At Wits End Getting Dirac Live to see XMC-1

[digitaloz]

I have Dirac Live installed on a Mac OS X High Sierra  Macbook Pro. It is running OS X native.  I have both the Laptop and the XMC-1 on the same physical switch and both are connected by wire.  Wireless Networking is disabled on OS X, so the connection is just the wire.  I am able to reach internet websites.  Both devices have an IP address.  The firewall is disabled on the Mac OS X machine.  I am able to ping and traceroute the XMC-1 and traceroute shows that they are on the same network.  I have configured the speaker setup using the Dirac menu on the XMC-1.  I have previously tuned the XMC-1 to another room, but recently moved into a new house and want to tune it for the new room.  So this has worked in the past.  

Macbook IP Address: 10.0.0.41
XMC-1 IP Address: 10.0.0.43

I have tried the following:

1. Power off router, switch, XMC-1, and laptop for 30 seconds and then restart each.  No luck.

2. Turned on and off the firewall.

I have no idea why Dirac Live can't see the XMC-1 since ping and traceroute can.   

Any other ideas are most welcome.  I have been trying to get this to work for days.  I tried calling support yesterday but didn't receive a call back after the person answering the phone took my info.  I know they are out for the holidays.  It is tough for me to talk to them during their normal hours because of work. 

Anyway, the fact that everything seems connected and reachable makes this amazingly frustrating.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Charles

[creimes]

Do you have the latest firmware in the XMC-1

I was helping my buddy run Dirac for the first time since he has owned the XMC for 3 years now, he had never updated the firmware in the XMC-1 so Dirac would not see it, after updating the firmware all was good.

Chad

[digitaloz]

Thanks for the reply. As an update, there is apparently a compatibility problem with Dirac Live and MacOS X High Sierra. After posting this, I installed on Windows 10 and had no problems. I received a call back from Emotiva Tech Support today and he confirmed that there seems to be compatibility issues starting with MacOS X Sierra. He said Dirac is working on a fix for it, but hasn't been released. So if anyone is having this problem, try just using a Windows machine (or Boot Camp).

[creimes]

Thats great you found the solution, I was just thinking you were having the same issue we were having with my buddies XMC-1.

Chad

[Axis]

There should be a lot of resource here on this subject. Maybe a Monitor could bump info to you guys. Ask and you shall receive.

[enricoclaudio]

I have no problems with Dirac Live on my 13" MacBook Pro Retina mid-2014 running High Sierra 10.13.1. I even run Dirac from my MacBook Pro wirelessly. Did you try changing your network DHCP range to 192.168.1.x instead of 10.0.0.x ? I remember having issues when running my network on DHCP range 10.0.0.x


       

[digitaloz]

Nov 29, 2017 23:57:51 GMT -5 enricoclaudio said:

"I have no problems with Dirac Live on my 13" MacBook Pro Retina mid-2014 running High Sierra 10.13.1. I even run Dirac from my MacBook Pro wirelessly. Did you try changing your network DHCP range to 192.168.1.x instead of 10.0.0.x ? I remember having issues when running my network on DHCP range 10.0.0.x"

In my case, my internal LAN is a 10 network and both my laptop and the XMC-1 were on the 10 network, so this wouldn't have helped.  I am pretty certain the issue is a bug in the software since I was able to ping, traceroute and otherwise see the XMC-1 device from the MacOS X using system tools.  Dirac wasn't able to see it.  Also, Emotiva support confirmed there are issues.  Interesting that it worked for you. 

[KeithL]

Dirac and Apple computers....

We are currently experiencing some issues with Dirac Live and Apple computers.

Dirac Live runs perfectly on Windows - from Windows 7 up to and including Windows 10.
(There are a few minor issues with Cortana monopolizing the microphone - but disabling Cortana fixes them.)

However, we have been experiencing compatibility issues with some Apple computers.
Dirac Live runs perfectly on Apple Computers running Yosemite.
Some people have had microphone issues with Dirac Live and El Capitan.

Unfortunately, Apple seems to have changed something in later versions that causes network-connect problems.
Quite a few people running Sierra and High Sierra have experienced various "unable to connect to the XMC-1" type issues.
Our programmers are currently working on a permanent solution to this issue.
 
If you call in and talk to support, we have an interim solution that works for SOME people....
(it involves copying files into specific folders - is somewhat complicated - and doesn't always work.)
However, if you have access to a Windows computer, that's a much simpler solution (and ALWAYS works) 

[ttocs]

XMC-1 Sept/2014 build, Firmware V4.1; Dirac Live Full; MacBook Pro Early 2015 OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

What I do now to get Dirac to see the XMC-1. The Firewall is only off and NOT connected to the internet for 10 seconds.
edit: Clear the cache by doing as instructed in Bold below, otherwise this may not be successful.
After connecting the microphone do the following:
1. Disconnect the internet.
2. Turn Firewall OFF.
3. Launch Dirac and see “Do you want to use this server? XMC-1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (your IP address)”. Click OK. Handshake complete.
4. Turn Firewall ON.
5. Connect Internet and enter Username/Password to login to Dirac.
6. Use Dirac as normal.
This procedure takes about 10 seconds. Upon closing Dirac the XMC-1 will again fail to be seen. The Firewall OFF/ON procedure will be necessary again.


The long story.
I was certain there is a better way than to leave my Firewall off for the time it takes to run Dirac. So I spent the last week diving deep into this situation of why the XMC-1 can’t be seen from a Mac - some Macs - my Macs. I used last Sunday to beat my head on the rocks and get nowhere, rebooting everything, turn on this, turn off that, learn new network speak, etc. Then I used every evening during the week to educate myself going from one buzzword possible issue to another. This culminated with trashing my home network, turning everything that communicates to OFF, factory resets on the Netgear cable modem and Asus RT-68U router with wifi turned OFF, and then starting a new network wired to the MacBook Pro (Thunderbolt to ethernet) and XMC-1.

I began using only the cable modem, it has two ports on it. Then I tried all sorts of ping, nslookup, traceroute, etc, but could only see the IP address of the XMC-1. Dirac couldn’t see it either.

Then I got the Asus router into the game. That’s when something interesting happened - in the control panel of the router it showed the XMC-1 as having a HostName of Microchip Technology Inc. This had never been visible before, it was always blank. I think this showed up because I learned how to dump the cache on the Mac by rebooting into Safe Mode - Click on the Apple, then continuously hold the Shift Key until the Login screen shows up - now it’s in Safe Mode. Then reboot normally and things are fresh as a summer’s eve.

I continued to struggle with the process until basically giving up. Then I decided to find out how little time was really needed for the Firewall to be OFF. So I started with the minimum, which happened to be all that is necessary, as described above.

ps: Yes I have Windows, lots of Windows, but I hate Windows 10 because it forces updates when it wants to. The only way around this is to keep the telephone equipment away from it so it can’t phone home. I have it installed on my MacBook Pro using Bootcamp, but I disable internet access so it has never updated at all, and I don’t want it to start any updating. (I have one application that is Win only). I just got tired of using my last newest PC, the Mac is built so well and battery life is more than incredible with the SSD.

I post this to help those it can.

[xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe]

Nov 30, 2017 11:22:10 GMT -5 KeithL said:

Dirac and Apple computers....

We are currently experiencing some issues with Dirac Live and Apple computers.

Dirac Live runs perfectly on Windows - from Windows 7 up to and including Windows 10.
(There are a few minor issues with Cortana monopolizing the microphone - but disabling Cortana fixes them.)

However, we have been experiencing compatibility issues with some Apple computers.
Dirac Live runs perfectly on Apple Computers running Yosemite.
Some people have had microphone issues with Dirac Live and El Capitan.

Unfortunately, Apple seems to have changed something in later versions that causes network-connect problems.
Quite a few people running Sierra and High Sierra have experienced various "unable to connect to the XMC-1" type issues.
Our programmers are currently working on a permanent solution to this issue.
 
If you call in and talk to support, we have an interim solution that works for SOME people....
(it involves copying files into specific folders - is somewhat complicated - and doesn't always work.)
However, if you have access to a Windows computer, that's a much simpler solution (and ALWAYS works) 


Is there an update to this?  I'm quite disappointed in the networking fail given a big selling point of the XMC-1 is DIRAC which I can't use on my home full of mac computers.  DIRAC happily launches on my computer.  How can I verify that the Emotiva XMC-1 is on the network without using DIRAC?  Emotiva owes its customers a better experience than this.

[ttocs]

xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe See post above yours, including clearing the cache. Very easy. Works every time.

It's a firewall issue on our Macs.

[xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe]

Mar 31, 2018 14:40:53 GMT -5 ttocs said:

xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe See post above yours, including clearing the cache. Very easy. Works every time.

It's a firewall issue on our Macs.

I suspect this is one part of it, but in my case the firewall on the mac is disabled.  One of the things that complicates debugging that I only realized after a couple of hours of trying different networking equipment is that more than 50% of the time the XMC-1 just fails to bring up its network.  I don't get a link light on the ethernet port when I plug into it (when the link is there the lights work).  I've been power cycling (using the switch on the back) and I can get it to come up with a link light sometimes.  Probably an unrelated bug, but I had the xmc-1 crash/hang trying to flip the enable-dhcp setting while there was no link light.

Btw, my Marantz av7703 in my living room has never had a network problem... and I know this because it has network functionality like internet radio.  One of the frustrations I've had with my XMC-1 is that there isn't a good way to tell if the network is working.

The network settings features on the xmc-1 are just plain buggy.  There are reports of the DHCP setting being backwards (from a long time ago).  I don't know if this is still an issue, but since that thread doesn't have any resolution it is impossible to tell if Emotiva is still shipping with this bug.  I have the latest firmware (4.1).  It would be nice to know what has been fixed and what are the known bugs on the XMC-1 and in Dirac.  If Emotiva is going to ship buggy experiences, it needs to be transparent about its bugs.

I did several iterations where my laptop and the XMC-1 were plugged with wires into the same switch - but I'm running Sierra, so maybe that was my problem.  I have another mac desktop that is running older OSX . I have not hauled it down to my basement so that it can get a wire in the same switch, but I can say it didn't connect from the wireless side of things.

I'll reiterate that this is an amazing (ly bad) customer experience.  I was weighing getting another Marantz vs. trying this fancy XMC-1.  Dirac was the main thing that sold me on this device.  I figured, I'm a principal scientist at a major software company working on network-related software, I ought to be able to handle configuring a stereo component.  The subject of this thread definitely sums it up for me.

[ttocs]

When I had some time off from work and the correct mind set I spent an entire day and a half to just this one issue - Dirac, meet the XMC-1 - and the resulting take-away ended up being: clear the cache. This was the key, along with turning off the firewall. Without dumping the cache, previous settings were being retained even though they "looked" like they weren't.

[KeithL]

You should be aware that the Ethernet port on the XMC-1 takes about fifteen seconds to reset.
This means that, if you power down the XMC-1, you should let it remain off for at least fifteen seconds before powering it back on.
if you power the XMC-1 off and back on again too quickly, it will reboot properly, BUT THE ETHERNET PORT WILL NOT INITIALIZE PROPERLY AND WILL NOT WORK.

Apr 2, 2018 7:44:16 GMT -5 xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe said:

Mar 31, 2018 14:40:53 GMT -5 ttocs said:

xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe See post above yours, including clearing the cache. Very easy. Works every time.

It's a firewall issue on our Macs.

I suspect this is one part of it, but in my case the firewall on the mac is disabled.  One of the things that complicates debugging that I only realized after a couple of hours of trying different networking equipment is that more than 50% of the time the XMC-1 just fails to bring up its network.  I don't get a link light on the ethernet port when I plug into it (when the link is there the lights work).  I've been power cycling (using the switch on the back) and I can get it to come up with a link light sometimes.  Probably an unrelated bug, but I had the xmc-1 crash/hang trying to flip the enable-dhcp setting while there was no link light.

Btw, my Marantz av7703 in my living room has never had a network problem... and I know this because it has network functionality like internet radio.  One of the frustrations I've had with my XMC-1 is that there isn't a good way to tell if the network is working.

The network settings features on the xmc-1 are just plain buggy.  There are reports of the DHCP setting being backwards (from a long time ago).  I don't know if this is still an issue, but since that thread doesn't have any resolution it is impossible to tell if Emotiva is still shipping with this bug.  I have the latest firmware (4.1).  It would be nice to know what has been fixed and what are the known bugs on the XMC-1 and in Dirac.  If Emotiva is going to ship buggy experiences, it needs to be transparent about its bugs.

I did several iterations where my laptop and the XMC-1 were plugged with wires into the same switch - but I'm running Sierra, so maybe that was my problem.  I have another mac desktop that is running older OSX . I have not hauled it down to my basement so that it can get a wire in the same switch, but I can say it didn't connect from the wireless side of things.

I'll reiterate that this is an amazing (ly bad) customer experience.  I was weighing getting another Marantz vs. trying this fancy XMC-1.  Dirac was the main thing that sold me on this device.  I figured, I'm a principal scientist at a major software company working on network-related software, I ought to be able to handle configuring a stereo component.  The subject of this thread definitely sums it up for me.

[ttocs]

Thanks Keith, that's very good info to know! (although I always wait for at least a timed minute)

[xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe]

Thanks for helping me Kieth and ttocs totally appreciate it and I have not given up yet. I moved my iMac down there today and got it on the same switch. I also rebooted it in safe mode though still getting 'no joy'. I had seen that tip about waiting 30s with it effectively unplugged before powering the xmc-1 back up, so I've been doing that. It still only comes up with a link light 50% of the time.

I can log in to my switch and see the IP address it gave the xmc-1, but I am not able to ping or traceroute to that address. I also don't see a host name in that listing like ttocs saw.

[socketman]

IMHO always assign manual ip's then you have no worries and try using your router , all switch's are not created equal.

[KeithL]

You can see the address in the router's table because it has assigned an address to the XMC-1 - which will remain in the list for some number of hours (the "lease time" for the address).
However, while that tells you that it was visible at one time, it may not be visible AT THE MOMENT.

Try lifting gently UPWARDS on the Ethernet cable a few inches behind the XMC-1's rear panel.
We've seen a few cases where the little metal wires in the Ethernet connector on the back of the XMC-1 got squished - and the connector would make contact if you lift gently up on it but not if you let it hang down.

If you're "network literate" you could try MANUALLY assigning the XMC-1 a valid address...

You SHOULD be able to ping the XMC-1 from your computer.

Another issue we've seen once or twice - although it's quite obscure - is that the DHCP code on the XMC-1 can become corrupted.
(It involves a certain system file on the XMC-1 becoming deleted for no apparent reason.)
We've only seen this happen a few times... but it will mess up network connectivity.
Luckily the fix is quite simple.... simply re-update the XMC-1's firmware in the usual way.
(The missing file is part of the normal set of update files, so re-loading the firmware replaces it, and the problem will disappear.)
As I said, we've only seen this a very few times, but it's worth a try.

Apr 2, 2018 16:43:45 GMT -5 xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe said:

Thanks for helping me Kieth and ttocs totally appreciate it and I have not given up yet. I moved my iMac down there today and got it on the same switch. I also rebooted it in safe mode though still getting 'no joy'. I had seen that tip about waiting 30s with it effectively unplugged before powering the xmc-1 back up, so I've been doing that. It still only comes up with a link light 50% of the time.

I can log in to my switch and see the IP address it gave the xmc-1, but I am not able to ping or traceroute to that address. I also don't see a host name in that listing like ttocs saw.

[xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe]

Interesting, maybe i need to suck it up and try to re-apply the firmware at some point too.

I reconfigured my switch / router to 10.0.0.1 and was trying DHCP. The Emotiva got an address - I saw it in the switch admin, but that same address didn't show in the XMC-1's information UI. So, I configured the IP manually and still couldn't ping from my mac (which had a 10.0.0.x address, but got it via DHCP. I reconfigured my mac to have a static IP next to the one I gave the XMC-1 and bingo, I was able to launch and pair with Dirac. I was so psyched. So then I plugged in the usb microphone. No love, but my OSX on that machine is way out of date (10.7.x).

Back to the forums and find that the microphone only works on 10.10, so my next step is to upgrade the OS, but not sure how easy it is going to be to get it onto 10.10 which seems to be the magic release where Dirac is supported and the microphone works.

[xmc-1-owner-and-apparently-qe]

Interesting, maybe i need to suck it up and try to re-apply the firmware at some point too.

I reconfigured my switch / router to 10.0.0.1 and was trying DHCP. The Emotiva got an address - I saw it in the switch admin, but that same address didn't show in the XMC-1's information UI. So, I configured the IP manually and still couldn't ping from my mac (which had a 10.0.0.x address, but got it via DHCP. I reconfigured my mac to have a static IP next to the one I gave the XMC-1 and bingo, I was able to launch and pair with Dirac. I was so psyched. So then I plugged in the usb microphone. No love, but my OSX on that machine is way out of date (10.7.x).

Back to the forums and find that the microphone only works on 10.10, so my next step is to upgrade the OS, but not sure how easy it is going to be to get it onto 10.10 which seems to be the magic release where Dirac is supported and the microphone works.