Ventura Hack for FireWire Core Audio Support on Supported MacBook Pro and others...

Media Technologies General FWAUserLib Core Audio Core Audio Kit

emihatov OP

Created Dec ’22

Replies 51

Boosts 8

Views 22k

Participants 65

Hi all,

Apple dropping on-going development for FireWire devices that were supported with the Core Audio driver standard is a catastrophe for a lot of struggling musicians who need to both keep up to date on security updates that come with new OS releases, and continue to utilise their hard earned investments in very expensive and still pristine audio devices that have been reduced to e-waste by Apple's seemingly tone-deaf ignorance in the cries for on-going support.

I have one of said audio devices, and I'd like to keep using it while keeping my 2019 Intel Mac Book Pro up to date with the latest security updates and OS features.

Probably not the first time you gurus have had someone make the logical leap leading to a request for something like this, but I was wondering if it might be somehow possible of shoe-horning the code used in previous versions of Mac OS that allowed the Mac to speak with the audio features of such devices to run inside the Ventura version of the OS.

Would it possible? Would it involve a lot of work? I don't think I'd be the only person willing to pay for a third party application or utility that restored this functionality.

There has to be 100's of thousands of people who would be happy to spare some cash to stop their multi-thousand dollar investment in gear to be so thoughtlessly resigned to the scrap heap.

Any comments or layman-friendly explanations as to why this couldn’t happen would be gratefully received!

Thanks,

Answered by EuroGuybrush in 739342022

Same here, really not happy with Apple on this one. Planned obsolescence on perfectly working hardware

Boost

mattdopamine OP

Mar ’23

Unfortunately doesn't work with my Motu Traveler v1 on M2 pro Mac mini. I tried installing with Kext Wizard and pacifist after disabling SIP and it never shows up after multiple restarts and accepting extensions in system settings.

Any extra advice on how to get this working is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

ftico OP

Apr ’23

Hi @matt9 thanks for the link and the hack but it is not installing properly on Ventura 13.2.1 on my macbook pro M2. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

SooperSergDev OP

Apr ’23

Finally got it working on M1 (Ventura).

In recovery mode enabled Startup Security Utility > Security Policy... Allow user management of kernel extensions...
Installed AppleFWAudioVentura.pkg which basically installs AppleFWAudio.kext to the "/Library/Extensions"
Now my device is visible under Audio Midi Setup and any DAW
Maestro 2 (for Apogee Duet Firewire) still doesn't see device, even that I have working duetDaemon (running as Intel)

DBProductions OP

May ’23

Have been playing around with getting this to work this afternoon. I'm on a Mac Mini M2 PRO + Ventura 13.2. I wasn't able to make the installer work, unfortunately. So I used 'Suspicious Package' to extract the AppleFWAudio.kext file from the installer. I've dabbled for years in the Tonymacx86.com world, so I am somewhat used to doing this sort of thing.

I first went into Recovery mode & set the Startup Security Utility > Security Policy... Allow user management of kernel extensions... as recommended.
Next, did a manual install to /Library/Extensions.
Finished up by using one of my old CustomMac tools, Kext Wizard to execute a "Repair Permissions" (disk permissions on the disk), followed by "Rebuild Cache" to rebuild system kext caches.
Rebooted.

Behold the System Report shows my Onyx-1220i audio mixer with integrated FW audio interface:

Screenshot 2023-05-07 at 5.02.38 PM.png

...but nothing shows up in the Sound System Settings option. I have another audio interface now that is my primary interface, but I could sure use the extra input channels with doing a bigger session & need more than 8 channels of input (other interface has 8 mic pre's).

If anyone is following along who has gotten this to work on the M2, I'd love to hear from you! Thanks in advance!

ADDASoundDesign OP

May ’23

I have managed to get this working on an M2 2023 MacBookPro. I'm using an Apogee Ensemble Firewire and it is now detected and works, mostly. I had to use kmutil myself to get the kernel extension to load. The script in the package didn't work so I just grabbed the files from it using Suspicious Package, disabled SIP, modified my Startup Security Utility settings and then ran kmutil in the terminal.

However, I have been having problems with my system crashing at random intervals when using the ensemble. I'm going to keep tinkering and see if I can figure out a work around. Any assistance folks can provide would be greatly appreciated. I noticed a similar situation for folks here: eyetvforum.com/index.php?/topic/305278-incompatibility-with-macos-13-ventura-beta/ My console reports: Library not loaded: /System/Library/Frameworks/FWAUserLib.framework/Versions/A/FWAUserLib

SooperSergDev OP

May ’23

Thanks Apple 🤬😡🤯 You now disabled this ability in Ventura 13.4 🤬😡🤯 I have no words.... Now I'm getting error message that this Kext cannot be loaded. Once I'm clicking on "Allow" button, I'm getting to the loop where I need restart computer.

WHAT"S WRONG WITH YOU APPLE??

SooperSergDev OP

May ’23

It seems to be a bug in Ventura 13.4. Even Apple's kext is not loading even if I click Allow.

I removed the following kext from "/Library/Apple/System/Library/Extensions" and this message is gone.

AppleKextExcludeList.kext AppleMobileDevice.kext RemoteVirtualInterface.kext

Looks like they are from/and for Xcode (not sure). But this is system kext's and they worked before fine. It is obvious that this is a HUGE bug ((

birdweek OP

May ’23

Can confirm that matt's fix still works on the most current version of Ventura as of 5/30 on a M2 MacBook Air. Lifesaver! Thanks a lot!

BarnYard OP

Jun ’23

@DBProductions I am at a similar stage with my UAD Satellite Thunderbolt. I can find it in the computers Hardware Menu but the software isn't seeing it.

Do either you or @matt9 any ideas on what to do?

Thanks.

R_prob OP

Jun ’23

Hey! Need help from you guys. I´m got a Mac Mini M2 Pro, with ventura installed, i have a Mackie Onyx 1640i, Firewire audio interface. With the help of this post, i was able to make Ventura recognise the audio interface in the System Report, on the firewire devices, but it doesn´t appear on Audio Midi Setup, System Sound or in Ableton Live. I followed all steps from this post, minus the "kmutil" command, it always give me an error. Anyone can help me please? I need this audio interface to work...thanks in advance

mildavw OP

Aug ’23

Thank you, @matt9! Adding the extension worked on my MacBook Pro 13-inch, M2, 2022 running Ventura 13.4.1 (c) with an original Presonus Firepod and GarageBand.

The install claimed it failed, and the System crashed a few times at first, but eventually restarting with the interface plugged made it stable.

DynamoBen OP

Oct ’23

Has anyone tried this on Catalina? I have some audio devices that I'd really like to "recover".

DynamoBen OP

Oct ’23

Any hacks for Catalina? I'm in the same boat with my audio gear :(

loukash OP

Oct ’23

Catalina is not really a problem, is it? I mean, I can use my old Alesis io26 on Catalina just fine. It's just the Alesis HDM app that won't work because it's 32-bit so the io26 channel routing can only be changed when booting from an earlier OS partition, in my case El Capitan.

I couldn't make the io26 run on Ventura though.

TwistedWrist OP

Dec ’23

Hey all, Matt's fix has worked to get my Onyx 1640i working with my new M2 Air (Ventura); however, anytime I power on the mixer the laptop screen goes purple and it crashes and restarts within a minute. Usually after the restart it will proceed without error. It also would crash if I booted up the laptop with the mixer already connected and powered. Anybody experience this and have a fix?