Handoff not working on 2011 MacBook Air

[Manic Harmonic]

I had time to look in to this today...

To patch the DP4 KEXT properly so that the board id checks do not take place rather than having to edit the whitelisted board ids to one that includes that of a targeted model, in the AirPortBrcm4360 binary:

At offset 0xDF41 change 48 8B 35 B8 4D 41 00 to 48 31 F6 90 90 90 90

At offset 0xDF72 change 48 8B 35 E7 4D 41 00 to 48 31 F6 90 90 90 90

This change can be made easily with a hex editor like 0xED.

Note that these offsets will likely change with future releases, I will keep on top of that and post updates as necessary.

For those who are interested, this changes the value that is moved to the rsi register that is subsequently used in a comparison:

mov rsi, qword [ds:__dev0x4331ValidLoadDriverBoardIds]

mov rsi, qword [ds:__dev0x4353ValidLoadDriverBoardIds]

To the following:

xor rsi, rsi
nop
nop
nop
nop

Here, the rsi register is instead zeroed by XORing against itself and nops inserted to pad to the same length.

Hope this helps!

Do the offsets matter? Meaning is there anywhere else in the binary that has 48 8B 35 B8 4D 41 00 for example? It would be great to just have a perl command to patch it like with trim support.

 

[nicklad]

Do the offsets matter? Meaning is there anywhere else in the binary that has 48 8B 35 B8 4D 41 00 for example? It would be great to just have a perl command to patch it like with trim support.

They do unfortunately as the offset and values will vary between builds. It would be possible to code some heuristics to work back from the board ids to the necessary locations to perform the patch, but, honestly, probably not worth the effort.

 

[xero9]

Right now handoff only works with BT4.0le/ wifi ac, the 2011 does not have ac unfortunately. Hopefully the n cards are enabled by launch

I just realized something.. Unless Apple is doing this on purpose (like the original iPhone not having MMS, even though it was technically capable of it), which I wouldn't put it past them, the iPhone 5s doesn't even have 802.11ac (only 802.11n), it shouldn't be required for the Air to have it as well.

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I just realized something.. Unless Apple is doing this on purpose (like the original iPhone not having MMS, even though it was technically capable of it), which I wouldn't put it past them, the iPhone 5s doesn't even have 802.11ac (only 802.11n), it shouldn't be required for the Air to have it as well.

You are 100% correct. my guess is they are making sure their current "in production" cards work first and then they will work their way back to the N cards.

 

[xero9]

You are 100% correct. my guess is they are making sure their current "in production" cards work first and then they will work their way back to the N cards.

Hope you're right!

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Hope you're right!

Me too but just in case I updated my Mac Pro and air to bt 4.0 le and wifi ac. I figured it wouldn't hurt

 

[langscinema]

Me too but just in case I updated my Mac Pro and air to bt 4.0 le and wifi ac. I figured it wouldn't hurt

when you updated your MBA to wifi ac, did everything go smooth and no compatibility issues?
what year MBA do you have?
many thanks

 

[UncleSchnitty]

when you updated your MBA to wifi ac, did everything go smooth and no compatibility issues?
what year MBA do you have?
many thanks

The only hiccup was that the antenna cables aren't log enough for the longer ac card. You have to reroute the antenna wires. If you like I can take a picture of what I'm talking about and post it here later tonight. I have the 2011 MBA

 

[langscinema]

The only hiccup was that the antenna cables aren't log enough for the longer ac card. You have to reroute the antenna wires. If you like I can take a picture of what I'm talking about and post it here later tonight. I have the 2011 MBA

Yes that would be great if you could
I have a MBA mid 2011 as well and would love to get handoff working.......continuity is hit and miss for me, sometimes calling out from MBA works, sometimes not......SMS seems to be steady so far
Are you having solid performance on both handoff and continuity?

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Yes that would be great if you could
I have a MBA mid 2011 as well and would love to get handoff working.......continuity is hit and miss for me, sometimes calling out from MBA works, sometimes not......SMS seems to be steady so far
Are you having solid performance on both handoff and continuity?

I don't have iOS 8 installed on my iPhone since it is my daily driver and I can't afford to have glitches on it so I can't say to the dependability of handoff. I have however had no issues with my wireless (its actually stronger now) Airdrop between my MacPro and Air is faster with ac and I have full options to turn Handoff on and off threw settings-general

 

[UncleSchnitty]

Here you are. The third picture shows a little piece you have to snap off the hinge piece, they solder the wires on so you have to clip it off but as you can see everything goes back perfectly.
the 4th picture shows how the new card is a little longer and the last picture is the wires rerouted so it looks just like normal again. I hope this helps people with the air. any questions feel free to ask.

 

[steveforthree]

I think I can survive without handoff for a year or so (till I get a newer mac). Calling and SMS is enough for now.

Same here...Mine is a mid-2011 Mac Mini. SMS and phone calls work well. I don't use Apple's mail or iWork, so no handoff is not much a pain anyway.

 

[kathat]

Same here...Mine is a mid-2011 Mac Mini. SMS and phone calls work well. I don't use Apple's mail or iWork, so no handoff is not much a pain anyway.

Same here.

But the function I would miss is the "Instant Hotspot" function.

Can see my iPhone and iPad on my new iMac, but not on my MBA mid 2011.

Any hint to enable this?

 

[kathat]

Do the offsets matter? Meaning is there anywhere else in the binary that has 48 8B 35 B8 4D 41 00 for example? It would be great to just have a perl command to patch it like with trim support.

Changed the Offsets.

No Handoff Option. No Handoff function on MBA Mid 2011

 

[kathat]

Changed the Offsets.

No Handoff Option. No Handoff function on MBA Mid 2011

Edit the mac-ID to MBA mid 2011

kextstat | grep AirPort
118 0 0xffffff7f82114000 0x5d4000 0x5d4000 com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360 (900.15.2a2) <117 116 52 12 7 6 5 4 3 1>
123 0 0xffffff7f826e8000 0x1f4000 0x1f4000 com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331 (800.20.24) <117 52 12 7 5 4 3 1>

but after a few seconds the 4360 is gone.

No handoff option available.

Someone can tell me what's wrong or missing?

 

[Vap0r]

Edit the mac-ID to MBA mid 2011

kextstat | grep AirPort
118 0 0xffffff7f82114000 0x5d4000 0x5d4000 com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360 (900.15.2a2) <117 116 52 12 7 6 5 4 3 1>
123 0 0xffffff7f826e8000 0x1f4000 0x1f4000 com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331 (800.20.24) <117 52 12 7 5 4 3 1>

but after a few seconds the 4360 is gone.

No handoff option available.

Someone can tell me what's wrong or missing?

kextstat | grep AirPort

125 0 0xffffff7f8278a000 0x1f4000 0x1f4000 com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4331 (800.20.24) <119 58 12 7 5 4 3 1>


Hmmm... mine only displays 4331. Still no progress getting the handoff option.

 

[rorydaredking]

I have had Yosemite and iOS 8 since day 1 on my iPhone 5 and MBA 2011. Right now only phone and SMS handoff work, but I can recall back when it was first released, instant hotspot definitely worked. So it can't be a hardware limitation.

 

[kathat]

I have had Yosemite and iOS 8 since day 1 on my iPhone 5 and MBA 2011. Right now only phone and SMS handoff work, but I can recall back when it was first released, instant hotspot definitely worked. So it can't be a hardware limitation.

I miss Instant Hotspot on my MBA mid. 2011

So you use the Standard Kext or the edited one?

Or did you change something in the Network Setting?

 

[rorydaredking]

I miss Instant Hotspot on my MBA mid. 2011

So you use the Standard Kext or the editier one?

Or did you Chance something in the Network Setting?

Vanilla on both Yosemite and iOS8 and both beta 1. I thought I put a screenshot on twitter but I can't find it.

 

[dokterdok]

They do unfortunately as the offset and values will vary between builds. It would be possible to code some heuristics to work back from the board ids to the necessary locations to perform the patch, but, honestly, probably not worth the effort.

I was wondering if anyone here managed to successfully enable handoff+continuity on mid-2011 MacBook Airs, without replacing hardware.

I had no success so far. Replacing the "Mac-" ID in the kext as described in other posts doesn't cut it, at least in DP8.

 

[iolinux333]

I was wondering if anyone here managed to successfully enable handoff+continuity on mid-2011 MacBook Airs, without replacing hardware.

I had no success so far. Replacing the "Mac-" ID in the kext as described in other posts doesn't cut it, at least in DP8.

At this point, the answer is no, no one has seen it working with original hardware.

 

[venom466]

Here you are. The third picture shows a little piece you have to snap off the hinge piece, they solder the wires on so you have to clip it off but as you can see everything goes back perfectly.
the 4th picture shows how the new card is a little longer and the last picture is the wires rerouted so it looks just like normal again. I hope this helps people with the air. any questions feel free to ask.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

So if I understand correctly I need to replace the wi-fi/Bluetooth card with a new one compatible the wi-fi ac.

To do this I need to modify the cables because the original are too short?

Can you please tell me the wi-fi card you have installed on your MBA?

 

[UncleSchnitty]

So if I understand correctly I need to replace the wi-fi/Bluetooth card with a new one compatible the wi-fi ac.

To do this I need to modify the cables because the original are too short?

Can you please tell me the wi-fi card you have installed on your MBA?

I would but its not working anymore. Im trying to figure out a fix as we speak

 

[venom466]

I would but its not working anymore. Im trying to figure out a fix as we speak

Thanks UncleS when "and if" you have any news about this please let me know, I'm also available for some test

 

[UncleSchnitty]

I'm going to try a fresh install of PB 4. I've done a lot of tinkering today with kexts and none did any good. ill report back with any info