Christopher Murphy

Q: Built-in ethernet vanished

I've been using built-in ethernet since forever, including the last 2-3 weeks clean installed El Capitan without problems. Today, inexplicably while working all of a sudden I'm not connected to the Internet. Network panel says the cable isn't connected, and the usual troubleshooting ensues. I've deleted all connections in Network panel, and network items from /Library/Preferences and rebooted multiple times and now in Network there isn't even an ethernet interface. System Information > Network only shows: Bluetooth PAN, FireWire, Thunderbolt Bridge, and Wi-Fi. No ethernet.

 

OK so I boot a live image of Fedora Linux, it sees and uses the ethernet connection just fine. So the hardware is clearly OK, it looks like the OS has somehow face planted.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 26, 2016 6:29 PM

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Q: Built-in ethernet vanished

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  • by prd54usa,

    prd54usa prd54usa Feb 28, 2016 11:27 AM in response to William Kruidenier
    Level 1 (2 points)
    Feb 28, 2016 11:27 AM in response to William Kruidenier

    Apparently this does not affect all MacBook Pro and iMac computers... The package download worked for me... the  "red flag" for me was when I looked into the System Report > Networking and did not see the Ethernet connection and when in Network Preferences after removing the Ethernet connection and then trying to create a new Ethernet connection, the option was not available to create an Ethernet connection...

     

    However, it is important to establish that your modem, router and LAN connections are functioning properly by following a valid trouble-shooting process of elimination... This is what I did first and then investigated my MacBook Pro hardware interface and operating system/subsystem, which led me to the solution... After following the fix guidelines you should see the updated kernel software 3.28.2, however, if you see your Ethernet connection showing in System Report it is probably fine and there is something else, restricting your Ethernet connection and the physical connections and network components become suspect....

     

    My Computer:

     

    Model Name: MacBook Pro

      Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2

      Processor Name: Intel Core i7

      Processor Speed: 2 GHz

      Number of Processors: 1

      Total Number of Cores: 4

      L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

      L3 Cache: 6 MB

      Memory: 16 GB

      Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B2C

      SMC Version (system): 1.69f4

     

    System Version: OS X 10.11.3 (15D21)

      Kernel Version: Darwin 15.3.0

     

    ---prd54USA

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