Emagic A6|2m

Emagic (EMI) driver for Lion

The A6|2m driver* no longer works in Lion. I have written a driver for Lion for Audio and Midi. The audio works fine. I have not tested the Midi.

To install the driver you will need to obtain and install files as detailed below. When finished you will have the following files installed (shown with yellow shading).

A62M file and directory structure

I have circled the size of bitsream.HEX because the size is important. There are many "wrong" versions available on the internet. If yours is about 190 KB you have the wrong file.

Installation

  1. Download and expand the A62M.zip file

    Download the archive from this link. When expanded it produces an A62M folder containing two files. Keep it for later.

  2. Obtain the firmware files

    The .HEX files shown in the above image are the firmware for the A62m device. These files are copyright, so I have not included them in the zip file. They are not hard to find on the internet, but every bitstream.HEX file I found using Google was the wrong file. Reading various blogs, it seems bitstream.HEX for the A26 has been mistaken as the A62m file of the same name. The A26 file is approx. 190 KB. The correct A62m file is approx. 270 KB.

    Continuing…

    1. Download loader.HEX and midi.HEX

      The files can be found at many locations, including here. If you use this address, after clicking on the relevant file link (which takes you to a new web page), use the Download button to obtain a clean copy of each file. (Get loader.HEX, then go back and repeat for midi.HEX). Do not get bitstream.HEX or spdif.HEX. (The first is the wrong file, and my driver does not support spdif.HEX).

    2. Download the correct bitstream.HEX

      A correct version of the bitstream.HEX file can be found at http://web.mit.edu/xiphmont/Public/emi/. Please note the accompanying license file. It appears that Monty Montgomery is to thank for this version. (as per discussions here).

    3. Remove unwanted ".txt" file extension

      Check to see if your browser has added ".txt" to the end of any filenames and remove them if it has. Safari added them for me. It is safest to check the file names using "Get Info" in the Finder.

  3. Move the files into place

    Place all three .HEX files into the A62M folder you obtained in step 1, then move the A62M folder into your /Library/StartupItems folder. (Provide your admin password when requested). Your files should now match the picture shown at the start.

  4. Set owner and group

    This step must be done from an adminstrator's account. There are ways around this but I'm trying to keep these instructions simple, so please log out and log back in as an administrator, if you need to.

    Open Terminal and type:

    cd /Library/StartupItems/A62M
    If you get an error (eg. "No such file or directory") do not continue. You probably have not placed the A62M folder in the correct location. Fix the problem and retype the above line into Terminal.

    To check that the above command worked type:

    pwd
    You should get the response "/Library/StartupItems/A62M" displayed on its own line. Do NOT continue unless you get exactly this response (without the quotes). Continuing following an error could damage your system. You have been warned!

    When you are ready (when pwd gives you the correct response), type:

    sudo chown root:wheel . *
    Notice that there is a space either side of the period (the dot). Enter your admin password when requested.

Done

That's it. When you reboot the driver will load. If you don't want to reboot now (and I totally understand if you don't) you can double-click the A62M file to load the driver immediately (see below). Next time you reboot the driver will load automatically, and the A62m firmware will be uploaded whenever the device is connected.

If you double-click the file, do so only once. I'm not sure what will happen if you load it more than once. When it loads you won’t see much happen on your computer, but you should see some LED activity on the A62m device — either now or when you plug it in.

The driver takes several seconds to upload the firmware. You can use the Sound Control Panel to check that the firmware has been uploaded successfully.

Sound Control Panel

Please me if you find any mistakes with these instructions, and especially if you get to test the Midi driver.

Thanks,
John

* Please note: the driver will not work with the Emagic A26. If someone wishes to loan me an A26 or if I can find a cheap one on eBay I will find time to write one.