How to install AirPort Utility 5.6.1 on Mountain Lion

@Douglas Urner - great post...I had to tweak a couple of names in terminal to match the files, but it worked like a charm.

Thank you so much!

So, in the last two versions they have taken away scroll bar arrows, the ability NOT to have programs reboot automatically and now they've crippled perfectly servicable Airport Express devices.

I'm just curious, does apple ever intend to go back to providing MORE services and options than the competition or is crippleware the way of the future for post Jobs Apple?

This long time fanboy is fast becomeing a boy who thinks the quickest way to get back to where I was with Snow Lepord is to buy a dell.

Please apple. I can't use my printer now. Could you fix this intelligently instead of forcing us though all these hacks?

These instructions were great - thanks!

The larger issue is that one needs to open Terminal just to tweak some basic router settings. At this point it's easier to change a Linksys router than an Apple one.

Why didn't Apple provide a way to do this without jumping through these hoops? It directly contradicts their claims of "it just works" and "its magic". While these 10 steps get the job done, it shouldn't be this much work and the instructions shouldn't have to come from the user community.

It directly contradicts their claims of "it just works" and "its magic".

Apple has not advertised these claims in years......because they are no longer true.

even worse 😟

Hugely useful post which lets me get back to the settings that disappeared from 6.x. Many thanks! 🙂

gr8, thanx!

Make a temporary directory and cd into it: mkdir tmp ; cd tmp

I understand "Make", though perhaps not in this context. I think "cd" is used as a verb, but that is not helping me. I followed the instructions exactly, but I wonder if there is something missing, some other step or steps needed to make this work.

3. I opened Terminal.

4. I typed "mkdlr tmp" then I hit return, then I typed "cd temp" then I hit return

5. I typed "xar -x -f ~/Desktop/AirPortUtility.pkg Payload" - I hit return

6. A directory is suppossed to be created (where would I look for this, how do I know if it has been created?)

I can't see any change, but I contnue to follow instructions

7. I type "gzcat AirPortUtility.pkg/Payload | tar -xf -"

8. Now three folders should appear, but where? On the desktop, where the disc image "AirPortUtility.pkg" sits? Somewhere else?

Here is what I see in the Terminal:

coronaheights4rent:~ tom$ mkdir tmp

coronaheights4rent:~ tom$ cd tmp

coronaheights4rent:tmp tom$ xar -x -f ~/Desktop/AirPortUtility.pkg Payload

coronaheights4rent:tmp tom$ gzcat AirPortUtility.pkg/Payload | tar -xf -

coronaheights4rent:tmp tom$

Does this indicate that the neccesary folders now exist?

Thanks

Douglas Urner wrote:

Just in case you'd like to use AirPort Utility 5.6.1 on Mountain Lion (and probalby Lion as well), here's how to install it:

1. Download the disk image (you can find it here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1536).
2. Mount the disk image and drag the install package (AirPortUtility.pkg) to your desktop.
3. Fire up Terminal and prepare to show off…
4. Make a temporary directory and cd into it: mkdir tmp ; cd tmp
5. Extract the Payload file from the install package with xar, here's the command: xar -x -f ~/Desktop/AirPortUtility.pkg Payload
6. The result will be a directory named AirPortUtility.pkg (just like the file, but now you can move into it to get the files you want). Inside will be a file called Payload that is a compressed archive of AirPort Utility.app.
7. So our next move is to extract the app. Here's the command: gzcat AirPortUtility.pkg/Payload | tar -xf -
8. When it finished there will be three new folders Applications, Library, and System. Your nice new copy of AirPort Utility 5.6.1 will be in the Utilities folder inside of the Applications folder. Use Finder to rename it (assuming you want to keep version 6 as well) then drag it to your Applications/Utilities folder.
9. The other two folders hold the AirPort Base Station Agent and its supporting files. I'm not sure if you need/want these or not. As best I can figure the agent does two things: it checks for updates for AirPort Utility and it monitors AirPort base stations for problems. You probably already have a version running as it comes with the system and it seems to know how to talk to both versions of AirPort Utility (I got nagged about updating).
10. The final step is to launch AirPort Utility and confirm that it works. You'll probably want to go into preferences and turn off the option to check for updates. If all is good you can remove the temporary directory: cd .. ; rm -rf tmp (or drag it into the trash with Finder).

That pretty much does it. I hope it helps somebody out there.

Pacifist was just the thing, well worth the $20.

I'd forgotten how many choices the earlier AU allowed.

I was able to set up my "mushroom" Airport Extreme, but could not figure out how to use it. My wife's MB Air WiFi card expired, but she needs to be online. She normally connects from her home office by wifi, I thought I could put the Airport Extreme ounder her desk, use an Ethernet-Thunderbolt adaptor to attach to the airport, and voila, World Wide Web! I have a "square" aiport extreme connected by ethernet to our DSL modem/router. The AE is a bridge, the DSL router does DHCP and all is good. I seemed to be able to connect to the wifi network, but I could not get online through the "conehead AE, and finally strung 50 ft of Cat 5 across the ceiling, up the stairs, etc.

I guess I should look for, or start, an appropriate topic to find an answer.

May be you can try this:

http://frank.is/mountain-lion-and-the-old-airport-utility/

Great work.

Thank you. I can't believe apple made 5.6.1 incompatible with mountain lion and then they ask you to download it if you want to configure your old airport express stations. What happened to the old careful apple!

Awesome. Worked perfectly. The package that was extracted was named "AirportUtility56Lion.pkg"

I'm running OS X 10.8.2

Airport Express (2004 model)

Thanks!

I had a copy of 5.6.1 on another Mac, and I was able to copy it to the desktop of my MacBook Air running Mountain Lion. I was not able to copy it to the utilities folder, where the newer version resides, however. I tried renaming the older version by adding 5.6.1 to the name, but I still was not allowed to place it in the utilities folder, or remove the newer version.

The simple solution was to place 5.6.1 directly in the applications folder; the newer version is in the utilities folder where it always has been.