OS X Hax

Nick

Thanks a million for the script. I've just installed, running 10.2.5 on a G4 PowerBook (non-Extreme ready) and having upgraded to Airport 3.0.4 software.

I have a WPC54G-UK and all went remarkable smoothly.

Spiffin

Hi, before spending > 300$ in material, will i be able to use :
1) Linksys WPC54G PCMCIA card in my TiBook 550
2) Linksys WAP54G network access point

with this patch....

I mean, do i need an original airport extrem station or can i use any 802.11g (like the WAP54G) access point ???

Pierre

I'm using a WPC54G in a G4 PowerBook with a WAP54G access point (and a separate DSL router) and it works very well. You just need a cardbus slot and a router.

Spiffin

$300? where are you buying this stuff Nordstroms? I got my whole set up @ comp usa for $175 total...and was up and running after running this perl script on my pismo 500!

A

I'm running 10.2.5 and just updated to 3.0.4 of airport software. I ran the updated perl script. It gave me the message 'already patched...not going to do anything' message. Which makes sense seeing as I have already patched the airport2.kext file. (I did this when i updated to 10.2.5). I looked in the directory and there is an airport.kext file as well. The 'last modified' date on this file is yesterday (the day I updated to 3.0.4 of airport). Is this the file that needs to be patched via the perl script? If so, doesn't the perl script need to be modified further? I am a complete novice at this. Any advice would be appreciated. I have a powerbook g3 (lombard) a Linksys 54 g wireless router and a '54 g wireless card'. It ran near perfectly before updating to 3.0.4 running AirPort v 3.0.1 and OS X v 10.2.5.

It makes that complaint because either of these two files exist:

AppleAirPort2.kext/Contents/Info.plist.orig
AppleAirPort2.kext/Contents/MacOS/AppleAirPort2_patched

When you get a new driver through softwareupdate, you should remove these two files before running the perl script.

HOWEVER... If you want to go back to the original driver for some other reason, the thing to do is remove AppleAirPort2_patched and overwrite Info.plist with Info.plist.orig.

Thank You, Thank You! I removed the two files, reran the perl script, and it worked like a charm! I don't know what I'd do without the advice I found on this web page! Wait, I do know... I would have a Lombard Laptop that isn't 'airport ready'. Now, not only do I have wireless, I have 802.11 g wireless. Ha! Thanks again! Can't wait to see what all this will be like under 'Panther'...don't even want to think about it!

I'm new to scripting and could use a little help. I wrote and ran a perl script to display a line of text and didn't have any problems. After changing the permissions on wpc_driver_hack.pl I tried to run the script and get an error message that says:
./wpc_driver_hack.pl: Command not found.
I have run chmod 755 on ./wpc_driver_hack.pl. Just installed airport 3.0.4 and checked for the quote 'virgin' 10.2.5 AppleAirPort2.kext. Any help appreciated.

thx

I too would like some remedial info about running the perl script from the xterminal (I assume). Does it have to be in a specific directory? root? and when installed how do you kext load? will rebooting do as well? thanks

<quote>
error message that says:
./wpc_driver_hack.pl: Command not found.
</quote>

Mark, make sure you are using unix style line endings in your script.

Something that held me up for a day or so until I figured it out (d'oh!) is that if, after applying the script, you are unable to connect, try one more thing...

Clear out the cached extensions. I used the Jaguar Cache Cleaner to throw out the older stuff, and things worked much, much better.

This wasn't a problem for me until I applied the recompiled AirPort2 v3.0.4 over the OS X 10.2.5 update, and couldn't get anything to work, even after throwing out the AirPort2.kext completely, along with the receipt file for the 3.0.4 Airport2 update, and then reapplying the 10.2.5 Combo updater, trying to position things so as to reapply the previous script that had worked so well. Eventually, I noticed the cached extensions, and wondered if running the Cache Cleaner would fix things. I now plan to include this step with every update of the perl script.

10.2.6 just came out, and I refuse to install it until I know it's safe! Can anyone verify it is safe?

i hate me too posts

;-P

Just a quick note... I installed the 10.2.6 update, and it did not effect the patch at all. Thanks again to all the contributeters who've made this project possible. Especially Nick!

P.S. I'm attempting to learn Cocoa Dev by making an app to switch the kext Airport1 to Airport2 and back. Any help at all will be appreciated.

I'm a terrible speller :-p

I have a slighty different endeavor on my agenda.
I want to use a Linksys WMP54G pci in my G4 desktop wired to my linksys cable/dsl router and set it up as a software base station along with a Linksys WPC54G Pcmcia in a Mac and PC lap.
Has anyone attempted this?Can it be done!

Thanks

Hi Daniel, that will work just fine. I had a software base station created by a Belkin 54g card in my g4 tower for awhile and it worked awesome. I have a question for all the mac geeks out there. I have a 17" PB and would like to use a Linksys WPC54g card in but also have the ability to use the built in APExtreme card. Is there a way to have the computer recognize two airport cards at the same time? I have tried creating a seperate .kext file and that did not work. Thanks for the help!

Mike

Thanks Mike!
The reason I opted for the Linksys WMP54G over the airport card is that besides being "G" it has an antenna which should have a better than airport range.All we need now is for the final approval of "G" standards in June to sort out the firmware problems.
On another note,I see they are already talking about a few companies working on " wireless firewire" initially running at 100 mps then to 400/800!!I've read that roughly 1.5 years ago Apple had a job listing looking for a wireless/firewire engineer.Interesting.

I have a question for all the mac geeks out there. I have a 17" PB and would like to use a Linksys WPC54g card in but also have the ability to use the built in APExtreme card. Is there a way to have the computer recognize two airport cards at the same time? I have tried creating a seperate .kext file and that did not work. Thanks for the help!

10.2.6, WPC54g, WRT54g (G-only), & PB400 WORKS!!!

I am here to confirm that i got this hack to work with a WPC54g and a WRT54g (linksys's 54g router and card) on a Powerbook 400mhz. My OS is 10.2.6!!!

It took no special configs... my linksys router is operating G-only. So that isnt a problem either.

whoray!!!!, this was posted on said laptop wirelessly

Can anyone tell me whether the hack will work with a Netgear WG511 (54g) card? I'm already using the Netgear 54g router with the internal airport card, and that works fine.

Not to sound too trivial, but the Netgear card looks like it was made for the Titanium Powerbook, colorwise.

TIA,
Philip

Philip:
I thought that might work... the only problem is discovering the Netgear WG511's device ID... It doesn't appear to have one!

ioreg -l | grep VersionOneInfo returns:
"VersionOneInfo" = ("Intersil","ISL3890","-","-")

ioreg -l | grep pccard returns nothing. (this would be used to determine the correct $new_device_id to drop into the perl script... Hrm, what to do, what to do?

Thoughts, anyone?

If you have the Intersil chipset, it won't work with the hack. You must have the Broadcom chipset.

The good news, however, is that according to the article at http://wireless-starter-kit.com/airportblog/archives/000641.html, MacSense will (shortly? now?) support the Intersil chipset cards with their driver.

Nick,
Thanks for the clarification. Support for this card (Netgear WG511) under 10 is currently non-existant. I've learned a lot more about wireless cards in the past two days than I had ever hoped to.

Perhaps I should exchange this card for the Linksys WPC54g tomorrow. Thanks for the great resource!

Thank you both for your help. This (Nick Sayer et al) is indeed an invaluable resource.

Philip

To Daniel,
I have set up a software base station using Linksys wirelessG PCI card. It worked fine. But, software base station is not as dependable as the real thing. So, I bought an extreme base station. Your idea is sound though, completly do-able.

Nick et al - THANKS! I'm sitting outside Starbucks with my Linksys Wireless G card right now (friend lent his login). Rockin with 2/3-full signal. Most excellent. I ran the patch last night and when I plugged in it just worked. Sweet.

10.2.6 is out... anyone know if this will affect the setup?

Thanks SorcererPug!
I figured as much that it wouldn't equal in performance to a dedicated base station not to mention I would need to have the hardwired G4 "on" when attempting to share it's connection but that little antenna should help even things out signal wise.I'll post an update when I get around to setting things up in a few weeks.

hi all,

i'm running osx10.2.5(combo installation) and appleairport 3.0.4 on a powerbook g3 bronze keyboard. when i try to run the script, it keeps telling me "permission denied... doesn't appear to be the right version of the driver..."
i double checked and the appleairport2.kext file IS v.3.0.4

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

hi nick,

thanks for your reply.
i actually tried out all the options in the script
near the top and they kept returning the same
comment of not having the right version of driver....

urgh...

I just installed the Belkin PCI card into my Quicksilver desktop - works like a charm!

I noticed that there is an AppleAirPortFW.kext as well - is this possibly for an AirPort with Firewire connection for older macs that cannot use the current AirPort Extreme cards? hmmmmm

Nick: I had the same problem until I removed the kext cache files /System/Library/Extensions.mkext and /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
and then either reboot or kextload

i don't have classic installed with 10.2.5 on my powerbook lombard.
would it be the reason it keeps telling me i don't have the right version of the driver eventhough i installed v.3.0.4 of airport i downloaded on the apple site?
i ran all the version options on the top of the page and it's telling me the same thing.

thanks!

damn - I thought I had this working - I installed the Belkin PCI card in my Quicksilver, done the hack, and things seemed as though they were working as the Airport menu item appears etc. so I went out and purchased another PCI card for my PC and the Belkin access point - installed it on the PC and it works fine, connects to the access point which is connected to my router - everything fine. I cannot get the Mac to work though - it doesn't seem to be able to see the access point at all - just says No Airport Networks (or something like that) in the drop down menu of the Airport menu item. When I try to connect manually using Internet connect, I type in the name of the wireless network (WLAN) but it just says there was an error connecting.

Everything seems to be working on mine, except that it won't connect. I'm getting a very strong signal, but no ping. I'm using 10.2.6, WPC54g, D-Link DI-624 router. Any advice?

Hi...I have never used the Terminal and hoped to never have to. I got the Apple Airport card originally but the reception was terrible. So I decided to get the Linksys WPC54g with a Belkin 802.11g Router. I am running OS 10.2.6 with the latest Airport update. If anyone could please write me a Terminal script or some sort of instructions that an amateur could understand it would be GREATLY appreciated! I am very desperate here. Thanks in advanced!!! P Daniel

I have the script, I have the WPC54g card, I have 10.2.6 loaded and I know how to open a terminal window. What do I type in the terminal window in order to execute the script? I am new to running scripts.

gavin --

try changing your base station to channel 4 or above. for some reason my linksys card does not like channels 1-3, at least with the hacked apple airport 2 driver.

paul --

(1) launch terminal
(2) type "cd /" (w/o quotes)
(3) type "sudo perl " (there should be a space after "perl" and do NOT hit carriage return)
(4) drag the perl script into the terminal window
(5) hit return
(6) enter your password when prompted and quit the terminal when all done
(7) delete the files "Extensions.kextcache" and "Extensions.kextcache" in the /System/Library/ folder (it's easiest to boot into OS 9 to do the deleting).
(8) if you are feeling anal, run cache out or jaguar cache cleaner or cocktail to clear your other system caches.
(9) again in the anal department, repair privileges using disk utility.
(10) power off laptop; insert 802.11g PC card, reboot and...voila.

I seem to have followed all the instructions right - the patch, the removal, the reboot, but it's still not working. Also tried a few different vendor IDs, uninstalling the patch and reinstalling. Running OS 10.2.6 and a belkin 54g PC cardbus (F5D7010 vendor id: pci1799,7010). Still only have the 'Power off card' option available, with the 'Broadcom' and '802.11g' in the PC Card menu faded. Tried the airport setup ass. but 'cannot find the card'. Could anyone out there please help me figure this out. Thanks in advance.

Ok, I'm confused... Can I actually use a 15" powerbook with 802.11g equipment? I have a Linksys 54G Broadband route and I want to use "g" mode. I know that the AE cards won't plug in my powerbook, so what are my options? Where can I find drivers for the Linksys 54g card, that support 802.11g speed ? Please be specific as this Apple stuff is new to me.
TIA,
Peter

Stef
A few thoughts:
When the script finished, did you get the following note?
Finished!
If you see no other messages, then it probably worked.
You can now try kextloading the driver and see if it works.

When you deleted the two cache files, did you shut down, insert the card and then restart?

Hey AK,
This is the message I get:
cp: Info.plist: No such file or directory
Finished!
If you see no other messages, then it probably worked.
You can now try kextloading the driver and see if it works.
Could "cp: Info.plist: No such file or directory" be the problem? Yeah I've tried shutting down, inserting the card after deleting the two cache files. Thanks.

Stef, I don't remember seeing that Info.plist message, but I'm not sure if that is the problem or not. I'm a dope at this hacking stuff, but I managed to get it done in about 8 hours. Maybe someone else can see the problem in your postings and put you on the right track. It looks like you are very close. Have you scanned through the postings on this site to see if someone has your same card so you can verify that you have the right pci number for your card?

Yeah done a scan thru, had someone with the same card tell me the original pci number i was using (pci11c1,5811 got this after after the ioreg -l -w 0) was wrong. Yeah i feel the closeness... awefully frustrating. Thanks for the advice.

Hey, i have a ibook and want to get an airport card and a   WAP54G access point.... will those two work together. Please respond quickly. thanks =)

Hey:

I've updated to 10.2.6- skipped 10.2.5- and can't get this working. My AirPort driver is still 3.0.3, and the perl script gives me the "Wrong Driver" error and doesn't do anything. Any suggestions here? I've tried different driver codes from the perl script, with no sucess..

/Brett Larson

HELP! I did as directed in "How to..." everything seemed to install fine but my system is confused.
I'm, first of all, wondering what to do with the prevfious MacWireless 802.11b cardbus card's driver's & menu applet. I nuked the drivers and, I thought, everything associated with them. When I power on my system, I get a new "Airport" adapter found (actually I get several, for some reason). I am unable to distintguish this driver/device from the built in Airport card (15"{ Powerbook w/Superdrive & Airport). Do I turn OFF the original Airport? How do I turn ON the new cardbus card.
Also I seem to have some remnant of a menu applet that finds the "Broadcom" card but its greyed out, as is the original MacWireless 802.11b card's entry and the only option is to power-off the card.
So, I'm confused, my system is confused and I am unable to get a "G" mode connection running. No matter what I try I get an error when trying to connect in a "G" mode only wireless setup.
Any guidance and/or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
TIA,
Peter

HELP! I did as directed in "How to..." everything seemed to install fine but my system is confused.
I'm, first of all, wondering what to do with the prevfious MacWireless 802.11b cardbus card's driver's & menu applet. I nuked the drivers and, I thought, everything associated with them. When I power on my system, I get a new "Airport" adapter found (actually I get several, for some reason). I am unable to distintguish this driver/device from the built in Airport card (15"{ Powerbook w/Superdrive & Airport). Do I turn OFF the original Airport? How do I turn ON the new cardbus card.
Also I seem to have some remnant of a menu applet that finds the "Broadcom" card but its greyed out, as is the original MacWireless 802.11b card's entry and the only option is to power-off the card.
So, I'm confused, my system is confused and I am unable to get a "G" mode connection running. No matter what I try I get an error when trying to connect in a "G" mode only wireless setup.
Any guidance and/or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
TIA,
Peter