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Built-in ethernet vanished

I've been using built-in ethernet since forever, including the last 2-3 weeks clean installed El Capitan without problems. Today, inexplicably while working all of a sudden I'm not connected to the Internet. Network panel says the cable isn't connected, and the usual troubleshooting ensues. I've deleted all connections in Network panel, and network items from /Library/Preferences and rebooted multiple times and now in Network there isn't even an ethernet interface. System Information > Network only shows: Bluetooth PAN, FireWire, Thunderbolt Bridge, and Wi-Fi. No ethernet.


OK so I boot a live image of Fedora Linux, it sees and uses the ethernet connection just fine. So the hardware is clearly OK, it looks like the OS has somehow face planted.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 26, 2016 6:29 PM

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45 replies

Feb 27, 2016 9:27 AM in response to bpran

Edit:

oops, someone tried it and still no success

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/software-update-031-51913-will-break-your-et hernet-driver.1958521/#post-22615556

error message : "This computer does not appear to have any PCI Ethernet cards installed"


The kext cache may still need purged afterwards?

In recovery mode Terminal: kextcache -invalidate "/Volumes/<your boot volume>"

In normal mode Terminal: sudo kextcache invalidate /

Feb 27, 2016 9:31 AM in response to Christopher Murphy

It's definitely the same problem. The AppleKextExcludeList.kext version 3.27, dated Nov. 2015, is on my Super Duper backup from just a few weeks ago--AFTER I upgraded to El Capitan. And the problem showed up this morning, and the version in my active system folder is 3.28.1 and dated February 24th, 2016.


I had no idea that Apple was pushing out updates without my knowledge (or permission).


At the moment, it is just a nuisance--I just use it to connect to the Internet, and I enabled WiFi and can live with that.


Can those familiar with Apple's update mechanism tell me: is there a reasonable chance that if I just wait a few days, Apple will fix the error without my needing to do anything? I can follow Matt's directions, but, honestly, typing keyboard commands to copy .kext files into places where Apple doesn't want end-users to copy them is daunting.

Feb 27, 2016 4:12 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

I suddenly noticed after a period of not using iMac since 10.11.3 that ethernet was not working and networking claimed cable was unplugged. Tried many of the fixes to no avail. One was to remove cable and remove ethernet from networking and hope it would auto detect after a reboot. No and ethernet was then not an option to add.


Contacted support and all the suggestions didn't work so it was suggested that I did a re-install of OS X. Not an experienced iMac user as mainly worked on Windows platform. Incidentally I have Parallels installed and that worked happily with the ethernet card OS X claimed wasn't there so not a hardware problem.

Further problem was my router I think is dying and needs replacement and in particular suffers from wireless drop out or possibly its TalkTalk - very likely actually.


After one aborted attempt at re-installation via CMD - R where the wireless dropped out it managed to hold together long enough having left it for probably 5/6 hours only to come back and find all had gone well and 10.11.3 had been installed and apparently everything seemed pretty much as before. It looked like disappointment as ethernet was nowhere to be seen in the networking setup. However this time it was actually present as an option to add which I did. Still no sign of a working ethernet until I used the Advanced option and forced a DHCP renewal.

All now seems well so if all else fails a re-install seems to put things back they way they are supposed to be.


Hope this gives some encouragement to those not adept at hacking!


John B

Feb 27, 2016 4:41 PM in response to Christopher Murphy

I have a 2010 27" iMac and a 2016 MacPro, both running 10.11.3. The iMac hasn't been a problem but I lost both the ethernet connections on the MacPro, with 2 reds on the prefs panel. I fixed it by connecting the MacPro as a Firewire disk to the iMac, and copying the AppleKextExcludeList from the iMac. When I rebooted the MacPro both ethernet connections were fine. The WiFi did not give any problems at all.

Feb 27, 2016 6:06 PM in response to platad

Any idea how we would go about "pulling" this? I'm afraid I couldn't stand it any longer, because...


...a side effect of no Ethernet is that (!!!!!) I couldn't launch any applications I'd bought from the App Store. Apparently it phones home to check the license and apparently the license is keyed to some piece of information it can't get if the Ethernet driver isn't running.


Basically I took a deep breath and downloaded and ran the installer package Matt mentioned above, and that fixed the problem, but now I have the November 2015 AppleKextExcludeList.kext file and don't know how I can get the updated file.

Built-in ethernet vanished

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