Fixing the Goddamned C500's BCM4311 (FULLY RESOLVED)

[REVENGE]

It is apparent that many owners of the Compaq Presario C500 series of laptops are out there trying to get OS X to work. In fact, there is only one component that is still failing, and that is the BCM4311 mini-PCIe wireless card that ships with the system.

 

Now, before anybody calls me a noob and starts saying "LOL BCM4311 IS SUPPORTED NATIVELY DUMBASS LOL", the issue isn't quite as simple, and may have been complicated by Compaq. The BCM4311 is indeed supposed to work with Leopard natively, HOWEVER, Compaq seems to have created a power switch mechanism for this card that makes it unable to be powered on by a variety of BCM4311 drivers on Linux and the one that ships with Leopard. So far, the only way to get this card working, PERIOD, is to use Windows drivers (even under Linux, using NDISWrapper).

 

I'm looking into this matter myself, but I hope that somebody with more hacking expertise than me can come take a look at this situation and find a solution to the problem. It might involve hunting around the driver binary itself, and some hex editing, but I do believe it is possible to power on and use this card in OS X.

 

UPDATE: This issue has been fully resolved via Chun-nan's updated IOPCIFamily kext. You can see page 2 of this thread for his post (his username is now Eureka), which includes the IOPCIFamilyLeopard kext as well as instructions. However, anyone who looks at this thread should search for his latest IOPCIFamily kext, which is somewhere else on these forums. (I'll post a link when I see it.) As a note: anyone who installs his IOPCIFamily kext should be able to detect and control AirPort's power settings, as well as connect to networks.

 

UPDATE2: As I'm currently unable to find the post Beta3 versions of Chun-nan's IOPCIFamily, use the version posted midway down page 2 of this thread if you need a quick fix.

[Guest BuildSmart]

It is apparent that many owners of the Compaq Presario C500 series of laptops are out there trying to get OS X to work. In fact, there is only one component that is still failing, and that is the BCM4311 mini-PCIe wireless card that ships with the system.

 

Now, before anybody calls me a noob and starts saying "LOL BCM4311 IS SUPPORTED NATIVELY DUMBASS LOL", the issue isn't quite as simple, and may have been complicated by Compaq. The BCM4311 is indeed supposed to work with Leopard natively, HOWEVER, Compaq seems to have created a power switch mechanism for this card that makes it unable to be powered on by a variety of BCM4311 drivers on Linux and the one that ships with Leopard. So far, the only way to get this card working, PERIOD, is to use Windows drivers (even under Linux, using NDISWrapper).

 

I'm looking into this matter myself, but I hope that somebody with more hacking expertise than me can come take a look at this situation and find a solution to the problem. It might involve hunting around the driver binary itself, and some hex editing, but I do believe it is possible to power on and use this card in OS X.

Someone reported that using the Network Diagnostic button form the safari browser will provide an option to enable the card, search the forum and read up on it.

[REVENGE]

Someone reported that using the Network Diagnostic button form the safari browser will provide an option to enable the card, search the forum and read up on it.

 

I have not seen this post. However, one user reports:

if ur laptop is the compaq c500 series or it think c300 also, or acer 3680/5570/5580, you are screwed since these machines have non working pci-e ports in os x

[applehacker]

im with you bro....... stuck on the same issue.......

[_Atlas_]

Right On!

I know many people have had this problem with the mini-PCIe switch flavored BCM4311 card.

It's time for me to reformat the hd since half of it vanished with the last Linux install/unistall.

I would be one less Vista user if we could figure out a solution to the Compaq BCM4311 goof.

 

I have used OS X enough to know it is better that windows, but not enough to be savvy with all the config setup. I will learn that when we get something working.

 

I can't help too much since I need wireless to function in the day to day routine. I will definitely test where and when I can. Unfortuanatly not to skilled with all things relating to kernal editing...

 

Other threads on this board have been on simular topics:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...=104539&hl=

REVENGE did you have any luck with this?

 

Not sure about this one:

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?sho...=104539&hl=

No responses. Don't know if it will work for us.

 

I looked for the post BuildSmart mentioned. Could not find a darn thing.

Can't find much of anything on this board for that matter...

 

REVENGE thanks for getting this thread started. I hope we can dig something up to fix this.

 

Keep us posted...

-Atlas

[MatthewH12]

I also have the C500, and this is the ONLY part that doesnt work. (Other then the 10.5.3/10.5.4 updates).

 

--Matt

[Guest BuildSmart]

If you are having issues with your card being detected then you have a patched /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext/Contents/Info.plist file.

 

The best Solution is to edit the file, find and

delete:

		<key>Broadcom 802.11 PCI</key>
	<dict>
		...
		<array>
			<string>pci106b,4e</string>
			...
			...
		</array>
		...
	</dict>

insert:

		<key>Broadcom 802.11 PCI</key>
	<dict>
		<key>APRoamTrigger</key>
		<integer>-91</integer>
		<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
		<string>com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43xx</string>
		<key>IOClass</key>
		<string>AirPort_Brcm43xx</string>
		<key>IOMatchCategory</key>
		<string>IODefaultMatchCategory</string>
		<key>IOPCIClassMatch</key>
		<string>0x02000000&0xff000000</string>
		<key>IOPCIMatch</key>
		<string>0x430014e4&0xff00ffff</string>
		<key>IOProviderClass</key>
		<string>IOPCIDevice</string>
	</dict>

 

Now load it:

sudo kextload -vt /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions; # force it to rebuild the kextcache

 

Go into System Preferences->Network and see if the adapter is listed, if not click the "+" and see if it is available, if so select it and click create then click apply, if not cancel it.

 

Once it is available in the list and you clicked on the apply button, then you can scan for networks or turn it on, if it fails to enable, quit System Preferences and open Safari, click the diagnostic button, select airport and then it should perform some tests and then ask you if you want to enable the card if it is disabled so enable it and all should be OK.

[_Atlas_]

Has any one tried BuildSmart's suggestions? Do they work on the C500? If so I'm willing to give it a shot. The instructions look pretty strait forward to me.

Cheers,

-Atlas

[mehdymehdy]

Has any one tried BuildSmart's suggestions? Do they work on the C500? If so I'm willing to give it a shot. The instructions look pretty strait forward to me.

Cheers,

-Atlas

 

 

you can try it . but i tell u , i had this laptop before and i did all that stuff . anything u can imagin i did . and untill now i never heard anyone was successful with these laptops . at the end i come to believe that yes the port also known as the bus is the problem . it's not recognized in mac . maybe it's how mac communicats with this type of motherboard. so i went on looking for another card . and i bought a compatibale card which i ended up getting the 104 error . than i tried to hack my bios which lead to briking my laptop and it wasn't fixible with the 100's of bios recovery disks that i tried . so i sold it for 200 which i was lucky. now i have an hp . still problems with minpci . but in this one you can actually work and do something . cus there are many succeful stories of how people bought a mini pci and hacked the sprom in linux and used it . so on so on . and by the way . the card u guys are talking about works in linux . but it's bcm94311mc it has a 9 before 4311 so i don't know if that has anything to do with it not being detected . the problem is there was never anyone who had C500 compaq and hacked his bios to use a different minipci and see if it's the bus problem or the card problem. cheers.

[~Eureka]

It is apparent that many owners of the Compaq Presario C500 series of laptops are out there trying to get OS X to work. In fact, there is only one component that is still failing, and that is the BCM4311 mini-PCIe wireless card that ships with the system.

 

Now, before anybody calls me a noob and starts saying "LOL BCM4311 IS SUPPORTED NATIVELY DUMBASS LOL", the issue isn't quite as simple, and may have been complicated by Compaq. The BCM4311 is indeed supposed to work with Leopard natively, HOWEVER, Compaq seems to have created a power switch mechanism for this card that makes it unable to be powered on by a variety of BCM4311 drivers on Linux and the one that ships with Leopard. So far, the only way to get this card working, PERIOD, is to use Windows drivers (even under Linux, using NDISWrapper).

 

I'm looking into this matter myself, but I hope that somebody with more hacking expertise than me can come take a look at this situation and find a solution to the problem. It might involve hunting around the driver binary itself, and some hex editing, but I do believe it is possible to power on and use this card in OS X.

 

Hi REVENGE & mehdymehdy,

 

If you are using Leopard, you can give this IOPCIFamily a try to see if your BCM4311 works.

 

Backup your old IOPCIFamily before trying it. In addition, double checkt the file permission and cache before restart the computer.

 

DO NOT use it on Tiger or it will cause Kernel panic.

 

Chun-Nan

 

IOPCIFamily.kext.zip

[jubjubrsx]

hey i would loveeee to get this stupid problem fixed.....

 

i will put in my 2cents here.

 

i've tried teh dell 1390 and sprom hack with no avail.

 

trying to load the osx 10.5.2 aiktos, kalaway, i would get a kernel panic right off the bat from the dell 1390 card and it would crash...remove the card and install, could install.

 

the strange thing was the Toh distro woudlnt crash with the card in there, yet it showed it but never could enable it. not sure if this was just a bug or not.

 

did a DCPI(sp?) probe *util to show all hardware in the computer* that program would show the wifi card was there but was like in a constant off state for what ever reason. as well it would show the intel 80211 mini-pcibus i think it said...shrug...

[~Eureka]

hey i would loveeee to get this stupid problem fixed.....

 

i will put in my 2cents here.

 

i've tried teh dell 1390 and sprom hack with no avail.

 

trying to load the osx 10.5.2 aiktos, kalaway, i would get a kernel panic right off the bat from the dell 1390 card and it would crash...remove the card and install, could install.

 

the strange thing was the Toh distro woudlnt crash with the card in there, yet it showed it but never could enable it. not sure if this was just a bug or not.

 

did a DCPI(sp?) probe *util to show all hardware in the computer* that program would show the wifi card was there but was like in a constant off state for what ever reason. as well it would show the intel 80211 mini-pcibus i think it said...shrug...

 

Hi jubjubrsx,

 

The reason why the wireless card, either compaq one or dell one, didn't work is due to BIOS problem. You can check your ioreg result (or ioreg_sp.txt) to see if there is any "IODeviceMemory" entry under your wireless nub.

 

I have revised the IOPCIFamily to make sure it will double check ethernet/wireless device entry (class code 020xxxx) to see if they gets the correct memory resources.

 

You can give it a try. Hopefully, it will fix the issue this time.

 

Chun-Nan

[celioregolik]

it woooorrrkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!

Now i can see airport and it is fully functionally!!!!!

I have booted vista for open light of wirelesscard and rebooted , i' have installed bcm43xx_enabler.sh replaced IOPCIFamily.kext of Chunnan and workkkkkkkkk!!!!!!

goood workkkkkkk

thank you thank you very very muchhhhhhhh

bye!!!

 

The button for enable or disable wireless work properly now!!!

the only problem is : i see two airport connection into network preferences panel if i delete one airport dont' work but it isn't a big problem!!!

 

now i have compaq presario c500 fully functionally!!!!

greaaattttttttt

you are the besttttt!!!!!

 

after i have tried to fresh install , I changed IOPCIFamily.kext, reboot and now i have airport !!!

without second network connection.

now work very fine!!!!

don't install bcm43xx_enabler.sh .

good!!!

[Patrik]

Nice work on this one.

Had the same problem on my Acer Aspire 5630 after i changed to the Dells BCM4311 from the Intel3945.

I fixed that with a piece of tape on pin 23.

Don't remember where i found that solution, but it worked ever since, except not being able to use the enable/disable switch.

 

 

 

EDIT: Just tried that IOPCIFamily.kext and didn't work at all for me even if i removed the tape.

And that was pin 20, not 23. Found the original post here.

[cloudy]

Hi REVENGE & mehdymehdy,

 

If you are using Leopard, you can give this IOPCIFamily a try to see if your BCM4311 works.

 

Backup your old IOPCIFamily before trying it. In addition, double checkt the file permission and cache before restart the computer.

 

DO NOT use it on Tiger or it will cause Kernel panic.

 

Chun-Nan

 

IOPCIFamily.kext.zip

 

Good Job, Chun-Nan

Tiger is still out of chance? It would be GREAT if we could make the Tiger work properly too.

I am on Tiger 10.4.8 with HP C300.

thanks.

[jubjubrsx]

holey snap!!! maybe i tried the wrong version or something i will definately give it a shot tonite ...celio did you try any special version?

 

i have problems installing the kalyway verion....it causes a kernel panic i just have to remove the card during the install.....

 

 

im so stoked!!!!

[datdamnamp]

Chun-Nan,

I want to thank you for your work on the BCM4311 problem. I used your IOPCIFamily.kext and I have wireless, but the system is extremely slow now. Is there something that can be done to speed the system back up?

 

I am using iATKOS v4i for my installation and before I installed the fix, I was moving around in the OS with a wired ethernet connection and it was pretty fast, when I went wireless, it kinda crawls.

 

Thank you again.

[~Eureka]

Nice work on this one.

Had the same problem on my Acer Aspire 5630 after i changed to the Dells BCM4311 from the Intel3945.

I fixed that with a piece of tape on pin 23.

Don't remember where i found that solution, but it worked ever since, except not being able to use the enable/disable switch.

 

 

 

EDIT: Just tried that IOPCIFamily.kext and didn't work at all for me even if i removed the tape.

And that was pin 20, not 23. Found the original post here.

 

Hi Patrik,

 

You may want to try the beta3 IOPCIFamily posted on the other Topic. As far as I know, Acer notebook seems to have more issues in BIOS than others.

 

As to the switch issue, I think it relates to the hardware part. Different vendors use pins differently.

 

Chun-Nan

 

Good Job, Chun-Nan

Tiger is still out of chance? It would be GREAT if we could make the Tiger work properly too.

I am on Tiger 10.4.8 with HP C300.

thanks.

 

Hi cloudy,

 

I don't have 10.4.8 Tiger now. I can revise one for 10.4.11. However, I am not sure if it will work on 10.4.8.

 

Chun-Nan

 

Chun-Nan,

I want to thank you for your work on the BCM4311 problem. I used your IOPCIFamily.kext and I have wireless, but the system is extremely slow now. Is there something that can be done to speed the system back up?

 

I am using iATKOS v4i for my installation and before I installed the fix, I was moving around in the OS with a wired ethernet connection and it was pretty fast, when I went wireless, it kinda crawls.

 

Thank you again.

 

Hi datdamnamp,

 

I will check the source code again to see if I can find the reason.

 

If possible, can you post your demsg and ioreg result as a file here? Thanks.

 

Chu-Nan

[datdamnamp]

Chun-Nan

Hi datdamnamp,

 

I will check the source code again to see if I can find the reason.

 

If possible, can you post your demsg and ioreg result as a file here? Thanks.

 

Chu-Nan

 

I am sorry to sound so naive, but I dont know where to find those files. Took me awhile to figure out how to get that fix installed. But I remembered I needed to go in terminal to do it and fix permissions.

 

Am I supposed to run this command?

oreg -l -w0 -p IODeviceTree | grep device-properties > dump.txt

 

Okay I ran the folling commands,

ioreg -l -w0 -p IODeviceTree >IODeviceTree.txt and then

ioreg -l -w0 -p IOPCIFamily >IOPCIFamily.txt and the files are attached.

 

 

Hope I did it right.

IOPCIFamily.txt

IODeviceTree.txt

Edited September 23, 2008 by datdamnamp

[~Eureka]

I am sorry to sound so naive, but I dont know where to find those files. Took me awhile to figure out how to get that fix installed. But I remembered I needed to go in terminal to do it and fix permissions.

 

Am I supposed to run this command?

oreg -l -w0 -p IODeviceTree | grep device-properties > dump.txt

 

Okay I ran the folling commands,

ioreg -l -w0 -p IODeviceTree >IODeviceTree.txt and then

ioreg -l -w0 -p IOPCIFamily >IOPCIFamily.txt and the files are attached.

 

 

Hope I did it right.

 

Hi datdamnamp,

 

After entering the desktop, go to the terminal and type:

 

ioreg -lw0 > ioreg.txt

 

dmesg > dmesg.txt

 

Then post those two files here. Thanks.

 

Chun-Nan

[datdamnamp]

Hi datdamnamp,

 

After entering the desktop, go to the terminal and type:

 

ioreg -lw0 > ioreg.txt

 

dmesg > dmesg.txt

 

Then post those two files here. Thanks.

 

Chun-Nan

 

Okay I wasnt able to use the -lw0 switch, I would get this error:

ioreg: error: can't obtain properties.

 

When I used just ioreg >ioreg.txt I was able to get a file.

ioreg.txt

dmesg.txt

[cloudy]

Hi cloudy,

 

I don't have 10.4.8 Tiger now. I can revise one for 10.4.11. However, I am not sure if it will work on 10.4.8.

 

Chun-Nan

 

Thank you very much, Chun-Nan.

I am looking forward to your revised one for Tiger.

TIA, cloudy

[Guest BuildSmart]

Hi REVENGE & mehdymehdy,

 

If you are using Leopard, you can give this IOPCIFamily a try to see if your BCM4311 works.

 

Backup your old IOPCIFamily before trying it. In addition, double checkt the file permission and cache before restart the computer.

 

DO NOT use it on Tiger or it will cause Kernel panic.

 

Chun-Nan

 

IOPCIFamily.kext.zip

Do you have a diff of the changes you made to this source?

[CyberTron88]

Hi! Is the one attached on post #10 the latest beta 3?

 

I tried it on my Toshiba Satellite L310 and got some partial success. Sometimes I would get kernel panic halfway during booting up, or freeze after awhile, sometimes just hangs while booting halfway.

 

Ever managed to boot up and configured the wireless and run safari to get online 2 or 3 times, and that's about it.

 

I'm using iATKOS 4i installation.

[celioregolik]

Lately I have tried 2 versions of macosx leo4all 10.5.2 and kalyway 10.5.1.

With Kalyway is somewhat slow and the on-off button of the wireless light on but does not work

instead the button turning on your PC works.

with Leo4all the on-off button of the wireless work fine and the button up-shutdown pc does not work.

I would like to have both operating buttons.

Hello