One corespondent reported that when his WMP54G was in a particular PCI slot, he would get kernel panics from the driver immediately after kextloading it (after the hack was applied). He moved the card to a different slot and the problem went away.
So if you have a PCI card and get panics, try moving the card to another slot.
I suspect this is actually a bug in Apple's code. It probably has to do with Interrupt sharing. I didn't see the panic or look at any of the logs, so I can't really be sure one way or another. Just if you have problems, try another slot.
Posted by nsayer at February 22, 2003 07:15 PMNo luck:
System:
G3 B&W - Kernel Version 6.4
WMP54G
Radion 7000 for MAC
Result:
Lockup on boot. Grey apple sign, cirle stops moving, and two white stripes appear on screen.
Tried moving WMP54G to all other available slots with no luck..
Tried moving video card to another slot with similar results.
Could there be a conflict with video card?
Posted by: Bob at February 25, 2003 06:40 PMI suppose anything's possible. I don't have any firsthand experience with PCI equipped macs. One other PCI user had lots of trouble and went to go get a new card. Maybe that will help? I'm sort of grasping at straws.
If anyone else reading has had experience with a WMP54G and The Hack, please post your experiences (good and bad).
Posted by: Nick Sayer at February 25, 2003 07:50 PMFirst, I've been using the AE Hack with a WPM54G on a Blue & White G3 with excellent results. Thank you!
But now my question, does anyone know if it is possible to get the WPM54G to hook into the built in antennae connectors of the G4 towers? There seems to be no obvious way, but not being a hardware guy I haven't pulled off the metal shielding around the guts of the card yet.
Thanks,
Christian
Once upon a time, I took apart a WMP11, which I believe has the same innards as a WMP54G, except that the mini-PCI card inside is going to obviously be a 802.11g one.
If you look on the back of the card, you'll see that the shield is held down by 6 solder points on the back of the card. After removing it, you'll see the mini PCI card in its slot. At the top end of the card, you'll see a very short coax jumper soldered to two pads at the top of the mini PCI card and to the main board at the other end.
In theory, it should be possible to either cut the plug off the cable in the tower and solder it to the pads or come up with a mating connector and solder that onto the pads.
I suspect you could do away with the shield when you were done. Macs have much better designed cases than the average PC, so I suspect you won't find RF leakage to be a problem.
Check with HyperLinkTech (www.hyperlinktech.com) which makes a variety of pigtails and converters. They may be able to sell you something that would simply plug between the two connectors with no soldering. Let us know what you find out.
Posted by: Glenn Fleishman at February 28, 2003 11:07 AMIf you don't want to use the antenna connector on the backplane of the card, you'll have to do at least some soldering, since everything up to that point is soldered.
I have heard that Apple's connector is proprietary, but I don't know one way or another. If it is not, then it would probably be better not to cut the plug off. :-)
Posted by: Nick Sayer at February 28, 2003 11:37 AMHey,
On Glenn's tip, I checked with HyperLink Tech. They have a plethora of connectors and custom converters. Indeed, the tiny Apple Airport connector present in the towers and and Laptops that connects to the Airport card is not proprietary. It is called an "MC Card" connector. And HyperLink tech have them:
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/connectors/connectors_mc_card.html
Great, my plan was to get a custom made cable from Hyperlink that fits in between the Apple connector and the Linksys antenna connector on the back of the card. Essentially a female version of the Mac's internatl Airport connector and a male version of the antenna connector on the back of the Linksys PCI card. This way, no soldering would be necessary, but you would have to run the cable through a seam in the case and connect it to the back of the Linksys Card.
Unfortunately, Hyperlink Tech says that *no one* makes a female version of this MC Card card connector. I told him that that sounded strange since there is a female version of the connector inside the airport card as well as my Cisco 802.11b card, so someone had to make them. Hyperlink replied that this was true, but it is not made to attach to a cable.
Who knows. I'm going to poke around some more, but if anyone else has any ideas that don't involve cutting off the Apple anntena conncector, please let us know.
Thanks,
Christian
Posted by: Christian Lallo at March 4, 2003 01:07 PMAnother consideration is that sticking extra cable and connectors in is going to reduce your signal strength, especially at frequencies like 2.4 GHz.
I'd bet that the best course, though I understand the reluctance attack it with a soldering iron, is to buy the female connector and solder it to the pads on the WMP54G's mini PCI card. Then the only question is whether Apple's antenna cable will reach.
Hey Nick,
That's just it. Hyperlink Tech says that a female version "doesn't exist". Here's the email exchange after i explained to him the custom cable I wanted:
-------
From: "Jamie Cassano"
Date: Mon Mar 3, 2003 5:32:47 PM US/Eastern
It does make sense what you are trying to do, however that connector does not exist.
Jamie Cassano
----
From: Christian Lallo [mailto:clallo@stsci.edu]
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 6:31 PM
I'm sorry, which connector doesn't exist?
---
From: "Jamie Cassano"
Date: Tue Mar 4, 2003 9:12:27 AM US/Eastern
No one manufactures the female version of the MC Card connector for a cable.
---
From: Christian Lallo [mailto:clallo@stsci.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 9:55 AM
Oh, I see. Well what does the male version plug into, then? I mean, there is a female version in the card itself, correct?
---
From: "Jamie Cassano"
Date: Tue Mar 4, 2003 9:52:47 AM US/Eastern
correct, but it's not made for a cable.
Jamie Cassano
----
What do you make of this folks? Can this be true?
Christian Lallo
Posted by: Christian Lallo at March 4, 2003 03:05 PMB&W G3
Linksys WMP54G
works right after kextload, but crashes on startup (same symptoms as above - circle stops, and white lines across screen)
I have tried different PCI slots to no avail.
Any Ideas? Why does it work, then not startup?
Some luck:
System:
G4 Gigabit Ethernet Powermac
Belkin 54g pci card
Flashed Radeon 8500
Result:
Get the grey screen that tells you to reboot the machine. No matter what PCI slot I use. But it does work when using kextload and not rebooting, hehe.
I hope that others are trying to figure this out, thanks!!!!
Mike
Posted by: Mike at March 17, 2003 02:24 PMTry copying the appleairport2.kext somewhere else on your hard drive then removing it from you extensions folder.
When you computer boots kextload -t it.
This works on my PB, Someone should try it on there tower.
NOTE: You do have to load the extension everytime you boot.
Posted by: Robbie Miller at March 21, 2003 02:17 PM