[drp]

After installing the 10.4.7 combo update on both my Intel Mac Mini and Macbook Pro, I've discovered that the system will no longer add wireless network passwords to the System Keychain. It will only add them to your personal login.keychain.

As a result, it's no longer possible to configure a wireless network once and allow all users of the system to use the network.

In addition, when the network activates on boot, an no one has logged in yet, it cannot access the network password. As a result the machine self-assigns a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx address.

You must disable and reenable the wireless network after login to properly join the network.

I've verified the results on both of my machines. However, is anyone else noticing this behavior?

I've temporarily worked around the problem by installing 10.4.5 on a second disk, putting the wireless network key into the System.keychain and then moved the System.keychain and SystemKey files to the 10.4.7 installation.

If anyone else can confirm this behavior or has come up with a better workaround, I'd love to hear it!

-Doug

[Ludovic Hirlimann]

Originally Posted by drp

If anyone else can confirm this behavior or has come up with a better workaround, I'd love to hear it!

That appears to me like a security "fix" or feature as you like. I do agree that it sucks, so you should probably report it to Apple so they become aware that it is a problem for you.

Ludovic

[mrwalker]

I managed to fix this problem by removing my network from the preferred networks list under System Preferences > Network > Airport > Airport Tab. After that rejoin your network and you'll be prompted for the password, with the option to store the password in your keychain again.

-mrwalker

[drp]

After upgraded my systems to Mac OS X 10.4.8, I had the same problem again -- and finally tracked down the real issue.

Like a lot of people, I hate the mess that a fresh install creates when it dumps everything into /Applications without regard to any organization.

It turns out that

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport

has a hard-coded reference to

/Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/MacOS/System Preferences

I had moved System Preferences into Utilities and as a result, the system would no longer update the System Keychain.

-Doug