How to test drivers and report a result

[Slice]

Hey all,

 

I am a developer of drivers for MacOSX and my success is depended on good testing.

I can test with Dell Inspiron 1525 and with Dell Latitude D420. In both cases it is my software configuration. At other hardware and at other software configuration there may be different results. So test please all my solutions and report as detailed as possible.

 

For example I8kfan.kext

1. Download a driver. I always give you zip archive containing kext and may be something else mentioned separately. Unpack zip by any methods you know. Simplest way is double-click. By default it is in ~/Download/ folder .

2. All action with drivers should be performed from Terminal under root account.

Launch /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app by double click on it's icon.

3. Enter root account

sudo -s

Password:

enter your password

4. Create /Test folder at the root of your hard drive.

mkdir /Test

5. Copy the kext into this folder

cp -r -v ~/Downloads/I8kfan.kext /Test

6. Set right permissions to the kext.

chown -R root:wheel /Test/I8kfan.kext

chmod -R 755 /Test/I8kfan.kext

7. Now we should launch Console application /Applications/Utilities/Console.app

by double click on it's icon. In the opened windows you should click on Show Log List button.

At the left column you must choose kernel.log. See screenshot.

 

Move the screen so you can see both the Terminal window and Console window simultaneously.

8. Return to Terminal and start the driver:

kextutil -v /Test/I8kfan.kext

9. You see messages in terminal windows AND messages in Console.

bash-3.2# kextutil -v /Test/I8kfan.kext/
/Test/I8kfan.kext appears to be loadable (not including linkage for on-disk libraries).
Loading /Test/I8kfan.kext.
/Test/I8kfan.kext successfully loaded (or already loaded).
bash-3.2# 

 

10. If the driver started then you can start related application to see what it can show.

11. If Kernel Panic is happened then don't give up, please. Restart computer in Single User Mode.

Type in this mode the same command

kextutil -v /Test/I8kfan.kext

In this case you may see more messages before KP that you can report me.

 

If you are interesting in a driver works for you then please show me messages from Terminal, from Console, or make a photo if KP.

[Bronxteck]

can we pin this so it doesn't get lost in the forum

[Thund3rbolt]

SWEET!!!! This is awesome Slice!! It's working for me nicely. kext loaded with no complaints and Primary fan control works on all settings. Off/Low/High. I can't get console to spit out any messages tho.. no idea why there bro. Even dmesg shows nothing. Any chance of adding a Medium setting?

 

Note: kext will only load manually with kextutil but not auto from e/e or s/le.