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Note that I want to try this manual approach first before using MultiBeast. Failed to do the driver install—failure message on screen—when I last tried last week or any other automated tool.

I want to install GenericUSBXHCI.kext on Mac OS X 10.10 so that I can use my StarTech Ecusb3s11 flush fitting USB 3.0 expresscard. There is a version of the kext for Yosemite here.

I have set permissions of the kext and used Drive utils to repair permissions to ensure correct permissions. I have also attempted to rebuild the kext cache as explained here:

kextcache -m /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/Extensions.mkext /System/Library/Extensions

And also tried rebooting.

But not lucky so far - plugging in USB 3.0 drive into USB 3.0 port doesn't show drive on Mac OS desktop, using othe, but USB 2.0 ports do work so drive is OK. Also all this worked with Mavericks (see more details below).

**Some background related information as to why I think I can get this working once I can persuade OS X 10.10 to use this GenericUSBXHCI.kext.

I also have a CalDigit USB 3.0 express card and CalDigit have provided drivers for OS X 10.10. This card does work on OS X 10.10 sometimes. On Mavericks the StarTech was more reliable and I also like it because it fits flush, so I can leave it in place when putting the Mac in a carrying case/bag. The StarTech and CalDigit cards both work on my Mac booted into Windows 7 (BootCamp), so I know the cards work and work with the Mac's hardware.

This StarTech Ecusb3s11 expresscard did work successfully with OS X Mavericks 10.9 when I used GenericUSBXHCI.kext with this (because StarTech only provided Windows drivers.) I had to also use IOPCIFamily.kext from a previous OS X 10.8.x as Apple broke support for ExpressCard on mid-2010 MacBookPros - there are threads of discussion on it on some forums. Using the IOPCIFamily.kext copied from a machine (luckily) running 10.8.x (before Mavericks) fixed the expresscard so that I could use GenericUSBXHCI.kext But fortunately in 10.10 IOPCIFamily.kext is fine because the CalDigit expresscard works in it, so only need to deal with getting GenericUSBXHCI.kext working on 10.10.

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  • Can the anonymous coward please explain why they downvoted this question; I'd be happy with - and - welcome some constructive feedback rather than a cold downvote. Also, please note that this is ongoing research for me - as you can see I've already looking into this myself but not had success- hence my asking this usually lovely community for advice. So I'm looking into this myself as well. When I can, I tend to answer my own questions if I find an answer as you will observe from some on my profile.
    – therobyouknow
    Oct 23, 2014 at 8:34
  • To the person who originally downvoted me - I've answered my own question with a solution - here you go: superuser.com/a/845410/21353 Ta!
    – therobyouknow
    Nov 26, 2014 at 18:44

3 Answers 3

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I know the post is a bit old, but so is my 17" 2009 macBookPro. Following advice here and elsewhere I was searching for a native supported card (no kext amends) and went for this one on ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252036311960?

Works under Mavericks (and above I believe). Build quality is a bit flimsy compared to my sonnet esata card but it is flush with the edge of the macbook.

I find that I have to boot up with the drive already connected to reliably get USB 3.0 speeds, otherwise they can step down to 2.0 speed if I hotswap drives or accidentally eject the card.

Tests show me that I'm getting about 4 times the speed compared with USB 2.0, but then my mac is limited to pci 1.0 and 2.5 GT/s. Haven't tested long file transfers yet but can now look at getting fast usb 3.0 external raid for video backup and be hopeful that I can access it fast now and also when I upgrade the macbook to something newer later.

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  • +1 Pleased for you! I'm curious as to what chipset is in use in the card. I would guess that it is either from Intel or Fresco FL1100 (as I use), both these chipsets are supported by OS X up to and including El Capitan. But let me know if you can. +1 upvote because you found a card that fits flush with your MacBookPro, whereas my solution protrudes to give 4 ports. I seldom use more than one port as I use a mains powered USB3 hub from Pluggable anyway, with it. It's really nice to extend the useful life of old machines, so well done!
    – therobyouknow
    Feb 19, 2016 at 6:57
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Answering my own problem (told ya I would do it, see my comments)

(I've rewritten the question title as I have found a solution which works for me the same)

I bought another USB3 ExpressCard 34 (see below) and this card has the Fresco FL1100 chipset which is supported natively by MacOS X (see below).

Plugged it in, then plugged in the drives and they were all recognised, even those on a USB3 hub by Pluggable.

Quick benchmarks:

Copy a single 47Gb file from an external USB3 HD to the Mac's SSD.

Transcend USB3 7200rpm external 2Tb Drive (rugged model) copy to Mac's own SSD on USB2 (two): Estimated copy time: about 27 minutes.

Transcend USB3 7200rpm external 2Tb Drive (rugged model) copy to Mac's own SSD on USB3 (three) port on the ExpressCard 34 USB3 card: Estimated copy time: about 9 minutes.

Conclusion: copying is approx 3 times faster with USB3 than USB2 in this real life (but not scientific) test.

Other copy tests indicated at least 2 times faster (with many files to copy, so I'd expect the overhead of multiple files reduces the performance).

Where to buy a ExpressCard 34 with the FL1100 chipset:

References about MacOS X natively supporting 3rd-party chipsets such as the Fresco FL1100:

I'd still hold onto my Renesas card in case 3rd-party support becomes available later.

Update

This solution also works perfectly fine with OS X El Capitan, and Windows 10 64bit Pro via Bootcamp.

Update 2

This solution also works perfectly fine with the latest version of OS X Sierra - because I have this running on my mid 2010 Mac Book Pro 17", with the ExpressCard inserted into it.

I think the ongoing support is because some Macs with built in USB3 used the FL1100 chipset and therefore those Macs that are on the supported list for Sierra that have this chipset will work. Therefore Macs which can have after-market/3rd-party FL1100-based USB3 cards added to them via ExpressCard (notebooks) and PCI (Express) card (desktop - Mac Pro) will also be supported by the OS.

However, keep monitoring the situation for future versions of Mac OS X, in case the list of supported Macs changes if they drop those Macs with FL1100 support and therefore leave out the driver for it in future versions of the OS to focus maintenance costs on hardware that they choose to support.

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One option while it is not ideal but necessary is to disable kext signing, follow these steps after you have installed your kext:

Step 1: Open the Terminal from the menu bar

Step 2: Run this command:

nvram boot-args

Does it say kext-dev-mode=1? if so, you can skip to Step 4. If it says "error getting variable", continue with these steps:

Step 3: Run this command:

nvram boot-args=kext-dev-mode=1

Step 4: Reboot back in to Recovery Mode again

Step 5: Run these commands, replacing Your Disk Name with the name of your Mac disk (partition). You can type ls /Volumes to get a list of volumes. Note the quotes around the disk path and that there should be no / before System.

cd "/Volumes/Your Disk Name"

touch System/Library/Extensions

kextcache -prelinked-kernel System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/Startup/kernelcache -K System/Library/Kernels/kernel System/Library/Extensions

Step 6: Wait until it finishes (can take as long as 5-10 minutes, don’t abort it) and reboot. You should now be back in OS X with USB 3.0 working.

hope this helps

to install the kext use an app like kext drop

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