Nessus Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 Well my native (dual boot) installation went incredibly well on my Compaq Presario x1000 laptop. In fact, the only thing that doesn't funtion is the built-in 802.11b wireless. Everyhting else was recognized and worked on the first attempt (including the CAT5 ethernet port I've been using to connect to the internet and local network). Since the built-in wireless device is the Intel PRO/wireless, I've pretty much resigned that it's not gonna work. A little research, and today I went out and bought the Belkin 802.11g USB adapter (part F5D7050). According to a couple sites, Belkin hasn't released Tiger drivers for it, although they have released (pretty buried on their site) earlier OS X version drivers. I've been told that Ralink Tech makes the chipset for these Belkin devices and has put out a Tiger driver. I'm gonna try it out when I get home and I'll post my results/progress here. This will basically give me a fully functional OS X laptop just using the USB wireless dongle instead of the inbuilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nessus Posted August 25, 2005 Author Share Posted August 25, 2005 Bingo, we have wireless! It's fairly simple: 1)Buy the Belkin wireless USB adapter.. I've been told that this will work with the PCMCIA version as well (since the Tiger drivers exist), but I don't know first hand. 2) Go to the Ralinktech website and download the 11g-RT2500 USB driver for OSX 10.4.X. 3) Install the driver in Tiger before you plug in the device. 4) After reboot, plug in the wireless adapter and go to the network settings. You're good to go. The only problem I have is that after a reboot, I have to unplug then re-plug in the USB adapter as the OS doesn't seem to recognize it. Any ideas? UPDATE: See post #36 for my steps to get it working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeguy Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 omg! this is indeed exciting news! first instance of a working wireless adapter! by the way, anyone knows which wireless chip this adapater uses? perhaps there could be more adapters that work with this driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grantmd Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 This is strange. It's my understanding that drivers need to be compiled for x86 instead of PPC to work (since Rosetta doesn't apply to drivers). And the only drivers compiled for x86 at this point were distributed by Apple on the Developer DVD for the hardware included in the Developer Kit. Perhaps this company is distributing fat binaries of their drivers? If so, that would be the first time I've heard of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrana Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Congrats. On the PCMCIA side, I think it might be a PCMCIA problem as opposed to a card problem. I have a Linksys card w/the same chipset as the airport and it won't work (but pcmcia issues show up when booting with -v). But, what you found offers a nice cheap solution for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeguy Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Not sure if I make any sense but is the adapter being recognised as a Airport card or simply as just another usb wireless adapter? ie, can we use OSX features like LEAP authentication using it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domino Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Thanks for the information. I have contacted Edimax for driver support on my 2.11g Mini USB adaptor. Will post back with there answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnybluejeans Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Congrats! I'll be running out to buy this adapter in the morning. ; ) I didn't even know USB wireless adapters existed. Very smart move! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docangle Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 I happen to have one of these, I gave it a whirl, but it is a no go, can you describe how you got it working? When I plug in the adapter, I do not get a light on it, but I do see a new network adapter 'en2' in the network settings and also the wirelessUSB utility fires up, but it does not find any AP's. Is your unit a F5D7050 or a F5D7050_v2? Congrats! I'll be running out to buy this adapter in the morning. ; ) I didn't even know USB wireless adapters existed. Very smart move! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidred Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Would you be kind enough to find the extension for this driver (in /System/Library/Extensions/) and run the 'file' command over it and post the output? file usage, eg; file /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeon9700.kext/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeon9700 Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PEPEPINGUINO Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 omg! this is indeed exciting news! first instance of a working wireless adapter! by the way, anyone knows which wireless chip this adapater uses? perhaps there could be more adapters that work with this driver. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> List of wireless adapters using the same chipset as the Belkin one: http://ralink.rapla.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docangle Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 The Drivers work just fine on my Mac Mini, but not on OSX x86 (Laptop) Nessus, how did you get it working? Have you tested it (Just assumed it worked becuase you get the proper port settings and Belkin USB 54g shows up in profiler in the USB section?) When you plug the device in the WirelessUSB driver does show up, but all information is blank including firmware and mac information, but it will not scan, and shows no other signs of life, except that you can turn the card on/off which seems to make the light flash breifly. I think we will have to wait for Ralink to produce an x86 driver, but if any company does it will be them. List of wireless adapters using the same chipset as the Belkin one: http://ralink.rapla.net/ <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nessus Posted August 25, 2005 Author Share Posted August 25, 2005 Would you be kind enough to find the extension for this driver (in /System/Library/Extensions/) and run the 'file' command over it and post the output? file usage, eg; file /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeon9700.kext/Contents/MacOS/ATIRadeon9700 Cheers! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Sure, I'll do that when I get a chance and post back here. Also, I'll give a more step by step instruction on how I got it to work once the drivers are installed. Indeed, so far I'm unable to get a list of access points using the "wireless configuration utility". As such, so far I've been unable to connect to my home network. However, I absolutely have internet access -- I typed post #2 using the Compaq-Tiger out on the porch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docangle Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 I decided to give it another try and it does work, with one BIG exception, you have to have an Open AP available as the driver WORKS, but the Wireless Utility DOES NOT WORK, so you have to keep your AP open or no dice, unless you can some how edit the plist files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domino Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 If you really can't live with an open AP and you don't like wardrivers, you might want to try out http://www.otosoftware.com/wireless.asp. I run an open AP but I use this app to control who has access to my network from my windows workstation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
performa Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 The driver is indeed PowerPC/x86. The utility app is PowerPC only - but good to know that they are already working on their drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixblicker Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 The driver is indeed PowerPC/x86.The utility app is PowerPC only - but good to know that they are already working on their drivers. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> F**K! The CardbusDriver for the same RT2500 is ppc only! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nixblicker Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 F**K!The CardbusDriver for the same RT2500 is ppc only! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thats weird. The setup-tool is FAT! WirelessUtilityCardBus: Mach-O fat file with 2 architectures WirelessUtilityCardBus (for architecture ppc): Mach-O executable ppc WirelessUtilityCardBus (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
performa Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Guess what I was wondering myself ;-) Strange... Maybe it is possible to get "something" working by combining the (Fat) Cardbus-Utility with the (Fat) USB-Driver...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setec Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 This is sold at Walmart as well: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp...duct_id=3756936 Or Bestbuy (check your local store for rebates, if any) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1099392876384 I am going to buy one today to see if it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manifold_family Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 I can confirm that the D-link DWL122G (b1) usb wireless network adapter also works. Tried it this lunch time and it was working very nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docangle Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 It looks as though the WirelessUSB utility was written in XCode so it should not be very hard to recompile for Universal Binary. I even tried to creat good setting for my AP with my proper WEP codes and copy the plist from the Mac Mini, and it did not work, the ony two plist I found are: Profile.plist, and com.Ralink.RaConfig2500USP.plist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Guys.. these people Wireless Driver for Mac are third parties writing drivers for atheros based pcmcia cards, which include many brands.. (listed on site). if we could get them to port them to universal binary it will be amazing. My x505 wifi card is a sony atheros based 802.11g card. Im sure many would be pleased if this is done. they charge 15 dollars for the driver which is not bad at all.. what do u guys think? can someone email em? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrana Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 I can confirm that the D-link DWL122G (b1) usb wireless network adapter also works. Tried it this lunch time and it was working very nicely. Did you mean DWL-G122? http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=334 Just trying to make sure. Also, can you enter in a specific SSID and all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TribesMan Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 I tried those drivers from Ralink site with my Canyon CN-WF513 PCMCIA adapter based on RT2500 chipset... but it is not working. Card is recognised but not as Airport adapter... I guess there is a problem with PCMCIA drivers in OS X because system freezes if I connect any PCMCIA device while OS X is running. If card is connected before booting it is recognised as RT2500 but no Airport... Bad luck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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