Resolved Trouble installing Edimax EW7318USg USB Wireless driver on PB G4 TI Tiger

[aurora72]

Today I've bought Edimax EW7318USg dongle. In the specs (and on its package too) it says "supports Mac OS 10.4x (Tiger) and above"

I've installed the DMG file on CD named:

RTUSB
D2870-1160_D71w-1.2.1.0_D2500-1.1.3.0
UI-1.5.1.0_2008_07_21.dmg

After installation & restart under the Network pane in System Preferences the dongle doesn't come up, so USB Wireless Utility.app under the /Applications says "no device"

Under the /System/Library/Extensions, those 3 kext's are installed:

drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel   102 Nov  6  2007 RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel   102 Jul 21  2008 RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext
drwxr-xr-x    3 root  wheel   102 Jun 18  2008 RT73USBWirelessDriver.kext

I assume one of those must be loaded when the dongle is inserted. It looks like none of them is loaded.

The dongle isn't defective. I've installed it on my IBM ThinkPad Windows XP and it works. Furthermore it comes up as a 802.11 bg WLAN USB device under the USB pane of the System Profiler:

While googling around I saw this post:

Linksys WUSB54G USB adapter and 10.4.6

Linksys WUSB54G USB adapter and 10.4.6

Hi, I recieved my PowerMac G3 (B&W) today with Mac OS X 10.4.6.. From my PC, I have a USB adapter for my wifi internet connection.. The model is Linksys WUSB54G.. Are there any Macintosh drivers for this card? Thanks, Joseph (FIrst Post)

macosx.com

It was suggested to add the name, productID, vendorID of the device manually into the /System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/Info.plist So I've added a name "Edimax" (There wasn't any entries named Edimax) and the productID: 0x7318 and vendorID: 7392 under the <key>IOKitPersonalities</key> in the Info.plist,

  <dict>
      <key>Edimax</key>
      <dict>
    <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.Ralink.driver.RT2500</string>
    <key>IOClass</key>
    <string>RT2500USBWirelessDriver</string>
    <key>IOProviderClass</key>
    <string>IOUSBDevice</string>
    <key>bcdDevice</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
    <key>idProduct</key>
    <integer>7318</integer>
    <key>idVendor</key>
    <integer>7392</integer>
      </dict>

did a Kext Cache rebuild by touching the Extensions and restarted it but no change in situtation, the driver is still not loaded.

I've added that entry to the other remaining 2 kext files too but still no change.


I've opened the dongle to see the chip code. It's RT2571WF.

Could it be that those 3 kext files doesn't support that chip at all? In other words, Edimax shipped the dongle with an updated chip but didn't update the driver?

I've checked file /System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver

/System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver (for architecture ppc):    Mach-O object ppc
/System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver (for architecture i386):    Mach-O object i386

I've tried installing on a Mac mini 2007 with Mac OS X 10.5.x Leopard, again it didn't work at all. I've tried intalling on a Mac mini G4 with Sorbet Leopard , it didn't work there either. It looks like that Edimax dongle which advertises itself as a Mac OS X compatible device, just doesn't work on ony Mac.


Do you think does this dongle ever work on PowerBook or Mac mini G4? If so, what should I do?

 

[3922434]

have you run kextstat in terminal to see if there loaded?…you have to remember to the kexts themselves have to be compiled for PowerPC to run on g4…the package is dated from 2008…..stuff at that point started going intel only and I’ve seen some installers back then that didn’t check wether you had intel or PowerPC depending on how the installer was compiled if you right click the kexts they should say universal, PowerPC or intel…on the flip side if they are only PowerPC kexts they may not load unless compiled for intel. Rosetta in leopard was a bit of a hard sell because Rosetta will not always load PowerPC kexts…it is designed to load them but I know a bunch of people that used midi keyboards and bunch audio equipment stuff that just simply would not load on intel because of Rosetta incompatibility with the drivers. if the kexts are PowerPC based then they should be loading on the mini. I would run kextstat and see if there running…also check extensions in system profiler and then just verify if there universal or compiled for PowerPC or vice versa.

 

[eyoungren]

@aurora72 After the install, did you open Network Preferences and either allow it to detect a new network interface or add one manually?

Network Preferences is a pref pane inside System Preferences.

 

[aurora72]

have you run kextstat in terminal to see if there loaded?…you have to remember to the kexts themselves have to be compiled for PowerPC to run on g4…the package is dated from 2008…..stuff at that point started going intel only and I’ve seen some installers back then that didn’t check wether you had intel or PowerPC depending on how the installer was compiled if you right click the kexts they should say universal, PowerPC or intel…on the flip side if they are only PowerPC kexts they may not load unless compiled for intel. Rosetta in leopard was a bit of a hard sell because Rosetta will not always load PowerPC kexts…it is designed to load them but I know a bunch of people that used midi keyboards and bunch audio equipment stuff that just simply would not load on intel because of Rosetta incompatibility with the drivers. if the kexts are PowerPC based then they should be loading on the mini. I would run kextstat and see if there running…also check extensions in system profiler and then just verify if there universal or compiled for PowerPC or vice versa.

Thank you for the comment. Upon your mentioning the kextstat, I instantly remembered it from my Hackintosh days 11 years (!) ago when I installed Lion on my Lenovo N500. Now, I've run it on Mac mini G4 (on which I installed the Edimax software) but it didn't return any Ralink related kexts that is, any one of the

RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext
RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext
RT73USBWirelessDriver.kext

So I guess no kext is loaded at all and AFAIK, never has been so far. For good measure I've checked that no Ralink kext is being loaded by:

kextstat | grep RT

and no result returned which means No RTXXXX.kext has been loaded.

Upon your remark if those kexts might be compiled for PowerPC only, all of them are universal.

For instance:

~ $ file /System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver
/System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
/System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver (for architecture ppc):    Mach-O object ppc
/System/Library/Extensions/RT2500USBWirelessDriver.kext/Contents/MacOS/RT2500USBWirelessDriver (for architecture i386):    Mach-O object i386

As for the Rosetta well I don't use it on any Intel machine.

 

[aurora72]

@aurora72 After the install, did you open Network Preferences and either allow it to detect a new network interface or add one manually?

Network Preferences is a pref pane inside System Preferences.

Thank you for the comment. After opening the Network Preferences I've just allowed it to detect a new network interface as was recommended by the Install Wizard. No new network Interface was ever detected. Then I've tried adding a new Interface manually but that didn't seem like the way to go somehow. At this point, I don't claim I'm doing everything right, i.e. I might be missing something very fundamental along the way.

 

[3922434]

Oh I was referring to your attempt on the Mac mini 2007…. That’s intel apple stoped intel at the end of 2006 when they squashed what they had left. Yeah it’s even weirder they provided you with a driver cd and it says 10.4. Other then what eyoungren said that would’ve been my last thought…honestly I didn’t even think of that it was a good call good sir!!! Please update if you get it working I’d be curious what you did to fix it. Sorry couldn’t be more help!

 

[aurora72]

Oh I was referring to your attempt on the Mac mini 2007…. That’s intel apple stoped intel at the end of 2006 when they squashed what they had left. Yeah it’s even weirder they provided you with a driver cd and it says 10.4. Other then what eyoungren said that would’ve been my last thought…honestly I didn’t even think of that it was a good call good sir!!! Please update if you get it working I’d be curious what you did to fix it. Sorry couldn’t be more help!

Now I've tried that dongle once more on Mac mini 2007. This time I've started the machine with the dongle plugged in to the USB and this time the LED light on the dongle lighted up, which likely means some kext has been loaded. But the dongle is still unusable i.e. it didn't come up as a new Network Interface in the Network pane of the System Preferences and accordingly when I opened the USB Wireless Utility, it said the dreaded "no device"

kextstat | grep RT returned:

35 0 0xa93000 0x5000 0x4000 com.apple.driver.AppleRTC (1.2.3) <18 6 5 4 2>

here if that "AppleRTC" is related to Ralink driver or not is uncertain. Anyway, even if that dongle would work on Mac mini 2007 it wouldn't be something because well that Mac already has a Wireless built in

 

[aurora72]

I've been searching and trying slightly different dongles' software. I have tried about 5-6 different software so far.
Now I've tried the EW-7318Ug 's software (mine is EW-7318USg) and it finally worked out!
I've downloaded it from Edimax's download page for EW-7318Ug
Although the dongle itself started working, the UI app didn't (it kept on giving "unexpectedly quit" error)
After inspecting the UI app, I saw it was /Applications/Ralink Wireless Utility/WirelessUtility.app (12.05.2010) which was newer than the functioning UI.app at /Applications/USBWirelessUtility.app (24.04.2008) So I disregarded the problematic app and just used the functioning app to configure the dongle. After the confgure: