[MrNull]

When can we expect a driver compatible with Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan?  My board does not recognize the pen, although I am able to get audio.  

I feel like a fool for updating my computer early since it often takes many months for Promethean to get an update out, even though there has been a public beta for OS 10.11 available for some time now.

[Anonymous]

It seems Promethean doesn’t partake in the Developer Program or even the Public beta which is a bummer when we experience things like this. It’d be nice if they were proactive with their drivers instead of reactive. 

[Anonymous]

This is not the first time this has occurred.  This has occurred at least two or three times with Mac OSX software updates, making the driver and/or ActivInspire software unusable.  It’s frustrating that we can’t count on Promethean to supply at least the drivers until well after the release date.  I would have appreciated some kind of communication from the company that the driver wasn’t ready yet, but it seems as if they were not even aware that a major system software update was ready to drop.  The hardware is good, but the software support lags considerably.

[Anonymous]

In the past Promethean has rushed out a Beta version of a driver. Is there a chance we could get one of those again before Monday?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

This is currently with our development team to implement a release to support El Capitan.

We would recommend not performing any upgrades to the latest version of MAC OSX until a supported driver and version of ActivInspire are released.

We will provide an update once we have confirmation when this will be available.

Regards,
Adam
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Thanks Adam. For some of us it’s too late to go back, so I will be anxiously awaiting the update.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Adam.

Users of the Promethean software would appreciate some level communication about this while the system software is in beta and before the software has pushed to general users.  It shouldn’t be left to users to find out that the software is incompatible.  Has Promethean been working on this already?  It appears to many of us that this is the first Promethean has learned that there is an update to OS X.

Since this seems to occur again and again, can I request that Promethean test their software and drivers on new versions of operating systems and announce the results of the testing before the new software has been made public.  

[Anonymous]

I too would appreciate updates as things are being tested as well. That way it gives us a little heads up and can plan accordingly on when we might be able to update without having down time.

[Anonymous]

This is particularly frustrating, and inexcusable for a company of this size. The OS has been available for months as a public beta. So a development account isn’t even necessary. Please fix this quick. Our entire school is awaiting the update that the computers now require. We have hundreds of students with their own devices that cannot access the boards. 

[Anonymous]

I came across a post from a user named pifgadget that lighty explains why the driver isn’t working. IT has to do with the System Integrity Protection (SIP) built into El Capitan. There is a way to get functionality back to the pen by temporarily turning off SIP. To do this:

Restart in Recovery mode (Command-R at startup) and launch a terminal.

Then type the following line: csrutil disable

Then reboot by typing reboot

Reinstall the software ActivDriver Os X Version 10.10

restart back into Recovery mode and type csrutil clear in the terminal.

NOTE: When csrutil clear is run, SIP goes back to its factory-default settings. That means SIP is enabled, if it was disabled previously and any custom configuration is cleared out. 

[Anonymous]

Any updates Adam? Estimated delivery date? I am still unable to use my board…

[Anonymous]

Hi Jacob,

Thank you for your continued patience whilst we work on supporting Apple’s latest operating system. We are aiming for a fully OSX 10.11 certified ActivDriver to be released by the end of October.
This is subject to change based on final testing, though we will communicate any updates as and when we get them.
We will of course update the community once the ActivDriver has been released, and where the new driver can be downloaded from.

Adam
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Thank you for your continued patience whilst we work on supporting Apple’s latest operating system. We are aiming for a fully OSX 10.11 certified ActivDriver to be released by the end of October.

This is subject to change based on final testing, though we will communicate any updates as and when we get them.

We will of course update the community once the ActivDriver has been released, and where the new driver can be downloaded from.

Adam
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

End of the month?! I must say I’m pretty disappointed, as are my students.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone actually tried this? I can’t wait for the end of October to use my Mac.

[Anonymous]

I tested it and verified it worked before posting about it. I just thought it would be helpful for those that needed to get back up and running.

[Anonymous]

OH MY GOD!!  It worked

[Anonymous]

Your Welcome!! 🙂

[Anonymous]

You’re Welcome!! 🙂

[Anonymous]

I’m going for it!!

[Anonymous]

Success!!! Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

No problem! I know how frustrating it has been. When I saw a potential fix, I started looking into how true it was. Did some research about SIP and figured what do I have to lose and went for it. As soon as I knew it worked, I cleaned up the steps and made my post. 

[Anonymous]

God (if it exists) have nothing to do with this fix 😉

[Anonymous]

I’m the fixer (pifgadget) and solid atheist 😛

[Anonymous]

I also tried this and after one day it seems to be working great. Thanks Reed.

[Anonymous]

I too am disappointed that such a major Apple release has been promoted readily enough so that your company would have a driver ready to go as the software is released, rather than 1 month later …

[Anonymous]

Reed, step by step, please. I think my district has disabled my ability to go into recovery mode. I can’t use my pen and this really stinks. I can’t teach!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I am ready to try this, but have never rebooted in recovery mode. How exactly do you launch the terminal in recovery mode?

[Anonymous]

Turn on the machine holding down Command-r while it boots up. You can access the terminal from one of the drop-down menus at the top. It will work–you just have to follow the steps carefully. 

[Anonymous]

When you startup your computer, hold both Command button and the R Key when you hear the startup tone. You should then load into the recovery screen. You will see something like “OS X Utilities.” At the top of the screen you will see a “Utilities” menu option. Click it and find “Terminal.”
Once in terminal, follow my steps from my previous post:

Type the following line: csrutil disable (hit enter)

Then reboot by typing reboot (hit enter)

Reinstall the software ActivDriver Os X Version 10.10

restart back into Recovery mode and type csrutil clear in the terminal.

[Anonymous]

does it work??

[Anonymous]

All well and good if you had made this annoying movement before El Capitan was finally released … But to make it now simply reinforces your companies lack of software support for your customers. You have had plenty of time for your development team to implement a solution much earlier than “currently” …

[Anonymous]

Yes!

[Anonymous]

You betcha!

[Anonymous]

Hi! I was curious if the newest update to OS 10.11.1 would require the same procedure, but it doesn’t–your fix seems to have fixed it for good!! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Please refer to this post: https://support.prometheanworld.com/community/topics/new-version-of-activdriver-available-to-download

The ActivDriver has been released for Windows 10 and MAC El Capitan.

Thank you

Miguel
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

When we are prompted to ‘uninstall’, should we ‘select all’ or choose a specific part to uninstall? (Mac OS X)

[Anonymous]

Ugh!
I ran the uninstaller but when trying to download the package it tells me I still need to uninstall! Now I have no Promethean software on my machine and still can’t install the driver.I reinstalled the latest ActiveInspire software; I’ll have to wait until I get to my school before entering my activation key to complete the process.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

We suggest that you follow the exact steps at http://www.prometheankb.com, article 10330

Please let us know if you are still experiencing issues.

Kind regards,

Miguel
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Thanks; is the password I enter my system password? Also, there’s an image of a key at which I cannot type anything.

[Anonymous]

This is the prompt I get; I cannot type over the key image at the Password prompt.

[Anonymous]

I am having the same situation.

[Anonymous]

Miguel,

Good morning.  I am unfortunately having the same problem as Peter below; no ability to enter a password.  I don’t even have a password on my MacBook as I’ve disabled it.

Any suggestions?

Thank you 🙂

[Anonymous]

Miguel,

Good morning.  I am unfortunately having the same problem
as Peter below; no ability to enter a password.  I don’t even have a
password on my MacBook as I’ve disabled it.

Any suggestions?

Thank you 🙂

[Anonymous]

I clicked on the key icon and was able to type in my password.
Also, it didn’t work at first–I had to reboot my computer, and since I use an extended screen for the Promethean Board, it took a few attempts to get the calibrate to come up on the Promethean Board.

[Anonymous]

I cannot click on the icon; I get nothing.

[Anonymous]

Same here unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Peter,

Just found out why we see nothing in terminal when we type
in our passwords… nothing shows in terminal on this screen as you
type.  Type your password in and hit “enter.”  Nothing will appear on
your screen and it will look like you didn’t type anything, but it will
work.

Adam

[Anonymous]

Yeah, baby.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help; everything is running great!

[Anonymous]

Sad indeed….come one Promethean. Why wasn’t this out before the update. It’s the end of October…is the update out yet? I just checked on my dashboard and activinspire and it said I had the most recent update. But still no functionality for the board or activates.

[Anonymous]

I’m really frustrated too. I saved the El Capitan update on my Mac to now find that the driver for it is now telling me to uninstall an older version of Inspire – with the app attached to the download? Very confusing and I’m a new Mac user so this is depressing for me and my students – we need our IWB please…can anyone step me through the uninstall process so the new driver works? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Maria,

After over 3 months of waiting (and the very dodgy quick-fix mentioned earlier) all is now working fine. Well done ‘Bob’ in Promethean Mac dev team for actually coming into work! 

The tech support at Promethean is appalling and they don’t really seemed to be able to deal with mac users. I don’t believe that they are even registered as an Apple Developer. Which is why there is such a delay. Perhaps they will issue a statement explaining why it takes so long for a tech team from a multi-national company to complete a critical update. Perhaps their building burnt down, or suffered some other unforeseeable tragic accident. I do hope not.  I shall be writing a letter to the board of directors to ask for some explanation. I will be reviewing whether we continue to use promethean in the future across our school, as many students we unable to ahre their flipchart projects. Now with touch screens on our iPads, All we need is a apple TV attached to the already existing beamers. I have a meeting next week with Apple Education. 

Now to your question…

If you uninstall the driver (Applications/promethean/activdriver/uninstall. ) click on the Terminal application. (follow onscreen Insturctions and enter your computer password to allow changes to system).

Only then install the new driver software, Restart the computer and all should be fine.

You do not need to update ActivInspire (unless you’re running a very very old version- in which case check with you IT team or download the new one from the website).

good luck and apologies Bob, for my sarcasm- Welcome back to work!

Happy Days. 

[Anonymous]

You’re very kind to have responded so quickly!  I’d love more iPads and an apple TV but we are a junior classroom and last on the list 🙁 I’ve bought my own tech for my students to use.

This is why the IWB is so important for my students.

As for you suggestions – this is what I have been greeted with and not sure if I should proceed with the password:

ALL HELP much appreciated,
Maria

[Anonymous]

Maria,

I don’t remember seeing the ‘Sudo command’ warning, but as long as you cliked on the teminal application located in the folder as I previously described, you will be fine. 

Input your login password (nothing will show up, then hit enter)

it will tell you when it has completed. Mine took around 30 secs of blank little black screen.

then re-install the x64 file and you should no longer see that pop up screen and it should install properly. Then re-start.

Let me know if this works

[Anonymous]

Has the driver been updated to work with El Capitan yet? I trashed my existing driver and updated on the weekend but I’m still having problems.

[Anonymous]

SORTED thanks to the community and MONK!

These instructions were perfect – except at home so will check if this has resolved communication issue with pen not working with my computer upgrade! Thanks again!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Monk’s suggestion:

Now to your question…

If you uninstall the driver (Applications/promethean/activdriver/uninstall. ) click on the Terminal application. (follow onscreen Insturctions and enter your computer password to allow changes to system).

Only then install the new driver software, Restart the computer and all should be fine.

You do not need to update ActivInspire (unless you’re running a very very old version- in which case check with you IT team or download the new one from the website).

[Anonymous]

Got to school Monk and Activinspire won’t even open 🙁 Back to the drawing board. I think this is a school Internet locked down issue. Pet peev…safety to the point of killing creativity, learning and teaching!

Sorry for rant. Excellent support here in this community. Cheers from NZ

[Anonymous]

I installed the previous ActivDriver on my MacBook pro in recovery mode following the process I found and described higher by Reed.
This morning I uninstall  Activdriver following using the uninstaller and reinstall the new driver.
The moves of the pen became stochastic and the IWB (an old ActivBoard) impossible to use.
To fix the problem I simply open the terminal and manually remove the /private/etc/promethean dir which remained due to « System Integrity Protection ».
Then an unplugging and shut down of the board, a reboot of my computer, a calibrating and all went fine…
(Edited)

[Anonymous]

Yes, the driver is version 5.12.17.

[Anonymous]

Why is the new driver a .app file and not a .pkg?  This makes it impossible for us as an IT department to install it on a teachers computer remotely.  This is a major backward step in support of Promethean software and hardware.

[Anonymous]

The end of October was one month ago and we still don’t have the solution for El Capitan. I would really like to use my board properly with my students before Christmas please.

[Anonymous]

Yes we do, it is the driver is version 5.12.17.  It was released just before Halloween.  You’ll want to uninstall the previous version and install this version.

[Anonymous]

Hi!
I have the driver: 5.12.16 installed, and all is right. Do I need the slightly newer driver??

[Anonymous]

It is May 2, 2016.  When is the fix for El Capitan going to be available for the Promethean Board.  I see many of these posts are from 6+ months ago.

[Anonymous]

I cannot find my uninstalling thing for the old driver- i just have this weird read me thing. I updated to El Capitan after I updated to the last version of activinspire

[Anonymous]

Hi,
To uninstall the ActivDriver on your Mac operating system please follow the below steps:

Open Applications and locate the Promethean folder. Open the ActivDriver subfolder and double click uninstall.

A terminal will open. Enter your password.

You will receive confirmation that the ActivDriver has been uninstalled.

If you do not see the uninstaller, please let me know.

Thanks,
Adam
Promethean Technical Support

[Anonymous]

I have tried to get my computer on 10.11.5 but with no luck.  I have installed the latest driver and no luck.

Any idea why this might be happening.  Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. 

[Anonymous]

Hi eschmid,

Can you please advise what happens when you install the driver? Do you get an error message? 

Also can you please ensure you are downloading the driver from the below link:

https://support.prometheanworld.com/product/activdriver

Thanks,

Craig 

[Author]

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