sens ia Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 I am sorry if I am posting in a wrong forum. This is my first day at OSX86 and definitely my first post. So the story started coupel of day sago when I discovered that I can install OS X in Intel systems. I took the immidiate plung and finally install OS X in my Dell M20. So far it looks great although I am kinda stuck with 1024x768 screen resolution and absolutely stuck with networking. Native Yukon gigabite lan does not have any support under OSX so is my Intel 2200BG. As a last resort I tried Belkin F5D7010 PCMCIA card with drivers from Ralinktech. The driver installed fine but my card still showing no sign of life. Is there anything I need to check other than installing the driver of the pcmcia card? Or do I have to install the driver for the PCMCIA chipset too? I have hardly any idea of Apple supported driver sets. Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. Bear Helms Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Nobody's all that clear on what's right and wrong with an M20, everybody seems to have just slightly different enough systems to break OS X in one or more ways for everybody who tries it - save for those with the developer's platform or the genuine Apple computer. The Apple menu (upper leftmost part of your screen) has an "About this Mac..." as the first menu item. Choose that, then click the 2nd button on the "About" message pane to call up the "System Profiler." In the list that appears, you'll see a section listed for "Software" - under that, "Extensions." You have to do some detective work and discover what, if any, extensions listed there may be supporting PC Card (or PCMCIA). If none appear, then you'd need a PCMCIA chipset driver for OS X - Darwin might have one, sometimes a chip maker has OS X driver releases. That out of the way (one way or another), then you need concern yourself with whether it seems an extension will appear when the networking card is added. Here is where you almost definitely need to go to the manufacturer of the card and/or its chipset, and see if they have OS X drivers. Even then, some OS X drivers are for Power PC only, and break on OSx86. Apple very intentionally makes this operating system a "female canine" to get working on regular PCs. 10.4.1 and 10.4.3 have been some of the most PC friendly releases - 10.4.4 and 10.4.5 get progressively more restrictive imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sens ia Posted March 3, 2006 Author Share Posted March 3, 2006 Nobody's all that clear on what's right and wrong with an M20, everybody seems to have just slightly different enough systems to break OS X in one or more ways for everybody who tries it - save for those with the developer's platform or the genuine Apple computer. The Apple menu (upper leftmost part of your screen) has an "About this Mac..." as the first menu item. Choose that, then click the 2nd button on the "About" message pane to call up the "System Profiler." In the list that appears, you'll see a section listed for "Software" - under that, "Extensions." You have to do some detective work and discover what, if any, extensions listed there may be supporting PC Card (or PCMCIA). If none appear, then you'd need a PCMCIA chipset driver for OS X - Darwin might have one, sometimes a chip maker has OS X driver releases. That out of the way (one way or another), then you need concern yourself with whether it seems an extension will appear when the networking card is added. Here is where you almost definitely need to go to the manufacturer of the card and/or its chipset, and see if they have OS X drivers. Even then, some OS X drivers are for Power PC only, and break on OSx86. Apple very intentionally makes this operating system a "female canine" to get working on regular PCs. 10.4.1 and 10.4.3 have been some of the most PC friendly releases - 10.4.4 and 10.4.5 get progressively more restrictive imo. Thanks a lot, I will check out tomorrow. As of now, I am soo tired with OSX. Mine is 10.4.3 and system is running great without the internet. PCMCIA chipset maker is TI Instruments, so I have to check if they have any OSX driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. Bear Helms Posted March 3, 2006 Share Posted March 3, 2006 Sounds fairly standard to me, but Apple tended to be in bed with Motorola during the time they implemented PC Card interfaces, so I'd not be too surprised they didn't create an OS X driver. The Darwin project (look for open darwin in search) has more drivers and more compatibility in general than any OS X 10.4.3 or beyond. You can download an installer for Darwin for free, and legally - then boot it up, see if you can initialize ethernet... You may have to actually install it, and the Unix commands to get PCMCIA initialized may or may not be necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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