How to install the driver for Airport card in a mini

Question

How to install the driver for Airport card in a mini

In a post regarding trouble with wireless connections some suggested...

cd /System/Library/Extensions
mv IO80211Family.kext IO8021Family.10 66

well I did it and now my system is telling me there is no Airport card installed. How can I reload just the Airport drivers? I have my 10.6.3 OS X disk. Can I do it with that?

I tried running Disk Permissions with no change. I have since renamed the file back to what it was. The I started getting pop ups telling me the kernel file was improperly installed.

I just don't want to reinstall my complete OS.

mini, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Feb 1, 2011 7:41 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,753 points

Feb 1, 2011 7:59 PM in response to Kyle Vanderstel

I think you should re-check your sources. You first rename the existing extension then replace it with an earlier version. Seems you missed that critical step which is why you have no wireless. Be sure you repair permissions after the swap then restart the computer.

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Answer 2

Feb 1, 2011 8:05 PM in response to Kappy

Yes! Rename a system file first before altering it on your own! Don't delete it , simply add .old to the end of it, then you can do a quick search for .old and all your altered stuff will come up.

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Answer 3

Feb 1, 2011 9:00 PM in response to kungfumonkey

I've already put it back to the original file name of IO80211Family.kext. I've run disk permissions too, in fact I've run it several times.

It keeps repairing a bunch of java stuff but that's all.

I've set the permission on the file to what I believe they were before I ran the mv command.

It was after I restored the file name, that I got the popup saying it was installed incorrectly, but, it's not saying it now.

And I have rebooted too, still no Airport.

Oh, I never replaced anything with earlier version, I just renamed and renamed back.

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Answer 4

Feb 1, 2011 9:14 PM in response to Kyle Vanderstel

Just some things to check... for what it's worth...

-it's IO80211Family.kext, don't cross your O's and your zeros...
-you may have moved it to the wrong place, make sure it's in /System/Library/Extensions, and not /Library/Extensions
-try cd chmod 777 /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext
-try having a friend email you a copy of their /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext, or visit a Mac store with a thumb drive...

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Answer 5

Feb 1, 2011 9:25 PM in response to kungfumonkey

Ok, I kept googleing and I found a copy of airportconfigapps.dmg. Once I downloaded that from another computer it's working again.

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