My Arduino Portenta just showed up today. At first i unsuccessfully tried connecting to it via my mac (following the tutorial, which said to use 192.168.8.1). The recommended 192.168.7.1 port works on Windows. However, I haven't been able to find much for troubleshooting advice so that i could access it with MacOS. Any advice for how to connect to the Portenta X8 with MacOS would be appreciated.
I don't have a Portenta X8 but since you mention connecting to an IP address like 192.168.8.1 or 192.168.7.1, it means your Mac needs to be on such a network or have a route to such a network.
what's your current IP address in the preference panel?
Hello @roslynn
- How did you connect your Portenta X8, USB-C Hub?
- When you connect the device, do you get a successful connection? Is the board powering ON?
- What MacOS version are you using?
In theory after you connect the device, USB-C Hub not recommended, you should be able to access the IP, if everything looks fine, run some IP Scanner to know which IP have your Portenta X8.
Have a nice one
Let me know! 
I have the M1 mac and it uses the Belkin USB-C LAN. It never registers as connected to a device the way it normally would if i had a conversion from an RJ45 cable to usb-c. However, I can ping the 192.168.7.1 address if i set it to a different local ip address but i can't do the same with 192.168.8.1. I get an ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH on the 192.168.7.1 port, though. Trying to troubleshoot but i suspect that the intention isn't for macs to use this port based on the tutorial recommending to use the .8.1 ip instead.
- The only port available on the Portenta X8 is the USB-C hub so that is indeed the one i used.
- It does appear to be a successful connection (everything powers on, solid red light, flashing blue light) and i'm able to ping 192.168.7.1 but when i try to access via web browser i get an SSL error: ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH.
- I'm running an M1 mac using MacOS Monterey v12.5
Definitely open for suggestions (not sure what other port i would use, though because the USB-C port is the only one available). I did run wireshark but it doesn't reveal any other IP addresses, unforuntately.
Could you try another browser, and other computer?
It might be some configuration of your SSL.
I tried safari instead of Chrome. If i try a different Mac i get the same result but works fine on windows.
Follow the next steps:
- Install adb:
brew install android-commandlinetool - Forward the connection:
adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:80the first port is the host (your PC) and the second one is the device port (X8)
Now you can use this IP http://127.0.0.1:8080 to open the webpage
I just got an Portenta X8 too and read the "Connecting to the Board" instructions here: https://docs.arduino.cc/tutorials/portenta-x8/out-of-the-box#connecting-to-your-wi-fi
I apologize but I don't understand this (and neither do any of the browsers on my Mac). "open your browser and go to... http://192.168.8.1 on MacOS." On what network?
Are you running Ethernet over USB-C?
How does the Mac know this? AFAIK my Mac just tries connect to 192.168.8.1 over my WiFi and fails because, of course, the Protenta isn't on my network because I have not configured it yet.
I don’t have that hardware and That seems indeed very weird…
Did you check if the Portenta by any chance would be in access point mode and create its own open WiFi network which you should connect to before opening the browser and trying to reach the board? (But then it’s weird that the address is different for Mac or Windows)
(Another thought would be if the board pose as an USB ethernet adapter but that would require another type of configuration)
Hello!
Please follow the instructions shown here https://docs.arduino.cc/tutorials/portenta-x8/user-manual#out-of-the-box-experience
On Mac you will need to use an USB-C Hub connected to your Mac, and a USB-C to USB-A plugged on the hub.
After that make the adb forward adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:80
Then open on the browser http://localhost:8080
If that still does not work, please make sure you have flashed the latest version available, check out this section https://docs.arduino.cc/tutorials/portenta-x8/user-manual#portenta-x8-os-image-update
Let me know if you have any issues.
Kind regards,
Pablo Marquínez
Arduino Support Team
Hi,
Still unable to detect X8 on MACOS either intel or M2. Could you clarify how to do it, please? No official information about how to connect on Arduino.cc. I'm trying to connect Arduino Breakout too via USB-A but not detected either.
Both devices (X8 and breakout) are brand new. If I cannot detect them I cannot flash latest version. Does anyone know how to detect, connect or start with Arduino Portenta X8 on MACOS (M2)?
Thanks in advance and regards,
Hi I don't work here but also I am running MAC OS (Intel) and have gotten my Portenta to connect.
I don't have the most amazing grasp on it, but to connect via my terminal (I recommend this over the OOTB browser thing) I had to:
- Install Arduino Mbed OS Portenta Boards in the ArduinoIDE by going to Tools>Boards..>Boards Manager and searching for Portenta.
- Locating the
adbbinary (used on the command line to detect/connect to the Portenta).- There's probably a better method of locating them, possibly from the output displayed by the IDE during the install. But I just did a search in finder on my MacBook that took forever.
- Mine was located at
/Users/myusername/Libraries/Arduino15/packages/arduino/tools/adb/32.0.0/adb. If you're using Finder's GUI, when you get to/Users/myusername, you'll need to unhide the system folders by doingCMD+Shift .(period key) and look for the little Library icon that has a picture of a library embossed on a folder. - [Optional] You might want to add this folder to your path or put a symlink in somewhere your path already points to. I am not a great role-model, so I just added this folder to my path so that I didn't have to mess around with symlinks or refer to the binary by its full name. I always have to re-google how to do this, so I will let you do the same, but I ended up doing
export PATH='/Users/myusername/Libraries/Arduino15/packages/arduino/tools/adb/32.0.0/:$PATH'in my terminal and also appending that line to my.zshprofilefile [that I believe lives at/Users/myusername/.zshprofile] so that when I restart the terminal, that folder will still be included in my path. - [Possible needed step] You might need to give the adb binary permission to be executed with
chmod +x adb.
- Check to see if the Portenta can be seen as plugged into USB to your MacBook. You can list the devices connected by
adb devices. If you didn't add the folder adb is in to your PATH, then you will need to either refer to it by its full path or change your current directory to be inside the folder with the adb binary. - SSH into the Portenta by doing
adb shelland since there is probably only one device connected, it will automatically choose that one.
To use the Out-Of-The-Box experience, you need to figure out where it's running on your computer's local network. This is a bit tricky as it will be odd if you've already configured Wi-Fi on the Portenta or if you've connected an Ethernet cable. In that case, it will probably open up somewhere on your actual network instead of on your computer's local network. If you haven't yet connected internet, you can do ifconfig in the terminal to get a list of all your computer's connections and you might see a connection. It will look different depending on what you use for the USB connection since Apple isn't a fan of USB-A. If you locate your computer's en0 entry and if you have an ethernet connection, the ethernet entry, you can eliminate those IP's as the Portenta's and then you should be left with one that looks like a valid IP like the suggested above "192.168.8.1", and try to connect at port 8080 in your browser as suggested above.
As someone who isn't subscribed to Arduino's service for deploying and maintaining Portenta, I would recommend not using the OOTB if you can avoid it. If you need to update the firmware, you can do so by following the steps in the User Manual that involve the uuu tool.
Sorry if I'm overly verbose (or under), I'm still fumbling my way around this board as well! I hope this helps!
Hi all — just adding to the information available: unable to connect to or see via System Information (alt-click Apple menu top left, first option) my Portenta X8 on an M1 Max, so I used a Surface to get the network connection up & can now SSH into it. The adb route though will only function on the Surface, and doesn't function at all with my Mac.
I didn't even see a prompt to allow the USB connection when the device was connected, so I think something has gone wonky in the X8's USB stack.
Hope this information is helpful in resolving this issue!
so - the trick to getting the portenta x8 working with macbook lies in the fact that it will not work with the default USB Serial driver and the stock USB ports. It requires, unfortunately, using a USB hub....ANY USB hub, and for some reason that little step is enough to get the Serial drivers to work and for it to recognize the Portenta.
Hope that helps.
Also, since I saw it mentioned, the portenta sets up a USB->ethernet PHY on the macbook, and creates a local (machine -> machine) network, and you can access it through the 192.168.7.1 address.