The most exasperating problem with Arduino has been the availability of serial ports, or rather, the lack of serial ports. In the past, the easy fixes described in the troubleshooting pages have been generally successful but the problem has been becoming chronic to the point of completely eliminating my Uno boards as well as Pro Mini which were uploading perfectly until yesterday. The Pro's worked so well in fact, I ordered ten, assuming these would finally resolve the serial port dilemma. The sometimes on, sometimes off, behavior is maddening! Tried previous Arduino versions with the same result. Mega and older boards with Uno chips will show appropriate ports. Help! Not much hair left!
ifugaopapercraft:
The most exasperating problem with Arduino has been the availability of serial ports, or rather, the lack of serial ports.
I have never had any such problem with either FTDI-based (Pro Mini) or ATmega8u2-based boards (Uno/Mega).
ifugaopapercraft:
Tried previous Arduino versions with the same result.
The IDE has nothing to do with the serial ports appearing. That's between OSX and the device being attached.
ifugaopapercraft:
Mega and older boards with Uno chips will show appropriate ports.
Look at the common denominators. Either it is the boards (they aren't from eBay, right?), the cable, or the driver for the FTDI chip on the boards.