You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

List active mouse drivers on macOS Big Sur

How can I list the active mouse drivers on macOS Big Sur?

Mac mini, macOS 11.1

Posted on Jan 22, 2021 8:35 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 22, 2021 8:51 AM

The USB or Bluetooth subsystem detects the mouse and the operating system then just handles the device interaction. There are no mouse drivers to list as they are built-in to the operating system. You can press option + menu > System Information, and the panel that appears, you select Bluetooth, or USB to see more detail about the connected devices.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 22, 2021 8:51 AM in response to CPL5938

The USB or Bluetooth subsystem detects the mouse and the operating system then just handles the device interaction. There are no mouse drivers to list as they are built-in to the operating system. You can press option + menu > System Information, and the panel that appears, you select Bluetooth, or USB to see more detail about the connected devices.

Jan 22, 2021 9:09 AM in response to VikingOSX

A) Apple support has told me that there can be third-party mouse drivers. Maybe they’re wrong.


B) even if all mice are handled by software from Apple, whatever handles the mice is the driver. So, if this is the case, what is the software that handles it? What is the system extension name? Or what file(s) contain the software?

Jan 22, 2021 10:02 AM in response to CPL5938

With Big Sur, you cannot install traditional kernel drivers as once was possible for two reasons: 1) the operating system now resides on a code-signed, read-only partition, and 2) Apple has abandoned the old device driver format that was used for years in macOS as kernel extensions.


Apple Support is not current with the fact that for reason (1) above, third-party mouse drivers would be blocked from an installation on Big Sur.


For the last decade or so, I have only used Apple mice and one Logitech mouse that had it's own plug-n-play USB radio dongle that required no driver installation. Apple has its own AppleUSB*.kext and IOUSB*.kext support in /System/Library/Extensions in Big Sur.

List active mouse drivers on macOS Big Sur

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.