, but that's the price you pay I guess.

Unless of course you now have an awesome workaround?

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Answer 4

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Nov 10, 2009 3:38 PM in response to EddyBoy_UK

you don't need to reinstall SL from scratch. sure, make a clone to a USB drive.
then try reinstalling 10.6.2 combo update.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL959

that might fix it.
if it doesn't then boot from the SL dvd and reinstall SL over the current install that you've got. this way you don't have to reinstall any apps and don't need to migrate your settings. also, if you are feeling adventerous, before you go for the reinstall you can try reinstalling just firewire kernel extension. see if that cures it. if you have a backup from before you installed 10.6.2 restore the file /system/library/extensions/IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext from the backup and run the following terminal command


sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

you'll have to authenticate with your admin password. then restart and see if the firewire ports work. if you don't have a 10.6.1 backup you can pull the kernel extension off the SL install DVD using Pacifist
http://www.charlessoft.com/

if none of this works then reinstall SL over the current install.

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Answer 5

EddyBoy_UK Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 11, 2009 12:41 AM in response to V.K.

You sir, are a genius.

I first tried replacing the single kernel extension using Pacifist and my SL install DVD, but that had absolutely zero effect. So I thought I'd go for the 'all or nothing' approach, and replaced all the FireWire kernel extensions in one go. Once I'd run the terminal command I didn't even have to restart, everything just came alive of its own accord.

Fortunately, after a shut down and reboot and a repairing of permissions (just to check, y'know?), everything is still up and running.

Thanks again.

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Answer 6

V.K.

Level 9

56,174 points

Nov 11, 2009 7:34 AM in response to EddyBoy_UK

EddyBoy_UK wrote:
You sir, are a genius.

I first tried replacing the single kernel extension using Pacifist and my SL install DVD, but that had absolutely zero effect. So I thought I'd go for the 'all or nothing' approach, and replaced all the FireWire kernel extensions in one go. Once I'd run the terminal command I didn't even have to restart, everything just came alive of its own accord.

Fortunately, after a shut down and reboot and a repairing of permissions (just to check, y'know?), everything is still up and running.

Thanks again.

you are welcome. but keep in mind that this is an "unscanctioned" workaround. it might have some unintended consequences and you might have to go back to 10.6.1 completely until this is fixed. btw, which extensions exactly did you change?

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Answer 7

EddyBoy_UK Author

Level 1

20 points

Nov 11, 2009 11:02 AM in response to V.K.

If the unintended consequences are that my FireWire works again, then I'm fine with that. Maybe once I get a free weekend I'll start fresh with the OS install, but until then I'm not overly fussed so long as the **** thing works.

The extensions I changed were...

IOFireWireAVC.kext
IOFireWireFamily.kext
IOFireWireIP.kext
IOFireWireSBP2.kext
IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport.kext

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