How to: Touchstone + mac os Catalina does work

[Sebastian Scharnagl]

Hi there!

As most of you who tried it are aware, the combination of RF-Explorer, Touchstone (Pro) and mac os Catalina is somewhat frustrating. Because the button to start the scan in Touchstone is disabled.

I figured it out after reading the hints from Touchstone manufacturer Nuts About Nets and trying lots of stuff myself.

This has to be done:

1. The SiLabs USB-driver must once be completely removed and replaced by the current version (6)
2. The driver has to be manually un-loaded and loaded after every system reboot

1. The procedure of unloading the drivers can be found below in part two (kextunload). Then you need to reboot in recovery mode, disable SIP (csrutil disable), reboot again. Then you have to unload the drivers (as explained below, do not load them again). Then you have to delete the two silabs kext files (that are folders in reality, search for them in your library folder and subfolders). After that get the newest SiLabs driver from their website: https://www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers click on downloads and get the mac version. Install them. The installation dialog says sth. of version 5 although the website says 6. Don’t worry.

2. After that you’re done. The only downside is: Drivers must be unloaded and loaded after every reboot. That goes the following way in terminal (you have to enter your mac os admin password after the first sudo command). 

sudo kexuntload -b com.silabs.driver.CP210xVCPDriver    

sudo kextload -b com.silabs.driver.CP210xVCPDriver

Do all of this at your own risk – it worked for me.

Any questions? Feel free to ask, but I’m by no means an expert in mac os. I just googled together all the necessary steps.

Cheers

Sebastian

[RF Explorer]

Also note Silabs released a new driver a few days ago fully compatible with Catalina and Big Sur: www.rf-explorer.com/news

Regards

RF Explorer Team

[Sebastian Scharnagl]

Thanks, but the newest I can find (by clicking your link and going via the silabs website) is from 17th of December 2020. That one is the one you have to manually unload and load after every reboot. Is there another one or am I missing something? 

[RF Explorer]

We are not aware of any newer version, in fact this is the first version working for latest Catalina sub-versions and Big Sur, so these instructions were not suitable for these versions before that.

Regards,

RF Explorer Team