USBHubPowerFix

This codeless kext fixes "USB Device Needs Power" alert with non-Apple non-powered USB hubs in El Capitan (OS X 10.11) and later.

Many of such hubs worked flawlessly in Yosemite but stopped working in El Capitan. Whenever a USB device is plugged in into the hub the "USB Device Needs Power" alert appears with the following error in the /var/log/system.log:

Aug 10 09:25:08 Maximilians-iMac kernel[0]: 034851.758657 USB Mass Storage Device@fa124000: IOUSBHostDevice::setConfigurationGated: 480mA of bus current is not available
Aug 10 09:25:08 Maximilians-iMac kernel[0]: 034851.758664 AppleUSBCDCCompositeDevice@: AppleUSBHostCompositeDevice::ConfigureDevice: unable to set a configuration (0xe0005001)

I noticed that Apple USB Hub in Apple Keyboard however works in El Capitan.

The properties injected by this kext are copied from Apple Aluminium Keyboard Properties from AppleUSBHub.kext driver (see here: /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHub.kext/Contents/Info.plist).

Installation

1. Edit Vendor and Product ids to match your hub in USBHubPowerFix.kext/Contents/Info.plist (you can find them by looking at idProduct and idVendor properties in ioreg -c IOUSBHostDevice -r -l -w0 output).
2. Run make install.

Note: This kext is not signed. You need either to disable SIP or sign it (see Signing below).

Testing

1. Run sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/USBHubPowerFix.kext or make load
2. Check the output of ioreg -c IOUSBHostDevice -r -l -w0 - kUSBConfigurationCurrentOverride property should appear in the output.
3. Please send me (as pull request or to [email protected]) product id, vendor id and USB hub name if the fix works.

Signing

You need to have Apple Developer Program subscription and request a kext signing certificate.

1. Modify IDENTITY= in Makefile
2. Run make sign