10.6.5 and wifi issues

Thanks for that great bit of techno-holmes tenortim. The solution of using the 10.6.4 IO80211 kext worked for me. I was wasting time with all sorts of testing to narrow down the problem. Good old googling and a wonderful resource like this forum did the trick yet again.

Or you just trash the cache files also before you restart, so that it certainly loads the new driver.

The mv command would not work on my system, I had to fiddle with permissions and completed the move. But now my system tells me I have no wireless card installed. Great!

The IO8021Family.10 66 item is now a folder and not a Kernel Extension file.

I'm hosed, no internet.....

You can replace the IO8021 kext without using the Terminal. That's what I did. Just drag the original out of it's location and then rename it (you just need to give your admin password). Then move the extracted 10.6.4 kext into that location. I ran Onyx to fix permissions and delete caches straight after and then rebooted. All back to normal now. It's really unbelievable that Apple hasn't addressed this yet with a patch.

I have a MBP 1,1 (first gen) and had had wi-fi issues ever since upgrading to SL. The only time it would work is when plugged in to wall power. Otherwise the signal would drop. Curiously, 10.6.6 seems to have fixed the issue on this machine. But I never thought it was just related to MBP anyway. The latest AEBS I feel is also to blame. I had decent performance with this machine on my work network where there were non-apple routers...

My card info:

Software Versions:
Menu Extra: 6.2.1 (621.1)
configd plug-in: 6.2.3 (623.1)
System Profiler: 6.0 (600.9)
Network Preference: 6.2.1 (621.1)
AirPort Utility: 5.5.2 (552.11)
IO80211 Family: 3.1.2 (312)
Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x86)
Firmware Version: Atheros 5424: 2.1.14.5
Locale: FCC
Country Code: US
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165

Hi there!
I have done what tenortim said in his post but applying the old kext I get this firmware version:

Atheros 9280: 2.1.9.8

and not the older one:

Atheros 9280: 2.0.19.10

I've also tried with the 10.6.3 kext but it doesn't work! Where can I find the correct kext for 2.0.19.10?

thanks!

The problem is that you have other wifi devices near the computer and they will take up the DCP lease preventing you from connecting the Airport of the device you are using to the internet.

I had a similar problem and I solved it by following the advice here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1920

*3. If you have more than one Ethernet-capable computer or device connected to a network, temporarily disconnect all but the one you intend to obtain the DHCP lease. This prevents another device from taking the DHCP lease before the intended computer does.*

See my thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2745290&tstart=0

It's not the problem in my case. I went through the advice you posted with someone on the Apple helpline and it got me nowhere.

I have Broadcom firmware - will tenortim's fix work with that too?

Also - and more importantly - could any of you lovely people write a 'tenortim for idiots' explanation of his fix? I am a Mac baby (only a few weeks in) and I'm sorry but tenortim's fix reads like a foreign language to me. For example:

- where do I download the relevant software from?
- what does 'mount' mean?
- what does 'as root' mean?
- what is a 'kext'?

I could go on - but if these are all obvious terminology to mac users, they mean absolutely nothing to me as a long-time windows gal. I need idiot-proof 😉

I'm game to have a go if I can figure out the lingo.

Thanks

Ok well i try to sort those out for you.

Mounting a volume or hardrive partition is a word that windows users almost never read or hear. Mac users in the old days knew almost as little about what it is. But Unix users and maybe Dos users it's a very familiar an vital peace of event.

In window this happens automatically as on the Mac. And today it also happens automatically on nearly every Unix/*nix systems. E.g when you insert a memory stick to your computer it is normally mounted. In windows it mounted under My Computer and under a letter reprecenting the volume or partition e.g. "E:" if it's not mounted you cannot se it neither read or write to it. Under MacOSX All disks are automatically mounted under /Volumes/ However finder will show it on the desktop or in the sidebar of a finder window.

If you use a program like DiskUtilities you can se 2 buttons when selecting a volume; mount and unmount. In windows when you safely remove e.g. a memory stick you actually unmount it. On MacOSX you drag it to the trash icon which changes to an eject button when dragging volumes. It's vise to do this though on windows it a hassle.

So mounting refers to load a volume or hardrive partition or if you wichita a file system. Each disk you see on your system is mounted.


Root:
This can imply 2 things, either the user "root" which is the super user that can do anything on a UNIX system. There are no restrictions for the root user. Think this as an Highly powerful administrator user on windows. MacOSX is a Unix system and has therefore also this user. When you got your Mac your account user type was most likely an administrator user type. Less potent than the root user, but with the privileges to run commands as the user root. This always requires administrator password to be given.

Root can also mean /. Which is like My computer on Windows. That is the top level of your filesystem from where you navigate to everything else. As in the example above disks are mounted in /Volumes/ that is Root and the catalog or folder Volumes/

Kext: Full name is Kernel Extension. Short thise are files/binaries that add extra funktionality to the kernel.
A kernel is simpli put the core of your operating system, which all Applications talk to for giving you different functionality with your hardware.

Having wireless drivers as kext allows them to only attach the software driver for your particular wireless card. Instead of having all possible varaites loaded into the kernel. This allows for faster and smother kernel operation.

But in this case the kext in question is the driver. And on windows you simply call them drivers. But a kext does not have to be a driver can be other things too.

I hope I made it understandable.

It makes a bit more sense, thank you! So, going through 'the' fix:


1) Download the 10.6.4 Combo update and the Pacifist program that allows one to extract files from, amongst others, ".pkg" files.

Do I get these from the Apple website?


2) Mount the update .dmg, open the package in pacifist, extract the subtree "/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext" to a convenient location.

What do I actually do to achieve this? i.e. by 'mount' does this mean to run the update? Does this mean I am rolling the whole OS back to 10.6.4?


3) As root, cd to /System/Library/Extensions, rename IO80211Family.kext to IO8021Family.10 66 (or anything else to back it up), and copy in the replacement IO80211Family.kext that we extracted from 10.6.4.

I have admin rights, so I am 'root'. So I just rename the existing Family.kext in the Extensions folder then drag & copy the one I put onto the desktop into the same folder?

4) Download, install and run "Kext Utility" (Google it, it's at Insanely Mac). It should ask for your password, run, and fix up the kext permissions and caches.

OK I think I understand that.

5) Reboot. You should now be on the new (old) driver/firmware. Verify by running "About this Mac" -> "More Info" -> "Network" -> "Airport". As stated, the newer firmware is 2.1.14.5, the working firmware is 2.0.19.10.


Thanks for your help!

P.S. My husband is now panicking that I am going to wreck the new Mac by fiddling around in the registry. He has a point - I didn't spend £1,000 to end up having to do this within a few weeks just to make the thing work properly!!

Yes if i understand you correctly your Mac is of newest model. It should not have these problems. I don't have à macbook myself so im not 100% sure. But as I've understood it correctly this "repair" is relevant for some older models.

Anyway this thread is long and there been some other fixes in it before this one, that I think you should try first.

Some has earlier poster posted a 11 point fixes that has worked for some. For those who's computer won't be fixed with those pointa changin kext is a last resort kind of fix. But if your computer is only few weeks old I recommend not to rollback the wifi driver with an older kext as first fix.

What you should try first includes these steps

1: Repairing permissions on your boot partition

This is a thing I recommend you to do after each program intallation or update. Some installation softwares mess up permissions on the Mac, and that does include Apples own softwares.
Some of the permissions will not be repaired and some message can occure about it "won't be fixed because it was changed". That is fully normal and ok.

2: Delete your network settings totally and flush cache files
Some have had broken setting files and removing them an reset the network setting has helped for some.
-turn of Airport in system preferences.
-delete your network from the lists
-delete the files associated with the net work, but take a backup copy first to desktop or anywhere
Location: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
Files: com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist

3: Keychain passwords removed
delete any keychain key file to your network.
For this open Keychain in your Applications/Utilities Folder. Find any file there connected with your network and delete them.

4: Flush all cache files.
for this you can either use find in Finder and search for cache folders, and empty their contents. Make sure that you include system files and search both for visible and invisible files. Then just locate each cache folder and delete it's contents. Next boot up will be bit slower and applications might load slower a first time after this.

5: Reboot.

None of these fixes may work, or just one of them may work. But if you do these I recommend you to do them in that order. Also you might consider renaming your network on the router before.

This is what I see you can do on your new mac. Other problems can be considered unacceptable, as long as it is a problem on the Mac side.

Earlier ctmurray posted this list in this thread of possible fixes. Most of them are unrelated he's just been kind to note down fixes that have worked for some, but you might find it helpful, it includes some of the "fixes" I covered in this posts. Just tried to explain them also.

1. Verify that there are no interfering signals (other WiFi units and portable phones or microwave ovens). Change channels anyway.
2. Repair permissions
3. Delete network preference files
4. Change your security to WPA or WPA2
5. Network Prefs - get a new DHCP lease
6. Network Prefs – disable Ipv6
7. Delete Keychain password or create a new password
8. Network Prefs - Edit your wifi location (remove airport and re-install) OR create a completely new location.
9. Disable “always” broadcasting Network Settings on your router
10. Grab a Console log and post the results here
11. Create a new user and set up wifi for that user as a fresh start
12. Be sure your router firmware is up to date
13. Make sure there are no IP conflicts with other devices (change from standard DHCP to static or MAC assigned IP addresses).
14. Look for conflicting software (Peer Guardian, Parallels and VMFusion known issues)
15. See if you have country code issues with your router seeing a non US router header
16. Set up ping to continuously poll the router as a temporary fix
17. Reset your PRAM
18. Purchase a new Apple Airport Express, likely to work well with Macs, you get a N protocol highly rated router with USB ports and you get applecare support if you have continuing issues.





PS. When you mount a .dmg file.
A DMG file stand for Disk Image File. When you double click on them they mount into /Volumes/ and shows up in Finder. You unmount them also just as if they where any other disk. The files are basically virtual disk volumes. In MacOS you can e.g. copy your whole hard drive as an disk image as backup, then restore that image on a new drive. When done so you get a perfect copy of the original disk. This is good in many ways you can e.g. swap a hard drive this way, without needing to reinstall your whole system applications etc etc. If you change hard drive. This requires though that you have access to a second system drive that can hold the DMG file.
But mounting a dmg file means technically the same as mounting a hard drive partition except it's a virtual partition residing in a file.

No, after I said that, if you still want to follow trough on rollback of the wifi driver.

1 Yes, you get it here http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1048
2: I covered that, dmg files are virtual disks double click and it mounts as any disk.
3: Yes, but in reality No, as admin your never root, but you can act as one. May not be necessary though most files you can do what ever you want to with admin privileges.

Thanks so much for your time. I will sit down in a quiet hour or so and work through it all methodically.

I'll leave the kext change as a last resort as you suggest. 😉

Since a few days, my MacBook connects to my Wifi Network again without any problems (?!). I could not believe my eyes when the Wifi icon showed a connection at startup and not giving me the 'Cannot detect any of the preferred Networks' or 'timeout' popups.

Hopefully it stays this way.

I did not alter any of my settings. The only update I had was iTunes. Anyone else as lucky (so far) as I am?