Lion and 32-bit driver for ISDN

ADSL is not available in my area, so I use a Hermstedt WebShuttle II
ISDN USB terminal adapter. Its 32-bit universal binary driver works
perfectly with Leopard 10.5.8. Hermstedt shut down in 2007 and,
obviously, its products are no longer supported.
If I get a new Mac (with Lion), will the device work?

giuseppe.on.usenet <> wrote:

> ADSL is not available in my area, so I use a Hermstedt WebShuttle II
> ISDN USB terminal adapter. Its 32-bit universal binary driver works
> perfectly with Leopard 10.5.8. Hermstedt shut down in 2007 and,
> obviously, its products are no longer supported.
> If I get a new Mac (with Lion), will the device work?

Lion defaults to 64-bit kernel on all new Macs, and most older Macs that
originally came with an older OS.

You can force Lion to run with a 32-bit kernel (by holding down the 3
and 2 keys at startup, or adjusting nvram settings), which would be a
necessary condition for running a 32-bit kernel extension.

Whether that particular kernel extension works on Lion is a question
which could only be determined by trying it. It may have some
compatibility issues other than just the 32-bit question.

As a data point, the Apple USB modem has a 32-bit-only kernel extension,
and it is known not to work in Lion even if the kernel is forced to load
in 32-bit mode.

--
David Empson

giuseppe.on.usenet <> wrote:

> Thank you for your reply.
>
> > You can force Lion to run with a 32-bit kernel (by holding down the 3
> > and 2 keys at startup, or adjusting nvram settings), which would be a
> > necessary condition for running a 32-bit kernel extension.
>
> Does this page apply to Lion too? http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3773

The technical details of how to force 32-bit or 64-bit mode also apply
to Lion, including these commands for persistent settings:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386
sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

The linked page referring to which models support or default to 64-bit
kernel are only applicable to Snow Leopard. Lion supports 64-bit kernel
on more models than Snow Leopard, and it defaults to 64-bit kernel on
all models which support it.

I'm not aware of an Apple article which documents this specifically for
Lion.

I tested Lion on my mid 2007 Mac Mini (before I sold the computer), and
it was limited to running 32-bit kernel. I expect the same would apply
to late 2006 and mid 2007 MacBook (which are the same architecture), and
probably the late 2006 MacBook Pro and iMac, which have the same CPU and
chipset generation (includig a memory controller with hard limit of of 3
GB RAM) but different graphics controllers.

Not sure about the 2006/2007 Mac Pro or the 2007 generations of the iMac
and MacBook Pro, but 2008 and later models of these all support 64-bit
kernel on Snow Leopard, so will default to 64-bit on Lion.

Also not sure about 2009 Mac Mini models, late 2007 or newer MacBook
models, or any MacBook Airs.

--
David Empson