Thread: Garmin Unlocker

use Fast IMG Unlocker to unlock your .IMGs and read notes in changelog about v.1.3 in the thread:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
This G.U.version posted here doesnt work with Garmin GB Discoverer 150K nor with new CNs

Thanks to this tool, I just succeeded in unlocking "City Navigator Europe NT 2013.41" exclusively on a Mac, without any PC interaction and without the need for Parallels or Bootcamp.

Since I spent the better part of an afternoon making this work (and finding out which other tools from other threads would not work...), I thought I'd provide a short summary of my procedure to make this a bit easier for the other Mac users.

PREREQUISITES:

• Wine emulator for Mac
• Some basic knowledge of DOS commands

WINE EMULATOR INSTALLATION:

If necessary, install Wine on your Mac as follows:

1. Download and install "MacPorts" according to the instructions at
   Code:

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   The MacPorts Project -- Download & Installation
2. Open a Terminal window and install Wine with the command "sudo port selfupdate; sudo port upgrade outdated; sudo port install wine"

UNLOCKING PROCEDURE:

1. Download and unzip the "Garmin_Mapsource_Unlocker.zip" file referenced in this thread.
2. In Mac Finder window, right-click on your downloaded Garmin .gmap file and select "Show Package Contents". In the resulting folder window, navigate to the "Product1" directory.
3. Copy the "GarminUnlocker.exe" file to the "Product1" folder. Make a note of the name of the .tdb file in this folder (e.g. "CNEuroNT_2013_41.tdb")
4. In a Terminal window, start a Windows shell with the command "wine cmd". You are now in a Windows DOS-style environment.
5. Using the "dir" (list directory) and "cd" (change directoy) commands to navigate to the "Product1" folder of step 2)
6. Execute the command "GarminUnlocker tdb NAME_OF_TDB_FILE.tdb", e.g. "GarminUnlocker tdb Product1/CNEuroNT_2013_41.tdb"
7. If everything worked, a success message should appear, like

Code:

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WRAP-UP (MAC SIDE):

1. In the folder window of step 2), delete "GarminUnlocker.exe"
2. Launch Garmin MapManager and install your .gmap file (File > Install). It should be listed in MapManager as "Unlocked".
3. Launch Basecamp to view the map, or MapInstall to send parts or all of it to your device.

UNLOCKING THE MAP IMAGE ON YOUR GARMIN DEVICE:

After sending the map to your Garmin GPS with Basecamp, the map will still be locked on the GPS although it is unlocked in Basecamp. I found the open-source

Code:

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gimgtools most convenient to unlock the map's .img file on the device. The current version (0.03) of gimgtools compiles without problems on the Mac if you have XCode installed. In a Terminal window, simply execute "gimgunlock NAME_OF_IMAGE_FILE_ON_GPS.img" to unlock the map while the GPS is connected to your Mac.

I hope this will help some people out there. Comments and questions welcome.

@starfield69
This basic method [for Windows] using this unlocker is described by syzygy [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] and it's listed in the tutorials index. Interesting that it works fine in Mac using wine. In post #2 of that linked thread is another method which doesn't require any dos commands and uses [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] to unlock the tdb file for MS in a similar fashion. I don't have a Mac and don't have easy access to one presently. Would you mind checking if the 2nd method also works using mac? Whether it does or not, perhaps you would then be good enough to advise the result by posting the result and also your finding as above in sygyzy's thread? It would be quite relevant there too.
Thanks for such a helpful first post here on Noeman, very few new members manage to make their first so informative and useful.

PS: The windows, linux and mac versions of gimgunlock are also available on Noeman: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].