Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Hi all,
I started doing some research after reading this post about having to manually enable support for USB to Serial keyspan adapters. Believe it or not I use the Tripp Lite USA-19HS on at least a weekly basis and is an upgrade deal breaker if support has been eliminated or if the manual steps to enabling support are unwise. Anyone have thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)
On upgrading yesterday to El Capitan I found my USA-28XG was no longer recognized. It had been working under Yosemite via the last driver specifically named for it ("Driver for USA-28XG_v2.6.4 (Mac OS X 10.6.x to 10.8.x).zip" on the Tripp Lite site).
I tried several things that didn't help, then on a hunch downloaded their more recent file "USA-49WG-v1-and-v2-Mac-Drivers.zip" that would appear to be specific for the four port converter, but it's not :-)
The installer notes that the driver in the enclosed package named "Keyspan Serial Adapter Driver_v4_Mac OS X 10.9_10.10.pkg" will work with many different devices - specifically:
One Port DB9: USA-19HS, USA-19, USA-19Qi, USA-19W, USA-19QW
Two Port DB9: USA-29WG
Two Port Din8: USA-28XG, USA-28X, USA-28
Four Port: USA-49WG1, USA-49WG, USA-49W, USA-49WLC, USA-4E230
Other: USA-18X, UPR-112, UPR-112G
So I deleted the old driver (using Keyspan Serial Assistant) and ran the installer on my El Capitan system. And it failed with a not very helpful error message. But then I tried a custom install of only the KeyspanUSAdriver, unchecking the USAdriverFolder. This operation completed and I found the driver in Library/Extensions/ (not System/Library/Extensions where the previous driver had been). System Information:Extensions (opened through About This Mac; System Report) indicated that the driver had been found but not loaded.
I restarted the computer, to see if the driver would become loaded, but it was not... My serial adapter had been unplugged throughout all of this, so I decided to plug it in - and this crashed the computer! But when it rebooted everything worked! I have not restarted since, and will try that soon to verify that there are no ongoing issues. If there are I'll report back.
So, to more specifically answer your question - I think you can likely use the 10.9 - 10.10 driver I mentioned above for your USA-19HS. It may install without you having to resort to the custom install that I tried if you install before upgrading to El Capitan. I would try this more traditional route before turning to command line tricks.
best, mike
Back with bad news... Computer crash on cold reboot after posting my reply!
Too bad as the device was apparently working perfectly well on both ports, but perhaps it can only reach that state following a crash? Some sort of automatic accommodation mode?
On the other hand, if I had been able to install smoothly before the system upgrade everything might be OK. I definitely would not go ahead with the custom install of the driver that I described above if I were you.
Sorry if this has been a waste of your time. - mike
Mike416, thought I'd check in with a bit of good news.
After doing a bit more research it seemed like every upgrade to the MacOS was sketchy concerning keyspan adapters. So I took the plunge. There was no way to test whether my keyspan was working until I arrived at my job site today. Sadly, the El Cap upgrade broke the driver and the fresh install of the USA-49WG didn't even run. It failed immediately.
What was strange was that in the System Profiler the USB section displayed the device perfectly, even listing my model USA-19HS.
So I took the following steps, staying completely away from the Keyspan Serial Assistant. I went to System Prefs, Network, and removed any devices (I think they showed up as modems) and rebooted to have the changes take effect. Then I downloaded a driver for 10.10 found on this Tripplite page (though I don't know if it will work), it's a driver written for 10.9 and 10.10. Downloaded that, ran the installer, and voila, worked like nothing had ever happened.
JonDle, good to hear that you were successful with the USA-19HS driver installation. I has a look at it after reading your message. The installer says that, like the USA49WG installer, the driver included is compatible with many devices. I tried it and was happy to see that the install completed 'successfully' but the install log seems to indicate that it tries to install in /System/Library/Extensions but it ends up in Library/Extensions instead.
That may not be critical, but something is still wrong in my case and a cold boot, with the device plugged in, following install results in my machine crashing. It recovers and the device works! but after a shutdown and restart the driver is not loading.
Still a few things to try, but I'm less hopeful.
I have been fighting this same issue with USA-19HS after installing El Capitan.
I contacted Tripp-lite/Keyspan and they said to use the "keyspanUSA_10.9_10.10_v4_signed.pkg" contained in the "USA-19HS-Driver-v4-Mac-OS-X-10.9-10.10.zip" download. I followed their instructions to the letter, multiple time with multiple restarts to no avail. The Keyspan flashes green which means it's ok I guess, and the driver is installed but my device (an X10 CP290) does not show up. Keyspan serial assistant says the driver is installed but there are no devices. Tripp-Lite/Keyspan indicates it should work so there is no more help from them.
I too removed all extraneous serial devices from network prefs but still no joy. I hope someone can figure this out.
Well, now things have gone from bad to worse. I can run the installer successfully but only if I do not install the folder. If I try to install the default it fails and if I try to install the folder alone it fails. I can install the driver alone but it does not work. This is quite annoying
There's also now an update for 10.11 on Keyspan's site.
The new installer for El Capitan (USA-19HSdrvr_10.9_10.10_10.11_v4_signed.pkg) on the Tripp Lite site is identical in content to the previously posted version (keyspanUSA_10.9_10.10_v4_signed.pkg) - it just has a new name.
It works fine for me except that any time I restart my machine there's a kernel panic crash after entering my password. The system tries again and boots properly on the second try. Wish there was a way of avoiding these crashes!
That's a bummer. Sounds to me like there's a deep conflict somewhere in an old driver that didn't properly uninstall or a perceived hardware conflict. Do you have kernel panics when your keyspan is plugged in or is it independent?
With the driver installed (but no adapter plugged in) I can operate just fine - no kernel panic. The System Report - Extensions section says the driver is not loaded. Plugging in the Keyspan's USB plug produces a crash within a few seconds. The computer eventually offers a login screen and after logging into my account the adapter works, and the driver shows as loaded.
If I leave the serial adapter plugged in and later shut down and restart the computer I get a kernel panic after entering the password to my account. The computer recovers after a few moments and presents the login screen again, and all is fine from that point on. The device works and I see no further kernel panics until the next reboot.
I can live with it, but can't help but worry that some harm may come to my system operating this way.
Curious on something here. When I run the installer on Fresh Install 10.11 using USA-19HSdrvr_10.9_10.10_10.11_v4_signed.pkg I get an installation failure message. Did you all install from the command line or by double clicking the package? May need to go back to Mavericks or Yosemite because I need this tool for my job.
Something to do with the FileSystem protections in El Capitan I'm gussing.
SC
Macbook Pro 15" Retina, OS 10.11.1, KeySpan USA-19HS
**EDIT**
I've tried both from double click on package and on command line. Same error both ways. Error from command line is (I was hoping for more detail from the command line for what caused the error):
installer -pkg USA-19HSdrvr_10.9_10.10_10.11_v4_signed.pkg -target /
installer: Package name is keyspanUSAdrvr
installer: Installing at base path /
installer: The install failed (The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.)
I ran the installer (USA-19HSdrvr_10.9_10.10_10.11_v4_signed.pkg) in El Capitan by double clicking the package icon on the desktop. I used the standard install, though the custom install offers the option of selecting 'USAdriverFolder' or 'KeyspanUSAdriver' or both. Rrettke (above) found the installer would not complete cleanly if the 'USAdriverFolder' was selected. I saw a similar thing when I tried a different package (USA-49WG...) early on. So you might give that custom install of the driver only a try with the 19HS package.
The end result should be a kext file (KeyspanUSAdriver.kext) in /Library/Extensions. The installer log seems to indicate that the installer tried to write the file to /System/Library/Extensions, which is now out of bounds for 3rd party kext files, but was the place for them prior to El Capitan. In any case, for me, running the 19HS installer results in the file properly installed in Library/Extensions.
BTW, my crashing issues were corrected by replacing my "USA-28XG" with a new one. The one I had was in fact a USA-28XB which looks the same and was working with the old XG driver, but it's just different enough to be unsupported and have this annoying incompatibility with the current driver. Now with a bona fide 28XG all is well under El Capitan.
Missed that part on the folder the first read through. But tried that this last time and it worked (probably while you were writing you post) a minute ago. Also, just did the standard GUI double click method for installing, as well.
Attempted using the driver with "screen" like normal and all good. Into my routers and switches again. Saved me from going back to Mavericks or Yosemite.
Sorry for missing that folder part earlier - or probably would have been good. Thank you, guys!
Recap:
1) Download driver from http://www.tripplite.com/shared/software/Driver/USA-19HS-Driver-v4-Mac-OS-X-10.9 -10.11.zip for os 10.11
2) Installed driver with double click method. Removed option for USAdriverFolder (choose driver only). Reboot was not required.
3) Attached USA-19HS (your device may vary) to USB port
4) Ran "screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1" while connected via serial to my router/switch.
5) You can change your settings as required after the device. So "screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1 115000 8N1" would connect at 115000 baud 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit.
SC
Macbook Pro 15" Retina, OS 10.11, USA-19HS
Thanks so much louser! I couldn't find the link on the tripplite site but the link in your post above, and the driver it downloads, worked perfectly with a clean install of 10.11.2. Using a 28XG.
rkcapture
Mike416: "BTW, my crashing issues were corrected by replacing my "USA-28XG" with a new one. The one I had was in fact a USA-28XB which looks the same and was working with the old XG driver, but it's just different enough to be unsupported and have this annoying incompatibility with the current driver. Now with a bona fide 28XG all is well under El Capitan."
Mike, thanks for this post. I just tried louser's fix and I'm getting the same panic crashing issues as you did whenever I plug in the adapter now 😟
I have a USA-28X B model as well. You said you replaced yours "with a new one" - where did you find one? It's an old discontinued part and I'm having trouble finding any place that stocks it anymore.
El Capitan Keyspan Adapter Support
