OC Big Sur Build. Cant get USB2 ports to work

[inminorchords]

Ive currently bought a WIFI adapter for my hackingtosh, but before I can even start to install the kexts and workarounds, I have noticed that my USB ports are only excepting USB3 peripherals not USB2.

This is an issue as I need to boot into recovery and use my USB2 keyboard and mouse.

I think it may be an issue with my kexts. but not sure where to start, I have tried mapping my ports in hackingtool and creating the kext file but nothing seems to work, when I check my "system report" it only shows USB3 (see image)

Anyone had the same issues and found a fix?

 

[Edhawk]

Post a copy of your USBPorts.kext, so we can see if you have made any mistakes with the connector types etc. Which is common when creating a custom USBPorts.kext.

Which WiFi adapter have you bought?
Does it have a built-in Bluetooth module that requires a USB2 motherboard header port connection?

Which version of Big Sur are you using? The USB port limit quirk (XhciPortLimit) stopped working in Big Sur 11.3+, so editing and creating a working USBPorts.kext will be harder without this Quirk in the later versions of Big Sur.

 

[inminorchords]

Thanks for the reply.

I actually got this all working this weekend. I rebuilt my EFI folder from
scratch which did the trick. Comparing my new and old EFI folders I had a couple of serial port Kexts that seem to have been conflicting. Removing these woke up my USB 2 ports.

I also successfully installed and got my WiFi adapter up and running after following the guide as I was now able to access recovery with a working Keyboard.

 

[inminorchords]

the SMC kexts were the ones causing the issues.

 

[Edhawk]

Good to hear you found and fixed the issues.

Were they different versions compared to the version of VirtualSMC.kext you were using?
As having all the SMC kexts from the same version/release is essential.

 

[inminorchords]

Not sure, I don't think I need them, I don't have a serial port? or is this wrong. will something else not work now? haha

 

[inminorchords]

These are my kexts now, Ive realised I don't have any usb kexts, which is odd as everything seems to be working fine

 

[UtterDisbelief]

These are my kexts now, Ive realised I don't have any usb kexts, which is odd as everything seems to be working fine

Hi,

Not necessarily. An ITX motherboard like yours appears to be, will have a physically limited number of USB ports available anyway. This is different to the actual amount a Z270 chipset can provide. So if your configuration doesn't go above the magic number 15, then all ports may be working.

What might not be working correctly is the type of port each is. So a USB3 port may only be working in USB2 mode, or an Internal port may be being treated as External etc.

Always a good idea to do the configuration so you know all is working as it should be, because remember a USB3 port is actually 2x ports - a USB2 and a USB3 personality as we call them.

Incidentally the SMC*.kexts are not for Serial-ports, but support files for VirtualSMC.kext. However if your system runs fine without ...

 

[inminorchords]

Hi,

Not necessarily. An ITX motherboard like yours appears to be, will have a physically limited number of USB ports available anyway. This is different to the actual amount a Z270 chipset can provide. So if your configuration doesn't go above the magic number 15, then all ports may be working.

What might not be working correctly is the type of port each is. So a USB3 port may only be working in USB2 mode, or an Internal port may be being treated as External etc.

Always a good idea to do the configuration so you know all is working as it should be, because remember a USB3 port is actually 2x ports - a USB2 and a USB3 personality as we call them.

Incidentally the SMC*.kexts are not for Serial-ports, but support files for VirtualSMC.kext. However if your system runs fine without ...

Yes, Im going to map my USBs tomorrow I think, Ive just seen a few good tutorials on Youtube.

Im also wondering now if my AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 8 GB is running at its best, Final Cut 4k exporting seems to be really slow, should be a LOT faster with this graphics card.