Silicon-based (m1 / m2/ m3) Mac DIY HA Programming Guide w Noahlink Wireless (Tested for Oticon Genie 2024.2)

[mobbdeepq]

To all the M1 / M2 / M3 Mac users out there who want to program their hearing aids with Noahlink Wireless, I was able to program my Oticon Intent HA’s via my Noahlink Wireless 2 with the Genie 2024.2 software, on UTM emulator with Intel chip which is completely free! I hope this helps y’all - this is exactly what I did to get it working on my MacBook M3 Pro (takes a couple hours at least - may vary depending on machine):

1. Followed this video to the T -
   - to setup UTM emulator with Windows 10 64-bit on x86_64 architecture with 8 GB RAM (no need for product key to activate windows license). Set small Mac directory with Genie zip file (don’t unzip from Mac) as the shared directory. This was the biggest thing to get through - took me a little under 2 hours.
2. Edited the emulator settings → Input → Made sure the box under “USB Sharing” / before “Share USB devices from host” is checked (because we need the Noahlink Wireless 2 to be recognized by the emulator once we plug it in to the usb port)
3. Spun up the emulator again and then extracted Genie 2024.2 zip file in windows. Ran setup.exe to install the Genie application
4. Started the Genie application and made sure the software boots up normally.
5. Finally plugged in Noahlink Wireless 2 via usb - a UTM popup should appear asking if you want the Noahlink Wireless connected via the USB port to be mirrored on to the emulator.
6. Successfully detected Noahlink Wireless as programming device and then paired with my Oticon Intent’s and voila!

 

[pvc]

Wow @mobbdeepq - This is impressive!
Prior to your demonstration using (UTM emulator) the Apple Silicon computers (M1, M2, M3) were lacking the ability to use (Noahlink Wireless and Noahlink Wireless 2) because there was no (Noahlink Wireless Driver) available for Apple Silicon computers (M1, M2, M3) even under emulation.

This seems to solve that (missing Noahlink Wireless Driver) problem!

I don't use Apple computers and especially Apple Silicon computers (M1, M2, M3) so I cannot test this.

But other Apple fans may be interested. Thank you for bringing this to the HoH Community.

 

[pvc]

Updated DIY School Hearing Aids (v2.2) PDF Files to include UTM emulator discovery.

• 01 Free Hearing Aid Fitting Software
• Noahlink Wireless 2 - DIY User Guide

 

[gluchykuj2]

Hi, while emulating Intel on an arm64 mac works fine, its quite slow and clunky, in particular on the lower end machines. I figured out a way to use the Noahlink with Arm Windows 11, so the VM runs way faster

After inspecting the x86 Noahlink Wireless drivers, it seems like they just associate the device with an WinUSB driver. I was able to prepare an .inf driver to run it on arm machines. It is not signed, so to install it, first disable the driver signature enforcement in the VM. Open the device manager, find the Noahlink and manually install the attached driver file.

If someone wants to do it outside of the VM, and is afraid of installing drivers from random people on the internet - feel free to open the .inf file in a text editor. The driver only associates the VID/PID of Noahlink with WinUSB.sys driver.

Cheers

 

[ABQ-Dude]

Hi, while emulating Intel on an arm64 mac works fine, its quite slow and clunky, in particular on the lower end machines. I figured out a way to use the Noahlink with Arm Windows 11, so the VM runs way faster

After inspecting the x86 Noahlink Wireless drivers, it seems like they just associate the device with an WinUSB driver. I was able to prepare an .inf driver to run it on arm machines. It is not signed, so to install it, first disable the driver signature enforcement in the VM. Open the device manager, find the Noahlink and manually install the attached driver file.

If someone wants to do it outside of the VM, and is afraid of installing drivers from random people on the internet - feel free to open the .inf file in a text editor. The driver only associates the VID/PID of Noahlink with WinUSB.sys driver.

Cheers

But do you still have to run Genie 2 in Windows Intel simulation, or can you make it run in ARM Windows?

 

[pvc]

I don't have any Apple computers (old Intel Silicon OR new M1, M2, M3 Apple Silicon). But I think that I can help answer your question. Forget the drivers for a minute. The fitting software itself cannot be run on Apple OS, period.

The hearing aid manufacturers (all of them) have designed their hearing aid fitting software to run "only" on Windows Computers. for example ;
Phonak Target 10.0; Requirements: Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10, 11 RAM: 4GB or above

Also, while we are at it; Is disabling driver signature enforcement a one time occurrence for this specific Driver? Or it it a permanent security risk?
Driver signature enforcement is a Windows security measure that only allows drivers to be installed on your Windows PC if they’ve been digitally signed by Microsoft to certify that they are safe to use. If a driver has been digitally signed, then you know that it is from a trustworthy source and isn’t going to contain anything harmful or malicious.
Sometimes, however, the driver that you need may not have this digital signature. If this is the case, then it is possible to disable driver signature enforcement to allow drivers to be installed even if they haven’t been digitally signed.

 

[gluchykuj2]

But do you still have to run Genie 2 in Windows Intel simulation, or can you make it run in ARM Windows?

Yes, it works on ARM Windows then. Windows 11 has a pretty good x86 emulation built-in, so you simply just run the exe there. Its just the drivers that cannot be emulated. To clarify - I use it with Signia's fitting software, however it should work the same for Genie.

I don't have any Apple computers (old Intel Silicon OR new M1, M2, M3 Apple Silicon). But I think that I can help answer your question. Forget the drivers for a minute. The fitting software itself cannot be run on Apple OS, period.

The hearing aid manufacturers (all of them) have designed their hearing aid fitting software to run "only" on Windows Computers. for example ;
Phonak Target 10.0; Requirements: Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10, 11 RAM: 4GB or above

Also, while we are at it; Is disabling driver signature enforcement a one time occurrence for this specific Driver? Or it it a permanent security risk?
Driver signature enforcement is a Windows security measure that only allows drivers to be installed on your Windows PC if they’ve been digitally signed by Microsoft to certify that they are safe to use. If a driver has been digitally signed, then you know that it is from a trustworthy source and isn’t going to contain anything harmful or malicious.
Sometimes, however, the driver that you need may not have this digital signature. If this is the case, then it is possible to disable driver signature enforcement to allow drivers to be installed even if they haven’t been digitally signed.

You only need to disable the driver signature enforcement one time, to install the modified driver file I attached. Of course, this is mostly a concern for people who have Arm laptops - not much of a security risk if you run the software in a VM

 

[pvc]

I was able to program my Oticon Intent HA’s via my Noahlink Wireless 2 with the Genie 2024.2 software, on UTM emulator with Intel chip

can you make it run in ARM Windows?

Okay, you Apple guys lost me. What the heck is (UT-or-UTM emulator and ARM Windows) if not emulators?

Oh, and thanks for the one-time driver signature enforcement trick.

 

[pvc]

OIC; This Link to → Windows on Arm: What Is It? has an explanation.
Windows on Arm: What Is It?
Windows on Arm is a modified version of Microsoft Windows that runs on computers with Arm processors, instead of the x86-based processors (mostly from Intel and AMD) that use regular Microsoft Windows. It works best with software built specifically for Arm chips, but it can run many 32-bit and 64-bit x86 applications in emulation at slower speeds.

 

[pvc]

And this link to the → GitHub UTM Emulater described as QEMU without the headache
Under the hood of UTM is QEMU, a decades old, free and open source emulation software that is widely used and actively maintained. While QEMU is powerful, it can be difficult to set up and configure with its plethora of command line options and flags. UTM is designed to give users the flexibility of QEMU without the steep learning curve that comes with it.

 

[pvc]

But do you still have to run Genie 2 in Windows Intel simulation, or can you make it run in ARM Windows?

@ABQ-Dude Can you tell (us non-Apple users) a little about your ARM Windows?

• Did your Apple Silicon computer come with ARM Windows already installed?
• Which model Apple Silicon computer do you have?

You can check if you are running Windows on Arm through the Windows Settings application. First, open the Settings application by searching for it in the Start menu, or by right-clicking on the Start button and selecting the "Settings" menu item. Then select the "System" menu and click "About".

The Device Specifications section in the Settings page will tell you what kind of computer you have. If you see "Arm-based Processor," your PC is running Windows on Arm.

 

[ABQ-Dude]

@ABQ-Dude Can you tell (us non-Apple users) a little about your ARM Windows?

• Did your Apple Silicon computer come with ARM Windows already installed?
• Which model Apple Silicon computer do you have?

You can check if you are running Windows on Arm through the Windows Settings application. First, open the Settings application by searching for it in the Start menu, or by right-clicking on the Start button and selecting the "Settings" menu item. Then select the "System" menu and click "About".

The Device Specifications section in the Settings page will tell you what kind of computer you have. If you see "Arm-based Processor," your PC is running Windows on Arm.

I have a Mac Studio M2Max with 32gb ram on the latest Mac Sequoia. I also run Parallels Desktop 20 on it which allowed me to install Windows 11 ARM on it (and I have the latest Windows updates). Windows runs very well and pretty fast in Parallels 20. But when I try to install Genie 2 2024.2 on the Windows ARM installation, it says Genie is not compatible with this version of Windows (ARM vs Intel).

So I also then used the mobbdeepq suggestion to install UTM and try Windows 10 in Intel emulation. In UTM I was able to (very slowly) install Genie 2 2024.1 and update to 2024.2. It does run but very slowly. Feel free to ask any more questions, pvc.

For gluchykuj2, as I noted above, I can't run Genie 2 in Windows 11 ARM on a Mac M2 Max. Am I missing something here?

 

[pvc]

Thanks for that. So (UTM emulator, and ARM Windows, and Parallels Desktop 20 ) are all emulators.

Therefore, the "new-news" from this topic is that we can load a modified (Noahlink Wireless driver or Noahlink Wireless 2 driver) by disabling Windows driver signature enforcement when loading a modified driver for (Noahlink Wireless or for Noahlink Wireless 2).

ETA/Edit-To-Add; And this allows us to emulate Windows on Apple Silicon computers because we are no longer missing that driver.

 

[pvc]

Question: Can this one-time (disable the driver signature enforcement, and install a modified driver file) work for?

• Both Noahlink Wireless and Noahlink Wireless 2?
• Do we need two separate modified driver files, one for Noahlink Wireless and a separate driver for Noahlink Wireless 2?

 

[OcramSagev]

Phonak Target 10 can run on Parallels (ARM): Sometimes, the SW does not recognize the Noahlink device - unplugging and plugging it fixes the issue

 

[pvc]

Yes, Parallels (or any emulator) is not the problem. Noahlink Wireless works on some Apple computers.

The early Apple computers were made with (Intel CPUs aka Intel Silicon). But starting with the M1 (and then later M2 and M3) Apple started manufacturing their own CPUs (aka Apple Silicon).

Those newer apple silicon computers have a problem with the driver for Noahlink Wireless. There is no driver.