Nano only available in macOS recovery mode

Hardware Nano Family Classic Nano
1

Hi!

I have a Nano with a ch340c chip. I'm trying to use this with a M1 Mac running Sonoma, however the serial interface does not appear when connected (no /dev/cu.usbmodemXX available).

Strangely however, if I boot into the Mac recovery mode the /dev/cu.usbmodemXX interface appears!

Things I've checked:

  • I removed an old usbserial.kext and there is also no usb.kext.
  • An Arduino UNO connects just fine (presumably has a different serial interface).
  • A different, older Nano has the same problem.
  • Tried different cables.
  • This Nano and cable combo works fine on a different M1 Mac running Sonoma.
  • Tried the CH34x drivers (though this doesn't sound like it works on Sonoma anyway).
  • Couldn't see anything obvious in dmesg.
  • Lots of other things I no longer remember...

I'm at a bit of a loss for what to try next. Any suggestions?

2

Can you find out what driver is installed in this Mac?

3

The loaded drivers are:

➜  ~ kmutil showloaded | grep -i serial               
No variant specified, falling back to release
   58    6 0xfffffe000783bf20 0xb5f      0xb5f      com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily (11) 0398B8E1-C573-3238-B224-6A2A033A4A5B <7 6 5 4 3 1>
   59    7 0xfffffe00074b1c50 0x2058     0x2058     com.apple.driver.AppleOnboardSerial (1.0) D13D0E53-3951-3C2F-90AD-B58372C5D863 <58 51 7 5 4 3 1>
  144    0 0xfffffe000751e0f0 0x79f      0x79f      com.apple.driver.AppleSerialShim (1) 365EA873-2046-3970-A02B-BEC88151C008 <27 7 6 5 4 3 1>
  150    0 0xfffffe000751d960 0x783      0x783      com.apple.driver.AppleSamsungSerial (1.0.0d1) F7218511-3FED-3B6A-B171-2968B99C7ABB <59 58 27 7 5 4 3 1>
  244    0 0xfffffe000791fb20 0x998      0x998      com.apple.driver.driverkit.serial (6.0.0) 0718D554-33F0-3F4A-AFD4-388633547A37 <58 5 4 3 1>
➜  ~ kmutil showloaded | grep -i usb                                                   
No variant specified, falling back to release
   65   13 0xfffffe0007605570 0x9e4      0x9e4      com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBCommon (1.0) EE4F0266-6D6B-33F0-A70A-1517EC41E797 <5 4 3 1>
   66    2 0xfffffe00078f6a20 0x6a1      0x6a1      com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHostMergeProperties (1.2) 60B8A2E8-C772-39C3-9593-89284CAD024A <4 3 1>
   67   14 0xfffffe00078c4d50 0x12f20    0x12f20    com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHostFamily (1.2) BA639BE4-F528-3B03-9EF7-B28209FD1F5C <66 65 64 19 7 6 5 4 3 1>
   69    1 0xfffffe000791b6d0 0x341b     0x341b     com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageDriver (245) 443036F8-ED9A-33D4-A707-8C89F34BC346 <68 67 56 21 6 5 4 3 1>
   70    1 0xfffffe0007530300 0xe17      0xe17      com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTDM (556) 767C5559-CBC3-35F6-8C60-C1E4A1B774B4 <69 67 57 56 21 19 7 6 5 4 3 1>
   80    0 0xfffffe00078ff2b0 0x3ff7     0x3ff7     com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBUserHCI (1) 31E68F0A-7C5D-3C19-B496-CEF6C7520A26 <67 65 5 4 3 1>
   82    0 0xfffffe00078f70d0 0x11d9     0x11d9     com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHostPacketFilter (1.0) B32FBABB-283C-321A-A961-9867161246ED <67 65 7 6 5 4 3 1>
  116    1 0xfffffe00078f5ba0 0xe71      0xe71      com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHostCompositeDevice (1.2) 01E9AED2-FCB0-30B0-A1A9-52244378FE4E <67 65 6 5 4 3 1>
  117    1 0xfffffe00078f82b0 0x4dad     0x4dad     com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHub (1.2) 409AA983-987F-3D6C-9EE3-6DE531BF03EB <67 65 5 4 3 1>
  118    2 0xfffffe000738f910 0xbfc      0xbfc      com.apple.driver.AppleEmbeddedUSBHost (1) E6760310-4BB4-3D7D-AC57-3E73FBDF185C <117 116 67 66 65 19 7 6 5 4 3 1>
  120    2 0xfffffe0007908de0 0xc28e     0xc28e     com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCI (1.2) 6F5CEEE1-F796-37E2-9673-1E6289B80B72 <109 67 65 60 27 7 6 5 4 3 1>
  121    1 0xfffffe00078e3e70 0x7110     0x7110     com.apple.driver.usb.AppleSynopsysUSBXHCI (1) DE452DA2-1BE5-3DE5-B413-639D9DD9BC50 <120 119 118 109 67 65 60 27 7 6 5 4 3 1>
  122    0 0xfffffe00078d9fa0 0x9ec8     0x9ec8     com.apple.driver.usb.AppleSynopsysUSB40XHCI (1) 7CDAF16A-BCC1-320F-865D-F4526F622F81 <121 120 118 110 109 67 65 60 27 7 6 5 4 3 1>
  123    3 0xfffffe00078a7a20 0x48f5     0x48f5     com.apple.iokit.IOUSBDeviceFamily (2.0.0) 3F8532F8-7970-37AF-8FF4-8049763A83F6 <65 6 5 4 3 1>
  124    1 0xfffffe00078b1410 0x88d8     0x88d8     com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXDCI (1.0) 25940873-0247-3334-99C9-F0569536476E <123 65 5 4 3 1>
  125    0 0xfffffe00078b9cf0 0x7053     0x7053     com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXDCIARM (1.0) 5A055C75-150B-3B9D-A911-975C60082587 <124 123 119 109 65 60 27 5 4 3 1>
  191    0 0xfffffe00075d33d0 0x8ae      0x8ae      com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltUSBDownAdapter (1.0.4) DAAC2012-849B-3C96-817A-66FB75D2BFA5 <110 5 4 3 1>
  220    1 0xfffffe0007612970 0x812      0x812      com.apple.driver.usb.networking (5.0.0) C3144CE8-E537-37E6-9A86-BB6BFE577029 <67 6 5 4 3 1>
  221    0 0xfffffe000760aef0 0x1130     0x1130     com.apple.driver.AppleUSBDeviceNCM (5.0.0) 7EF902B1-6D07-348B-B474-AAB67BD2ACCC <220 123 49 27 6 5 4 3 1>

On thing I just discovered is that when I plug in my Nano I get the following dmesg output:

[  693.104917]: Driver com.apple.DriverKit-AppleUSBCHCOM has crashed 0 time(s)
[  693.104986]: DK: AppleUSBCHCOM-0x10000113e waiting for server com.apple.DriverKit.AppleUSBCHCOM-10000113e
[  693.107408]: DK: AppleUSBCHCOM-0x10000113e user server timeout

Whereas in recovery mode, and on my other computer this succeeds.

4

After cleaning up a heap of old driver related files the thing that finally seemed to fix it for me was to run:

systemextensionsctl reset
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