18 replies to this topic

[j o e l]

i have a t60 and i need to know what wireless network card works with leopard? cuz the Atheros AR5BXB6 that my laptop uses does not work. so i'm thinking of replacing the card with a new one.

[Synaesthesia]

The Dell 1390 mini-pci card works, as well as any other card based on the same Broadcom chipset. You can buy one on ebay.

There are also some USB options...Look in the 10.4.8 wiki, it's the best one!

http://wiki.osx86pro...10.4.8#Wireless

[j o e l]

so the dell 1390 is based on the broadcom chipset? does it work out of the box? cuz i dont want to do so much patching. LOL

[Megamixman]

The atheros works fine.
Dell cards won't work, Thinkpads are bios locked. The atheros is your only choice without bios modification.

[j o e l]

so if i change the card, my com wont boot?

[dtx]

Correct.  Even if a card is exactly the same, if it isn't the Lenovo/IBM branded one, it will not work.  Can I ask what issued you have had with the atheros card?  I think I have the same card

Hardware ID 168c 1014

But no matter how hard I try, I can only get the card recognized, but I can never actually turn airport on.

I have tried fresh installs and done it multiple times, same issue.

[Megamixman]

xfidelity, if you change the card to a non IBM/Lenovo branded card it won't boot. Problem is, besides the Atheros ABGN card which they no longer sell, they there are no other Compatible cards with OSX that you could buy. Did you properly add your hardware id to 80211Family kext? Thats all i had to do.

Dtx, do you have a rf kill switch on your laptop? The Fn combo to kill wifi is through the ACPI and i believe the ACPI does remember what setting it was on in the CMOS. If possible boot into windows or something and make sure it is properly on and then reboot into OS X and check.

[Xeon3D]

The Ralink family of USB Wireless Dongles works fine. I regurlarly use a Belkin FSD5070 and have also tried a Draytek N61 (Draft N - What a Difference!!!), which also worked wonders.

[topology]

dtx, on Jan 29 2008, 05:38 PM, said:

Correct.  Even if a card is exactly the same, if it isn't the Lenovo/IBM branded one, it will not work.  Can I ask what issued you have had with the atheros card?  I think I have the same card

Hardware ID 168c 1014

But no matter how hard I try, I can only get the card recognized, but I can never actually turn airport on.

I have tried fresh installs and done it multiple times, same issue.

I have the same card in my X60t and have exact same issue as yours.

I have tried 10.4.5 10.4.8 10.5.0 10.5.1 with the modified kext but all can not turn this card on.

Just envy some guys can make this card work out of box.....

[j o e l]

dtx, on Jan 30 2008, 06:38 AM, said:

Correct.  Even if a card is exactly the same, if it isn't the Lenovo/IBM branded one, it will not work.  Can I ask what issued you have had with the atheros card?  I think I have the same cardHardware ID 168c 1014But no matter how hard I try, I can only get the card recognized, but I can never actually turn airport on.I have tried fresh installs and done it multiple times, same issue.

it is recognized but cannot be turned on. on my first install, i was able to turn it on. it worked after i used the 10.4.5 kext. but after reinstalling leopard, it did not work :s

Megamixman, on Jan 30 2008, 09:41 AM, said:

xfidelity, if you change the card to a non IBM/Lenovo branded card it won't boot. Problem is, besides the Atheros ABGN card which they no longer sell, they there are no other Compatible cards with OSX that you could buy. Did you properly add your hardware id to 80211Family kext? Thats all i had to do.Dtx, do you have a rf kill switch on your laptop? The Fn combo to kill wifi is through the ACPI and i believe the ACPI does remember what setting it was on in the CMOS. If possible boot into windows or something and make sure it is properly on and then reboot into OS X and check.

can you send me your kext? not through rapidshare, thank you.

[j o e l]

WOOHOO!!! i got it working!! here's the kext i used

Attached Files

•  IO80211Family.zip   657.16K   169 downloads

[dtx]

That would be cool, I will send you my kext. The only thing is, I had it on my other hard drive, and had tried another version of OSX, which did not work.  Once I get it loaded again, I will send it to you, if thats ok with you.  Probably later this evening or Friday at latest.

As far as the wifi being on, I am 100% sure the switch on the laptop has been on.  The only thing though is since I am switching the hard drive, I don't know if the laptop was remembering the setting, but either way, the hardware switch should take care of it.

topology, please let me know if you figure it out, and I will do the same.

[j o e l]

dtx, on Jan 30 2008, 11:57 PM, said:

That would be cool, I will send you my kext. The only thing is, I had it on my other hard drive, and had tried another version of OSX, which did not work.  Once I get it loaded again, I will send it to you, if thats ok with you.  Probably later this evening or Friday at latest.

As far as the wifi being on, I am 100% sure the switch on the laptop has been on.  The only thing though is since I am switching the hard drive, I don't know if the laptop was remembering the setting, but either way, the hardware switch should take care of it.

topology, please let me know if you figure it out, and I will do the same.

alright. pm me your kext. i still want to try yours out

[dtx]

I see that you added a lot of cards, not just 168c 1014.  Since I am supposed to be working school work thats not on my computer anyway, I am going to start a fresh install of leopard, and then try using your file, and then if that doesn't work, send you mine if you wouldn't mind trying to help me.  

Also, what procedure have you gone through after you modified the kext?

[j o e l]

i used diskutil and repaired the permissions

[dtx]

I pm'ed you my kext.  Topology, if I can get something going, I will send you my kext.  Still no luck as of yet.  I am guessing that we have a slightly different revision than everyone else.  can you post the hardware ID info from windows here so I could compare?

[j o e l]

http://img239.images...picture2nm7.png

[canadrian]

Hey guys. I have the Atheros ar5211 in my Thinkpad T60, and I gather this is well-supported by OS X as long as I modify the IO80211Family.kext. Well I feel all n00by asking... but could anyone point me in the direction of the instructions for modification? I've been poking around the forums, but I can't figure out how to find out the necessary info about my hardware, and precise instructions on how to add it to the plists...

Super thanks to anyone who could help!

Oh BTW, I'm running Kalyway Leopard 10.5.1

[dtx]

These are not my instructions, but this is what I have in a text file on a usb drive I use to work in OSX

mfbernstein!

YOU ROCK!

Well Folks - I have Ethernet and the Atheros Wireless working on Leopard on my T60!!!

mfbernstrein is exactly right in how to do this.

Edit /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortAtheros.kext/Contents/Info.plist
adding a line for your device ID under IONameMatch (the line is "<string>pci168c,1014</string>").

I then followed the guide that is here on how to load a kext.

http://forum.osx86sc....php?f=16&t=229

It DID NOT work until I rebotted with a -f.

Thanks again mfbernstein!

I will post a review of this here as I test.
j

Pasted from <http://forum.thinkpa...ic.php?t=50197>


[Guide] The proper way to install and load Kexts (drivers)http://forum.thinkpa...pic.php?t=52124

by SynthetiX on Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:11 am
Some people have been asking the correct way to install a kext (driver) and hook it to the kernel on the fly without having to reboot. So this is gonna be a quick and dirty guide to answer most questions about kexts and how to manipulate them.
First things first, how do you go about installing a kext? You'll need to open up terminal for the following instructions. First thing to understand about a kext, is it is actually a directory with a .kext extension. Finder displays a kext folder as a single file for simplicity's sake. But remember this is actually a directory. So, we'll now assume that you have a kext (driver) called gma950.kext on your desktop for the following examples. We'll assume that your hard disk is named "osxdisk" and your user name is "user."
So, the first thing we're gonna do is copy the kext to the proper location which is your /System/Library/Extensions directory as such:
    Code: Select all
        sudo cp -R /Volumes/osxdisk/Users/user/Desktop/gma950.kext /Volumes/osxdisk/System/Library/Extensions/


do note that "sudo" must be used for all these operations. You might wanna do a
    Code: Select all
        sudo -s

to make all commands entered have root access. Be careful what you do if you do this. If you do this command, you will not have to type "sudo" before every command.

Now that we have the kext copied into the the Extensions directory, we are ready to manually change it's permissions so it can be used by OS X. You'll want to do the following 2 commands:
    Code: Select all
        sudo chmod -R 755 /Volumes/osxdisk/System/Library/Extensions/gma950.kext
        
        sudo chown -R root:wheel /Volumes/osxdisk/System/Library/Extensions/gma950.kext


Keep in mind, that OS X usually sets up aliases to "root:wheel" as "0:0" so you might save time changing the ownership to "0:0" instead of typing "root:wheel" every time.

Now that we have the ownership and permissions changed, you'll want to double check to make sure the changes were effective. Double check them by doing a:
    Code: Select all
        ls -lr /Volumes/osxdisk/System/Library/Extensions/

and make sure all the owners are root:wheel, and the permission is 755 which would look like rwx-r-x-r-x.

If all went well, it's now time to load the kext on the fly, no reboot required (usually).
do:
    Code: Select all
        sudo kextload -t /Volumes/osxdisk/System/Library/Extensions/gma950.kext

the -t switch gives a diagnostic output of any errors.
And that's pretty much it.

The kext should be loaded now. You might also want to do a:
    Code: Select all
        sudo kextcache -k /system/library/extensions

to rebuild your kext cache.

Also, next time you reboot, be sure to boot with a "-f" from your darwin bootloader to ignore previously cached kexts and rebuild your kext caches.

If you need to remove a kext that your system doesn't like do the following:
    Code: Select all
        sudo rm -rf /Volumes/osxdisk/System/Library/Extensions/gma950.kext


Also if you want to manipulate the properties of multiple kext files you add, you do the same steps replacing gma950.kext with a * as in the following example:
    Code: Select all
        sudo chmod -R 755 /Volumes/osxdisk/System/Library/Extensions/*



Good Luck
-SynthetiX