Lesson 26—Troubleshoot Peripherals

Question 1

What are the three primary peripheral bus technologies supported by Mac computers running
macOS Big Sur?

Answer 1

macOS Big Sur supports these three primary peripheral bus technologies:
• Thunderbolt
• Universal Serial Bus (USB)
• Bluetooth wireless

Question 2

What must occur for a Mac to communicate with a Bluetooth peripheral? Where can you configure this
pairing?

Answer 2

To communicate with a Bluetooth peripheral you must pair the Bluetooth device to associate it with your
Mac. You can quickly open Bluetooth preferences from the Bluetooth status menu.

Question 3

What is a device driver? What are the four primary types of device drivers?

Answer 3

A device driver is software designed to facilitate communication between macOS Big Sur and a
peripheral. These are the four primary types of device drivers:
• System Extensions
• Legacy system extensions (also referred to as third-party kernel extensions)
• Framework plug-ins
• Standalone apps

Question 4

How does macOS Big Sur support third-party devices without needing third-party device drivers?

Answer 4

macOS Big Sur uses built-in generic drivers based on each device class. For example, macOS Big Sur
uses generic drivers for scanners and printers instead of third-party drivers.

Question 5

What can you infer about a connected peripheral if it doesn’t appear in the System Information app?

Answer 5

If a connected peripheral doesn’t appear in System Information, the issue is probably hardware related.
Troubleshoot accordingly.