AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

SPECIAL NOTE, FEB 2, 2021: IT IS NOW POSSIBLE TO INSTALL ISAAC/MAC WITHOUT USING THE VIRTUAL MACHINE WORKAROUND DESCRIBED IN THIS THREAD. SEE THIS POST:

One of our forum members ("lordunintah") suggested a virtual machine workaround to get Isaac/Mac working with Big Sur.

We tried it AND IT WORKS!

The Virtual Machine workaround is somewhat of a cumbersome installation so we created instructions that will get your Big Sur Mac working with Isaac/Mac. Make sure to follow the instructions exactly...

Once installed, in addition to getting Isaac working on Big Sur, RIGHT NOW, you'll also have a free virtual machine installed on your Mac, making it possible to install other operating systems, such as Windows.

Thank you lordunintah for your great suggestion!!!

You can substitute an older MacOS version - Mojave or High Sierra for example - if one of them is more to your liking - installer files are a bit smaller by about 2 GB.

The advantage of using a virtual OS is that you still have Big Sur running at the same time.

The disadvantage is the space taken up by the virtual image - although this can be done from an external HD or even a thumb drive - with some reduced performance because of the bus speed bottleneck. Another restriction could be, in some cases, the amount of RAM your system has - sp check with the system requirements for VMware Fusion first.

If we are just going to use the virtual machine-based MacOS for Isaac, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to install a pre-Catalina version of MacOS that used to work so well with Isaac and onto which it was easy to install the Isaac software without all of the multiple file hassle. Can you provide a link to an older version of the Isaac installer that would simply work directly with Mojave or High Sierra, just like it did in past years prior to the Catalina update?

kamenr wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 3:32 pm If we are just going to use the virtual machine-based MacOS for Isaac, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to install a pre-Catalina version of MacOS that used to work so well with Isaac and onto which it was easy to install the Isaac software without all of the multiple file hassle. Can you provide a link to an older version of the Isaac installer that would simply work directly with Mojave or High Sierra, just like it did in past years prior to the Catalina update?

If you have already upgraded your Mac to Big Sur, I don't think it's possible to "downgrade" your Mac to an older version of macOS. In the short term, the Virtual Machine approach is your best shot.

Thanks John for the quick response.
Guess I wasn't clear enough.
After installing the virtual machine software and loading an older MacOS so it runs virtually on the Mac, the instructions say to download and install Isaac 5.1 with its set of auxiliary files. As we all know, that is a bit of a pain. So my question was, would it not be easier to use a pre-Catalina version of the MacOS running virtually and then install Isaac ver 4.1 onto it? My recollection was that early versions of Isaac were simple to install. If this were possible it would provide a shorter route to a the work-around until the Big Sur version of Isaac becomes available.
In any case this is a bit academic for those of us in chilly New England who have switched over to Zwift for the winter months. I won't be using my Powerpod for a few months yet so there is no rush.

KAMENR

I have to agree that whatever version of ISAAC that can run on MOJAVE, HIGH SIERRA or another choice would potentially make the install easier.

The biggest slowdown for CATALINA is the security steps - which, by the way, will continue for much of the software installs of any product in the future - the key for ISAAC is that there are several pieces from Silicon Labs (USB driver), National Instruments (LABVIEW) and Velocomp (ISAAC) all being installed.

I have HIGH SIERRA installed - using the latest installer setup for ISAAC (the same one provided fro CATALINA) and it was really not very difficult to plod through the steps in the instructions provided by John - same sequence, maybe not as many security hiccups.

But I also had WINDOWS already in another Virtual install - and tend to go there for running ISAAC until we get a BIG SUR implementation.


NOTE: I just went back and with a copy of High Sierra as the VIRTUAL operating system, I installed ISAAC and the support software - no security prompts needed - just launched each portion while depressing the CONTROL key - took only one restart and about 15 minutes at the most.
(Using the BIG SUR directions and order of installs)

lorduintah wrote: ↑Mon Jan 04, 2021 11:20 am
NOTE: I just went back and with a copy of High Sierra as the VIRTUAL operating system, I installed ISAAC and the support software - no security prompts needed - just launched each portion while depressing the CONTROL key - took only one restart and about 15 minutes at the most.
(Using the BIG SUR directions and order of installs)

I made another VM install using High Sierra. The "System Extension Blocked" messages still showed up, so the Isaac/Mac install process is no less (and no more) complicated than using Catalina.

Thanks for the replies. Maybe the easiest path then is to install Windows as the virtual operating system.

kamenr wrote: ↑Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:56 am Thanks for the replies. Maybe the easiest path then is to install Windows as the virtual operating system.

If you have a Windows OS that will work just fine in VMWare. Of course, Isaac Windows is free, but I don't know if you can find a free copy of Windows.