Atheros AR5B91 not working on 10.6.0 (HCL says it does)

[lextacy]

I have this problem of a wifi card not working when it should. I have an atheros AR5B91 mini pci-e and the HCL states that the card works OOB and as a Airport card as if its real mac hardware. I bought this card for that very convenience. 

 

RESULTS

-Installed 10.6.0 retail  During installation the wireless work OOB ! This is the wierd part

-At first boot after filling out the apple forms to set up your mac there is no airport icon and profilier lists no pci devices installed.

-Ran the airport update : results same

-Ran the 10.6.8 update : results PANIC

-Tried various isos such as 10.6.3 retail (failed could not even install) iatkos S3 v2 (failed , post install yields panic) 

--Dell Inspiron 1545 is not supported i guess with these other distros.

 

DIAGNOSIS

-Looking at the IO80211family.kext had an interesting find. 

--Show package contents shows a folder called "plugins"

--Went through those kexts in plugins folder and there was one called atheros22.kext or something like that?

--Indeed my dev id was in there as 168C,2A

--What the heck?! card should be working!

 

CONCLUSION

-As wierd as it was that during dvd install it would work OOB, after install it does not yields me to think that some magicall kext somewhere needs to be deleted thats interfering?

 

I need help bad because ive invested time and money in hardware. I know someone out there has the answer. Also on one condition I will not be using any distro higher than 10.6.0 as this is the only working one.

 

THANKS!