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AR5B97 Wifi kext


uwillparish

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Hi there,

 

I followed Jake Lo's guide for Mac OS High Sierra on my dell latitude e6430, and everything is now working with the exception of wifi. I replaced the internal chip with a atheros AR5B97 but I've yet to get a kext to work for it. I've tried ProBookAtheros from rehab man, and also toledaarpt but neither have worked. I'm lost at this point and don't know where to go, any help would be appreciated.

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Ok, so you've found out that AR5B97 carries PCI ids 168c:002e. A search on that id or "pci168c" In IORegistryExplorer will probably not lead you to it because the search is usually conducted on the IOReg elements/Tree items, not info they contain.

 

You have to browse down your IOReg tree and, if the card is enabled, you'll find it listed under a specific device. In the right part of the app, the id should be listed under several parameters called "compatible", "name" or "IOName". For instance, it could under a device called PXSX, itself under a device called RP0x. This is what you would then look for in DSDT for patching.

 

As requested by Jake, post a zipped copy of your DSDT + zipped copy of your saved IORegistryExplorer output.

 

Here's an example of what you ought to look for in IOReg:

IOReg.png

 

Alternatively, you can patch the Atheros kext, even if temporarily. In /S/L/E, look for IO802.11Family kext. Inside it, there's a PlugIns folder containing several wireless manufacturer's kexts. You'll be looking for Atheros40 kext and inside this kext, you'll need to modify the Info.plist file to insert your AR5B87 PCI ids as follows:

<key>IONameMatch</key><array>
<string>pci168c,30</string>
<string>pci168c,2a</string>
<string>pci168c,2e</string>         <-- patch to insert AR5B97's id
<string>pci106b,0086</string>
<string>pci168c,1c</string>
<string>pci168c,23</string>
<string>pci168c,24</string>
</array>
 
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Files are ok but you're mistaken: your computer is not fitted with an AR5B97 card but with another Atheros card built on AR9485 chip (id 168c:0032).

uwillparish_IOReg.png

 

That's where somehow bad news come because AR9485-based cards don't have great support under OS X/macOS. See note 4 in the wireless inventory thread. Chunnan's latest drivers are available in post #408 of his thread. He did stipulate that AR9485's Tx rate will be limited to 11Mbps. No mention of Rx rate but I guess you can try it out and report accordingly. Other people reported very poor wireless performance in the thread. If your own results are dissapointing, you really should consider replacing your card with another model with better support.

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Files are ok but you're mistaken: your computer is not fitted with an AR5B97 card but with another Atheros card built on AR9485 chip (id 168c:0032).

Well that would explain things. I bought my card in 2014 for another hackintosh off of amazon and it got shoved in a drawer because I never could get it to work, I see why now. Well, thanks for the help, I might go try and pick up an original mac's wifi+Bt combo off of eBay and use that.

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