HX Edit dumps MacOs 10.13 and 10.14

[ibisibi]

Up to now I've been able to run HX Edit on High Sierra but now, HX Edit 3.8 says it requires MacOs 10.15 Sequioa, so users with High Sierra or Catalina are out of luck updating to Firmware 3.8
I can't see any mention of this in the release notes. Fortunately, I could quickly go back to my previous version of HX Edit from my Time Machine Backup.
I think it would have been more polite if Line 6 had warned us older Mac users before we hit the buffers at full speed. At least HX Edit 3.7 is still available to download from the Line6 site, so there is that.

By the way, when is the 'Hot Fix' for Apple Silicon chips coming? Surely it's been long enough since M1 chips arrived? My new M4 machine is now days away, so I will be stuck with being able to back up properly and not upgrade or vice versa.

[lou-kash]

On 11/19/2024 at 10:35 PM, ibisibi said:

HX Edit 3.8 says it requires MacOs 10.15 Sequioa

 

"10.15" = Catalina

Also, from the HX Edit download page:

Quote

Compatible OS: Mac OS X, macOS Sierra, macOS High Sierra, macOS Mojave, macOS Catalina, macOS Big Sur, macOS Monterey, macOS Ventura, macOS Sonoma, macOS Sequoia

 

For what it's worth, HX Edit v3.70 still runs even on El Capitan although unsupported. So I'll check v3.80 for El Capitan compatibility soon.

[lou-kash]

On 11/19/2024 at 10:47 PM, lou-kash said:

So I'll check v3.80 for El Capitan compatibility soon.

 

Yep, no go on El Capitan, requires Catalina.

The reason being that according to its Info.plist file, v3.80 has been compiled under MacOS Sequoia Big Sur so the backward compatibility has shifted.

Whereas last year's v3.70 was compiled under Catalina which is why it still was "inofficially" compatible with El Capitan, and theoretically even back to Mountain Lion according to its Info.plist (I didn't test it).

 

Still, my old MacBook Pro mid-2012 can boot Catalina. So HX Edit 3.80 will still run on a 12 years old machine.

Only my even older MBP 2008 – which usually serves as my mobile multitrack recording studio – is out of luck…

Oh well, that's life. :D

 

Now… to put things in the right perspective:

Apple has just released the Logic Pro 11.1 update these days.

Guess what the requirements are?

Sonoma!

And I'm out of luck here because I won't upgrade my MacBook Air running Ventura – an OS that's only two years old! – anytime soon. :/

Edited Tuesday at 10:44 PM by lou-kash

[lou-kash]

On 11/19/2024 at 10:35 PM, ibisibi said:

users with High Sierra or Catalina are out of luck updating to Firmware 3.8

 

Not necessarily. They just may have to resort to the slightly tedious and potentially risky manual process using the Line 6 Updater:

 

I haven't tested it though so proceed at your own risk…

[ibisibi]

On 11/19/2024 at 10:40 PM, lou-kash said:

Not necessarily. They just may have to resort to the slightly tedious and potentially risky manual process using the Line 6 Updater:

 

Possibly, but editing through HX Edit (which I prefer) rather than on the Helix itself will be broken. Also making backups through HX Edit.
 

On 11/19/2024 at 10:27 PM, lou-kash said:

The reason being that according to its Info.plist file, v3.80 has been compiled under MacOS

 

Good detective work. Looks like an unintended consequence?

[lou-kash]

On 11/20/2024 at 12:02 AM, ibisibi said:

editing through HX Edit (which I prefer)

 

So do I.

But I'm actually trying to do more editing directly on the Stomp anyway so that I'm not totally lost when using it on stage…

 

On 11/20/2024 at 12:02 AM, ibisibi said:

Also making backups through HX Edit.

 

Yeah, that sucks if you don't have any Mac that can boot Catalina or higher.

 

I've been keeping my old Macs at El Capitan for a reason, of course:

Compatibility with "obsolete" Firewire audio interfaces.

M-Audio FW410 from 2003 (!) runs only with some user-hacked drivers on El Capitan, but it continues to work after 21 years.

Alesis iO26 works even up to Catalina but the software only up to Mojave because it's 32-bit only.

 

On the other hand, last year I bought the Roland Octa-Capture to have an 8-channel USB interface compatible with Apple Silicon. A brilliant interface! And not only does Roland still keep its drivers up to date, they have drivers compatible back to OS 10.4 Tiger; hey that's from… 2005! (Heck, I still have a working PowerBook G4 that can run Tiger and Leopard)

 

Summed up, El Capitan is exactly the sweet spot where I can do multitrack recording with four audio interfaces bundled as an Aggregate Device:

iO26, FW410, Octa-Capture, and HX Stomp. That makes 18 XLR inputs, plus the 4 jack inputs from the Stomp.

 

I expect the Stomp should still work as a USB interface on unsupported OS. If not, I'd simply downgrade back to v3.71. There's nothing in v3.80 that I need. (I wonder if they fixed the bug I have reported…?)

 

On 11/20/2024 at 12:02 AM, ibisibi said:

Looks like an unintended consequence?

 

I don't know, I'm not a software developer. It's just a "quarter-educated" guess based on my three and a half decades of intrepid poking into software directories that an average Mac user should usually leave alone.

[allthenotes]

Confirming that as of the time of this post the HX Edit download page is incorrect in its listing of compatible MacOS operating systems (I'm running Mojave). Not terribly down on missing this one, but I assume firmware 4.00 will be big and now that's off the table... 

[allthenotes]

3.81 (Apple Silicon Hotfix) firmware post has updated compatible MacOS list, however 3.80 post remains incorrect as of the time of this post.