Linux MintPPC Forums • View topic - WPA Login with MintPPC on iBook G3 Dual USB

p3k · Joined:Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:11 pm Posts:5

Hello.

First of all, please let me praise MintPPC a bit as it is the first Linux distro (and I really tested half a dozen) on my iBook running flawlessly – well *almost* flawlessly, but I get there in a few seconds – out of the box (aka TEH Intarwebs): screen resolution, sleep/resume, keyboard, trackpad are nicely working. And fast enough, too. Well done!

The old problem (and so far all Linux distros behave similar) is the wireless WPA connection with the Apple Airport card…

It’s that notorious Lucent/Agere one and the Hermes/Orinoco driver, if I am right:

Code:

# dmesg | grep -i airport
[   10.957241] airport 0.15 (Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>)
[   10.957416] airport: Physical address 80030000
[   12.174883] airport 0.00030000:radio: Hardware identity 0005:0001:0001:0002
[   12.182724] airport 0.00030000:radio: Station identity  001f:0001:0008:0046
[   12.190132] airport 0.00030000:radio: Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 8.70
[   12.541732] airport 0.00030000:radio: Hardware identity 0005:0001:0001:0002
[   12.549218] airport 0.00030000:radio: Station identity  001f:0002:0009:0030
[   12.556300] airport 0.00030000:radio: Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 9.48
[   12.563385] airport 0.00030000:radio: Ad-hoc demo mode supported
[   12.570487] airport 0.00030000:radio: IEEE standard IBSS ad-hoc mode supported
[   12.577621] airport 0.00030000:radio: WEP supported, 104-bit key
[   12.584709] airport 0.00030000:radio: WPA-PSK supported

Please note the WPA-PSK supported which actually should enable me to connect to the hidden(!) accesspoint. Here is the co nfiguration as written by the Network Manager:

Code:

[connection]
id=WLAN
uuid=f70406d6-d409-4bb7-a51c-6396cfb5569e
type=802-11-wireless

[802-11-wireless]
ssid=...
mode=infrastructure
mac-address=0:30:65:a:ad:e8
security=802-11-wireless-security

[802-11-wireless-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
auth-alg=open
psk=...

[ipv4]
method=auto

[ipv6]
method=auto

Unfortunately, though, this configuration does not connect and produces the following syslog output:

Code:

Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1) starting connection 'WLAN'
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): device state change: disconnected -> prepare (reason 'none') [30 40 0]
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): device state change: prepare -> config (reason 'none') [40 50 0]
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1/wireless): connection 'WLAN' has security, and secrets exist.  No new secrets needed.
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Config: added 'ssid' value '...'
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Config: added 'scan_ssid' value '1'
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Config: added 'key_mgmt' value 'WPA-PSK'
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN'
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Activation (eth1) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Config: set interface ap_scan to 1
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: inactive -> scanning
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Trying to associate with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 (SSID='...' freq=2457 MHz)
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Association request to the driver failed
Apr  7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Apr  7 00:09:29 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Authentication with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 timed out.
Apr  7 00:09:29 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: associating -> scanning
Apr  7 00:09:29 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Trying to associate with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 (SSID='...' freq=2457 MHz)
Apr  7 00:09:29 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Association request to the driver failed
Apr  7 00:09:29 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Apr  7 00:09:34 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Authentication with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 timed out.
Apr  7 00:09:34 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: associating -> scanning
Apr  7 00:09:35 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Trying to associate with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 (SSID='...' freq=2457 MHz)
Apr  7 00:09:35 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Association request to the driver failed
Apr  7 00:09:35 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Apr  7 00:09:40 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Authentication with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 timed out.
Apr  7 00:09:40 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: associating -> scanning
Apr  7 00:09:40 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Trying to associate with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 (SSID='...' freq=2457 MHz)
Apr  7 00:09:40 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Association request to the driver failed
Apr  7 00:09:40 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Apr  7 00:09:45 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Authentication with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 timed out.
Apr  7 00:09:45 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: associating -> scanning
Apr  7 00:09:45 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Trying to associate with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 (SSID='...' freq=2457 MHz)
Apr  7 00:09:45 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Association request to the driver failed
Apr  7 00:09:45 minze kernel: [11803.181130] eth1: Lucent/Agere firmware doesn't support manual roaming
Apr  7 00:09:45 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: scanning -> associating
Apr  7 00:09:49 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <warn> Activation (eth1/wireless): association took too long.
Apr  7 00:09:49 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): device state change: config -> need-auth (reason 'none') [50 60 0]
Apr  7 00:09:49 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <warn> Activation (eth1/wireless): asking for new secrets
Apr  7 00:09:49 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): supplicant interface state: associating -> disconnected
Apr  7 00:09:49 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <warn> Couldn't disconnect supplicant interface: This interface is not connected.
Apr  7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <warn> No agents were available for this request.
Apr  7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): device state change: need-auth -> failed (reason 'no-secrets') [60 120 7]
Apr  7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <warn> Activation (eth1) failed for access point (WLAN)
Apr  7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Marking connection 'WLAN' invalid.
Apr  7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <warn> Activation (eth1) failed.
Apr  7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): device state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none') [120 30 0]
Apr  7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): deactivating device (reason 'none') [0]

I think I already searched a lot through the Web for possible solutions but so far nothing did the trick.

So is WPA working with my combo, anyway?

Code:

# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:   Debian
Description:   Debian GNU/Linux testing (wheezy)
Release:   testing
Codename:   wheezy

Code:

# uname -a
Linux minze 3.2.0-2-powerpc #1 Tue Mar 20 18:40:58 UTC 2012 ppc GNU/Linux

Code:

# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
uinput                 10395  2 
cpufreq_ondemand        8916  0 
cpufreq_stats           5673  0 
cpufreq_powersave       4142  0 
cpufreq_conservative     8441  0 
cpufreq_userspace       5096  0 
parport_pc             25738  0 
lp                     10962  0 
parport                30823  2 lp,parport_pc
bnep                   13870  2 
rfcomm                 34634  0 
bluetooth             135530  10 rfcomm,bnep
fuse                   62434  1 
nfsd                  213218  2 
nfs                   324692  0 
nfs_acl                 5591  2 nfs,nfsd
auth_rpcgss            36127  2 nfs,nfsd
fscache                35720  1 nfs
lockd                  65977  2 nfs,nfsd
sunrpc                178335  6 lockd,auth_rpcgss,nfs_acl,nfs,nfsd
i2c_dev                 8894  0 
pmu_battery             4754  0 
power_supply           10967  1 pmu_battery
snd_powermac           56439  2 
snd_pcm                64087  1 snd_powermac
snd_page_alloc          8953  1 snd_pcm
snd_seq                48463  0 
snd_seq_device          8180  1 snd_seq
snd_timer              20029  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    50966  9 snd_timer,snd_seq_device,snd_seq,snd_pcm,snd_powermac
soundcore               7962  1 snd
loop                   17771  0 
michael_mic             5242  4 
airport                 6681  0 
orinoco                62527  1 airport
cfg80211              147743  1 orinoco
evdev                  12574  16 
i2c_powermac            6651  0 
rfkill                 17423  4 cfg80211,bluetooth
ext4                  373214  1 
crc16                   4487  2 ext4,bluetooth
jbd2                   59987  1 ext4
mbcache                 7893  1 ext4
ohci_hcd               33085  0 
sr_mod                 17180  0 
ehci_hcd               44666  0 
firewire_ohci          32966  0 
sungem                 30347  0 
cdrom                  36917  1 sr_mod
sd_mod                 33566  3 
firewire_core          48279  1 firewire_ohci
sungem_phy             12769  1 sungem
crc_t10dif              4488  1 sd_mod
usbcore               130051  3 ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
crc_itu_t               4507  1 firewire_core
usb_common              4034  1 usbcore

Any help or ideas are appreciated.

Cheers,
tobi

lubod · **Posted:** Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:17 am

Spotted this in the MintPPC 9 forum, it may not be applicable, but it does say it is an attempt to put together all pertinent Airport/WPA info in one place, so maybe.

http://www.mintppc.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=88

I've noticed that on Ubuntu,

Quote:

lsb_release -a

often produces output as uninformative as it did for you, i.e.

Quote:

No LSB modules are available.

Out of curiosity, can you try:

Code:

lsb_release -icr

On Ubuntu, this often shows the correct info, even when lsb_release -a doesn't. I have no idea why, I'd think it is an upstream Debian bug, I think -a is supposed to show all lsb_release info.

For what it's worth, I don't know exactly what it's doing wrong, but I seem to recall in that thread a mention of loading alternate firmware to the card from disk helped. But yours seems to get fairly far along the connection process, and apparently fails when wpa-supplicant is negotiating with the router:

Quote:

Apr 7 00:10:07 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> (eth1): device state change: need-auth -> failed (reason 'no-secrets') [60 120 7]

I suspect it has to do with this setting:

Quote:

Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN'

or

Quote:

Apr 7 00:09:24 minze NetworkManager[11107]: <info> Config: added 'psk' value '<omitted>'

(PSK is short for Pre-Shared Key which is one of the more common authentication methods used with WPA, maybe WEP too)

In GUI interfaces to routers, the choices are usually 'open' or 'shared secret', and if the router is set up for shared secret and your computer config. has none because NetworkManager never configured one, nor asked you for one, then that would be a problem.

By the way, is your router's hardware MAC address '78:ca:39:48:d5:37' ? It's usually on a sticker at the bottom or back of the unit. I ask because that is one definite way to verify the computer is attempting to connect to your router, not the unencrypted one of your technically illiterate neighbor. Another would the frequency shown in mhz, which corresponds to those assigned to known 802.11 channels, 1-11 for the US and 1-13 in Europe or 1-14 in Japan:

Quote:

Apr 7 00:09:45 minze wpa_supplicant[2998]: Trying to associate with 78:ca:39:48:d5:37 (SSID='...' freq=2457 MHz)

p3k · Joined:Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:11 pm Posts:5

Hi lubod,

thanks a lot for your reply. I followed the advice from the MintPPC 9 forum with the following results:

I installed the wireless-tools package.
I could not add the orinoco firmware because the site http://www.ant2ne.com is not available and I did not find a mirror.
The airport module (and the orinoco one) is available in /etc/modules.
The access point (Airport Express) is using WPA/WPA2 Personal with a hidden SSID.
The MAC address is correct, although it might be important to note that it extends another Airport Express.

iwlist outputs the following encouraging results:

Code:

# iwlist eth1 scan essid ...
eth1      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 78:CA:39:48:D5:37
                    Channel:10
                    Frequency:2.457 GHz (Channel 10)
                    Quality=25/70  Signal level=-85 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"..."
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000001884d8b3f64
                    Extra: Last beacon: 184ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 000C776C616E2E70336B2E6F7267
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
                    IE: Unknown: 03010A
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F20201010D0003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
                    IE: Unknown: DD07000393016B0320
                    IE: Unknown: DD070017F203020180
                    IE: Unknown: DD0E0017F2070001010678CA3948D537

So the access point obviously provides WPA1 with PSK and TKIP as required. However, I am still getting no connection, still getting the passphrase dialog again and again.

Quote:

I suspect it has to do with this setting:
Config: added 'auth_alg' value 'OPEN'

How could I change this configuration option?

And do you know where else I can get the Orinoco driver given that I really need it?

For the record, here is the output of "lsb_release -cir"

Quote:

Distributor ID: Debian
Release: testing
Codename: wheezy

lubod · **Posted:** Mon Apr 09, 2012 2:05 pm

This seems to be a copy of the Original Airport card firmware:

http://scan0017.net/ibook/orinoco.fw.tar.bz2

Copied to http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3809776/orinoco.fw.tar.bz2 in case the page I found it at disappears too.

That however, may be a dead end. The firmware in question is supposed to be

Quote:

Apple Airport firmware, Lucent/Agere 9.48

Yours seems the same:

Quote:

Firmware determined as Lucent/Agere 9.48

Not that I would put it past either Apple or Lucent to release two totally different firmwares with identical version numbers, one that can do WPA and one that can't, other companies have been known to do that, but it's a long shot. Nothing to lose, it's all of 36k!

Sorry if you already mentioned, but was wpa_supplicant one of the utilities you installed? The page where I found the firmware, http://scan0017.net/gentoo_ibook.php says it is required for WPA, and that was on another iBook, using Gentoo at some time in the relatively recent past (2011) with a similar kernel version (2.6.20something). It may be one way to configure most of the settings pertaining to WPA, albeit via command-line. If Network Manager or WiCD (two alternatives for network management that can be downloaded while you're wired) show your Airport card, that would be easier, as that would be via a GUI. But IMHO you need wpa_supplicant in any case, as it handles the behind the scenes WPA authentication, the GUI tools often work by being graphical front-ends to wpa_supplicant.

Maybe have another look at the section of the other forum post that deals with several of the same symptoms, to see if having downloaded/copied the firmware helped. Specifically start at or near this part of the post (first page):

Quote:

linuxopjemac PostPosted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:55 am

Beyond that, assuming the Airport Express is your own, if there are any settings in it to limit it to WPA1 only (no WPA2) try that. Likewise, make sure it broadcasts 802.11B! It may be ok to broadcast both B and G, but G only or N is useless in this case, as the original Airport card only uses B if I'm not mistaken, even with WPA encryption. I'd say if the Express has a B only setting, and you can live with the speed hit (11Mb vs. 54Mb) that might be worth a shot. That probably entails forcing both Expresses (and any newer computers) to 'talk' slower too, however.

Sometime soon I'm going to try this as well, in my case with a G4 Cube with the same Airport card. So I definitely want to make it work too. Just that in my case I'm almost positive the router is B only, and the encryption is either WEP or none, so I can't help in a hands-on way much with WPA specific problems, other than finding the answer online or making suggestions based on your logs/error messages.

p3k · Joined:Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:11 pm Posts:5

lubod wrote:

This seems to be a copy of the Original Airport card firmware:

http://scan0017.net/ibook/orinoco.fw.tar.bz2

Copied to http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3809776/orinoco.fw.tar.bz2 in case the page I found it at disappears too.

Thanks! But you are right: there is no difference between both binaries. Unfortunately.

lubod wrote:

Sorry if you already mentioned, but was wpa_supplicant one of the utilities you installed?

Yes, wpa_supplicant is up and running.

lubod wrote:

If Network Manager or WiCD (two alternatives for network management that can be downloaded while you're wired) show your Airport card, that would be easier, as that would be via a GUI.

In the meantime I started my phone's wireless hotspot function without any authentication at all and tried to connect to this with Network Manager. No chance. D'uh!

And now that you mentioned WiCD I did give this a try and removed the network-manager-gnome package (and all its dependencies).

Interestingly, WiCD immediately connected to the unsecured mobile hotspot. But still no connection to the WPA network.

At least I would rule out Network Manager right now to get me any further at all.

lubod wrote:

Beyond that, assuming the Airport Express is your own, if there are any settings in it to limit it to WPA1 only (no WPA2) try that. Likewise, make sure it broadcasts 802.11B!

I am afraid, limiting it to WPA1 only is not an option. But it definitely broadcasts 802.11b. One more thing to note: the same WLAN connection is flawlessly working with the same hardware running OSX 10.4.

lubod wrote:

Sometime soon I'm going to try this as well, in my case with a G4 Cube with the same Airport card. So I definitely want to make it work too. Just that in my case I'm almost positive the router is B only, and the encryption is either WEP or none, so I can't help in a hands-on way much with WPA specific problems, other than finding the answer online or making suggestions based on your logs/error messages.

Your time and help is appreciated. And good luck for your own networking setup!

theos911 · Joined:Sun Jun 19, 2011 8:07 pm Posts:408

Simply tearing out packages is a poor way to disable them... :shock:

Going to Preferences -> Desktop Session Settings and removing Network Manager would have prevented the applet from loading at start-up.

Or, a simple "sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager stop" for single time use.

Keep in mind wicd is both a client application and a service, not a service with applet like network-manager.

To default to wicd, you will need to:
-Enable the wicd service in services
-Enable WiCD Network Manager Tray in desktop session settings

p3k · Joined:Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:11 pm Posts:5

theos911 wrote:

Simply tearing out packages is a poor way to disable them... :shock:

So far, I did not experience any troubles doing it this way – although I am used to work on a Ubuntu installation.

theos911 wrote:

Going to Preferences -> Desktop Session Settings and removing Network Manager would have prevented the applet from loading at start-up.

Or, a simple "sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager stop" for single time use.

Of course, that would be a more cautious approach to disabling the service.

theos911 wrote:

Keep in mind wicd is both a client application and a service, not a service with applet like network-manager.

To default to wicd, you will need to:
-Enable the wicd service in services
-Enable WiCD Network Manager Tray in desktop session settings

Actually, I did not have to do any of the steps above. After installation and reboot WiCD was running, available in the Internet applications menu and also in the task bar as applet. Is your information outdated?

theos911 · Joined:Sun Jun 19, 2011 8:07 pm Posts:408

p3k wrote:

Of course, that would be a more cautious approach to disabling the service.

I tend to prefer those ways. nm is a lot less intrusive than wicd, so I use it whenever possible. However, it has GNOME dependencies. That means any non-GNOME/LXDE DEs I use (like GNUstep) need to have wicd at the ready. Thus, I keep both in working order for whenever/wherever they are needed.

p3k wrote:

Actually, I did not have to do any of the steps above. After installation and reboot WiCD was running, available in the Internet applications menu and also in the task bar as applet. Is your information outdated?

Sorry, my info is from 9; I realized you are using 11. In 9, it added the wicd tray applet to the startup apps, but didn't invoke the service on log-in. I figured I'd cover both bases just in case - neither of which ended up being relevant to you since you are using 11.
(I don't have a working 11 machines atm, so my knowledge is defaulting back to 9. :lol:

)

lubod · **Posted:** Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:56 am

Slowly, more and more of what may be going on here is becoming clearer.

I've now confirmed that a certain version of the Linux kernel and Lucent firmware is required for WPA, but by the same token, you have new enough versions of each.

http://wiki.debian.org/orinoco

With regard to WPA/WPA2 (and the associated protocols such as TKIP or AES), the page referenced above suggests only plain TKIP without CCMP, i.e. WPA is known to work. In practice, this means allowing the Airport Express to broadcast both WPA and WPA2 to your other computers, using WPA2 wherever possible, but forcing MintPPC (or other Linux) to attempt WPA first (only?) in preference to (instead of?) WPA2.

See the section heading: Known Issues

http://wiki.debian.org/orinoco#Known_Issues

It gives a fairly simple example of how to limit connection attempts by the orinoco driver to TKIP (WPA) only.

Three things which may not have a direct impact on fixing this, but might shed some light nevertheless.

1) Is there any way in the OS X GUI or in terminal to establish which method Mac OS X uses? I suspect it uses TKIP as well and that may be a hardware limitation of the card, or the proprietary closed source Apple/Lucent driver does something the orinoco driver can't for lack of open source code. (Note to self, try to find source for AppleAirport.kext or rip existing driver apart for clues how it works)

2) Observing Mac OS X (or windows) connect via wireshark or similar. Recording what packets get sent back to the Airport Express during a successful connection, comparing to the unsuccessful one. Figuring out what the failed one does or does not transmit the same. Requires two computers hooked up to the Express, one (OS X or windows) as the successful control and the other (Linux) as the test subject.

3) The debian page says some versions of Mac OS X update the firmware during installation. Can we get someone with both a late model G4 tower/laptop (last Mac known to have an Airport slot) and an Airport card to reinstall Mac OS X 10.5 (last Mac OS to support PowerPC) and see if afterward the firmware is newer than 9.48? (P.S. I have the G4 tower, but it already has 10.5 installed and I so don't want to reinstall it, plus the Airport card is in the Cube I just gave my brother, though I can set him up with wired ethernet and take the card back) or failing that, does any newer firmware exist, and how would it be flashed? (On Windows according to the debian page, but how would you interface an Airport card with Windows, I've read an Airport card has the same connector as a PC card, but with different electrical pinout, i.e. not usable in a standard PC card slot, and have been too chicken to mess with that part of it for fear of frying my only Airport card or the PC card slot.

balden · Joined:Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:25 pm Posts:1

I can at least partly answer your last question (#3).

I have an Airport classic card in a G3 iMac DV 450 MHz slot-in running Mac OS X 10.4.11. The built-in firmware revision of the card is 8.40 and did not seem to get updated along with Mac OS X. However, the Airport software updates come with updated runtime-loadable firmwares.

Latest version is revision 9.52 so it is more recent than revision 9.48 provided with various recent Linux distros. It can be extracted by running an extraction tool from the "agere fw utils" on the firmware file from the latest Mac OS "kext". I can provide the file if you are interested.

However, it has been a pain to get this card to authenticate with a WEP-128 bit access point under Ubuntu 12.04, and neither firmware 9.48 nor 9.52 seemed to work for me (I have not tested WPA authentication though). I eventually had to remove the firmware file from /lib/firmware to force the driver to revert to the old built-in revision 8.40, which does apparently not support WPA however, but manages the WEP-128 whithout problems contrary to the more recent revisions. Note that I also "hacked" a wicd python file to force using "ap_scan=2" with wpa_supplicant (following a suggestion by 'rsavage' on the Ubuntu forums).

EDIT : tried again without the "ap_scan=2" wicd hack and it still works, so it does not seem to bring anything (for my WEP-128 issue at least).

This all seems a very bad smelling mess to me, and since the hardware is quite old, I'm afraid we won't get a lot of support to get out of such issues.

By the time I dump my old WEP-128 access point and switch to WPA authentication, I guess I'll run into problems again.