NI-VISA and NI-488 on Mac OS 11.6 Big Sur kext blocked

[gerlich]

Hey,

So, according to documentation, recent versions of NI-VISA (21.0.0) and NI-488-2 (21.0) have been added support for Mac OS Big Sur.

I've been trying to install the versions with no success. The kernel extensions don't seem to want to load.

After installation, I have a warning about allowing new kernel extension (as usual), but clicking on allow in system preferences is prompting for a restart before it can be allowed so I clicked restart.

After reboot, there was still an entry in system preferences so I clicked allow again and again it prompted for a restart before it can be allowed.

After 2 restarts, there was no entry in system preferences so I assumed it loaded, but I was wrong. Nothing worked.

Running kextstat didn't show me any NI extensions.

I tried manually running: "sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/nipalk.kext" and got this:

Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=27 "Extension with identifiers com.ni.driver.nipalk not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Extension with identifiers com.ni.driver.nipalk not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences.}

However, there is nothing in system preferences now!!

Can you please help?

[scott42]

I have this same problem on multiple computers. Help!

[scott42]

Okay, this is solved, at least for me. There seems to be a problem with the NI-488.2 installer for Big Sur (I'm running 11.6.2). The NI installer asks the user to "bless" the kernel extensions through the security/privacy panel in System Preferences, but not all of the 3 required kernel extensions are blessed, and they don't show up after rebooting as needing to be blessed in the security/privacy panel. There is a way to bless them after-the-fact from the command line but it requires rebooting in recovery mode. Note that this worked for me and I can now run GPIB explorer and NIMAX without issues:

Solution is here under "Troubleshooting"

https://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/Approving+Kernel+Extensions+for+macOS

Here is the recipe:

Startup the Mac in recovery mode.
Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
Enter the following command:
/usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent add TEAMID
Press Enter
Close the Terminal app and restart

--> The TEAMID for national instruments is SKTKK2QZ74. You can see whether the extensions is properly loaded using kextutil or looking under "System report" in "About this mac" and looking at Software/extensions. 

Good luck!

[kyzyl2]

I used this solution on my Mac running Big Sur; it worked!

I decided to try the same solution on my MacBook running Monterey 12.5.1; THIS ALSO WORKED.

After 2 years of having a non-functional (important) Mac app, I'm back in business.  Thanks for your solution!!