Wifi: No Hardware Installed after 10.7.3 update?

Hi macberk,

Your chances on having something else than a software problem are just about zero...

In your case it probably started when Apple supplied you the basic, WiFi-bugged regular upgrade from 10.7.2 to 10.7.3... and while Apple took so long to fix it... you started doing some things that people suggested... but one of those has made your problems worse...

You will probably have to downgrade to a full system reinstall of 10.7 from the AppStore...

But before I would suggest you to actually do so, make sure you have a good TimeMachine-backup of your complete harddisk with your latest data (be completele sure that you have one - quadruple check that !) ; if you have that TimeMachine-backup, reinstalling 10.7 Lion will ask you to import just the non-OS data during or just after reinstalling, so apart from a lot of waisted time, you won't lose any of your data...

But first... check what you have now :

-1-

Do you have AirPort-connection when started up in 'Rescue Mode' ?

[ restart your Mac in "Rescue Mode" (press the 'CMD'-key (a.k.a. 'Apple'-key) and the 'R'-key simultaneously during startup) ; and when you're in look at the ringed pie-part icon (a.k.a 'AirPort'-icon) in the upper right corner of the screen ]

-2-

Which versions of the .kext-files do you have ?

[ in the Finder, go to 'System' -> 'Library' -> 'Extensions' -> 'IO80211Family.kext' -> right-mouseclick -> 'Show Package Contents' -> 'Contents' -> 'PlugIns' ]

This is what you should have in both 10.7.2 and 10.7.3, else you've messed things up... :

IO80211Family.kext (v4.1.2)

- including these Plugins :

AirPortAtheros21.kext (v4.3)

AirPortAtheros40.kext (v5.0.2)

AirPortBrcm4331.kext (v5.1.3)

AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext (v5.0)

IO80211NetBooter.kext (v4.1.2)

-3-

(A) Which Mac do you have, and (B) what is the AirPort-card you have installed ?

[ for (A) : on your Desktop, go to the upper left corner, go to 'Apple' -> 'About This Mac' -> 'More Info' -> 'Overveiw' -> 'System Report' -> 'Hardware' -> 'Model Identifier' ]

[ for (B) : on your Desktop, go to the upper left corner, go to 'Apple' -> 'About This Mac' -> 'More Info' -> 'Overveiw' -> 'System Report' -> 'Network' -> 'WiFi' -> 'interfaces:' -> 'en1:' -> 'Firmware Version' ]

NOTE : if you have the 'WiFi: no hardware installed' error you will not be able to find (B), but when you restart in 'Rescue Mode', and you have AirPort-connection there, you might be able to find (B) there...

[ I'm not completely sure that there is a 'System Report' option within 'Rescue Mode'... so don't bother about (B) if there isn't... just asure us that you did not replace the original AirPort-card that came with your Mac ]

Let us know the answer to all three of the above questions, and we'll take it from there.

;-)

Repair permissions with disk Utility, when ready, restart and, after chime, press shift key. This will be a longer safe boot, be patient, when ready, restart normally.

If hardware is OK, as I hope, this should solve your issues.

Hi macberk,

Cattus Thraex's suggestion is simple and quick.

I would say : just try it.

I'm interested to hear if it works for you.

If it doesn't : please answer the questions I've posed about what you have now and I'll try to help you.

;-)

Hi Toon.B and Cattus Thraex

Thanks for your intervention, I will try Cattus Thraex's suggestion first. I've tried that before when my ethernet port stopped working, unfortunately without success. Hopefully the Wifi is different.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Those steps will do no harm. If unsuccesful, hm, we shall see— do that first.

Judging from all info I gathered on this issue up until now, it seems like it's a problem that only occurs when updating to 10.7.3 on Macs that have an Atheros-based AirPort-card and Bluetooth-periferals...

Is that right in your case too ?

If so : disconnect all Bluetooth-hardware like keyboards and mice and restart using only USB-connected periferals. (You might need a SHIFT-restart, for extensions to reset properly.)

You might just be in luck that that will help.

;-)

[ if I remember correctly, the Atheros-based AirPort-card not only handles WiFi, but Bluetooth also... so the basic problem might be about Bluetooth and AirPort periferals conflicting because of a bug in the order in which they are being connected... ]

Hi guys,

I've done a repair disk permissions and a shift restart, without the anticipated result. Also starting up without my bluetooth touchpad didn't resolve the issue unfortunately.

I will then try to reinstall the entire machine somewhere next week, and be sure to check my backups before I do so.

Under System Information - Network, there's a Airport with BSD name en0, though it's not possible to add an Airport connection in Network settings. The top right Airport icon still shows - no hardware installed.

Wifi:

Software Versions:

CoreWLAN: 2.1.2 (212.1)

CoreWLANKit: 1.0.2 (102.2)

Menu Extra: 7.0.2 (702.1)

configd plug-in: 7.1.2 (712.1)

System Profiler: 7.0 (700.3)

IO80211 Family: 3.0 (300.20)

WiFi Diagnostics: 1.0.1 (101.1)

AirPort Utility: 6.0 (600.92)

So getting back to Toon.B's questions:

"

But first... check what you have now :

-1-

Do you have AirPort-connection when started up in 'Rescue Mode' ?

[ restart your Mac in "Rescue Mode" (press the 'CMD'-key (a.k.a. 'Apple'-key) and the 'R'-key simultaneously during startup) ; and when you're in look at the ringed pie-part icon (a.k.a 'AirPort'-icon) in the upper right corner of the screen ]

MACBERK-->> I do! And it 'sees' all available Wifi about.

-2-

Which versions of the .kext-files do you have ?

[ in the Finder, go to 'System' -> 'Library' -> 'Extensions' -> 'IO80211Family.kext' -> right-mouseclick -> 'Show Package Contents' -> 'Contents' -> 'PlugIns' ]

MACBERK-->> This is just a folder containing subfolders as Contents and PlugIns, I am unable to retrieve the version numbers unfortunately.

This is what you should have in both 10.7.2 and 10.7.3, else you've messed things up... :

IO80211Family.kext (v4.1.2)

- including these Plugins :

AirPortAtheros21.kext (v4.3)

AirPortAtheros40.kext (v5.0.2)

AirPortBrcm4331.kext (v5.1.3)

AppleAirPortBrcm43224.kext (v5.0)

IO80211NetBooter.kext (v4.1.2)

-3-

(A) Which Mac do you have, and (B) what is the AirPort-card you have installed ?

[ for (A) : on your Desktop, go to the upper left corner, go to 'Apple' -> 'About This Mac' -> 'More Info' -> 'Overveiw' -> 'System Report' -> 'Hardware' -> 'Model Identifier' ]

MACBERK-->> iMac11,1

[ for (B) : on your Desktop, go to the upper left corner, go to 'Apple' -> 'About This Mac' -> 'More Info' -> 'Overveiw' -> 'System Report' -> 'Network' -> 'WiFi' -> 'interfaces:' -> 'en1:' -> 'Firmware Version' ]

NOTE : if you have the 'WiFi: no hardware installed' error you will not be able to find (B), but when you restart in 'Rescue Mode', and you have AirPort-connection there, you might be able to find (B) there...

[ I'm not completely sure that there is a 'System Report' option within 'Rescue Mode'... so don't bother about (B) if there isn't... just asure us that you did not replace the original AirPort-card that came with your Mac ]

MACBERK-->>There's only mention of Software Versions (see my previous post), I haven't replaced any hardware in the machine.

Let us know the answer to all three of the above questions, and we'll take it from there.

;-)

MACBERK-->> TNX!

Pfew, GOT IT!

I rechecked the IO80211Family.kext under Library/Extensions and found some files missing from the PlugIns. Fortunately there was a IO80211Family.kext.bak containing all files, which I copied to my Desktop and renamed to IO80211Family.kext. The reload using KextUtil showed me that the overwrite replaced the missing files, I ran a restart and now the Wifi is back on!

Thank you all for your help and time, I took a bit more trial and error than planned but I am now finally able to use my Wifi again.

Note to APPLE: maybe this helps other users or you to unbug the 10.7.3 update?

Also: the iMac now boots quicker than before, a fortunate coincidence?!

🙂

Congrats macberk !

I presume you (& me & everybody that has solved this issue this way) will not have any problems re-occuring in future updates of OSX 10.7, since you/we now have the right version of IO80211Family.kext installed and you/we have things working...

...let's hope the installers of future OSX 10.7 updates wil not skip upgrading the IO80211Family.kext because we have had to install the one we have right now using an alternative route... but we will have to wait & see...

...for now we've fixed it... faster than Apple could !

(shame on you Apple)

By-the-way : please remember to "like" the preveious replies in this thread that were most helpful to you in finding the solution, so others will be able to quickly filter out the probably best answer(s) to their problems quickly.

Thanks !

Good luck & enjoy !

Will do!

Hi guys

I've been trying to follow this in the back ground, but I'm a bit stuck now....

If you saw my earlier post, I've got a 2008 MacBook, with a BroadCom wireless card. I changed some atheros wireless drivers just after upgrading to Lion as my wireless (esp. Safari) was rubbish.

I downgraded an atheros driver, and despite having a broadcom card this seemed to help and life was fine... 10.7.1 & .2 upgrades were fine, but 10.7.3 gave me this problem... I've used Time Machine to get back to 10.7.2 but want to upgrade if I can do so without losing wifi!

So, I've followed Toon.B's advice of looking into IO80211Family.kext (and I have an IO80211Family.kext.bak folder next to it...), but I don't know how to find out what version the actual kexts are... I guess I need to know the version so that I can put the kexts back to the right ones, but is this really necessary given that I have a Broadcom card?

Also, I can't seem to find KextUtil on my Mac at all... is this something I need to download? or can I just drag kexts around into the right place?

I've not yet tried re-installing 10.7.3 as I have no convenient ethernet (modem in cupboard under stairs, mac installed in office...), although I have heard that Apple have modified the 10.7.3 updater since the first day it came out...

Sorry if I'm being a bit thick!

Hi treyno13,

Just a quick reply: Kextutil is a download from http://cvad-mac.narod2.ru/Kext_Utility.

Drop your old version on the app and it will automatically install them again.

Good luck!

Simple solution is here:

http://macnerd-presents.blogspot.com/2011/08/os-x-lion-wifi-no-hardware-installe d.html

josh pointed me towards a solution that dailyfruit has suggested :

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=274966

I haven't tried it myself, so I just provide this 'as is'...