Ira Wolf 81

Q: Don’t turn off Wi-Fi in 10.9! (And how to recover a frozen Mac if you do)

Turning off Wi-Fi in Mavericks is causing some older (and not-so-old) Mac’s to freeze almost instantly and then again during boot, repeatedly.  I’m not sure why 10.9 (build 13A603) is freezing when wi-fi is disabled, but another (really bad) defect is freezing Mavericks at boot during the initialization of the wi-fi ethernet adapter (usually interface en1) when it is disabled.

 

You cannot fix this problem with Safe Boot, Repair Permissions, Repair Disk, re-install Mavericks, restore from Time Machine backup, reset the SMC, reset PRAM, or boot into single-user mode.  Thus far, the only solution is to boot from a (homemade) Install OS X Mavericks USB, erase the hard drive, perform a clean Mavericks install, re-install your applications, and manually restore your data.  And if you innocently turn off wi-fi again, you will have to repeat this procedure.  However, I have worked out an alternative solution…

 

The work-around is to manually enable the wi-fi Ethernet adapter in the system configuration.  Specifically, the PowerEnabled setting in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist needs to be changed from ‘false’ to ‘true’:

 

<key>Interface</key>

<dict>

        <key>en1</key>

        <dict>

                <key>AirPort</key>

                <dict>

                        <key>JoinModeFallback</key>

                        <array>

                                <string>DoNothing</string>

                        </array>

                       <key>PowerEnabled</key>

                        <false/>

                        <key>RememberJoinedNetworks</key>

                        <true/>

                        <key>RequireAdminIBSS</key>

                        <false/>

                        <key>RequireAdminNetworkChange</key>

                        <false/>

                        <key>RequireAdminPowerToggle</key>

                        <false/>

                </dict>

        </dict>

</dict>

 

This change, however, is not straightforward.  In short, you need to boot from the Install OS X Mavericks USB, and edit this file in the primary volume (e.g. /Volumes/MacBook Pro HD.)  You cannot perform this edit in single-user mode because it boots from primary volume, which is read-only in this case.  (Perhaps the primary volume is read-write if you boot from the Recovery HD volume, but I have not tried that yet.)  Once you’ve booted, open the Terminal application from the Utilities pull-down menu and change directory to /Volumes/<primary volume>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration.  Make a backup copy of preferences.plist, and use vi or emacs (under /Volumes/<primary volume>/usr/bin) to make the required edit. Repair Permissions afterwards to be safe and reboot normally.

 

I was ready to buy a new MacBook Pro during the upcoming Black Friday sales, but I am happy to leave wi-fi on until Apple fixes this #$@&*! issue and save $2500.

 

Questions, comments and criticism are welcomed.

 

Regards,

Ira

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 2007 15" Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz

Posted on Nov 26, 2013 6:50 AM

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Q: Don’t turn off Wi-Fi in 10.9! (And how to recover a frozen Mac if you do)

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  • by Ed83,

    Ed83 Ed83 Dec 18, 2013 9:08 AM in response to Ira Wolf 81
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 18, 2013 9:08 AM in response to Ira Wolf 81

    I believe I tried a SMC reset but I still have the problem.  Again I think this is another problem that crept in during 10.8.4/5.  If Apple can't seem to fix this under Mavericks I'll revert the machine back to 10.8.3 where I believe everything should behave itself again.

  • by Lost Carcosa,

    Lost Carcosa Lost Carcosa Dec 18, 2013 9:28 AM in response to Ed83
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 18, 2013 9:28 AM in response to Ed83

    While I definitely had the same fan and freezing issue you did, it may not have been the SMC reset that fixed it... it may have been a clean install, which I did in the process of dealing with the wifi freeze issue. Unfortunately, I just can't remember. Anyway, if you have not yet done a clean install of 10.9, I would give that a try. Good luck!

  • by AlfaMikeDelta,

    AlfaMikeDelta AlfaMikeDelta Dec 18, 2013 12:27 PM in response to Ira Wolf 81
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 18, 2013 12:27 PM in response to Ira Wolf 81

    Hi everyone!

     

    I'm also having the freezing problem with my MBP late 2007 (2.2GHz). I've tried SMC, NVRAM, etc and the problem appears to solve for some time then it strikes again. I just disabled the sleep mode (set it to never in configuration panel) and everything is working fine.

     

    Regarding the suggestion of etresoft to test hardware by making a clean install of the older version of OS X... well, my original install disk (Snow Leopard) wont install anymore, at least it will not allow me to install over Mavericks (the classic "This version can't be installed on this computer.")... I have used this media to clean install/reinstall Snow Leopard several times in the past but now, with Mavericks installed, it asks me to reinstall from Time Machine... dead end for me.

     

    I suggest to do as etresoft said, install a clean copy of an older OS X (may be on an external drive) and make several tests with WiFi and Ethernet and see what happens. This can discard a hardware failure and (luckily) the rest of the world (those out of the "me too" group) will take us and the issue a bit more seriously.

     

    AMD.

  • by etresoft,

    etresoft etresoft Dec 18, 2013 12:48 PM in response to AlfaMikeDelta
    Level 7 (29,243 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 18, 2013 12:48 PM in response to AlfaMikeDelta

    To downgrade the OS, you have to erase the target disk. That means you have to boot with the old installer and manually run Disk Utility first. It is annoying and may take a few tries, but it is not something you have to do very often. Furthermore, you can always install the old OS onto some external drive and boot from there.

     

    I had a 1st generation MacBook that had a similar Bluetooth failure. It would only fail when I ran under the new OS (I think it was Snow Leopard then). A Snow Leopard bug - open and shut case, right? Not so much. After a while, it would eventually failed on any OS, so I just kept it turned off.

  • by AlfaMikeDelta,

    AlfaMikeDelta AlfaMikeDelta Dec 18, 2013 1:09 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 18, 2013 1:09 PM in response to etresoft

    etresoft wrote:

     

    To downgrade the OS, you have to erase the target disk. That means you have to boot with the old installer and manually run Disk Utility first. It is annoying and may take a few tries, but it is not something you have to do very often. Furthermore, you can always install the old OS onto some external drive and boot from there.

    Thanks for your prompt response... I was trying to install SL in a external drive with no luck, using the same SL installer to format the partition and after several boots and tries I've abandoned the quest... I have found an older SL Time Machine backup but I have a lot of work to do before I have some free time to start the sequence of reinstallations, may be the next weekend.

    I had a 1st generation MacBook that had a similar Bluetooth failure. It would only fail when I ran under the new OS (I think it was Snow Leopard then). A Snow Leopard bug - open and shut case, right? Not so much. After a while, it would eventually failed on any OS, so I just kept it turned off.

    Yes, sometimes you have to give up some features to squeeze the last drops of juice from your favorite tool (at least, this is my case, my first mac), as long as it is not blocking your work/fun/whatever...

  • by Ira Wolf 81,

    Ira Wolf 81 Ira Wolf 81 Dec 18, 2013 2:12 PM in response to etresoft
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Dec 18, 2013 2:12 PM in response to etresoft

    Bringing this discussion back to the Wi-Fi freezing issue...

     

    I dug out the original 10.4 install disks that came with my MBP and booted into the Apple Hardware Test version 3A121.  I ran the full test and no issues were found.  (The test even handled my 6GB of RAM after warning about taking longer to run with more than 512MB of RAM!)

     

    I then dug out an old WD Black 320GB HD that used to be in this laptop and is now in an OWC FW/USB enclosure.  I booted the drive via USB (curiously FW boot is now out) and it came up with OS X 10.6.8.  I turned off Wi-Fi via the menu icon and I was still and running up after two minutes.  I then shutdown and booted this drive again (with Wi-Fi last set to disable) and came up again without issue.  Turning off Wi-Fi one last time had no negative effect.

     

    There's one last test I could run and that's switching from my 5GHz network to my 2.4GHz one and see if the freeze issue is any different...

     

    Regards,

    Ira

  • by Ira Wolf 81,

    Ira Wolf 81 Ira Wolf 81 Dec 18, 2013 3:15 PM in response to Ira Wolf 81
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Dec 18, 2013 3:15 PM in response to Ira Wolf 81

    Under 10.9.1, I switched from my 5GHz to 2.4GHz wi-fi network, turned off wi-fi via the menu icon, and the laptop froze within a minute.

     

    At this point, given all the test scenarios I've run, I'm highly confident that the wi-fi freeze issue is not a result of a hardware failure.  I suspect the root cause lies within Maverick's management of the wi-fi adapter, but only an Apple engineer can verify that.

     

    I'll pass my latest findings onto the Apple tech support engineer I've been working with, and go back to developing and debugging my own embedded access and security protocol applications.

     

    Regards,

    Ira

  • by AlfaMikeDelta,

    AlfaMikeDelta AlfaMikeDelta Dec 19, 2013 9:24 AM in response to Ira Wolf 81
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 19, 2013 9:24 AM in response to Ira Wolf 81

    Perhaps the hibernation issue and the WiFi issue are related... I don't know how the hibernation process works, but... what if during the hibernation process the system shuts down WiFi? what if the hibernation process takes long enough for the system to hang after that?

  • by pmsobral,

    pmsobral pmsobral Dec 20, 2013 1:15 AM in response to Ira Wolf 81
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 1:15 AM in response to Ira Wolf 81

    Hi Everyone,

     

    Just to add my 2 cents to this discussion. For me this is clearly a software issue as my MBP3.1 Santa Rosa is also exactly with the same problem. This is unacceptable, and shows the amount of care dedicated to the MAC line from Apple nowadays. It does not make sense to launch a new OS every year that takes a year to become stable.

    And we are almost forced to update due to the programming tools for IOS.

     

    Regards,

     

    Pedro

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Dec 20, 2013 1:30 AM in response to pmsobral
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 1:30 AM in response to pmsobral

    pmsobral wrote:

     

    Hi Everyone,

     

    Just to add my 2 cents to this discussion. For me this is clearly a software issue

    as my MBP3.1 Santa Rosa is also exactly with the same problem. This is unacceptable, and shows the amount of care dedicated to the MAC line from Apple nowadays. It does not make sense to launch a new OS every year that takes a year to become stable.

     

     

    Why are so few people seeing it then? If it were related directly to Mavericks, it would be universally seen, would it not?

     

    Pete

  • by pmsobral,

    pmsobral pmsobral Dec 20, 2013 1:46 AM in response to petermac87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 1:46 AM in response to petermac87

    Hello petermac87,

     

    It looks like it is universally seen by (at least) the owners of MBPs 3.1.

    MACs with 6 or 7 years are still very good (my with an SSD is still perfect).

    Obviously they are not the focus group for testing new OSs because there is no time...

     

    Pedro

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Dec 20, 2013 1:50 AM in response to pmsobral
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 1:50 AM in response to pmsobral

    pmsobral wrote:

     

    Hello petermac87,

     

    It looks like it is universally seen by (at least) the owners of MBPs 3.1.

    MACs with 6 or 7 years are still very good (my with an SSD is still perfect).

    Obviously they are not the focus group for testing new OSs because there is no time...

     

    Pedro

    What evidence to you base that comment on?

     

    Pete

  • by Sergio Huarcaya,

    Sergio Huarcaya Sergio Huarcaya Dec 20, 2013 2:36 AM in response to petermac87
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 2:36 AM in response to petermac87

    It happened to me tree times. Wi-Fi Off, computer froze.

    And there are similar cases in the discussion to warrant that it is predictable and general in MBPs 3.1.

  • by petermac87,

    petermac87 petermac87 Dec 20, 2013 2:44 AM in response to Sergio Huarcaya
    Level 5 (7,402 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 2:44 AM in response to Sergio Huarcaya

    Sergio Huarcaya wrote:

     

    It happened to me tree times. Wi-Fi Off, computer froze.

    And there are similar cases in the discussion to warrant that it is predictable and general in MBPs 3.1.

    Eight people? Makes it a general issue?

     

    Good Bye & Good luck.

     

    Pete

  • by AlfaMikeDelta,

    AlfaMikeDelta AlfaMikeDelta Dec 20, 2013 1:08 PM in response to Ira Wolf 81
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2013 1:08 PM in response to Ira Wolf 81

    Hi all!

     

    Just for the sake of discarding things and following the thread of a bug in the driver and after reading about bugs in past versions of wireless drivers in OS X, I decided to test a couple of those (old) drivers in Mavericks to check what happens if I switch drivers so I installed a clean copy of Mavericks and made some tests:

     

    0. Setup: A clean copy of Mavericks on an external hard drive (no updates, no iCloud account association, no extra software and system config untouched).

     

    1. Test 1: Use the wireless option on the Recovery partition

    I remembered that the recovery partition also has a wireless option “just for emergencies”. This is a minimal configuration so I suppose only essential drivers are loaded.

    Logged in to the Recovery partition, configured the wireless network, opened Safari and browsed Apple site with no issues. Waited a couple of minutes and everything was still ok.

    Time to disable wifi… turned off wifi and in about a minute the system froze.

     

    2. Test 2: Check for the expected behaviour in the new install

    So, logged in to the new install, browsed the web a while and turned off wifi… system frozen as expected, reboot in single user mode and recovery with Ira’s suggestion => System up and running again.

     

    3. Test 3: Replace current drivers (kext’s or kernel extensions) with old ones

    This test involves the replacement of the current kext (IO80211Family.kext) stored in /System/Library/Extensions, with old ones (from SL and Lion). You can get these from old backups.

     

    3.1 From Snow Leopard, version 3.2 (320.1)

    System started up and driver was loaded (at least the wireless icon was showing). I was able to find the wireless routers around me but was unable to connect (I suppose this is an access method issue). Turned off wifi and everything worked fine, no hangs. Several minutes later I turned wifi back on, networks detected but unable to access them.

     

    3.2 From Lion, version 4.1 (412.2)

    Same as before, system started without issues and the wireless networks were detected but unable to connect. I can turn off and on wifi without issues or hangs.

     

    Conclusion: none. Sadly, without a working wifi connection I cannot reach any conclusion because the hardware is not really working. Making the driver load and detecting the networks is just part of the expected behaviour. I do not have access to Mountain Lion drivers/kext (and it’s supposed to be at least 2 of them since there was an update around 10.8.5) so I was not able to test it.

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