HELP! Cant Instal Lego Mindstorms sOftware on iMac with Lion

[magonicolas]

Hello, how are you?
I have just purchased Lego Mindsotrms Nxt, But Can Install the Software on my iMac Running Lion OSX! It says that cant open because it No Longer Supports PowerPC Applications!


Any Clue?

THANKS!

[tcwan]

Hmm. What version of the Mindstorms software are you using?

I don't have Lion installed so I can't comment specifically.
On my Mac (Snow Leopard 10.6.8), I have NXT-G 2.0 Edu which is listed as being Intel 32-bit.

However, I'd suspect you'll need to boot Lion up in 32-bit mode, since the existing Fantom drivers for Mac OS X is only 32-bit.
I don't know if LEGO or National Instruments will release a 64-bit compatible driver in the future. Maybe someone who's closer to LEGO
could comment on this.

[mightor]

I have no specific information about this. I can ask someone from the LEGO software dept.

- Xander

[mindsqualls]

I read the other day that Microsoft had a similar problem with “Office for Mac 2004”. The explanation given was:

This is not Microsoft’s own fault, as this version was made for the PowerPC-computers which Apple was using before they went over to the Intel-architecture.

With the Lion OS Apple has decided to scrap Rosetta which is the emulator that is used to run the old programs on the new platform.

I don’t know is this is the reason for your problems but it sound suspiciously similar.

[mightor]

However, I'd suspect you'll need to boot Lion up in 32-bit mode, since the existing Fantom drivers for Mac OS X is only 32-bit.
I don't know if LEGO or National Instruments will release a 64-bit compatible driver in the future. Maybe someone who's closer to LEGO
could comment on this.

I've heard back from the software guy and the answer was "Not yet, but we're working on it."

- Xander

[tcwan]

I read the other day that Microsoft had a similar problem with “Office for Mac 2004”. The explanation given was:

This is not Microsoft’s own fault, as this version was made for the PowerPC-computers which Apple was using before they went over to the Intel-architecture.

With the Lion OS Apple has decided to scrap Rosetta which is the emulator that is used to run the old programs on the new platform.

I don’t know is this is the reason for your problems but it sound suspiciously similar.

If the software is PowerPC, then yes, you're SOL, since Lion does not support PowerPC code anymore (no Rosetta).
That was why I asked which version of the software magonicolas was using.
Perhaps I didn't make that clear in my first reply.

[magonicolas]

Thanks for your answers,

So, I will have to wait for Lego Stuff?

Hope it is soon!


Cheers,

[tcwan]

Thanks for your answers,

So, I will have to wait for Lego Stuff?

Hope it is soon!


Cheers,

Hi magonicolas,

First you have to make sure that your Lego software for Mac is Intel based, or Universal (which supports both Intel and PowerPC). If it is PowerPC only, then you would need to check if there is an update for you http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx.

I only have the Educational NXT-G software, I have no experience with the Retail versions.

The other part has to do with actually connecting the NXT-G software to the NXT via USB using the Fantom Drivers. You'll need to boot Lion in 32-bit mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3773 may be helpful. I haven't tried this before since I don't have Lion, so I don't know if the Fantom driver will install or work properly in Lion, or if it will connect to the NXT successfully.

[lizard381]

Hi magonicolas,

First you have to make sure that your Lego software for Mac is Intel based, or Universal (which supports both Intel and PowerPC). If it is PowerPC only, then you would need to check if there is an update for you http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx.

I only have the Educational NXT-G software, I have no experience with the Retail versions.

The other part has to do with actually connecting the NXT-G software to the NXT via USB using the Fantom Drivers. You'll need to boot Lion in 32-bit mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3773 may be helpful. I haven't tried this before since I don't have Lion, so I don't know if the Fantom driver will install or work properly in Lion, or if it will connect to the NXT successfully.

I kind of suspect that Lego's software might have been PowerPC based the entire time and that they've been relying on Apple supporting Rosetta. My theory is that this is why their software temporarily broke for Snow Leopard, Rosetta wasn't included by default for the first time for 10.6 but it was still supported, so Lego could just release a patch. If this is the case, now that there's no support for Rosetta, Lego will have to release a proper update, not just a patch. That's not really a 32-bit vs 64-bit mode problem then.

tcwan, do you normally boot Snow Leopard in 32-bit mode to use the fantom drivers? Is that necessary?

[tcwan]

tcwan, do you normally boot Snow Leopard in 32-bit mode to use the fantom drivers? Is that necessary?

Snow Leopard defaults to a 32-bit kernel in most cases, except for newer Macs which can boot to 64-bit (but you have to explicitly enable this).
The ones I have can't boot into a 64-bit Snow Leopard kernel due to EFI issues.

You need to run the Snow Leopard Kernel in 32-bit due to the Fantom drivers being 32-bit only.
I don't know if Lion will default to 64-bit kernels on my existing machines since I have not upgraded.
However, if you're running Lion, you'll need to boot in 32-bit for now until new Fantom drivers are released which support 64-bit kernels.