mdloader doesn't detect ALT keyboard

[brewerbjb]

I just got an ALT keyboard and am trying to flash the firmware. When I run mdloader on Windows I get an error "could not find a valid device port!".

[carlosbelardi]

Commenting to get some visibility on this but yup I'm having the same issue with the ALT I got 2 weeks ago. I'm guessing these newest batch has another new chip ID in it that the current code doesn't account for

[mbodge]

Same here, does not detect on my mac

[mbodge]

Ok, i resolved this by going into the source code, modifying line 38 in mdloader_common.c by changing the chip id to "0x60060005". Go to the command line, type make and you've built your own binary to run.

[carlosbelardi]

@mbodge That worked! Thanks!

[JasonYuanLiu]

Ok, i resolved this by going into the source code, modifying line 38 in mdloader_common.c by changing the chip id to "0x60060005". Go to the command line, type make and you've built your own binary to run.

There's also a chance that the CHIP ID is 60060305 in the new batch of Alt

[fciuffo]

Can someone tell me how i can modify the code to add the correct CHIP ID in order for the program to recognize my new ALT. Once I download the downloader, is there an easy way to edit the code and recompile?

[scrumyy]

I'm having the same issue, got my alt this week

[adrianjean]

Ok, i resolved this by going into the source code, modifying line 38 in mdloader_common.c by changing the chip id to "0x60060005". Go to the command line, type make and you've built your own binary to run.

This worked for me just now on macOS with my day-old Drop Alt. I used 0x60060005

[brewerbjb]

Ok, i resolved this by going into the source code, modifying line 38 in mdloader_common.c by changing the chip id to "0x60060005". Go to the command line, type make and you've built your own binary to run.

Do you have any clue how I can compile it on windows?

[scrumyy]

Ok, i resolved this by going into the source code, modifying line 38 in mdloader_common.c by changing the chip id to "0x60060005". Go to the command line, type make and you've built your own binary to run.

Do you have any clue how I can compile it on windows?

I would also really like to know

[adrianjean]

Ok, i resolved this by going into the source code, modifying line 38 in mdloader_common.c by changing the chip id to "0x60060005". Go to the command line, type make and you've built your own binary to run.

Do you have any clue how I can compile it on windows?

@brewerbjb @scrumyy Can you install a quick Linux VM using VirtualBox and compile and run it from in there?

[mattdzugan]

For the sake of potential other readers of this thread -- I was getting the "could not find a valid device port!" error even after applying all the changes mentioned here. Turns out all i needed was sudo. So just beware that a permissions issue will still throw this same "could not find a valid device port!" error! 🤦‍♂️

[scrumyy]

Ok, i resolved this by going into the source code, modifying line 38 in mdloader_common.c by changing the chip id to "0x60060005". Go to the command line, type make and you've built your own binary to run.

Do you have any clue how I can compile it on windows?

@brewerbjb @scrumyy Can you install a quick Linux VM using VirtualBox and compile and run it from in there?

compiled in Linux VM, but when running in the VM I get error "mdloader_linux: command not found". Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

[brundonsmith]

Having the same issue; just bought a new Alt and getting this error message on both Mac and Windows. I tried running it as admin on Windows per @mattdzugan 's suggestion and it made no difference.

This is GitHub; if we know the fix, could someone make a pull-request and hope that Massdrop merges it and does a new release?

Has anyone contacted customer service? This seems to be a really widespread issue and a really easy thing for them to fix.

@mbodge You're awesome! Thanks so much for sharing this solution!!