Not Good... - Wacom Technologies

The driver is not the kext. The kext is completely codeless and non-executable. Wacom has not required a reboot isince 10.2.5. We dynamically load the kext if needed suring the install process. Your tablet should have been working after install completed.

I don't understand what you mean by "no package loading". Did it never get past the grey apple screen? Did it ever switch to a text screen? How long did you let it sit at the grey apple. What are your "usual bag of tricks"? From the rest of your statements it doesn't sound like you booted into single user mode.

Just deleting your kext cahce files would probably have got you going again. We don't touch the cache files so I don't know why they would have gotten corrupted. If you install again, a reboot would probably work fine since your cache has been cleaned. If it does fail a second time, please call our tech support so we can isolate the problem.

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Wednesday, December 21 2005 @ 06:05 PM PST

Not Good... - paulc

Ah, thanks for the reply.

I had repeated it several times... I got the gray apple logo, but do not get to the "spinning lines." My understanding was that that form of thermometer indicates X is loading various packages. I left it for 2-3 minutes twice and one time for over 10. The system simply would not boot.

Not sure how a kext can be "codeless" as (again, my understanding) it is supposed to provide some service or modification to the kernel (kernel extension). I further understand it is supposed to mostly be used to integrate functionality at a very low level with the kernel. You do install 2 files in /System/Library/Extensions, a wacomtablet.kext and a tabletdrivercfplugin.bundle.

I was only able to get going again by deleting these 2 files along with the 2 cache files. No I didn't boot single user mode as it is easier to boot from an external device and log in as root from there. That's how I was able to delete what I thought was causing the problem.

Sorry, but install 2 files in /System/Library/Extensions and no booting, remove those files and I can boot sure points a pretty specific finger.

I still love my tablet and regularly encourage professional graphic folks they should get one; I was just trying to warn others to be careful about installing this version of the software.

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Thursday, December 22 2005 @ 12:50 PM PST

Not Good... - Wacom Technologies

paulc, I don't deny your had a bad experience. And we truly are sorry about that. However, so far, you are the only user with this complaint. Really, this should not happen, nor do we want it to happen. I strongly encourage you (and other users) that run into problems like this to call our tech support. They really are quite Mac knowledgeable.

The kext is codeless because, it is just a text file that tells the OS to add some properties to the IORegistry about our tablets when it sees one. So, no Wacom code is actually runs in the kernel. Even if the text file is badly formed or corrupted or otherwise not correct, the OS would simply ignore it.

The plugin file is not a kernel extension and is not loaded by the kernel or OS or the Tablet Driver. It is there for legacy reasons. If it is needed for a legacy app, it is loaded dynamically by that app.

You seemed to have missed at least one step, if not more, in your quest to get your machine working again. Namely, you should have just deleted the kext cache files and left the 2 Wacom pieces alone. If it still fails after reboot, then there is vital information that a verbose or single user boot would provide that we would very much like to have. We would also like to have a System Profile report once the machine was working again so that we find the cause of the conflict. As I said, so far, you are the only customer to have this problem, and those two pieces have not changed in the last few builds.

After the 26th, please try to install and reboot again. If the problem happens again, call tech support. We really want to know why it happens and fix it for you, and all our customers.

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Friday, December 23 2005 @ 11:54 AM PST

Not Good... - Ataritox

Thanks for posting the heads up. I am still using drivers 4.9.1 and will not upgrade wacom drivers unless required to. 4.9.1 works fine so why mess with it? There is really nothing to gain. The only problem that sometimes happens is after waking from sleep I have to unplug/replug the tablets USB to reestablish the connection. I just leave my mac on 24/7 now anyways, so its a non-issue.

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Thursday, December 22 2005 @ 08:32 AM PST