[Guide] 10.11+ USB changes and solutions

[dreamcat]

Your ioreg shows no devices plugged on any SSxx port.

Oh I'm very sorry. It was because it was 4:30am at that point and very tired, had been up for 22 hours. Please find attached again (i make sure this time!). Its got the ssd in it. Speed test here (of same session new again):

Last login: Thu Mar 16 14:09:15 on ttys001
ga-z170x-g3:log janitor$ sudo bash -l
Password:
ga-z170x-g3:log root# diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
...
/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk3
   1:                      Linux                         245.8 GB   disk3s1

ga-z170x-g3:log root# dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/dev/null bs=1m count=100
100+0 records in
100+0 records out
104857600 bytes transferred in 4.842313 secs (21654445 bytes/sec)
ga-z170x-g3:log root# dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/dev/null bs=1m count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes transferred in 46.581274 secs (22510677 bytes/sec)
ga-z170x-g3:log root#

All my EFI/CLOVER folder and config.plist / other stuff was not changed since last night. Rest is all the same.

[EDIT] Have also took the screen caps now of my boot up log message (verbose). To check and see for any other possible ACPI errors to help solve towards sleep etc. It definately has a few ACPI errors in it. As to whether they affect this USB. Will I am not sure yet. Just took them a few minutes ago. Havent had time to read through them yet. (Not that I would have very much clue what I'm looking to do about it at anyway, except for to google the error messages and look for known solutions).

 

[zipb]

Thanks for the info, dreamcat. TB1 and 2 work in El Cap with a startech adapter. I can even howsap firewire devices with an extra TB- FW adapter.
I'm just curious how to get USB/displayport/whatever working on the USB-C ports, just like a real mac.

So these USR1 and 2 ports are Imac 17,1 specific and not relevant for a Hack. Interesting.

 

[RehabMan]

Oh I'm very sorry. It was because it was 4:30am at that point and very tired, had been up for 22 hours. Please find attached again (i make sure this time!). Its got the ssd in it. Speed test here (of same session new again):

Last login: Thu Mar 16 14:09:15 on ttys001
ga-z170x-g3:log janitor$ sudo bash -l
Password:
ga-z170x-g3:log root# diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
...
/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk3
   1:                      Linux                         245.8 GB   disk3s1

ga-z170x-g3:log root# dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/dev/null bs=1m count=100
100+0 records in
100+0 records out
104857600 bytes transferred in 4.842313 secs (21654445 bytes/sec)
ga-z170x-g3:log root# dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/dev/null bs=1m count=1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1048576000 bytes transferred in 46.581274 secs (22510677 bytes/sec)
ga-z170x-g3:log root#

All my EFI/CLOVER folder and config.plist / other stuff was not changed since last night. Rest is all the same.

[EDIT] Have also took the screen caps now of my boot up log message (verbose). To check and see for any other possible ACPI errors to help solve towards sleep etc. It definately has a few ACPI errors in it. As to whether they affect this USB. Will I am not sure yet. Just took them a few minutes ago. Havent had time to read through them yet. (Not that I would have very much clue what I'm looking to do about it at anyway, except for to google the error messages and look for known solutions).

Your problem may be device specific. Try a different HDD or different adapter.

 

[joevt]

What did you do to make your USB-C/TB ports working as USB ports?

In Mac OS X 10.11, you can connect a USB 2.0 device such as a mouse to a USB port controlled by the Thunderbolt controller and it should just work. To connect a USB 3.0 or 3.1 device to the Thunderbolt controlled USB ports, you need to use macOS 10.12.

Did you include them in your 15 max allowed USB ports in OSX?

The Thunderbolt USB controller (AlpineRidge chip) is a different controller than the XHC. It has it's own 15 port limit, but it only has 4 ports (2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.1) so there's no problem. Only the XHC has too many ports.
[/QUOTE]

I remember there were 2 weird looking ports(not called HS or SS) in ioreg, are these the USB-C ports? I've excluded them on my rig to stay within the 15 limit, does that matter? I would like to get these working.

#2 (different thread) shows where the Thunderbolt USB ports are located. You should not exclude those since they are not part of the XHC.

zipb, the '2 weird port' are USR1 and USR2. Most likely from default iMac17,1 hardware profile (mac hardware specific), and definately nothing about the Thunderbolty.

Those are injected by USBInjectAll.kext for the Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (8086:9d2f) and the Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (8086:a12f). Check the info.plist file of USBInjectAll.kext.

in macOS Sierra, the driver for the XHC is AppleUSBXHCISPT or AppleUSBXHCISPTLP (SPT = Sunrise Point) and the driver for AlpineRidge USB is AppleUSBXHCIAR (AR = AlpineRidge).

in El Capitan, the AppleUSBXHCIPCI driver is used for both controllers, and does not work with the SuperSpeed+ of the AlpineRidge.

You can compare
/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBXHCIPCI.kext/Contents/Info.plist between El Capitan and Sierra to see the difference.

To get Thunderbolt 3 working (according to joevt say to me in a PM), you just need the latest sierra version 10.12.3. And to reboot the machine after plugging the TB device (or else plug device in on windows, then boot back from windows).

Thunderbolt behavior between 10.11 and 10.12 has not changed for Hackintosh so Thunderbolt 3 should work the same in 10.11. Only the USB behavior has changed.

Well, Thunderbolt 3 should work with 10.12 because of the MacBook Pro 2016, but I don't think anyone has gotten better behavior from Hackintosh yet.

I already wrote everything that I know about this Alpine Ridge chip in my EFI/CLOVER folder. Its the exact same chip on your UD5 TH (just mine cheaper mobo is not enabled for TB3, only USB 3.1).

I have a Gaming 5 motherboard that has a similarly disabled Thunderbolt 3 chip, but I haven't tested the USB part of it yet.

* As of 03/2017, the user joevt has recently been investigating about these intel usb 3.1 ports

Thread1: Hot-Plug doesnt work
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/...gigabyte-z170x-designare.211820/#post-1419530

* These USB 3.1 ports are hanging off an Intel Alpine Ridge Chip

* When thunderbolt (not this mobo!), then hot-plugging is not supported, a device must be plugged before boot
Perhaps this might / might not also imply a somewhat similar situation for the case of USB devices

* For example, if your USB devices also simply do not appear (when first hot-plugged) on the USB 3.1 ports

* There seems nothing new appear on the device tree
* However if plug in a certain device
(In my case, a 16GB Verbatim Store n Go USB 2.0 flash drive)

* Then the device tree gets populated / created
* After that initialisation is forced triggered, can then plug in other usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 devices

* Some devices (eg mass storage drive) will appear when hot-plugging
* a USB 2.0 mass storage device connects to AppleUSB20XHCIPort@00200000

* a USB 3.0 mass storage device connects to AppleUSB30XHCIPort@00400000
* however dd is reporting 14MB/sec read speed, should be about 70MB/sec
* So my USB3.0 data enclosure is stuck at USB 2.0 (or v1.1?) transfer speeds


Troubleshooting:
===================
* Symptom - Port seems broken, when plugging in your USB device, it does not appear

* Suggestion - plug in USB device before rebooting into MacOS (avoid hot-plugging)
* Suggestion - try to trigger creation of device tree with other kind of USB device

Hot Plug problem only applies to Thunderbolt devices. There should be no issue with hot plug of USB devices. If you're saying that you see an issue with USB, then I will try retesting.

* however dd is reporting 14MB/sec read speed, should be about 70MB/sec

For the speed issue, I would suggest using anything other than the dd command to test that, such as "AJA System Test Lite.app" or "BlackMagic Speed Test.app".

 

[zipb]

In Mac OS X 10.11, you can connect a USB 2.0 device such as a mouse to a USB port controlled by the Thunderbolt controller and it should just work. To connect a USB 3.0 or 3.1 device to the Thunderbolt controlled USB ports, you need to use macOS 10.12.

The Thunderbolt USB controller (AlpineRidge chip) is a different controller than the XHC. It has it's own 15 port limit, but it only has 4 ports (2 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.1) so there's no problem. Only the XHC has too many ports.

#2 (different thread) shows where the Thunderbolt USB ports are located. You should not exclude those since they are not part of the XHC.



Those are injected by USBInjectAll.kext for the Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (8086:9d2f) and the Sunrise Point-H USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (8086:a12f). Check the info.plist file of USBInjectAll.kext.

in macOS Sierra, the driver for the XHC is AppleUSBXHCISPT or AppleUSBXHCISPTLP (SPT = Sunrise Point) and the driver for AlpineRidge USB is AppleUSBXHCIAR (AR = AlpineRidge).

in El Capitan, the AppleUSBXHCIPCI driver is used for both controllers, and does not work with the SuperSpeed+ of the AlpineRidge.

You can compare
/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBXHCIPCI.kext/Contents/Info.plist between El Capitan and Sierra to see the difference.

Thanks for clearing this up. Much appreciated. I should try to install Sierra once more, I guess. First try was an epic failure.

Plus, I'm still not totally happy with my El Cap hack in its current state. I can do without functional sleep, but I'm experiencing occasional USB glitches that I would like to fix before moving on.

 

[zipb]

Hi Rehabman,

I'm still experiencing occasional USB weirdness. My mouse will suddenly stop working, my card reader will need to be replugged before it mounts on the desktop, etc.
Can you have a look at my El Cap info and check for weirdness? I've done my best, but there's just too much partly outdated information/noise...
Thanks!

 

[zipb]

@RehabMan,
Sorry, here's the info.

 

[RehabMan]

@RehabMan,
Sorry, here's the info.

You might try injecting the USB power properties (see Clover config.plist/Devices/USB).
Also, your ACPI setup does not accommodate _OSI("Darwin") in any way... (read post #1)
And you have Google Chrome hooking all your USB ports (read the laptop FAQ)

Also, probably not related, but you should rename HECI to IMEI.

 

[joevt]

I have a Gaming 5 motherboard that has a similarly disabled Thunderbolt 3 chip, but I haven't tested the USB part of it yet.

I finally got around to testing the USB on the Z170N Gaming 5 using macOS Sierra. I found no issues with either SunrisePoint SPT or AlpineRidge AR controllers with hot plugging of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0/3.1 devices. I haven't tried sleep and wake though and I haven't done any SSDT modifications to fix the UsbConnector properties and other stuff.

AR: 848 MB/s Read (USB 3.1 gen 2) from both the USB-C and the USB-A ports.
SPT: 425 MB/s Read (USB 3.0).

The USB-C port of the Z170N Gaming 5 is slightly recessed - the IO shield might block some USB-C cables by a fraction of a millimeter so that there is no satisfying snap when you insert a USB-C cable, and the expected resistance when disconnecting the cable is not there. One of my cables would not work because of that.

 

[zipb]

You might try injecting the USB power properties (see Clover config.plist/Devices/USB).
Also, your ACPI setup does not accommodate _OSI("Darwin") in any way... (read post #1)
And you have Google Chrome hooking all your USB ports (read the laptop FAQ)

Also, probably not related, but you should rename HECI to IMEI.

Thanks! Much appreciated. Can you be a bit more specific about Chrome hooking USB ports? I just had a look in the laptop FAQ and did a search but I came up with zero...