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TinyPilot is not recognized as a mouse by the Mac Studio, but it still works.

By Graham Christensen @grahamc
    2022-08-15 16:16:54.812Z

    Hey Tiny Pilot team,

    I've seen this issue reported a zillion times over, and I'm sorry to add another to the pile. I'm using a TinyPilot attached to a Mac Studio. This Mac is erased very frequently, and oftentimes during the install process the device wants me to connect a mouse:

    This is very fun and cool, because the TinyPilot's mouse is actually connected and working! Indeed, if I move the mouse around, macOS increases the size of the cursor to help me locate it.

    If I connect a wireless logitech mouse's receiver, the mac recognizes the mouse and continues working immediately.

    I don't know what I'm looking for here exactly. I'd like to not need to plug in an extra mouse or anything. It'd be kinda neat if I could ask the TinyPilot to impersonate a Logitech mouse maybe? I don't know.

    Thank you for a great product, it is annoying that macOS is so annoying about this.

    Reply
    • 7 replies
    1. Diego @diego
        2022-08-15 23:52:45.109Z

        Hello @grahamc - Thank you for reporting your issue in our Forum. I'm sorry you are going through this inconvenience.

        • TinyPilot is already impersonating a mouse. The fact that you can move around the mouse pointer is interesting; I don't quite understand why the Mac computer wouldn't recognize that there is already a mouse "connected" to it. I wonder what would happen if you reboot the TinyPilot when the Mac asks you to connect a mouse... Perhaps it will recognize it then?

        • Another solution to this problem that I can see, would be to just leave the Logitech mouse connected 24/7. Does the Mac computer still asks you for a mouse if the Logitech mouse was already connected before you reached that step?

        • Would it be possible for you to upload logs for me to review? This is how you would upload them: TinyPilot web interface > System > Logs > Get Shareable URL (copy the URL it will give you and paste it in your response). It would be great if you could upload these logs while the problem is happening (i.e. when the Mac asks you to plug in a mouse).

        Reply
        1. GGraham Christensen @grahamc
            2022-08-16 14:25:43.201Z

            Hi Diego,

            TinyPilot is already impersonating a mouse.

            Yeah, that seems clear to me. I wonder, though, if it would be possible for the TinyPilot to pretend to be a Logitech mouse. And if it did, would macOS recognize it differently?

            I purchased a Targus mouse, I will see if that helps it progress or work differently.

            I'll try to capture some relevant logs.

            Thanks!

            Graham

            Reply
            1. GGraham Christensen @grahamc
                2022-08-16 16:34:30.014Z

                Here are logs from when the TinyPilot was unable to wake up the computer with either keyboard or mouse: https://logs.tinypilotkvm.com/xiQaQsRE however a Targus mouse was able to.

                Reply
                1. Michael Lynch @michael2022-08-16 17:20:48.915Z

                  I believe this is unfortunately a bug in OS X.

                  It looks like OS X implements the HID spec incorrectly, so it fails to recognize TinyPilot's mouse device (which uses the Linux USB Gadget driver). I think it's a function of the HID gadget implementation rather than any identifiers like Logitech or Targus, as I've seen this reported from other Linux USB Gadget clients who are trying to use it with OS X.

                  It's possible that later Linux kernels have a workaround for this. If you're feeling adventurous, you can try updating to the latest available kernel, but we haven't tested TinyPilot on later kernels yet, so you might have to reflash if things go wonky:

                  # Warning: This is risky and you shouldn't do it unless you're prepared to
# factory reset your TinyPilot if things go wrong.
sudo rpi-update
                  Reply1 Like
                  1. GGraham Christensen @grahamc
                      2022-08-16 17:24:36.874Z

                      Sounds good, I'll try the updated kernel. I'm not afraid of reflashing. Thanks!

                      Reply
                      1. GGraham Christensen @grahamc
                          2022-08-16 20:08:52.459Z

                          Well, after the update TinyPilot wasn't able to get more than approximately one frame of video. I regret it but I failed to save the logs. Oh well, it was worth a shot :).

                          Reply
                          1. Michael Lynch @michael2022-08-16 21:14:27.155Z

                            Rats! That must be the changes to the GPU interface in the new Pi kernel. They dropped OMX and switched to M2M, so it makes our migration a pain, but we're working on migrating to Bullseye and the newest kernels soon.

                            Reply
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