MacAlly ADB Mouse Driver for MacOS X

Stock MacOS X supports the MacAlly Two-Button ADB mouse only as a standard mouse, thereby robbing the operator of the use of the right button. This driver places the mouse in MacAlly proprietary mode, enabling the right button.

The driver co-exists with the standard MacOS X AppleADBMouse driver but is given a higher probe score so it will override the stock driver if a MacAlly mouse is detected. You can safely discard the MacAllyADBMouse extension and your system will fall back to the stock driver on the next reboot. (See removal instructions below.)

Beware: The MacAllyADBMouse driver has undergone only minimal testing.

Download: MacAllyADBMouse-1.0.pkg.sit (Version 1.0, 9/28/2003)

Installation

To install the driver, download the file from the link above and save it to your hard disk. Using StuffIt Expander, extract the archive and run the resulting MacAllyADBMouse-<version>.pkg program. The OS X installer application will appear and will guide you through the rest of the installation. There are no options to configure; simply enter your administrator password when prompted and select your primary system disk for the install destination. After the installation has been completed, restart your system and the new driver will be loaded (provided your MacAlly Two-Button mouse is attached, of course).

The right button should be functional. To further verify that the driver has been installed properly, open a terminal window (using Terminal.app) and run the following command:

        dmesg | grep MacAlly

(Note the '|' character is a veritcal bar symbol, not a one, an 'eye' or an 'ell'.)

You should see:

        MacAllyADBMouse: Detected MacAlly 2-Button Mouse

Removal

You can safely remove the MacAllyADBMouse driver and your system will return to using the standard Apple driver on the next reboot. To remove the driver, open a terminal window (using Terminal.app) and run the following commands. Enter your administative password when prompted.

You must type these commands EXACTLY as shown. You will be deleting files using Administrative rights so a single typo could destroy your system. I recommend you copy-and-paste the commands directly from your web browser to avoid possible mistakes.

        sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions/MacAllyADBMouse.kext
        sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
        sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.mkext

Now reboot your system.

Compatibility

The MacAllyADBMouse driver will only be loaded if a MacAlly 2-Button mouse is detected. Other ADB mice will continue to use the Apple driver or whatever 3rd party driver you might currently be using.

Hot-Swapping

It is occasionally convenient or necessary to swap your mouse while the system is running without going through a reboot cycle. Although Apple does not officially support it, I've generally had success swapping input devices on-the-fly.

Since the MacAlly protocol is similar to the standard Apple Type 1, Type 2, and Type 4 protocols it is generally possible to hot-swap from the MacAlly mouse to a standard Apple mouse. You may find, however, that additional buttons do not function after the swap.

You can also swap from the MacAlly mouse to a standard mouse, although you will lose use of the right button until you reboot. The MacAlly requires specific initialization commands to enable the right button and these commands are only issued at boot time.

Feel free to send questions and comments to me at akropel1@rochester.rr.com.