Using MacOS to Perform Updates to Lowrance Products
Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 9:46 am
This thread discusses several topics encountered when trying to perform updates to Lowrance products using a MacOS computer.
Changing Default Behavior of MacOS Application ARCHIVE UTILITY
Lowrance electronic devices are frequently provided with field-installable updater patch files for the user to apply to his device. The files are often in .ZIP archive formats. The archive often contains more than one file, and sometimes the archive contains subdirectories of additional files. Lowrance expects the user to un-archive the ZIP file, but only to the first expansion, and to leave some elements in the resulting collection of files in a compressed archive state.
The default behavior of a MacOS computer when encountering a ZIP archive is to keep expanding files found inside the archive. When this default behavior is applied to a Lowrance archive, the outcome is a set of files that is different from the files that Lowrance expects to be used with the updater. If the user copies these expanded files onto a memory card and tries to run the updater, the process may fail because the file structure on the memory card will be different than the updater expected to find.
Lowrance has recognized this problem with their updater methods and has provided a recorded presentation to provide instructions for users of the MacOS for changing the default behavior of the MacOS so its behavior will conform to the behavior needed by Lowrance to make their update un-archive in the manner they require. The recorded presentation can be viewed from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_eu0Wgs8w
The presentation demonstrates the procedure to change the behavior of the MacOS application ARCHIVEUTILITY.app. This application is difficult to locate because it is not in the usual APPLICATIONS directory. The method demonstrated in the recording to locate the MacOS ARCHIVE UTILITY application does not always work. You can find the ARCHVE UTILITY in MacOS usually in the path
/System/Library/CoreServices/Archive Utility.app.
or
/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Archive Utility.app.
Having found the ARCHIVE UTILITY, the application must be launched and its preference must be changed. Lowrance requires that the preferences be set to uncheck the selection "Keep expanding if possible."
It may be best to modify the behavior of the ACHIVE UTILTY before you download the .ZIP updater archive from Lowrance. The presentation demonstrates this in the opposite order.
Changing Default Behavior of MacOS Application ARCHIVE UTILITY
Lowrance electronic devices are frequently provided with field-installable updater patch files for the user to apply to his device. The files are often in .ZIP archive formats. The archive often contains more than one file, and sometimes the archive contains subdirectories of additional files. Lowrance expects the user to un-archive the ZIP file, but only to the first expansion, and to leave some elements in the resulting collection of files in a compressed archive state.
The default behavior of a MacOS computer when encountering a ZIP archive is to keep expanding files found inside the archive. When this default behavior is applied to a Lowrance archive, the outcome is a set of files that is different from the files that Lowrance expects to be used with the updater. If the user copies these expanded files onto a memory card and tries to run the updater, the process may fail because the file structure on the memory card will be different than the updater expected to find.
Lowrance has recognized this problem with their updater methods and has provided a recorded presentation to provide instructions for users of the MacOS for changing the default behavior of the MacOS so its behavior will conform to the behavior needed by Lowrance to make their update un-archive in the manner they require. The recorded presentation can be viewed from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_eu0Wgs8w
The presentation demonstrates the procedure to change the behavior of the MacOS application ARCHIVEUTILITY.app. This application is difficult to locate because it is not in the usual APPLICATIONS directory. The method demonstrated in the recording to locate the MacOS ARCHIVE UTILITY application does not always work. You can find the ARCHVE UTILITY in MacOS usually in the path
/System/Library/CoreServices/Archive Utility.app.
or
/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Archive Utility.app.
Having found the ARCHIVE UTILITY, the application must be launched and its preference must be changed. Lowrance requires that the preferences be set to uncheck the selection "Keep expanding if possible."
It may be best to modify the behavior of the ACHIVE UTILTY before you download the .ZIP updater archive from Lowrance. The presentation demonstrates this in the opposite order.