OSX86 10.5.6 and D-Link DWL-G520 (PCI)

[mydknightz]

I looked a bit through the forums just now and haven't seen this yet. Also, on my quest of about at least a week of half-nighters, I did not see anything like what I tried. If you have questions about how to attempt the solutions I tried BEFORE mine, then search the forums for them. That's where I found them and I don't want to promote redundancy in the forums. (Please forgive me if I do anyway. FIRST POST EVER!!) So...

 

I started out with a D-link DWL-G520 (Atheros). Using iPC 10.5.6 w/ PCMCIA patch, I successfully setup a dual-boot system with OSX 10.5.6 and Vista. Most everything was working. ONE of my problems was the wireless card not working. The device was visible (because of the PCMCIA patch) in System Profiler, but showed that the drivers were not installed for device. I then commenced my search for answers and solutions. I found many other posts with my exact same problem and a few solutions for it.

 

I tried the solution involving changing the kext file IOFamliy80211, changing the device ID "xxxx,xx" to "168c,13" (I think) in the info.plist file in the Atheros kext plugins folder. That worked, as far as getting the OS to recognize that it has an "Air Port" card, BUT it would not show an Air Port icon in the Menu Bar. So, I still couldn't use it! More research. More searching...

 

I found a solution involving changing "en0" to "en1" (or some such) in the NetworkInterfaces.plist file in the System Configurations folder where the com.apple.Boot.plist file is located. I got the icon, BUT it would show the Air Port as off with no way to "Turn On". More research!

 

Further Googling and reading lead me to repeating the last solution's process in the preferences.plist file in the same folder. I gained the ability to connect to my WiFi via Network Preferences, BUT the icon was still useless. AND in my subsequent attempts the repeat this process and achieve the same results were not so hot.

 

In one new installtion, I got a second Ethernet connection in my network connection list (when it was the wireless card in reality). And in another, I couldn't even connect to a network.

 

In an attempt to to fix another problem I stumbled upon the fact before the first boot of osx, where everyone recommends to run the flag "-f", the NetworkInterfaces.plist and preferences.plist does not exists, yet. Leading me to believe that these files are created after the first boot, AFTER the OS recognizes and registers its devices. Maybe if the OS could recognize the card before these were created, then perhaps the only tweaking required is in the IOFamily80211 kext file and leave the NetworkInterfaces and preferences plist files UNTOUCHED.

 

I performed ONE MORE fresh installation of OSX 10.5.6 with stock drivers for Wireless (that is, I did not choose to install any of the other drivers offerred by iPC in the custom install section).

 

HERE'S THE TRICK:

Because I had a dual-boot system going I was able to boot into the Vista side of my hard drive before the first OSX boot. And using MacDrive I was able to view the OSX partition and navigate to the Atheros info plist and change the device ID. I then restarted to osx and let it boot for the first time.

 

On first startup, I had a fully functional AirPort on my system. Icon and all. The key is to get OSX to recognize the device before it creates the NetworkInterfaces and preferences plist files.

 

I suspect this would work for any wireless card with an Atheros chipset and probably Broadcom if required, but I could be wrong. Mine has been working well for the last week. One potential problem may be that this card is responsible for my PC freezing during streaming on the net (lengthy media and big torrents). I replaced it with a cheap-o DYNEX wireless G card (Broadcom) from Best Buy becuase they're supposed to be a guaranteed install out of the box. It was and I'm now testing it by leaving it on ALL NIGHT downloading some size-intensive files. See if freezes like before. If it is the D-link, it may just be my card that's buggy. Or maybe all of them, but if you just want to be able to go online and not plan to download really big files or stream hour-long + stuff, then you're okay with the card. It has only frozen during those activites.

 

Anyway, I hope this helps people out there who are facing the same problems I did. I'm a bit lazy, but if some one asks, I'll probably post another topic with my full PC specs and install process. Sorry if this was too long for some. I'm thourough. Good night and good luck.

 

--Crono