Wireless LED with Atheros card

rs1n · **Posted:** Wed Feb 09, 2011 2:10 pm

I replaced my wireless card with an Ateros card (IBM Mini-PCI Express WIFI Card 39T5578 Atheros AR5BXB6) and everything works, except for the blinking green LED light at the bottom of the LCD panel. It lights up and flashes during transmission under Windows, but is off even when I am using the wireless in OS X.

I used IORegistry to see what's up, and it appears that the card is registered as "ethernet" (and the Network Preferences also sees it as Ethernet). Could this be the reason for the non-flashing LED? Has anyone else noticed this? (Was unable to find much via Google)

Great Gatsby · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:34 am

rs1n wrote:

I replaced my wireless card with an Ateros card (IBM Mini-PCI Express WIFI Card 39T5578 Atheros AR5BXB6) and everything works, except for the blinking green LED light at the bottom of the LCD panel. It lights up and flashes during transmission under Windows, but is off even when I am using the wireless in OS X.

Same here - I exchanged my Intel 3945abg with a ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter based on the Atheros AR5418/AR5008 chipset. LED light works under Windows, but not under Snow Leopard using Sebinouse's DSDT and kexts from the X60T package.

rs1n · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:42 pm

Having looked inside the DSDT, there is nothing there that indicates the lights are handled at that level. I am guessing that it is an OS- or driver-side implementation. Did the original Macbooks have light indicators for wireless connections?

Harryc · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 5:23 pm

rs1n wrote:

Did the original Macbooks have light indicators for wireless connections?

I've owned IBooks, Macbooks, and Macbook Pros. None of them had a Wifi LED. They use an Airport icon under OSX.

Biglittlebear · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:44 am

Hi

I picked up your post in a search for Atheros AR5BXB6 PCI-E Card
I wiped a HDD and somehow misplaced a very hard to find driver for the above card.
I'm sure I was using a fujitsu-siemens 3G watcher driver that just worked.
What are you using......I'm based in the UK.
:oops:

rs1n · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:13 pm

Biglittlebear wrote:

Hi

I picked up your post in a search for Atheros AR5BXB6 PCI-E Card
I wiped a HDD and somehow misplaced a very hard to find driver for the above card.
I'm sure I was using a fujitsu-siemens 3G watcher driver that just worked.
What are you using......I'm based in the UK.
:oops:

I have my own ThinkpadT60 kext I wrote to keep my installation "vanilla." My machine is at the office and I can post my Info.plist tomorrow for you.

rs1n · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:20 pm

Here's what I have in my kext:

Code:

                <key>Atheros Wireless LAN PCI</key>
                <dict>
                        <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
                        <string>com.apple.driver.AirPort.Atheros21</string>
                        <key>IOClass</key>
                        <string>AirPort_AthrFusion21</string>
                        <key>IOMatchCategory</key>
                        <string>IODefaultMatchCategory</string>
                        <key>IONameMatch</key>
                        <array>
                                <string>pci168c,1014</string>
                        </array>
                        <key>IOProbeScore</key>
                        <integer>424</integer>
                        <key>IOProviderClass</key>
                        <string>IOPCIDevice</string>
                </dict>

Either edit the file

/System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AirPortAtheros21.kext/Contents/Info.plist

or create your own "legacy" kext with the snippet above -- it's basically just a copy of the vanilla Info.plist but with the devicde ID lists changed to match mine.

Biglittlebear · **Posted:** Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:46 am

Thanks for the reply rs1n.
But I think I'm looking in the wrong place.
I picked up this thread from a search and in my haste missed the obvious......I run win7
Sorry to have wasted your time.

Wireless LED with Atheros card

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