Airport Express Base Connection problems - SOLUTION

[jdxxx]

For people having trouble connecting to Airport Express Base, running GA EP35 DS3R or similar Gigabyte motherboards with Realtek network chip (8111):

 

I have been running hachintosh OSX 10.5.1 to 10.5.5 for over a year. Never had a problem with network connections to my Windows network.

 

BUT when I add an Airport Express base for use with audio sharing, OSX would not sense or discover or find Airport Express base station using the Airport Utility. Windows computers were able to find it and configure it. But not my hackintosh. I see posts by several people with the same problem, and no one seem to understand the problem is with the network .kext they are using. It took me a hours to figure this out. It is NOT a router problem, as people seem to think. It is a .kext problem.

 

The problem is the Realtek driver .kext I was using, which is integrated as a pluggin in IONetworkingFamily.kext. It works fine for everything I had tried EXCEPT sensing an Airport Express base station -- and Time Capsule, and Airport Extreme, and probably similar Apple wireless network things. To solve the problem, I tried several .kext. The one on the Realtek site DOES NOT solve the problem. Only this one attaed here solves the problem --

 

To connect your Airport Express Base station, install the "open source" RealtekR1000.kext found at Psystar (attached here), and released in Jan 2009 (they claim to have updated the code). NOTE this .kext is DIFFERENT than the R1000.kext found on SourceForge.net that has been around since 2007-01-22, and which DOES NOT solve the problem.

 

Since this new .kext may disappear at Psystar, it is attached here.

 

Simply install this updated RealtekR1000.kext to the Extentions folder using Kext Helper. After installing this .kext, Airport Express basestation will immediately sensed. All the rest of the network functions continue to work well.

RealtekR1000_1.8.1.kext.zip