Mac mini wireless?
  • Caterpillar
    Caterpillar
    D4Ni3L3
    Posts: 26 from 2013/12/12
    From: Mailand - Italien
    Hello to all of you...

    I was wondering if with the latest release of MorphOs I would get wireless connection with the airport of my Mac mini.

    Any hint?

    Thanks
  • »29.12.13 - 21:18
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  • Moderator
    Kronos
    Posts: 2326 from 2003/2/24
    No
  • »29.12.13 - 21:22
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  • MorphOS Developer
    geit
    Posts: 1049 from 2004/9/23
    It may be supported by a future version of MorphOS, but it for sure not anytime soon.

    Get a wireless adapter like an ASUS WL330gE or successor if you need wireless. The same solution works for iBooks, as they have no PCI and PCMCIA interfaces, too.
  • »29.12.13 - 21:57
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  • Paladin of the Pegasos
    Paladin of the Pegasos
    NewSense
    Posts: 1513 from 2012/11/10
    From: Manchester, UK/GB
    Quote:

    geit wrote:

    It may be supported by a future version of MorphOS, but it for sure not anytime soon.

    Get a wireless adapter like an ASUS WL330gE or successor if you need wireless. The same solution works for iBooks, as they have no PCI and PCMCIA interfaces, too.

    So, would an ASUS WL-330N3G 150 Mbps 1-Port 10/100 Wireless N Router (90-IG1C002M00-3PA0-) also work the same for the Mac Mini.

    The WL330gE seems to be quite an old model, and seems to have been superceded with the newer one I mentioned above, but I did see a few articles on the WL330gE and they usually indicated they needed a PC Win 2000, XP, or Vista to get them setup, or can (and how would) you set them up through MorphOS?
    MacMini 1.5GHz,64MB VRAM, PowerBooks A1138/9 (Model 5,8/9),PowerMac G5 2.3GHz(DP), iMac A1145 2.1GHz 20", all with MorphOS v3.18+,Airport,Bluetooth,A1016 Keyboard,T-RB22 Mouse,DVD-RW-DL,MiniMax,Firewire/USB2 & MacOSX 10.4/5
  • »30.12.13 - 02:05
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12162 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    >> Get a wireless adapter like an ASUS WL330gE or successor if you need wireless.

    > So, would an ASUS WL-330N3G [...] also work the same for the Mac Mini.

    Yes.

    > I did see a few articles on the WL330gE and they usually indicated they needed
    > a PC Win 2000, XP, or Vista to get them setup

    Yes, ASUS says the device needs Windows, MacOSX or Linux, but that's not true as this kind of devices works independently from the OS in principle.

    > can (and how would) you set them up through MorphOS?

    https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8556&forum=3
  • »30.12.13 - 08:04
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  • Butterfly
    Butterfly
    Megander
    Posts: 85 from 2011/11/28
    My MacMini is wifying with a TP-Link TL-WR702N. Works like a charm. After requiring some magic, that is.
  • »30.12.13 - 13:07
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    amyren
    Posts: 219 from 2010/5/15
    From: Norway
    Any wireless bridge should work, but many of them require a PC for the initial setup.

    I have a vap11g and it works well with the mac mini.
    The brand name is Vonets, but I think they are sold as differnt brands.

    If I remember correctly the "official" explaination why the wifi on the mac mini is not supported is that there are many different hardware revisions of the mac mini, and different wireless hardware is used. So making one driver that works on all mac minis are not possible, they would need to make one driver for each kind of wlan chipset used. (I have no idea of how many there are)

    Perhaps it would have been better if they made one driver to support one of the most common used nano usb wlan sticks out there. They are very cheap, and we could also benefit from the wireless n-standard.
  • »30.12.13 - 16:16
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12162 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > Any wireless bridge should work, but many of them require a PC for the initial setup.

    Really? You mean they don't provide a web interface that can be used with a web browser like OWB? If so, how's setting them up done instead?

    > If I remember correctly the "official" explaination why the wifi on the mac mini is
    > not supported is that there are many different hardware revisions of the mac mini,
    > and different wireless hardware is used.

    I don't remember having read this as the "official" explanation. Can you point to where this was given? Or can a MorphOS Team member confirm here?
  • »30.12.13 - 16:34
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    analogkid
    Posts: 667 from 2004/11/3
    From: near myself
    I remember that many wireless bridges are offering different methods of configuration, by web interface and by a custom configuration tool (which commonly runs on Windows). But the web interface should work on MorphOS (and OWB).

    Quote:

    amyren wrote:
    Any wireless bridge should work, but many of them require a PC for the initial setup.

    I have a vap11g and it works well with the mac mini.
    The brand name is Vonets, but I think they are sold as differnt brands.

    If I remember correctly the "official" explaination why the wifi on the mac mini is not supported is that there are many different hardware revisions of the mac mini, and different wireless hardware is used. So making one driver that works on all mac minis are not possible, they would need to make one driver for each kind of wlan chipset used. (I have no idea of how many there are)

    Perhaps it would have been better if they made one driver to support one of the most common used nano usb wlan sticks out there. They are very cheap, and we could also benefit from the wireless n-standard.
  • »30.12.13 - 16:46
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Cool_amigaN
    Posts: 761 from 2011/11/30
    @all

    The above proposed solutions work for any MorphOS system, right?

    I am willing to move my PMAC to a corner which doesn't have ethernet cable access. Will it work?

    @Megander

    I am interested in the TP-Link TL-WR702N as well. Care to briefly review it? I have read in another thread that it takes about 1 minute after boot to get the network up and running. Is this true? Will the connection with the router be strong even if a wall intercepts between them (within a 5-6 meters range)? Was it easy to set up the interface?
    Amiga gaming Tribute: Watch, rate, comment :)
  • »31.12.13 - 07:07
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  • Moderator
    Kronos
    Posts: 2326 from 2003/2/24
    @Cool_amigaN

    With a PMac you also have the option of using an Atheros5000 based PCI card.
  • »31.12.13 - 07:36
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  • Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
    Cool_amigaN
    Posts: 761 from 2011/11/30
    Well, my 2 PCI slots are taken by the Sound Blaster and my Ethernet (on board isn't supported since I have the revision 3.1) while my third one seems fried :( So, I was thinking of buying one of these thingies :) It should work out of the box, right?
    Amiga gaming Tribute: Watch, rate, comment :)
  • »31.12.13 - 07:44
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  • Butterfly
    Butterfly
    Megander
    Posts: 85 from 2011/11/28
    Quote:

    Cool_amigaN schrieb:

    @Megander

    I am interested in the TP-Link TL-WR702N as well. Care to briefly review it?


    Firstly, it is small, light-weight, doesn't occupy much space.

    Connect it to the LAN port and an USB port of your machine. Set up your IP as 192.168.0.something and 192.168.0.254 for the gateway. Then you can access the configuration interface via a browser. Set the WR702 up to work as network adapter (it can be AP, router or repeater as well), tell it the wifi gateway IP and the encryption key, save and reboot. Then you need to reset the network configurations of your machine to fit those of your wifi router - en voila.

    The only trouble I got into was when I did a firmware upgrade of the WR702. Being not much of a computer geek, I resolved it by trial and error. Should be a piece of cake for you guys then.

    Edit: Otherwise, I never experienced problems and I am satisfied with the speed and everything - the correct German expression when all is good is: "I cannot complain!" ;-)

    [ Editiert durch Megander 31.12.2013 - 09:04 ]
  • »31.12.13 - 08:01
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  • MorphOS Developer
    cyfm
    Posts: 537 from 2003/4/11
    From: Germany
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf schrieb:

    > If I remember correctly the "official" explaination why the wifi on the mac mini is
    > not supported is that there are many different hardware revisions of the mac mini,
    > and different wireless hardware is used.

    I don't remember having read this as the "official" explanation. Can you point to where this was given? Or can a MorphOS Team member confirm here?


    There are basically two (albeit similar) variants to cover most internal wireless solutions that need to be supported for our Apple hardware base, so whatever "official" explanation this was supposed to be, I never heard of that.
    So whenever we support the internal wireless hardware for our supported PowerBook/iBook models, it will also work for Mac mini, PMacG5 and at least the latest range of PMacG4 computers as well - if they have the required modules builtin, that is ....
  • »31.12.13 - 10:01
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12162 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > Connect it to the LAN port and an USB port of your machine.

    The device can also be powered by the provided power adapter instead of USB. He might prefer this as he intends to use it with a non-mobile computer.
  • »31.12.13 - 10:13
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  • Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12162 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    >>> If I remember correctly the "official" explaination why the wifi on the mac mini is
    >>> not supported is that there are many different hardware revisions of the mac mini,
    >>> and different wireless hardware is used.

    >> I don't remember having read this as the "official" explanation. Can you
    >> point to where this was given? Or can a MorphOS Team member confirm here?

    > There are basically two (albeit similar) variants to cover most internal wireless
    > solutions that need to be supported for our Apple hardware base

    Yes, this confirms what I have suspected regarding the AirPort Extreme hardware in PPC Macs.

    > so whatever "official" explanation this was supposed to be, I never heard of that.

    Thanks for refuting.

    > So whenever we support the internal wireless hardware for our supported
    > PowerBook/iBook models, it will also work for Mac mini, PMacG5 and at least
    > the latest range of PMacG4 computers as well

    Thanks, this sounds nice. I'm glad my assumption in this regard has been correct.
  • »31.12.13 - 10:23
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  • Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    amyren
    Posts: 219 from 2010/5/15
    From: Norway
    Quote:

    Andreas_Wolf wrote:
    > Any wireless bridge should work, but many of them require a PC for the initial setup.

    Really? You mean they don't provide a web interface that can be used with a web browser like OWB? If so, how's setting them up done instead?

    > If I remember correctly the "official" explaination why the wifi on the mac mini is
    > not supported is that there are many different hardware revisions of the mac mini,
    > and different wireless hardware is used.

    I don't remember having read this as the "official" explanation. Can you point to where this was given? Or can a MorphOS Team member confirm here?


    The Vonets VAP11G does not supply a web interface that I know of. It was supplied with a mini cd containing a setup program for windows only.
    But it might be possible to set it up without the software. I recently noticed this webpage:
    https://github.com/philsmd/vap11g
    At that page there is a python script that is supposed to be used for the setup of this adapter from any OS.
    I did try to run the script on my mac mini from shell, "python vap11g.py" but the script returned an error at line 213. Now, my vonets adaptor is already set up and working so I dont have the urge to look into this. (And my python skills are not up to either I'm afraid)

    As for the mac mini wifi, I guess I must blame that on my memory:)
  • »12.05.14 - 16:56
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