Is Airport for OS X working?

[This message has been edited by Webby (edited 09-30-2000).]

YOu might be interested in this challenge on the macaddict forums. Like you, I believe there is a way to make airport work.
http://forums.macaddict.com/bbfarm/F...ML/000059.html

the mysterious thing is that airport worked fine for me in developer preview 4, using one of the newer G3 powerbooks.

i don't have access to a base station though, so i cannot say whether it is still working on my machine with the public beta.

even in dp3 it showed up as an ethernet card in the networking setup, though it never seemed to function.

looking around the beta though, i see no mention of it at all. looking for or trying to configure the interface with 'ifconfig' under the command line doesn't reveal anything. even more troubling is that the command 'dmesg' doesn't report a second ethernet card or anything else that could might be the airport card. i'm not used to the dmesg output on MacOSX, but on Solaris for example, dmesg gives a definitive list of all the hardware recognized. the fact that it does not show up here isn't encouraging.

... although i also find it extremely bizarre that it would show up in dp4 and then disappear in the beta.

the mysterious thing is that airport worked fine for me in developer preview 4, using one of the newer G3 powerbooks.

i don't have access to a base station though, so i cannot say whether it is still working on my machine with the public beta.

even in dp3 it showed up as an ethernet card in the networking setup, though it never seemed to function.

looking around the beta though, i see no mention of it at all. looking for or trying to configure the interface with 'ifconfig' under the command line doesn't reveal anything. even more troubling is that the command 'dmesg' doesn't report a second ethernet card or anything else that could might be the airport card. i'm not used to the dmesg output on MacOSX, but on Solaris for example, dmesg gives a definitive list of all the hardware recognized. the fact that it does not show up here isn't encouraging.

... although i also find it extremely bizarre that it would show up in dp4 and then disappear in the beta.

[zerologic]

I hate to say this but there is no way to activate AirPort without an update from Apple. AirPort support is built in to the kernal and was put there in DP4 as a hack for Steve. The implementation was too buggy for general consumption and its generally bad form to include a hack in a new operating system


My source for this most unfortuante information? The Darwin developers list and Lucent Technologies.

[This message has been edited by zerologic (edited 09-29-2000).]

Does anyone have DP4 still installed? It seems that under Mac OS X/System/Library/Extensions there exists alot of kernel extensions written in XML. Maybe the Airport .kext from DP4 will work...

-jones

OK,
Now we are getting somewhere.

[This message has been edited by Webby (edited 09-30-2000).]

If you want to know... go to the source .

BTW, I am not the source, but since I have not yet gotten permission to post the sources name, I will refrain. Although I dowuble he would mind, but, as an apple employee, you never know these days.

Here goes:

____________________________________________
the Driver is statically linked, so really all we have to do is call it with
a kext.

As root do

$ mkdir /System/Library/Extensions/AirPort.kext
$ vi /System/Library/Extensions/AirPort.kext/Info-macos.xml

and type/paste in:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM
"file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version="0.9">
<dict>
<key>Date</key>
<string>March 17, 2000</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>com.apple.AirPort</string>
<key>Personality</key>
<dict>
<key>IOClass</key>
<string>AirPortDriver</string>
<key>IONameMatch</key>
<array>
<string>radio</string>
</array>
<key>IOProviderClass</key>
<string>AppleMacIODevice</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AppleAirPort</string>
</dict>
<key>Vendor</key>
<string>Apple Computer, Inc.</string>
<key>Version</key>
<string>0.1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

...reboot and the airport card will show up as a ethernet device. you can
give it an ip addr or have it go dhcp/bootp.



[This message has been edited by John (edited 10-02-2000).]

Originally posted by NtroP:
If you want to know... go to the source .

the Driver is statically linked, so really all we have to do is call it with
a kext.

[snip]

...reboot and the airport card will show up as a ethernet device. you can
give it an ip addr or have it go dhcp/bootp.

This had no effect; no new ethernet interface listed in dmesg, nothing.

Did it work for anyone?

[bcaslis]

I just tried the hack and it works!!!!! I'm posting this from a PowerBooK (Firewire) right now!

[bcaslis]

One more follow-up. If you do the hack you should open the Network panel. There you will see two ethernet selections. I'm currently doing this with the ethernet built-in set to no connection and the ethernet card 1 (airport) set to DHCP. I remember in DP4 that I had problems when I tried to have both connections active.

And the nice thing is that it also works in Classic now whereas it didn't in DP4.

Hi,

Do you mean "apple menu" (not that it's an apple anymore) -> System Preferences... -> Network (the blue sphere)?

What do you see there? I see TCP/IP, Appletalk, NetInfo, Services tabs, and one "Hardware Address: xxxxxxxxxxx" item at the bottom. Where are you choosing the network card?

Help!

Bubba

Originally posted by bcaslis:
One more follow-up. If you do the hack you should open the Network panel. There you will see two ethernet selections. I'm currently doing this with the ethernet built-in set to no connection and the ethernet card 1 (airport) set to DHCP. I remember in DP4 that I had problems when I tried to have both connections active.

[bcaslis]

Yes in System Preference select Network (the blue globe). You should now see on the left a pop-up menu (that can be set to TCP/IP or hardware info). When selected to TCP/IP you see a list below the pop-up of Global TCP/IP, Built-In Ethernet, and the Ethernet Card 1. Select any of the three shows it's settings to the right. If you're not seeing this, then maybe the file has not been edited correctly or maybe you have the wrong owner and permissions on the directory and file.

For the directory I have:
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 58 Sep 29 17:51 Airport.kext

For the file I have:
-r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 619 Sep 29 17:51 Info-macos.xml

This works for me, too. If you don't see the second NIC card, make sure you reboot and and then look in the TCP/IP tab for "Ethernet Card Port 1" Click it and configure as needed.

By the way, this has probably been discussed elsewhere, but it's not necessary to use vi and the command line for these sort of hacks. If you're not familiar with vi, you can go to the directory indicated with teh finder/desktop, create your desired directory, open it, create a file with the approriate xml in textedit (is that what apple calls it?) and save it in the directory you created.

Sounds complicated when I say it that way, but it's the same thing you'd do under mac os9. Create a folder. make a file, and save it in the folder.

Howdy,

Nope, nothing, even though the file's right, perms are right, etc.

Are y'all using built-in airport cards? Official Apple airport cards? I'm using a Powerbook G3 Bronze with a Lucent PC-Card airport-compatible card. That's probably it, darn it.

Bubba

Originally posted by bcaslis:
Yes in System Preference select Network (the blue globe). You should now see on the left a pop-up menu (that can be set to TCP/IP or hardware info). When selected to TCP/IP you see a list below the pop-up of Global TCP/IP, Built-In Ethernet, and the Ethernet Card 1. Select any of the three shows it's settings to the right. If you're not seeing this, then maybe the file has not been edited correctly or maybe you have the wrong owner and permissions on the directory and file.

For the directory I have:
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 58 Sep 29 17:51 Airport.kext

For the file I have:
-r--r--r-- 1 root wheel 619 Sep 29 17:51 Info-macos.xml

Although I dowuble he would mind, but, as an apple employee, you never know these days.

Here goes:
__________

bad move, nitrop

:-/

-mab

Just FYI for those wanting to try this: I had to turn off the password on my AirPort base station to make this hack work. After that, it worked great!

Now, who's going to be the first to code an OS X version of the AirPort Admin Utility before Apple gets to it? :-)

Thanks for posting the hack! OS X will get a lot more usage on my iBook now that I have my AirPort back!

Worked for me on Powerbook G3/400 with apple airport card
Cool. thanks all!

[mr_sonicblue]

I also got this to work, but had to do some additional configuration to the base itself.

I have DSL that provides each computer on my home's LAN it's own internet-level IP address (I don't know what this type is called). The DHCP server in the Base station did not seem to be working in OS X (although it worked in OS 9) so I turned the DHCP server off ("Distribute IP Addresses" in on of the Admin tabs) and it worked!

------------------
-Eric Schneider (SonicBlue)

[imac.usr]

You are my god! My Pismo and I thank you. All I need now is a clickable trackpad and the ability to spin down the hard drive, and I'll never use 9 again (well, except to play DVDs)....

A few things to watch out for:

1) By default, TextEdit will save as RTF, which will render the xml file useless.
2) Many text editors will use incorrect line breaks - I set mine to UNIX and all was well

By the way, if you get this to work, you'll know in a hurry - the network configuration panel changes dramatically (for TCP/IP at least), to something more familiar to those who used the old developer releases.

Anyway, I'm sending this from my Pismo wireless (in OmniWeb to boot), so I'm happy!

- Joshua Ochs

[zerologic]

Well I'll be a fricken monkey's uncle. You are my savior and an all around god. (sorry to those offended).

I will never boot to OS 9 again. There's no reason!

Thanks you wonderful wonderful person!

Michael.

mb said,
"Although I dowuble he would mind, but, as an apple employee, you never know these days.
Here goes:
__________

bad move, nitrop"

Your are right mb. LOL.

[This message has been edited by Webby (edited 09-30-2000).]

I'm guessing that PC card support is not in OS X PB, that is why it is not working for the Lucent cards on the older Wallstreets? Bummer, I'm gonna have to borrow the wife's iBook ;-)

it's working great for me! however, Fire wont connect, not sure if this is related, could there be a cocoa conflict?

Thanks for the hack! It looks like it is running fine on my firewire powerbook! I had trouble configuring the file only because I was not logged in as root! The keyword is that you should be logged in as root before you can create the info.xml file in the AirPort.kext directory. If you are not logged in as root you will not get a message saying that the file was saved in the terminal window. Just create a simple text file, save it as utf-8, and copy it to the AirPort.kext directory.
--warren

Thanks for the hack! It looks like it is running fine on my firewire powerbook! I had trouble configuring the file only because I was not logged in as root! The keyword is that you should be logged in as root before you can create the info.xml file in the AirPort.kext directory. If you are not logged in as root you will not get a message saying that the file was saved in the terminal window. Just create a simple text file, save it as utf-8, and copy it to the AirPort.kext directory.
--warren

okay, there is no Cocoa conflict, just me being stupid.

but for some reason I can't connect to fire, I haven't tried going back to ethernet, but it wont connect. AIM under classic will however

You have to turn off encryption definitely.
But once that is done. You get on pretty flawlessly,
Classic wouldn't startup but probably because the machine was waiting for TCP info for ever...

...Now, who's going to be the first to code an OS X version of the AirPort Admin Utility before Apple gets to it? :-)
...

Strange that Airport Admin utility always worked on my Mac under classic....

the airport hack in OSX only supports TCP packets it seems. UDP packets and FTP packets don't seem to be working. This is why Fire wont work. Fire uses UDP becuase it's using TOC. AIM (which uses oscar is TCP based)

ugh

I am having trouble with the hack. After restarting and trying to open the Network prefernces, "Loading Network....." comes up but it just freezes. Any Suggestions?

[Pale Rider]

Dang! This almost makes it worthwhile to go get a Pismo. My wife won't let me put OS X PB on her iBook, and Farallon doesn't seem to be in any rush to provide OS X support for the Skyline wireless cards.

[Zephyrus]

For the record... I tried using "TextEdit" under OS X to create the file "Info-macos.xml" and it failed. It saved it as "Info-macos.xml.rtf". I took off the.rtf and it still did not work. So I opened in OS 9, copied and pasted the XML code into SimpleText, saved the file where it should be and WHAM, it worked. Whoever came up with this, I owe you a virtual beer! Now, do you happen to have a crack to get FireWire cameras to work under OS X PB1? Eh? Eh?

[nibs]

the airport hack in OSX only supports TCP packets it seems. UDP packets and FTP packets don't seem to be working

ftp packets are tcp packets. ftp is an extension of the tcp protocol. (it's built on tcp).

if your airport card can handle tcp but not udp, that's pretty strange...both are built on ip and the difference is handled in software...

I got the hack to work but please someone help with this... When I was using DP4 AirPort was working. I used to have a Sonic firewall that did all the DHCP and the Airport acted as a bridge over my MediaOne cable modem. Everything worked great under DP4. THEN I got rid of the Sonic firewall and now the Basestation is now the router/DHCP server. NO AirPort under DP4 anymore.... = ( IT would not resolve DNS for some reason. Works fine under OS 9. No encryption on. Well it is doing the SAME damn thing under the Public Beta too! Anyone got any advice?

OH by the way... When using TextEdit, to make a document NOT rtf use shift r to make it plain text.

Ryan

Originally posted by highfalutintodd:
Just FYI for those wanting to try this: I had to turn off the password on my AirPort base station to make this hack work. After that, it worked great!

Now, who's going to be the first to code an OS X version of the AirPort Admin Utility before Apple gets to it? :-)

Thanks for posting the hack! OS X will get a lot more usage on my iBook now that I have my AirPort back!

For those of you who don't want to ever boot Classic again, there is a 3rd Party Java version of the Airport Admin Utility available at http://edge.mcs.drexel.edu/GICL/people/sevy/airport/

I've used it (from a Win2K machine at work - ick.) and I worked fine to get the base station up and running.

-lilmatt http://www.tacowagon.com - radio without the radio

Okay, here's another testimonial: Rev A. iBook running OS X connected via AirPort to a G4 running OS 9 (software basestation).

Dumb question, but I am Unix-impaired. How do you log in as root? I understand the concept, but how do you do it, i.e., a step by step.
Thanks.

Has anyone tried the Java based configurator under MacOS X?
http://edge.mcs.drexel.edu/GICL/people/sevy/airport/

Originally posted by Armand Tanzarian:
Dumb question, but I am Unix-impaired. How do you log in as root? I understand the concept, but how do you do it, i.e., a step by step.
Thanks.

Once in the happy world of Aqua, use the Finder to navigate first to your computer, then the hard drive OS X is installed on, then the Applications folder, and once there the Utilities folder. (Alternatively, you could click the "Apps" button atop the finder window and go to the Utilities folder.)

Once inside the the Utilities folder start the "Terminal" application. A command line window will show up.

When you get into the Unix command line of OS X, you are the user you logged into the machine as. (To find out who the Unix command line thinks you are, use the command "whoami".) Since you're not "root" at this point, you need to "upgrade" yourself to root. To do this use the super-user command, "su". It will prompt for a password. This is the password of the first account you created when you ran the OS X installer. Once you are authenticated you are then "logged in as root."

From there the commands posted in the other message should work. Keep in mind not to type in the "$" shown in that post, as the $ represents the command line prompt.

In addition, the writer neglects to mention how to insert text or to get out of the text editor "vi".

To begin entering the text, press "i" (for insert" and once you've entered all the nice XML code. Hit your [esc] key, then type "wq" and [return]. The escape brings you out of insert mode, the "w" is to write the file to disk and "q" is to quit.

If you screw up the file in vi and want to discard your changes and try again, hit [esc] and type "q!".

Hope this helps

-lilmatt

--
radio without the radio
http://www.tacowagon.com

[This message has been edited by littlematt (edited 09-30-2000).]

[This message has been edited by littlematt (edited 09-30-2000).]

[SnowmanX]

Okay, for the record. Does the AirPort base station software need to be password-less or at least have its password [access] disabled? Or does Web Encryption have to be disabled? Or both? My dilemna is that either way, I've forgotten my base station's password, so I can't even access its configuration to disable Web Encryption! These neurons are not what they used to be.

So now if I need to reset my base station, for how many seconds must I depress the pinhole button on the underside of the base station? Will I have to reinstall the AirPort software?

One more thing. I saved the xml file as a UTF-8 format using TextEdit. It appears to work, since I get the above-descripted TPC/IP pane change. That's fine, right?

Thank you, guys.

[This message has been edited by SnowmanX (edited 09-30-2000).]

how to for non-geeks: (it really works!!)

turn on your computer and start-up using os x.

log in as "root"- type that in as your username, no password. you have to do this to gain access to change system files.

in the directory: system->library->extensions, make another folder called "AirPort.Kext".

Open up a text editor, usually the one included in os x called "text editor" duh! anywho, under format, select plain text instead of rich text. then paste/type exactly as show:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM
"file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version="0.9">
<dict>
<key>Date</key>
<string>March 17, 2000</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>com.apple.AirPort</string>
<key>Personality</key>
<dict>
<key>IOClass</key>
<string>AirPortDriver</string>
<key>IONameMatch</key>
<array>
<string>radio</string>
</array>
<key>IOProviderClass</key>
<string>AppleMacIODevice</string>
<key>Name</key>
<string>AppleAirPort</string>
</dict>
<key>Vendor</key>
<string>Apple Computer, Inc.</string>
<key>Version</key>
<string>0.1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

name the file: "Info-macos.xml" in the AirPort.kext folder.
then restart your machine. log is as you normally would this type. select system preferences, and choose network. you will see a different setting, one called ethernet card 1- choose it and select dhcp (hopefully that is what your isp uses, if not, you are most likely out of luck). you may have to click the lock to make changes. in any case, keep selecting stuff until the "apply" button is available. when you restart, your airport should be functioning. if not, you may not have an apple airport card. good luck.

------------------


[This message has been edited by indigocat (edited 10-01-2000).]

First, thanks for this fix! Now I can put OS X on my iBook!

One detail, though. How will I get the iBook to re-poll for a new base station when I go to a new area? In 9, I always used the Airport util under the Apple menu.

Thanks!

Oh, and with regards to the "for non-geeks" message above. Most *nix OS's are case sensitive. Maybe OS X isn't? But if is is, that directory had to be AirPort.kext, I think.

Is anyone trying to use their set up with MediaOne road runner? I cannot seem to get mine to resolve DNS! When I go to the terminal log it keeps showing that it is trying the nameserver addresses and they are not working. If I cat resolv.conf it saya domainame ne.mediaone.net
nameserver 24.x.x.x. whatever the 3 sets of nubers are. No matter what I do in the Network control panel does it seem to want to connect. The Base station is giving the computer an address but WILL NOT resolve DNS. Is this something on MediaOnes end? Can't be. It works fine under OS 9. I do not have any passwords or encryption set on the Base Station.

PLEASE HELP ANYONE!

[email protected]

I am having the same DNS problem. I am have my DSL routed through IPNetRouter, with DNS forwarding on. The IP address of the machine should serve as the DNS server., not the DNS server for my PPPoE connection is 1.2.3.4. However, it returns this error message in the console:

Sep 30 14:32:33 localhost lookupd[168]: DNSAgent: dns_read_reply - reply from wrong server (1.2.3.4)

Sep 30 14:32:33 localhost lookupd[168]: DNSAgent: dns_fqdn_query_server - query failed for 192.168.0.1

I'm interpreting this is it looks for 192.168.0.1, but can't find it, but it is getting replies from 1.2.3.4. However, when I fire up my browser, it clearly can't find the DNS.
Strangely enough, I am posting this using OSX over AirPort, but using a Classic app in the Classic environment.
I'm baffled.

I figured it out! I changed two thing at once so It could be one of the two things. 1) I was also using my Laptop at work on a T1/LAN and I had some settings for it but I Turned built in ethernet off to no connection. I also turned on IP forwarding. I am not sure which on it is yet. It works fine and dandy now! SWEET HACK!

Ryan

[cfoster611]

Note to all WallStreet users : Your fear is confermed : This dosn't work.
Nothing new appears in the network tab, and your WaveLAN card dosn't even powerup. Apple never put in PC-Card support into OS X, so its almost hopeless...

But that's what they said about Airport... is there PC-Card support in Darwin or DP4? maybe another kernal-extension is in order?

Please?

Wow! I just tried this on my Cube and am now writing this using OmniWeb. The hack works great (by the way: it also shows off the power of this OS - activating devices by means of an XML document....). Do you by any chance have a similar hack for sound on the Cube ?