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Kext for Atheros AR946x/AR9485/AR9565 wireless cards


black.dragon74

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Hello everyone!

 

Today I am going to share a wifi kext patcher based on LILU for enabling unsupported Wi-Fi cards in macOS.

 

The kext is basically a plugin for Lilu.kext so you need to have that installed in order for it to work.

 

EDIT: Credits go to Chunnann at InsanelyMac as he was the one who first offered drivers for those cards and the kext here is also forked from his repo.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/312045-atheros-wireless-driver-os-x-101112-for-unsupported-cards/

https://github.com/chunnann/ATH9KFixup

 

Changes I have done :-

  • Add support for Lilu Plugin 1.2.0
  • Updated Injector kext to match Plugin version

 

You can always have the latest version from the releases tab on the kext's github page. Please keep in mind that you need to use compatible version of Lilu along with this kext else it may cause kernel panics.

 

For example, as of today the latest version of ATH9KFixup.kext is 1.2.0 and it requires Lilu plugin version 1.2.0+

Source code: https://github.com/black-dragon74/ATH9KFixup

Latest Release: https://github.com/black-dragon74/ATH9KFixup/releases

 

How to install:-

Get the compatible version of Lilu.kext from: https://github.com/vit9696/Lilu/releases (You might have this kext already installed, just make sure that the installed kexts satisfies the requirements for ATH9KFixup)

 

Download ATH9KFixup(Release version is recommended) and ATH9KInjector from: https://github.com/black-dragon74/ATH9KFixup/releases

 

Copy all three kexts (Lilu, ATH9KFixup, ATH9KInjector) to /EFI/CLOVER/Kexts/Other

 

Rebuild caches (optional)

 

How to use:-

After copying the above three kexts you might have to configure the use of this kext using boot-args

 

Below are the supported boot-args for this kext along with the supported cards :-

  • AR946X (Includes AR9462 & AR9463): Default i.e. no boot args required
  • AR9565:  -ath9565
  • AR9485:  -ath9485

 

Please note that if you have Atheros AR946X no boot args are required but if you have any other hardware, you must have to use appropriate boot-args else the kext will patch your AirPortAtheros40.kext for AR946X

 

There is no such necessity to mention it here but just to clear any confusions, YES! You have to use "-" before the boot-args (without quotes)

 

So, a typical boot arg for Atheros AR9565 (my hardware) would look like:-

 

Screen Shot 2017-11-02 at 10.53.52 PM.png

 

Supported Devices:-

Atheros AR9565

Atheros AR946X (AR9462 and AR9463)

Atheros AR9485

 

Supported Devices Vendor IDs :-

Screen Shot 2017-11-02 at 10.58.56 PM.png

 

Supported macOS Versions:-

OS X 10.9.x - macOS 10.13.x

 

If you have any issues feel free to ask here, I'll be happy to help.

 

Note: If copying to /EFI/CLOVER/Kexts/Other doesn't help, you may trying installing the three kexts to /System/Library/Extensions

 

If you are reporting a problem, make sure to attach the PROBLEM REPORTING files, See https://osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/10154-tool-problem-reporting-file-generator/ and attach the output of the script.

 

Happy to help ya' all.

Regards

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Those issues and limitations are already clearly posted on Chunnann's original thread at InsanelyMac (see from post #21); let's not unnecessarily duplicate info here, it's best to report issues to Chunnann directly in at IM. The above facility is a mere adaptation of Chunnann's work posted here.

 

For the record, only AR946x cards appear to run at decent speeds to date.

 

NB: Re: macOS versions, you obviously meant 10.13 and 10.12 (not 10.3 and 10.2)

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