10.6.5 and wifi issues

Thanks for that information volkswagner, it looks like we finally identified why it probably passed by Apples testing stages for the driver.

The issue still exists with OS X Lion. The IO80211Family.kext shipped with Lion is version 4.0 and the firmware shows as 2.1.14.9 now. However, the wifi connection is still unusable. I downgraded to 3.1 of the kernel extension as discussed above and the wifi connection is working as expected now.

Hey Lot77, Yeah i seem to be having the same issues with Lion, I am currently running 10.6.8 with 10.6.4 IO80211Family.kext but doesnt seem be working, System info confirms i am running the older version.

As Beth Shoshan mentioned previously this issue was resolved in one of the Beta releases of Lion.

Why would they have reverted back to the problematic kext with the Production release ?

This issue is appauling, I have tried many many routers to try and isolate this problem.

I can confirm that a Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N running DD-WRT is glitch free.

I tried the IO80211Family.kext from 10.6.4 but it did not resolve my problem.

First OSX Machine, While many plus's this is a major negative. This is just not acceptable. I am not a happy customer/developer

Hi guys,

I am on Lion 10.7 and have this issue. Any work around for it?

Mine, happen like nothing. I went out for lunch and came back and wireless was diconnected and could not connect to any of networks in our office. I was connecting to same network for last 6 months and out of blue this happened 1 day after update to lion.

I wiped out and installed 10.6.7 but still not working. Then update to 10.7.8 NOT WORKING. i can connect to all wireless routers. My house, shopping malls BUT not those in the office. I am freaking out. Apple did nothing for me since it was working on apple shop.

Any help? Should i downgrade using what suggested method ? Lion has this problem also? Can anybody confirm?

Thanks.

matfromchicag,

If you are having the same issue with what was described in this thread, your wireless (Atheros 5416 card) should work with OS X 10.6.4 (atheros firmware 2.0.19.10). This issue is that Apples firmware update breaks wireless with Atheros 5416 cards under OS X Snopw Leopard 10.6.5 (atheros firmware 2.1.14.5), 10.6.6, 10.6.7, 10.6.8 and the current Lion 10.7. Did you have issues with them versions aswell? If so, you could try the work-around described by tenortims to downgrade the kext file back to 2.0.19.10:

Download the IO80211Family.kext file taken from the 10.6.4 update here:

http://hotfile.com/dl/111337068/eee082f/IO80211FamilyKext_10_64.zip.html

Then, you can follow tenortims instructions:

1) As root, cd to /System/Library/Extensions, rename IO80211Family.kext to IO8021Family.1066 (or anything else to back it up), and copy in the replacement IO80211Family.kext that we extracted from 10.6.4.

2) 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.

3) 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.

To recap, the IO80211Family.kext file ver. 2.1.14.5 or above *does not* work with some Atheros 5416 cards. This means that if you have this card and are experiencing difficulties with the 10.6.5, 10.6.6, 10.6.7 10.6.8 update, you will need to replace the newer IO80211Family.kext file with the older ver.2.0.19.10 one.

The downgrade of the IO80211Family.kext file to the 2.0.19.10 version (taken from the 10.6.4 update) worked for me under Snow Leopard 10.6.4, 10.6.5, 10.6.7 and 10.6.8 on my 2007 Macbook 13.3 core 2 duo with a Atheros 5416 card. I have yet to upgrade to Lion 10.7 and see if it works for that too.

lot77 claims that the downgrade workaround does work for Lion 10.7, butmarkfromkawana waters claims that it does not work.

Thanks for reply but

1. now i am in 10.7.

2. My firmware version reads as "Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.100.98.75.6)"

Can i still use same workaround?

My surprise is this machine was WORKING for 6 MONTH at same place with same wifi network... out of suddent it stops working. I even had it working on lion for two days but it stops. I wiped out the whole hard drive and installed SL and nothing changed.

Any insights?

This is my wifi settings: I have first generation of 2011 thunderbolt MBP with SSP and Quad Core i7.

Software Versions:

CoreWLAN: 2.0 (200.46)

CoreWLANKit: 1.0 (100.43)

Menu Extra: 7.0 (700.42)

configd plug-in: 7.0 (700.57)

System Profiler: 7.0 (700.3)

IO80211 Family: 4.1 (410.1)

WiFi Diagnostics: 1.0 (100.26)

AirPort Utility: 5.5.3 (553.20)

Interfaces:

en1:

Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0xD6)

Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.100.98.75.6)

MAC Address: e4:ce:8f:03:ae:20

Locale: APAC

Country Code: KR

Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 149, 153, 157, 161

Wake On Wireless: Supported

AirDrop: Supported

Status: Not Associated

I had the same problem with my new MacBook Air 13". It was driving me crazy. It seems like there really is a problem with Lion and the new MBA WiFi chipset.

I finally solved it by replacing the 802.11 kext with the older version, as outlined above me. (Yippy!!! 🙂 )

matfromchicago, I also have a Broadcom chipset and it still helped.

I posted a recap of the whole experience (and solution instructions) here: http://thoughts.maayank.com/2011/08/wireless-problems-with-macbook-air-and.html

Hope you find it helpful!

SOLUTION FOR WIFI CONNECTION ON LION

This looks like the answer to poor wifi on Lion - I have just installed the 10.6.4 kernel extensions for airport as per these instructions and my wifi connection is SOLID. Back to 8011 n only and transmit rates at 300 (max) rather than 8011 n (b/g compatible and transmit rates of 120-130). Also network connect is solid after sleep and shut down, so matfromchicago and earlier posts/threads get the kudos for solving this massive Lion issue.

Follow the instructions here or at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2644274, and here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2644274?start=465&tstart=0 (look close to bottom of page) with another post from matfromchicago and more details on the problematic kernel extension.

This MAY NOT solve your particular problem, but it seems to be working for everyone who replaces the Lion wifi kernel extension with the one from SL!!

I've tried doing the 10.6.4 kext on my 2011 iMac running Lion as I'm having issues with the wifi connecting to my N network... (had problems as well in 10.6.8)

no dice. it has an Atheros 9380 wifi card in it... current firmware is 4.0.55.4-P2P

If i do the 10.6.4 kext swap, it tells me no wifi hardware, I'm thinking it's because this is a new airport card (that triple antenna one) that wasn't released back in 10.6.4 days, so the kext from back then probably won't work with this new card...

put the 10.7 kext back in and wifi kicks back in, but still N network issues...

any ideas?

_R_, are you sure you installed the new Kext correctly? (extracted the proper file from the zip file to the correct place, fixed permissions, built kext cache)

I received the same message when not installed correctly.

edit: Also: people have reported that "The problem" didn't exist for them in Lion beta. You could try and get the kext file from Lion beta and see how's that works for you.

I used the instructions on your website...

I'm assuming that by going back and installing the "backup 10.7 kext" and getting the wifi to work again, that I was indeed following the instructions correctly...

I have an IMac and a MacBook Pro, both set up the same way and both experiencing the connection dropping, consistently, after placing the system in sleep mode, once upgrade to Lion.

I kept the MacBook unchanged and played with settings on the IMac by way of identifying the cause of problem.

I finally have stability again on both systems after changing the Channel on the router (it was set to 1). I can see several other wifi networks and perhaps Lion is a little more sensitive. Just for reference, my Authentication is and has always been set toWPA-PSK and encryption set to AES

Just to add that the kext fix worked for me. 10.6.8 on a MBP 15" 2.16.

Did have an issue with terminal running in sudo mode. It still wouldn't give me permission to change files. I finally went to the folder itself. I dragged the kext file in question out and it made a copy. I then dragged the 10.6.4 version into the folder and got spanked, but told it to authenticate anyway. Replacement was made and I repaired permissions with Kext Utility. Reooted and solid ever since.

Wanted to post this for those who don't like or have problems using Terminal.

Thanks to all for figuring this out and posting the link to the 10.6.4. kext file.

Have tried BananaMacintosh's suggestion on Lion (10.7.1) with the Atheros 5416 chipset. Tried the latest Kext Utility to work with Lion (2.5 - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5KTQQINJ), to repair the Kexts after downgrading the kext file, but on re-boot I too had the 'No hardware installed' error. Reverted, rebooted and tried again just in case - but still no wifi joy for me either.

Currently have huge bit of Cat5 running through the house instead.

Have raised a bug report with Apple: bugreport.apple.com Make sure you do too, just to get this annoying issue rectified in 10.7.2

same problem as _R_ :

firmware version Atheros 9380 4.0.58.4-P2P (Lion 10.7.2)

I followed the instructions but after reboot there was no wi-fi functionality at all: the OS wouldn't find any wi-fi card.

So I reinstalled the backup 10.7.2 kext file, reboot and everything was back to normal (which means I'm still unable to get a stable connection).

Is there a reason why replacing the 10.7.2 kext file with the 10.6.4 one doesen't work for us? It' so strange. After reboot, it's like the OS doesn't see any wifi hardware installed...

Should I try using other kext file instead of the 10.6.4 one? I remember that the first time I boot my brand new imac everything was working fine. but after upgrading to a newer version of snow leopard things just kinda went south. Then Lion just made things worse...