Serial USB on the Mac is a beating

and not a very pleasant one.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060105104506687&lsrc=osxh

Is the way I finally got it to work again.

I've used the GUC-232A with good success under linux... you don't do anything just configure minicom and go. And adequate success under windows, download driver and go.

But none of the OS X USB serial drivers quite work with the prolific chipset that runs the GUC-232A and the UC-232A I have. So the directions are what I had to do on an intel iMac and a G4 12" powerbook.



Here is the reprint of the material linked just in case:

Download and Install Drivers

1. Go to Prolific's download page and download the latest Mac OS X drivers.

2. Open the Zip File

3. Mount the Disk Image

4. Open the Installer Package and install the drivers

5. Reboot

Change Kernel Extension Property List

1. Plug the GUC232A into any available USB port on your Mac

2. Open the System Profiler, in /Application -> Utilites

3. Click USB in the Contents pane

4. Select the GUC232A in the Device Tree; usually it will be listed under USB-Serial Controller

5. Remember the ProductID and VendorID, or keep the System Profiler window open

6. Open the Terminal, in /Application -> Utilites

7. Use the following command to open the Property List of the Prolific driver:

sudo nano /System/Library/Extensions/ ProlificUsbSerial.kext/Contents/Info.plist

8. Enter your admin password when asked. This is necessary; the ProlificUsbSerial kernel extension is owned by root.

9. Scroll down and find the ProductID and VendorID in the plist file

10. Change the ProductID and VendorID to match your GUC232A's ProductID and VendorID

11. The plist file needs the numbers as integer values, but System Profiler reports the numbers as hex. Use the Calculator to convert the numbers. For example, System Profiler reports the Product ID as 0x2008 and the Vendor ID as 0x0557. The integer value of ProductID is 8200 and the integer value of VendorID is 1367

12. Save the changes (Control-W) and quit (Control-X) nano

Reload Kernel Extension

1. Unplug the GUC232A

2. Use the following command to load the kernel extension:

sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/ ProlificUsbSerial.kext/Contents/Info.plist

3. Plug the GUC232A into any available USB port on your Mac

Soft Skills

If you are in business and IT (and you might be if you read this), you need to examine critically the following if you haven't already:

Frederick Brooks: The Mythical Man Month
DiMarco and Lister: Peopleware
W. Edwards Demming: Out of Crisis
Limoncelli and Hogan: The Practice of System and Network Administration

I'm not saying they are all correct or a roadmap to instant success, but everyone has information and experience that needs to be considered and examined.