Enabling the PL2303 kext for use with Mac OS 10.2.x – 10.3.x × Teknotes × The Apotek

Enabling the PL2303 kext for use with Mac OS 10.2.x – 10.3.x

18 Comments Published December 23rd, 2002 Tagged with: charger × hotsync × palm × pl-2303 × pl2303 × prolific × usb

[Version 1.2.1 2005.06.29]

If you have one of the wonderful USB HotSync and charger cables sold by brando.com.hk, only to find your new device can’t be seen by the system after upgrading to Jaguar, here is the quick and dirty workaround.

This tip was gleaned from reading through a thread at The Gadgeteer, discussing issues people were having with various drivers for these devices, namely the Bafo and Brando branded USB HotSync and charger cables for Palm V and Vx devices.

You should make sure you have downloaded the latest available version of the PL2303 driver. Try shop.brando.com.hk, to see if there’s a more recent one, or browse the Prolific Web site. (Search for PL-2303 when you get to the page.) UPDATE: Driver versions 1.0.5 and up eliminate the permissions changes. I’ve posted two versions of the PL-2303 driver here, in case you have problems with any of the above sources.
- PL-2303 v 1.0.3
- PL-2303 v 1.0.9b
If your browser hasn’t already unstuffed the installer, do so first.
Now, disconnect all Palm devices from your USB connection. You might as well disconnect all USB devices except your keyboard and mouse, just to be on the safe side.
Run the installer. You will of course need to authenticate, so make sure you’re logged in with administrator privileges when you install this.
You do not need to restart your computer, though you may want to in case things don’t seem to work at first brush.
- For versions 1.0.5 and up:
  1. If you’ve upgraded from a version below 1.0.5, you will probably want to delete the old version with a quick
    'sudo rm -R /System/Library/Extensions/PL2303.kext' in Terminal. You can skip the instructions specific to lower version numbers.
- For versions below 1.0.5:
  1. Now, open the Mac OS X kernel extensions folder (/System/Library/Extensions), and find the extension named “PL2303.kext”. Click once on it to select it. Versions 1.0.5 and up are called ProlificUsbSerial.kext, but don’t need their permissions changed anyway.
  2. Now, either hit Command+i, or select “Get Info” from the File menu in the Finder. A window should appear with information about the extension.
  3. Click on the Ownership & Permissions triangle. The window will expand to reveal some yummy information about who can do what with the file.
  4. Look at the icon on the right that looks like a padlock. If the padlock is locked, click on it and authenticate yourself; if open, you can just continue…
  5. Arrange the popup menus like so:
    Owner: System Access: Read & Write Group: wheel Access: Read only Others: Read only
  6. Close the Get Info window to save the changes you’ve made.
Plug the USB cable back in.
Now, start up your HotSync Manager. In the Connection Settings tab, you should see usbserial-port. You do not need to configure this option; it should run fine at usbserial-port as fast as possible.
If you don’t see this option, try a system restart, or try the process again.

Remember, don’t leave your sync device plugged in during installation!

18 Comments to “Enabling the PL2303 kext for use with Mac OS 10.2.x – 10.3.x”

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1 Jamie Flournoy Feb 10th, 2003 at 03:31

You forgot a step before step 12… you have to plug the PL2303 cable back in, or else it won’t show up in the HotSync Manager window.

I also *had* to reboot before it worked. I had to do this on my wife’s Mac (same model G4, same MacOS version – 10.2.3 – different USB to serial adapter) so I blame Palm Desktop for this. :)

BTW, I downloaded version 1.0.5 of the driver today (2/7/03) and it already had the appropriate permissions settings. It still silently fails to install if you have the adapter plugged in while running the driver installer. (The .kext file is now called ProlificUsbSerial.kext but you won’t need to know that anyway since the permissions are already correct.)

Now all we need is for Palm Desktop for MacOS not to suck. :) Palm Desktop for Windows is much nicer, but I’m hoping to use iSync, iCal, Address Book, and Life Balance instead of the Palm Desktop date book, address book, and to-do list anyway… leaving just Memo Pad and HotSync Manager from the Palm Desktop package. So hopefully I won’t have to interact with the yuckdom of Mac Palm Desktop too much.

[Kristofer: Thanks for the correction.]
2 kristofer Feb 12th, 2003 at 18:02

Update: Installing version 1.0.5.

First, thanks to Mr. Flournoy for pointing out the new version.

I wanted to contribute my experience with installing the new version.
1. The installer does NOT remove the existing PL2303.kext. We’ll have to do that ourselves.
2. I did not have to do a restart. So I think the reason Mr. Flournoy had to reboot is probably due to with different USB implementations, and not Palm software.

Here’s what I did:
1. I opened up HotSync manager, and ‘disabled’ it.
2. I unplugged my USB devices.
3. I ran the v. 1.0.5 installer, following its instructions.
4. The installer, as Mr. Flournoy mentios, creates a new extension called ProlificUsbSerial.kext. It does not delete the old one (PL2303.kext).
5. To move the old one, I opened up the Terminal and entered the following command:
sudo mv /System/Library/Extensions/PL2303.kext ~/Desktop

This moves the old extension to your Desktop, so you have it in case you need to downgrade later.
6. You may need to restart now, but I did not have to. I simply plugged the Brando adapter into the USB port, started up the HotSync manager, selected the new connection, and enabled it. Then I synced, and it worked flawlessly.
7. If all went well for you, you can delete the old extension from your Desktop, with the following Terminal command:
sudo rm -rf ~/Desktop/PL2303.kext
3 lukevan Mar 11th, 2003 at 19:30

I just installed both the v1.0.3 and then v1.0.6 driver while my BAFO adaptor for the Palm Vx was unplugged, but no matter what, I am completely unable to get the connection to show up in the HotSync manager after restarting and plugging the adaptor in. OS 10.2.4 and HotSync Manager 3.0.0. Any ideas?
4 lukevan Mar 13th, 2003 at 17:32

Turns out my problem was Apple’s standard USB extension cable. The adaptor does not seat properly into it. Used the keyboard and ka-ching!, it all works now. iSync too!
5 jpb039 May 27th, 2003 at 07:39

I’m running OS 10.2.6 and installed the 1.0.6 driver. The kernel extension is installed with the corrrect permissions, the port shows up in HotSync manager with the expected settings. But neither iSync nor HotSync can establish a connection. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
6 Greg Wood Jun 2nd, 2003 at 19:23

Don’t panic! I’ve found a way to make it work! On my machine, anyways…

Here’s my experience with OS10.2.6 and BAFO1.0.6.

0. Unplug your usb cable.

1. Open Hotsync Manager and make sure Hotsync is disabled. Now plug your usb cable back in.

2. Click the connections tab. If you can see the port in Hotsync manager, good. If you can’t, follow all the installation instructions until you can.

3. If you can see it, select usbserial-port, at 112000. Un-select all others.

4. Click back to Hotsync controls. Click the radio button to enable Hotsync.

5. NOW WAIT. After ten seconds, I get a “Transport Monitor could not complete your request”.

6. Instead of throwing everything out the window, immediately try to enable Hotsync *again*. This time it works! Who knows why.

7. Close Hotsync Manager, and hit the Hotsync button on your cradle. Hotsync should work. If it still doesn’t, I’m very sorry and I understand your pain. It works for me.

8. Once Hotsync is completed, try this: Hit the Hotsync button on your cradle again. It should NOT work.

9. Open Hotsync Manager again… ooh look, Hotsync is now DISABLED.

10. Re-enable Hotsync according to the above “enable-wait-error-enable again” method.

11. Hit the Hotsync button on your cradle. Should work again.

Basically, Hotsync fails to start up the first time you enable it, but does start up the second time *provided you don’t ddo anything in between* – then disables itself after each Hotsync.

This is a less than beautiful workaround, but it works every time for me, whether original cradle, BAFO adaptor cable, non-Palm serial-to-usb adaptor or Palm original. Stupid, hm?

Good luck!
7 Marco Moraglia Jun 13th, 2003 at 08:54

Hello, I followed everyone’s help and got my palm V to start syncing, it connects, identifies, but stops right after saying cleaning up. It tells me to check my settings.
Any suggestions?
I am using it on a Powerbook G4 10.2.4 and PL2303 ver 1.0.6
Thanks
8 Mark Blamire Sep 22nd, 2003 at 03:54

I’ve just bought a USB Serial converter to use with my Plam V. In the UK not marked with any manufacturer, but the CD came with PL2303 OS9 extension. Found this web site on Google and downloaded the PL2303MacXDrv_1_0_3.pkg and installed. Failed to work until I disabled the hot-sync and re-set the speed to 115200 and re-enabled. Didn’t change any permissions. It seems stable without further assistance. Using OS10.2.6 and Palm Desktop 4.1
9 N. Winterhalter Oct 14th, 2003 at 14:11

Prolific’s tech website no longer shows any Mac drivers for the PL-2303. It appears there’s a database error, as only gobbledygook appears when searching for “pl2303″ or any other Mac drivers.

[Kristofer: The Prolific Web site uses .asp VB scripting in its logic which only works with Internet Explorer on PC, or Internet Explorer on Mac with Active X extensions on. Blech. Obviously the Web developers at prolific.com.tw don't really understand how the Web should work.]
10 Mike Nov 8th, 2003 at 19:16

It works! My process:
Installed 1.0.3 from above
Installed Palm Desktop 4.1
Installed iSync conduit
Restart
Repair Permissions
Launch iSync
Plug in plam V with USB to Serial adapter from Radio Shack
Launch Palm Desktop
Configure user and pref like above
Configure iSync
Push sync button on plam adapter
Works great.

Dual G5, Panther (10.3)
11 raph Nov 24th, 2003 at 05:15

I have a Powerbook G4 with USB 2. The 1.0.3 version does not work. Where can I find a version (1.0.6 ?) which work with USB 2?

Thanks

[Kristofer: I've added to 1.0.6 version to this page. Let me know your experience with using it on USB 2.0 ]
12 Ed Steane Feb 23rd, 2004 at 06:18

I have a 700mHz iBook for which I am trying to use a Ericsson T68 sync/charger USB cable which operates on the PL2303 driver. I have followed the steps above (even trying, in vain, to use hotsync on a non palm device!) but I still can’t get the computer to acknowledge the phone’s presence. Instead I get a message stating that the .hext file was not installed properly and cannot be used – this despite installing multiple different versions of the PL2303 driver.

Any suggestions on things I should try out doing to get the computer to recognise the phone?

ps. have been using ports for other things and charging up the phone so I don’t think it is a port issue.
13 Rich Garella Mar 23rd, 2004 at 09:14

In step 6, the “sudo rm -R /System/Extensions/PL2303.kext” didn’t work for me, because that was not the name and location of the old driver.

I had to use “sudo rm -R /System/Libraries/Extensions/ProlificUsbSerial.kext”. Then it worked flawlessly.

Look in your directory to see what the file is called.

[Rich, thanks for your input. That's a typo on my part. I should have written /System/Library, not /System/Extensions. However, if your extension is called ProlificUsbSerial.kext, there is no need to remove it manually, since all extensions are called by the same name in versions 1.0.5 and up. ]
14 Larry Apr 2nd, 2004 at 13:47

Don’t forget that one needs to edit the Info.plist
file when trying to enable the PL-2303 driver to
work on a bus device (PL-2303-based cable) that
isn’t already claimed. If the modem port does not
show up when you plug in the cable, but you can
see the entry listed in output of “system_profiler SPUSBDataType” (run that command in your Terminal),
then open up (edit) the Info.plist file under the
kext and see whether there is not a dict entry for
that particular vendor and device i.d. Add an entry carefully if needed, save the file, unplug
your USB device, get the kext to reload or restart, then re-insert the device and see whether
that modem port shows up (can check /dev using
Terminal, or go to Network preferences). Larry;
15 Alves Apr 8th, 2004 at 13:25

I have a ACT-IR2000UL USB-IrDa adapter from ACTISYS. I bought it thinking that OS X could recognize it without problems. I should checked mailing list before…

Do you know that the driver works on such a adapter?! I try to follow your instructions and it doesn’t!

[Kristofer: Alves, I looked at the Web site for your product and saw no mention of Mac OS X compabitibility. Perhaps someone somewhere has created a driver that could work with your device, but I can't help you there. Sorry.]
16 Mafi Jun 26th, 2004 at 07:53

thanx for the infos – found a newer driver at the site of Viewcon

http://www.viewcon.net/down_mac.htm

containing v1.0.8 for X and v1.3.0b2 for 9.

http://www.viewcon.net/driver/rs11/imac.sit

Now working properly under MacOS 9.2.2 and MacOS X 10.3.4. Thanks to all.

Mafi
17 Anonymous Jul 7th, 2004 at 11:50

sigh i forgot to unplug the sync cable before installing.
now what can I do?
18 JR Nov 3rd, 2004 at 20:21

I installed version 1.0.6 today on my G4 w/version 10.3.5. Isync and Isync palm conduit already installed. my Sony palm has OS 3.5.2.
I cannot get the palm to sync. I understand from you instructions above that with 1.0.6 no permissions changes on the files need to be done with sudo, since I am not upgrading PL driver from 1.03 or whatsoever.
I rebooted after installing 1.0.6, did not have the USB in the laptop. in hot sync manager the USB serial does not show up.
any suggestions?

thx