Built-in ethernet vanished

Did the install and rebooted and am now using ethernet 🙂

Did the install of the Apple 10-11-3 file and rebooted. It worked.

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/mac/how-to-fix-mac-ethernet-port-not-working/

Apple has posted a solution that worked for me :

If the Ethernet connection on your Mac stopped working recently - Apple Support

My WiFi is working so followed the instructions three times and still no ethernet.

When I enter this command in Terminal sudo softwareupdate --background

and then try to QUIT Terminal I get this message

But there is no way to enter my password. Where do I enter it? Trying to type my password where the key symbol is produces no type.

So I try to QUIT Terminal thinking I'll be given the typical password dialog and get this message:

I hit CLOSE and restart the Mac and still no ethernet.

I'm not a Terminal expert, obviously. What am I doing wrong?

In Terminal on my MacPro it doesn't show text when I key my password iin and hit Enter either. But Terminal accepted the unseen password and went on with the job. However, it still did not update the list as per the Apple letter.

voxkenny -- following your lead I typed in my password (with no type appearing) and got this message in Terminal:

That suggests something was happening -- a "scan" for software updates?

And I made sure these boxes are checked in the App Store preference pane to allow updates:

I quite Terminal and restarted and still no ethernet.

Does anyone know how long it takes the computer to "scan" for updates and download the needed 3.28.2 extension?

As of this morning I found that Apple has pushed a new update that fixed the problem. You might have to shut your computer off (not restart) then back on again with the button. Everything is back to normal.

WIlliam, not sure if you saw my earlier post. I have 2 Macs, so I hooked the faulty one up to the other as a Firewire disk, and just dragged the earlier exclude list in manually. It worked fine. Be sure to disable auto updates so you're in control.

Thanks VoxKenny -- haven't tried connecting another computer. The message just above you from plth says Apple has pushed a new update, supposedly 3.28.2 (he doesn't say). I have tried all the Terminal and restarting ideas and still no ethernet. My Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration Data extension is still at 3.28.1.

Questions for you or others:

1. Sounds like you reverted to an earlier version of the extension? What version number are you running?

2. How long does it take for a computer to receive these "push" updates from Apple?

3. You say to disable "auto updates" -- but doesn't that mean the computer won't receive the pushed update (3.28.2) from Apple?

Thanks for you help.

Thank you for the link link to the download...it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Mac is working now. Unfortunately what I did was messy and I didn't even keep a careful record, but maybe it will give you some ideas. I don't know if any of this is relevant, or whether it was just the luck of timing and how Apple's push-updates happen to work.

I booted into the recovery partition. I found the /[my boot drive]/System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext file dated Feb 24th. I renamed it to AppleKextExcludeList.xxkext which I assume effectively deletes it. I renamed it because it makes it easier to undo later. I had a backup Super Duper disk image with a copy of the Nov 11th, 2015 which I'd copied onto the root level of my boot drive. I tried to move it into my active extensions folder.

I failed, for several reasons. The kext is a directory and I realized I was vague about UNIX commands for copying directories and unsure what to use and the "help" and "man" commands didn't seem to be available and of course I couldn't Google. The "mv" command failed saying the target directory was read-only. To my shock, it responded "no such command" to "sudo."

Knowing nothing better to do, I shrugged and rebooted. Now my Ethernet connection works again, but of course there was no active AppleKextExcludeList which I assume is a big security risk. I followed Matt's suggestion and downloaded and ran the .dmg installer for the Nov. 2015 kext file. It installed with no error messages. I rebooted again, and still had Ethernet, and of course the outdated kext file. I did an Avast scan on the system folder and it reported no infections.

Eventually, after posting a query about how to pull the updated file, I shrugged and just did a "restart" and, sure enough, after restart, the Nov. 2015 file had been replaced with one, 1,182,577 bytes (1.2 MB on disk), created 4:00 AM Feb. 27th, version 3.28.2.

Thus, at the time of rebooting, the extensions file contained a) a garbage directory with an ".xxkext" extension, and b) last year's AppleKextExcludeList.kext .

I don't know if any of that's relevant. Nor do I know how safe or dangerous it is to boot the system without the AppleKextExcludeList.kext.

By the way: this made me furious. I had already decided since the only use I make of Ethernet is to connect to the Internet, and since my WiFi connection was working fine, I would just wait and see if Apple solved it.

Then, to my horror, I tried to use one of my favorite applications, GraphicConverter, and first it wanted me to give my AppleID credentials so that it could check my license with the App Store, and then it failed with some stupid error message, like "an unknown error occurred." In other words, I was denied access to a standalone graphics application I'd bought with money from the App Store--an application with no need to access the internet at all--an application for which Apple has a record of my purchase, credit card number and all. My theory is that for some incomprehensible reason Apple must use the Ethernet "card" to identify the physical computer I'm on, and for some other incomprehensible reason requires a working driver to do this.

So in addition to wasting an hour this morning swapping cables and testing other computer on my wired Router connection, instead of being able to wait for Apple's fix I had to waste another hour stumbling locating, installing, and reverting to the 2015 kext so that I could just edit a graphics file. And then another fifteen trying to figure out how to update to the corrected kext Apple provided. (I tried "just rebooting" first and it worked, but I wasted time trying to understand what to do next if it didn't).

I just noticed that at 11:00 am. EST on Sunday, my ethernet is now working. The Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration Data extension is still at 3.28.1, the one installed on 2-26 when all this mess started. So there's been no new installation of that extension. Don't have any explanation as to why ethernet started working again.

Apparently this does not affect all MacBook Pro and iMac computers... The package download worked for me... the "red flag" for me was when I looked into the System Report > Networking and did not see the Ethernet connection and when in Network Preferences after removing the Ethernet connection and then trying to create a new Ethernet connection, the option was not available to create an Ethernet connection...

However, it is important to establish that your modem, router and LAN connections are functioning properly by following a valid trouble-shooting process of elimination... This is what I did first and then investigated my MacBook Pro hardware interface and operating system/subsystem, which led me to the solution... After following the fix guidelines you should see the updated kernel software 3.28.2, however, if you see your Ethernet connection showing in System Report it is probably fine and there is something else, restricting your Ethernet connection and the physical connections and network components become suspect....

My Computer:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B2C

SMC Version (system): 1.69f4

System Version: OS X 10.11.3 (15D21)

Kernel Version: Darwin 15.3.0

---prd54USA