Topic: CumulusMX v4.2.1 is available for macOS- the complete beginners edition

[Shady_Acres]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd chime in here as a iMac user that struggled as a new weather station hobbyist to find a weather software option that ticked the boxes for me. I'd tried another of the popular ones listed in this section as suitable for macOS as a paid app, but found that particular one confusing, clunky and... well, a bit ugly-looking to be honest. I'm not here to sling mud at other person's hard work though, I just really wanted something else (!)

So I'm writing to say that CumulusMX v4.2.1 (b4043) is available as a free download and I must say that it works beautifully on macOS- especially when paired with a Davis WeatherLink Live and a WeatherLink Pro Account. Steelseries Gauges, Charts, Reports, Uploads, Alarms and let's not forget to mention the 2.5 second wind readings (!) this has it all! I'm yet to delve into the world of creating my own website, but it appears that this is entirely possible too.

For those looking to use CumulusMX with macOS, first you're going to need to download a .NET (DOTNET) 8.0 installer, so at a bare minimum you'll need macOS Catalina 10.15.0 to be able to install and run this. (The very last of the Catalina updates was 10:15.7) This latest .NET 8.0 version simply won't run on any previous macOS... I found this out first-hand because I have repurposed an old 27" 2013 iMac desktop that 'died' suddenly about 18 months ago and we still had it sitting around 'broken'. (Fun Fact: I'd been forced to completely wipe this iMac to even get it to start up again (!) so in doing that was sent all the way back to macOS Mavericks 10.8.5 days- which understandably fell waaaay short of requirements! ) I'm pleased to say though, it has now been reborn and is enjoying its second life as a dedicated weather computer! (Took me a couple of days worth of downloading and re-installing macOS updates though... )

Some links:

   *Cumulus Software Wiki here: https://cumuluswiki.org/a/Software

   *DOTNET 8 download here: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/8.0

   *CumulusMX installation guide here: https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=22051

The installation instructions are pretty straight forward even for non-programmers such as me who'd literally never even seen Terminal before let alone use a command! (Although this is changing... I think I'm definitely catching the 'bug'! I've already figured out how to customise the gauges to my liking and I've even fixed a spelling mistake in chart text that I spotted... )

**One final note: The only issue I've ever had was when my iMac went into 'sleep' mode overnight and for some reason I'd get random chunks of data missing of up to 40 minutes sometimes. Usually this seemed to trigger whenever I was using the WeatherLink App to check into my WLL in 'Live' mode in bed late at night maybe (?) Not sure what was going on there to be honest (?) WeatherLink via API would populate some data again in the morning whenever I'd check in, but only up to the latest data loss, not between the earlier 'gaps' if that makes sense? This was completely fixed however by using the 'caffeinate' command in Terminal i.e  ~ % caffeinate -i dotnet cumulusmx.dll as an example. This keeps it running pretty much forever though, so may not be for everyone who is not using theirs as a dedicated weather computer.

Anyway, thanks for listening and I'm hoping this helps somebody somewhere enjoy running CumulusMX on macOS as much as I have so far.

Best of luck!


Cheers,

Shady

[mcrossley]

Thanks for the write-up, I'm sure people will find it useful.

[uconn9]

Thank you for the writeup.

I was able to go through the steps and get the dotnet to run in terminal, but I received this error:
**** An error has occurred - please zip up the MXdiags folder and post it in the forum ****

Attachment:
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


Any guidance?
Thanks!

[PaulMy]

Hi,
Usually there is more to the MXdiags file before it is stopped.  I am not a MAC user but the basic startup should be similar.
The message to post on the forum is intended to be to post the MXDiags zip on the Cumulus support forum where the developer and other users, including MAC users, may be helpful https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=50

Enjoy,
Paul

[Shady_Acres]

Hi there,

There were a couple of files that my Mac (macOS Catalina) wasn't happy about until I manually gave it permission to open them.

From memory it was the libe_sqlite3.dylib and at least one other with a similar name (?) My fix was to type the file name into 'Finder' and then search for it. Once found, I was able to right click upon the file icon (which again I seem to remember had a different colour to the rest) and the Mac prompted me to allow opening it with my direct permission. (This is a one time operation only.)

After that, everything fired up perfectly!

Good Luck!


Shady


EDIT: Something else that now springs to mind, is that macOS Catalina had also prompted me to delete those particular files during my original install which I didn't do (!) Maybe yours has done it automatically? Just a thought.

[NorCal_Dan]

From memory it was the libe_sqlite3.dylib and at least one other with a similar name (?) My fix was to type the file name into 'Finder' and then search for it. Once found, I was able to right click upon the file icon (which again I seem to remember had a different colour to the rest) and the Mac prompted me to allow opening it with my direct permission. (This is a one time operation only.)

In an attempt to move CMX4 off Win10 machine to my iMac (M1) I encountered this exact issue.  If I try to open the dylib file IOS complains it can't verify the file

[Shady_Acres]

From memory it was the libe_sqlite3.dylib and at least one other with a similar name (?) My fix was to type the file name into 'Finder' and then search for it. Once found, I was able to right click upon the file icon (which again I seem to remember had a different colour to the rest) and the Mac prompted me to allow opening it with my direct permission. (This is a one time operation only.)

In an attempt to move CMX4 off Win10 machine to my iMac (M1) I encountered this exact issue.  If I try to open the dylib file IOS complains it can't verify the file

Hi there,

That is odd!

I also have a M1 iMac- that was the first machine of ours that I installed CumulusMX upon, but I have a different message appearing! (It was 'discussed' that I don't hog the new family computer for weather purposes... hence the reason I had our old dinosaur (Catalina macOS) one fixed and set up Cumulus on that too... )

Message on mine is this one below and has a different button that does allow opening (?) Maybe permissions differ?

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Apologies I can't be of more help. I'm sure there is an Apple iMac genius out there that know what is happening? I'm unfortunately not one... not even close!


Cheers,

Shady

[NorCal_Dan]

I managed to stumble on how to "fix" my issue.  Here is what I did...

The popup I posted earlier (see first attachment) comes up when I initially try to run CMX4...hit "Done"

On my system, once I hit the Done button a 2nd very similar popup comes up (I'm not sure it is exactly the same but it looked close) I then went to System Prefs under security, and it showed the dylib...hit open anyways option...and CMX4 popped up and said to run the wizard.

For unknown reason the security tab in system prefs does not show dylib when the first popup shows, but it does when the 2nd popup shows.

Maybe this will help someone else who runs into this issue.  Could be a security issue so proceed at your own risk.

[Shady_Acres]

I managed to stumble on how to "fix" my issue.  Here is what I did...

The popup I posted earlier (see first attachment) comes up when I initially try to run CMX4...hit "Done"

On my system, once I hit the Done button a 2nd very similar popup comes up (I'm not sure it is exactly the same but it looked close) I then went to System Prefs under security, and it showed the dylib...hit open anyways option...and CMX4 popped up and said to run the wizard.

For unknown reason the security tab in system prefs does not show dylib when the first popup shows, but it does when the 2nd popup shows.

Maybe this will help someone else who runs into this issue.  Could be a security issue so proceed at your own risk.

Hi Mate,

That is great news! Thank you very much for taking the time to post up your findings... (also for jogging my slowly failing memory... ) Its great to have all this info compiled in one thread for future searchers!

EDIT: Curiosity got the better of me regarding the issue, so I went searching just now and found this excellent article regarding Apple’s macOS Gatekeeper technology that was published by Apple Support themselves quite recently. It re-iterates pretty much everything discussed here and gives step-by-step instruction of how to handle an app that hasn’t been notarized or is from an unidentified developer. (Amazing. I sure wish I’d seen this sooner!   )

Here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102445

Thank you for the writeup.

I was able to go through the steps and get the dotnet to run in terminal, but I received this error:
**** An error has occurred - please zip up the MXdiags folder and post it in the forum ****

Attachment:


Any guidance?
Thanks!

A thank you to member uconn9 too! I believe this was solved over at the CumulusMX support forum:
https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=22731
(This linked thread may be a good one for any other Mac users who arrive here but are still having install issues to add to?)

Another good thread I had found previously over at CumulusMX (which helped me get going first time around) was this one:
https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=22216


Thanks everyone and wishing you all the best of luck!


Shady