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Broadcom BCM4311 Mini-PCIe

Blurn

By Blurn,
in LAN and Wireless

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Blurn
Blurn
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Here's the laptop's specs:

 

-Intel Core Duo T2130 @ 2.33 GHz

-1 GB Ram

-Intel GMA950 (Fully Working - Native QE/CI - no patching or any extra kexts needed)

-Realtek ALC268 Audio (Not Working, but not a priority right now)

-Realtek PCIe Ethernet 1130 or something like that (Not working @ all, even with the kexts made for it)

-Dell Wireless Truemobile 1390 Mini-PCIe (4311 - Not working @ all)

-DVD Burner (working)

-Trackpad (Working perfect)

-Firewire (Works perfect)

 

-Uphuck 10.4.9 v1.2

 

OK, so here's my dilemma:

I obviously have a lot of work to do before my laptop is gonna be working completely. My biggest priority is the Truemobile. That way I can get on the internet and update the kernel and get everything working. I can start getting stuff like sound working. The wireless is going to be what enables me to do this. I have read a lot throughout the threads on this issue. It definitely has to do with PCIe but there are reports of it working. I need your guys' help. I updated the Airport through software update over the internet using firewire connection sharing from my desktop. After I updated, it got rid of the kernel panic I would get that would cause a shutdown to hang. It had to do with the brcm43xx driver and IOPCI family and IO80211. The same panic that a lot of other people have gotten. I have even tried the pin 20 trick. Which, surprisingly, hasn't helped. Can someone please help me with this wireless issue or point me to a Mini-PCIe card that will work?

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Blurn
Blurn
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Were you able to connect to the internet after the first install? (from the wifi card)

By the way, what's your laptop manufacturer?

 

Nope, its like the card doesn't even exist... I know it sees it because of the kernel panic, but that's it. I've tried the NetworkInterfaces.plist trick. Airport is in there as en0 (my etherenet is en1 and my firewire is fw1) but its like it isn't able to use the card.

 

The laptop is made by Toshiba. It is a Satellite U305-S5907.

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MacintizeD
MacintizeD
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Hey man, I suddenly remember the en0 trick you can use.

Go to /Library/Preferences/System Configuration/ and edit NetworkInterfaces.plist (Drag to desktop and edit)

 

Change Airport (should be en0) to en2.

<string>en0</string> to <string>en2</string>

<integer>0</integer> to <integer>2</integer>

 

Remember to repair permission after the edit.

install wireless_support.pkg as well.

 

Good luck.

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  • 4 months later...
inedible
inedible
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I'm going to go ahead and bump this old thread for no other reason than to correct MacintizeD, and to say I have the same problem...

 

I have a similar laptop, a Toshiba u300, and have been having insurmountable problems with PCI-E devices with every version of OSX.

 

I've tried so far: the Atheros 5007x WiFi card that came with it, an Intel 4965bgn card (known not to be working, but I hoped it would at least be detected), and a Broadcomm bcm4311 card I bought specifically because I thought it would be the most compatible.. as well as the Realtek rtl8136 LAN built into the laptop.

None of these devices are detected by system profiler, and after trying dozens of patched kexts, making sure my hardware ID's were in the Info.plist's, I've not been able to get *any* of them to work.

 

Reading up on the matter, it seems there's a problem with the way the laptop's BIOS allocates the PCIE bus and reports it to OSX. Apparently this is called the DSDT table, and laptop manufacturers spend little time debugging this part of the BIOS, only ensuring compatibility with windows. Despite the fact that some utilities can detect the card, OSX's kernel cannot communicate with it. Here's a thread about that.

 

If anyone has any more info I'd be delighted to hear it... from what I can tell this is an unresolvable issue.

 

MacintizeD:

Thanks for your misguided help, but the card is not detected and the kexts aren't loaded.. therefore there wouldn't be an en0 in NetworkInterfaces.plist, let alone 2 of them.. even if there was one, it would not be associated to any hardware, the kexts aren't loaded. Also, I can't seem to find the wireless_support.pkg you speak of.. this thread is the only google result for it.

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inedible
inedible
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In case you're curious about the DSDT errors, here's a page explaining the problem and how to fix it (in linux anyways..)

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Fix_Common_AC..._of_the_Problem

 

Also, you can try this thread, where someone has patched a IOPCIFamily.kext to detect cards and buses misconfigured by the BIOS... though I haven't had any luck with it.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Blurn
Blurn
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In case you're curious about the DSDT errors, here's a page explaining the problem and how to fix it (in linux anyways..)

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Fix_Common_AC..._of_the_Problem

 

Also, you can try this thread, where someone has patched a IOPCIFamily.kext to detect cards and buses misconfigured by the BIOS... though I haven't had any luck with it.

 

It fixed it!! :D I actually found that a while ago and it worked. Thanks for the information and sorry for just now getting back about that!

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