Anybody using the new Mac OS Catalina?

[waterstrum]

I'm worried that this might be the end of the line for DM software on the Mac.
Looks like 32bit apps are no longer supported.
Is anyone up and running with Catalina?

 

[Peter Batah]

@waterstrum Perhaps not taking in future updates might be the wise thing to do. Just a thought!

 

[waterstrum]

Hey Peter, That's great advice. I'm going to stay put for now. Just wishful thinking I guess. Thanks.

 

[earlevel]

For 32-bit applications, you can keep a VM running Mojave or earlier (or Windows). I haven't used VirtualBox, but it's free (I use VMWare for running Windows 10, Ubuntu, and others).

The big problem, for me, is the firewire wire interface card for my DM-3200. That will almost certainly be a dead end. (I suppose I can utilize something like a USB-lightpipe box?)

 

[Olietyven]

The MOTU LP32 would perhaps be the right choice in the future. It runs highspeed USB or AVB network.

 

[earlevel]

Yes, that's a possibility...actually, I only really use a one or two channels at a time going to the computer, and a stereo pair back to the board. That would work with SP/DIF on my current computer, but not the new Mac Pro...

Also, I see USBStreamer B, $105, ADAT / USB 2.0, driverless USB on Mac OS X...

 

[waterstrum]

I'm running 32 channels back and forth with the firewire interface.
Does the firewire card not work in Catalina?
Anybody tried it?

 

[Olietyven]

I testet the firewire on my laptop with Catalina, and the Card did not link up. Haven't had the guts to upgrade my production MAC. As stated in other threads, the driver apparently needs to be upgraded, and i don't think Tascam will spend any resources on it. Stay on Mojave, or connect to an interface with adat- aes/ebu or the built in TDIF

 

[earlevel]

Er...I am so tired but somehow slowed down to thinking more clearly. The driver I'm running now is obviously 64-bit, otherwise it wouldn't work with the 64-bit kernel (without booting into 32-bit kernel mode). I guess what I was remembering is that the driver installer is probably 32-bit (without checking), and wouldn't work. It installs either 32- or 64-bit drivers, as the release notes says it's compatible with both. So, even if the installer is 32-bit, I suppose you could install the 64-bit kext manually.

Also, I'm viewing this with the new Mac Pro in mind, since my old one would would need a new graphics card at minimum to support Catalina. So either way I was thinking to be at the end of the line with firewire (though I guess I could go thunderbolt to firewire cheaply...).

However, all the associated applications are 32-bit, and will not work under Catalina, hence my comment about keeping a VM around with High Sierra or something.

So, it looks like maybe $29 firewire-TB adapter and hope the pieces work together, or $105 lightpipe-USB adapter requiring no driver.

PS—kexts—kernel extensions—are something to avoid if possible in the transition and in the future, there are a bunch of caveats with Catalina and going forward...

 

[hip808]

I would like to share with you guys that I upgraded one of my Mac (an iMac) to Catalina (10.15.3) from Mojave and the "IF-FW/DM mkII" of DM4800 shows up and the audio via firewire works perfectly.

The DM4800 MIDI driver also works perfectly. I can control the DAW via "Remote" as before. So the previous installed firewire and MIDI drivers are fully compatible.

However, the TMCompanion no longer works as it's a 32-bit app.

One question, as the old installers may not work, for new installation on Catalina (not upgrade from Mojave), do you think that we can manually copy the MIDI and firewire driver related files? If so, where are they? I believe that it will work if the driver files are in the right places.

 

[earlevel]

That's great news, thanks. On you iMac, you had to use a firewire adapter?

It should be no problem, for a new install, to copy the kext and install it manually: http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/12/how-to-manually-install-kernel-extensions-in-mac-os-x/

 

[hip808]

Yes, it's a late 2013 iMac with a thunderbolt to FW800 adapter. I use a FW800 to FW400 cable to connect to DM4800.

FYI, all my other Mac (Macbook Air 2013 and Macbook Pro 2014) work perfectly with DM4800 on Catalina.

 

[Olietyven]

I installed Mojave on a second disk, then installed the drivers, tested that the drivers where online. All good. Then i upgraded to Catalina, and the drivers where online. Then i restartet the system, and after that the drivers stayed offline. "hip808" did you restart any of your machines ?

 

[hip808]

Yes, I restarted. Sorry, what do you mean by "drivers stayed offline"?

 

[Olietyven]

That my mixer recognised the firewire card, but the driver didn't come online after restart

 

[Jerry Lumpkins]

I have a Tascam US-1800 that I just unplugged and put in a drawer. The driver appears to load with Catalina, but, no sound is produced. It doesn't appear that they have any intention of updating the driver, so, it's probably a dead product.

 

[Beermusic]

Any further update to this? Is anyone using catalina and firewire successfully with a dm3200 or 4800? Or is this the start of the end?

 

[Beermusic]

Can confirm that the card does not work with Catalina on a new install (ie new Mac). Driver installs and the device is recognised in the Mac System connections but not in Audiomidi setup or Logic.

 

[osotogari]

My DM-24 IFFW/DM mkI works with Catalina, so the mkII should be able to work too.
BUT when i first hooked it the computer shut down and kept rebooting, after, all sound in and out were gone in preferences.
After I copied the iffw/dm kext from OS 10.13 and placed it in a folder on my desktop: kext/Library/iffwdm.kext
When i restarted the kext was gone out of that folder but both audio and midi was working fine.

No idea where the magic happened or if having kextbeast helped but it can work.

 

[waterstrum]

Hey osotogari... That is very encouraging. Maybe the DM can continue to work in the current Apple ecosystem too. I bet a skilled programmer could solve this in an hour or two.