USB stick seen as Internal Drive

[UtterDisbelief]

To me it looks like the PXSX ports are being duplicated.

Yeah, this is why I mentioned the possibility of kexts causing an issue. GenericUSBXHCI, XHCI-unsupported etc. Even worse: FakePCIID_XHCIMux.

 

[DanRamone]

Okay, great. Thank you.

What is missing from the information you need is the port map. You need to know which port is allocated which label in IOReg.

We know a lot from the information Asus gave us, but not enough to fully explain what is going on.

For example, here is my guess as to the controller-to-port configuration:

View attachment 542416
What we don't know is the port name allocated to each. Usually HS01 should be an Intel port, but the fact it appears to be an ASMedia one is confusing. In fact the whole USB port layout seems confusing!

The port your LIC USB drive is attached to appears to be HS11, if IOReg is correct.

You should map all the ports using Hackintool to check their port-names. Select the broom icon in the bottom row of the screen, then the refresh (circular arrows) icon to update. Use USB2 and USB3 memory sticks to test each port and make a map of the ports.

One reason we need to do this is to check controller port type as @Edhawk explained earlier. This is the "UsbConnector type" setting, which defines how each port is treated by macOS.

All USB drives should show up as external no matter which port they are attached to.

At the moment I am not able to see the cause of your problem. Your IOReg export file shows no ASMedia ports.

Two extra points to note:

1) The PXSX port-count setting in the USBPorts.kext seems incorrect for the controller, if it is indeed ASMedia.

2) If you are using iMac19,2 as a system-definition I would consider ig-platform-id of 07009B3E instead.

Hi,
the picture you posted is correct, and I'm using from the motherboard headers following ports:
1x9-pin USB2.0 header for 2 USB2 on the front panel of the case,
1x20-pin header for 2 USB3 on the front panel of the case.
The USB-C header and 1x9-pin USB2 header are not connected.
I cleaned the USB tab in Hackintool and tested the ports with usb2 and usb3 drive. I attach the map of the ports.

HS01 of the Intel Chip has been removed from the first front panel connection to stay in the 15 port limit, since in there I halve always plugged a USB3 drive.

As you mentioned I also changed the ig-platform-id to 07009B3E in Device Proprieties in config.plist.

I hope this could help you!

 

[DanRamone]

Forget to mention that the ASMedia USB3.1 with type-A connection on the back shows PRT4 with both USB2 and USB3 drives connected. The USB-C port I could only test with a Ledger device, not sure if exists USB2/USB3 differences on USB-C plugs?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Hi,
the picture you posted is correct, and I'm using from the motherboard headers following ports:
1x9-pin USB2.0 header for 2 USB2 on the front panel of the case,
1x20-pin header for 2 USB3 on the front panel of the case.
The USB-C header and 1x9-pin USB2 header are not connected.
I cleaned the USB tab in Hackintool and tested the ports with usb2 and usb3 drive. I attach the map of the ports.

HS01 of the Intel Chip has been removed from the first front panel connection to stay in the 15 port limit, since in there I halve always plugged a USB3 drive.

As you mentioned I also changed the ig-platform-id to 07009B3E in Device Proprieties in config.plist.

I hope this could help you!

Hi again.

Thanks for the update.

What strikes me as still wrong with this set-up is HS01 and SS01. As your photo shows the case front ports - HS02 and SS02 are on the right-hand blue port. The left side blue port is SS01 and so presumably HS01 too, although not active. According to your Hackintool grab HS01 is ASMedia, and SS01 is Intel. What's more is they are, all four ports (2x physical, 2x virtual etc), on the same 20-pin header. How can that be, I ask myself?

What is especially wrong here, apart from the pair of ports being provided by different chipsets yet in the same plug, is that if ASMedia was being used as a "piggy-back" chip HS01 would be Intel and SS01 would be ASM.

So either I'm lost, or ASUS have done something very strange with their ACPI implementation.

This was why I wondered about rogue kexts causing disruption. Double-check you haven't put anything into the Library/Extensions folder and forgotten about it.

In the original IOReg file you uploaded HS01 certainly shows up on PXSX/RP05 and RP07. I do not think it should appear twice, but can't deny what I see!

Depending on how confident you feel exploring DSDT and SSDT files, it would help to dig out the USB section and examine the ACPI code. You would do this by 'dumping" the DSDT from OpenCore or Clover.

So I'm sorry, but at this point I'm still rather too confused. Perhaps @Edhawk can spot what I'm missing?

 

[DanRamone]

Hi again.

Thanks for the update.

What strikes me as still wrong with this set-up is HS01 and SS01. As your photo shows the case front ports - HS02 and SS02 are on the right-hand blue port. The left side blue port is SS01 and so presumably HS01 too, although not active. According to your Hackintool grab HS01 is ASMedia, and SS01 is Intel. What's more is they are, all four ports (2x physical, 2x virtual etc), on the same 20-pin header. How can that be, I ask myself?

What is especially wrong here, apart from the pair of ports being provided by different chipsets yet in the same plug, is that if ASMidea was being used as a "piggy-back" chip HS01 would be Intel and SS01 would be ASM.

So either I'm lost, or ASUS have done something very strange with their ACPI implementation.

This was why I wondered about rogue kexts causing disruption. Double-check you haven't put anything into the Library/Extensions folder and forgotten about it.

Another thing you can do is run IORegistryExplorer again and this time search, in the field top-right of screen, for the terms, without quotation marks: "2142" and "ASMedia". When I did this on your original IOReg export none of these came up.

Originally, with the USBinjectAll.kext I had 2 HS01, the one that I removed on the left USB3 port in the front panel, and the ASMedia one that u still see. So actually there is a HS01 for the Intel and a HS01 for each of the ASMedia chipset. As you can see from my last screenshot of Hackintool there is an HS1 for 0x00 port 0x03 and an HS1 for 0x01 port 0x03.

I also attach you a screenshot of Library/Extensions, I didn't put manually anything inside, maybe you can see something wrong there. There are RMEFirefaceUSBDriver that belongs to the Soundcard, even though the sound card is a Firewire one, and connected to a Firewire pcie card.

IOReg can't find either 2142 or ASMedia. One thing I can see in IOUSB, is that with the pen if connected to the front USB2 it says "non-removable" "yes" , while on USB3 "no". But this is I suppose the same situation in DiskUtility.

What I just noticed is that while in Disk Utility the usb pen is seen as "internal" plugged to USB2 on Finder I can see it as external (!)

 

[DanRamone]

Depending on how confident you feel exploring DSDT and SSDT files, it would help to dig out the USB section and examine the ACPI code. You would do this by 'dumping" the DSDT from OpenCore or Clover.

So I'm sorry, but at this point I'm still rather too confused. Perhaps @Edhawk can spot what I'm missing?

Unfortunately my knowledge is very limited, and I don'r really know what means "dumping" DSDT and how to explore them...I just followed guides how to install High Sierra back in 2017 with Clover, and a month ago I installed Catalina with Opencore. I could try if there is a guide somewhere around.

I really thank you all for your patience, and somehow also ok if we can't solve this issue, since all devices that I'm plugging on USB are actually working. I also reached out the software house of the plugins where I need the licenses on the USB stick, and their best suggestion was to buy a different USB-pen. I will give it a try also.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Unfortunately my knowledge is very limited, and I don'r really know what means "dumping" DSDT and how to explore them...I just followed guides how to install High Sierra back in 2017 with Clover, and a month ago I installed Catalina with Opencore. I could try if there is a guide somewhere around.

I really thank you all for your patience, and somehow also ok if we can't solve this issue, since all devices that I'm plugging on USB are actually working. I also reached out the software house of the plugins where I need the licenses on the USB stick, and their best suggestion was to buy a different USB-pen. I will give it a try also.

No problem. Happy to help - if I can.

I do not wish to tell you to remove any kexts so we can test, because I realise they may be important for device and software licenses. So perhaps it is better to leave everything as it is, as long as you can work.

However, I'll outline what I can see, for your future reference:

1) You should not have FakeSMC.kext in the Library/Extensions folder at all. You are using an OpenCore EFI with VirtualSMC.kext which is bascially the same thing, but more modern. If you decide to remove it then rebuild your kext caches with the Terminal command: sudo kextcache -i / and then reboot. Make sure you have a back-up USB boot-stick in case you do something incorrectly, so you can get back into your system.

2) Apart from the RMWFirefaceUSB kexts, there are also SiLabsUSB drivers and NiUSBTraktorKontrolX1 kexts that interface with the USB system. They may not have any effect at all, but it is possible they might.

3) I would also consider upgrading OpenCore to at least version 070. You are currently on version 059. Again only do this when you feel you want to, as you need to back-up everything, but the newer version may help.

 

[DanRamone]

No problem. Happy to help - if I can.

I do not wish to tell you to remove any kexts so we can test, because I realise they may be important for device and software licenses. So perhaps it is better to leave everything as it is, as long as you can work.

However, I'll outline what I can see, for your future reference:

1) You should not have FakeSMC.kext in the Library/Extensions folder at all. You are using an OpenCore EFI with VirtualSMC.kext which is bascially the same thing, but more modern. If you decide to remove it then rebuild your kext caches with the Terminal command: sudo kextcache -i / and then reboot. Make sure you have a back-up USB boot-stick in case you do something incorrectly, so you can get back into your system.

2) Apart from the RMWFirefaceUSB kexts, there are also SiLabsUSB drivers and NiUSBTraktorKontrolX1 kexts that interface with the USB system. They may not have any effect at all, but it is possible they might.

3) I would also consider upgrading OpenCore to at least version 070. You are currently on version 059. Again only do this when you feel you want to, as you need to back-up everything, but the newer version may help.

1) I will try to remove FakeSMC.kext, but my doubt is, since VirtualSMC.kext is already in the EFI, should I add it to Extensions folders or I just need to remove the FakeSMC.kext?

2) NiUSBTraktorKontrolX1 belongs to a dj controller, is needed. It took me now a while to figure out what the SiLabsUSBDriver are. I found in google that they make USB to serial devices...and I remembered that I have an Amiga500 joystick with USB connection, I think it belongs to it.

3) I actually tried to install Catalina with a never version of Opencore, but it didn't work. I'm considering in formatting the drive and clean reinstall everything with a never version of open core. I lately installed on the machine an extra SSD with Win10, at least if something goes wrong I can still go on Win to make music.
I also believe that part of these problems are also caused because I installed Catalina on top of HighSierra, but I really couldn't make a new installation work.

I will come back to you guys if I have problems reinstall with new OpenCore, I did't expect to receive so much effort helping me, it is really appreciated!

 

[Edhawk]

1) No, do not add VirtualSMC.kext or any other kexts to your /Library/Extensions (/L/E) folder.

2) You have around 16 third party kexts in your /L/E folder. Most of these will have been added by specific device installations, Joystick, HP printer etc. However, FakeSMC.kext and RealtekALC.kext won't have been added by an installer. These two will have been added by you.

3) Installing Catalina as an update from High Sierra will not have caused any 'Kext' issues. As the update will have overwritten any Apple system kexts, with newer versions or removed those no longer required or supported.

What it won't have done, is looked at any third party kexts you had previously installed in /L/E. Other than to know they needed to remain in place for your device(s) to work. With the assumption that following an upgrade to the OS you would update the software to match. To deal with any issues the old software had running in the new OS. Did you update the device software after upgrading to macOS Catalina?

If you are thinking of running a clean installation on your system then getting hold of a spare/New drive (SSD or NVMe) for the new installation, while leaving your current setup working would be a better solution. A 250GB or 500GB SSD or NVMe can be obtained fairly cheaply, e.g. £30 for a 250GB SSD. Wiping your current setup with no backup is asking for trouble.