Broken Mac Wireless Driver in 10.4.10

Note: This post is regarding an issue that has since been fixed by Apple. If you’ve run this script, then please run the included undo.sh to reverse the changes, and then get the actual patch from the Software Update command in the Apple Menu.


If you’ve upgraded to 10.4.10, and you use wireless (who doesn’t, these days?) and you work off the battery (why else would you have a laptop?), then you’ve probably run into issues with kernel panics and fast-dying batteries.

The fix is a bit tricky, and involves finding and downloading 3 different files, and then moving stuff around manually. Not being able to suffer the thought of doing this by hand, I decided to write a fix that’s all packaged up in a single download and one step.

Download the tgz file. Unpack it, and run install.sh. It’ll create a backup of the files that are touched, and can be easily reverted to said backup with undo.sh.

Enjoy using wireless on battery power, MBP lovers!

Like it says in the script: I make NO gaurantees about the quality or reliability of this code. It worked for me, but it might make your machine explode. Use at your own risk!

Edit

Updated the scripts to work when run from Terminal.app. Sorry for the confusion, guys!

17 Comments

  1. George Matook

    Posted Fri 2007-07-27 @ 04:44:50 | Permalink| Reply

    I’m a total apple script noob. How do I run this? The file opens by default with text edit. What do I need to do?

    thanks

  2. George Matook

    Posted Fri 2007-07-27 @ 05:27:28 | Permalink| Reply

    Nevermind, I figured it out. Please delete this and the previous post. Thanks for your work Isaac!

  3. geoffalot

    Posted Fri 2007-07-27 @ 09:37:47 | Permalink| Reply

    Out of curiosity, why did you upgrade to a dot (dot) release?
    Were there substantial other fixes provided?

  4. Isaac

    Posted Fri 2007-07-27 @ 12:13:43 | Permalink| Reply

    @George:

    Congratulations on figuring it out! For everyone else, here’s how you can do it:

    Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the install.sh file.
    Select “Open With…”
    Select “Terminal” or “iTerm”.

    If you want to make this the automatic action for all .sh files:

    Right-click (or ctrl-click) on the install.sh file.
    Select Get Info.
    In the part that says “Open With,” select “Terminal” or “iTerm”.
    Click the “Change All” button to do the same to all .sh files.

    Voila! Shell scripts are now executable with a double-click. Be careful!

    @Geoffrey

    Like many computer users, especially those on corporate machines, I pretty much just let my machine install whatever updates it thinks it should. Most of the time, this is absolutely the right thing to do, since Apple surely knows my Mac better than I do, but I do try to maintain a healthy skepticism and at least scan the list of things it claims to fix.

    According to apple, this update includes some security updates and compatibility support for mounting and unmounting certain USB devices. Nothing critical, I’m sure, but it seemed relevant enough to be worth letting it proceed.

  5. Ron

    Posted Fri 2007-07-27 @ 18:56:31 | Permalink| Reply

    Hi, thanks for making something to help with this. I have been getting connection troubles and what I have occasionally seen referred to as “grey screens of death” since this update, and I can only hope that this will fix it.

    However, I was unable to get your fix to work. After running it in terminal, all of the copy commands were returned with “no such file or directory”. Is there a specific directory this needs to be unpacked to? Thanks!

    -Ron

  6. Geoff

    Posted Fri 2007-07-27 @ 20:50:34 | Permalink| Reply

    Nice work, Isaac! Thanks for taking the time to wrap this up in a easy little package for lazy people like myself.

  7. George Matook

    Posted Fri 2007-07-27 @ 22:00:36 | Permalink| Reply

    One more note for any other terminal noobies. Make sure that you change your directory in terminal to the place where you have the fix folder. That caused a little confusion for me.

    Great job Isaac! I used my MBP at work all day without any troubles. Thank you very much, especially for the undo shell script for whenever apple provides a fix to the most current drivers.

  8. Heath

    Posted Sat 2007-07-28 @ 09:36:53 | Permalink| Reply

    Thanks very much for the fix!

  9. Mark Callcott

    Posted Sat 2007-07-28 @ 16:46:20 | Permalink| Reply

    Hi
    Thanks for the fix but I get this on terminal when i launch it am i doing something wrong.

    Regards Mark

    Last login: Sun Jul 29 00:43:38 on ttyp1
    /Users/markcallcott/Documents/Macfix/10.4.10_wireless_fix/install.sh; exit
    Welcome to Darwin!
    laptop:~ markcallcott$ /Users/markcallcott/Documents/Macfix/10.4.10_wireless_fix/install.sh; exit
    This is going to revert your AirPort drivers so that 10.4.10 stops sucking.
    You’ll be prompted for your password.
    Continue at your own risk!
    Do you want to proceed? (y/n)
    y
    Backing up…
    cp: ./backup/CoreServices/Menu Extras: No such file or directory
    cp: ./backup/Extensions: No such file or directory
    cp: ./backup/Extensions: No such file or directory
    cp: ./backup/Extensions: No such file or directory
    Reverting to 10.4.9 versions…
    cp: ./new/CoreServices/Menu Extras/*: No such file or directory
    cp: ./new/Extensions/*: No such file or directory
    done! closing…
    logout
    [Process completed]

  10. Isaac

    Posted Sat 2007-07-28 @ 21:46:13 | Permalink| Reply

    Sorry, I forgot that Terminal doesn’t run scripts in the script directory. I’ll have a fixed version up by Monday.

    In the meantime, you can either get iTerm or open Terminal and cd into the directory and then enter ./install.sh to run the script.

  11. Jeroen

    Posted Mon 2007-07-30 @ 03:09:06 | Permalink| Reply

    Works like a charm! Did not experience any KP’s since I applied the fix.

    Thanks a bunch!

  12. Isaac

    Posted Mon 2007-07-30 @ 11:10:29 | Permalink| Reply

    @Mark

    I just updated the scripts so that they’ll run in Terminal. Download and try it again, it should work now.

  13. mark Callcott

    Posted Mon 2007-07-30 @ 12:17:59 | Permalink| Reply

    Isaac
    Many thanks I ran it again and it seemed to work fine , fingers crossed it will fix the problem.many thanks for taking the trouble to work the fix.

    Regards

    Mark

  14. wristshot

    Posted Mon 2007-07-30 @ 18:36:00 | Permalink| Reply

    Let me just add — as another near-noob — that this worked quickly and easily. Seems to have fixed all.

    And to think I was about to trash my Express and buy a new one!

    Thanks, buddy.

  15. Pasko

    Posted Tue 2007-07-31 @ 19:19:32 | Permalink| Reply

    I can’t wait to try this! I hope this will save me taking it to service. Your very kind to organize all this.

    Thanks in advance

  16. Isaac

    Posted Wed 2007-08-01 @ 11:38:02 | Permalink| Reply

    Well, it seems that this post is no longer necessary. The latest security updates from Apple seem to fix the problem.

    I’d recommend that anyone who’s done this fix run undo.sh and then use the Software Update command in the Apple menu in the upper-left corner to get the “real” patch.

  17. IamNobody

    Posted Sun 2007-08-12 @ 05:53:41 | Permalink| Reply

    Anyone who applied my fix which was nicely made into a script by Issac needs to:

    1) Apply the script rollback. If rollback does not work then simply reinstall 10.4.10 update.

    2) Reboot

    3) Run software update and install all recommended updates. Reboot and run software update again. Keep running software update after each reboot until no more updates remain.

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