Hi,

Does anybody have an Airport Extreme card installed (and working) in PowerBook 5.2? I wanted to set the thing up, got the Airport working on OSX but no luck on MorphOS. From the screenbar Wireless gadget it shows nothing in "Nearby WLANs" and when I go to system network settings and check the "wl0" for bcm43xx_wl.device:0 nothing shows on Wireless Network List. As a matter of fact fiddling with wl0 kind of hangs the whole prefs program (it cannot be closed, saved, used, canceled or anything, the window just stays there).

Any ideas?

The same hardware/device - bcm43xx_wl.device:0, is fitted/used in the MacMini hardware and that works for me with my MacMini when I do use it, though I prefer to used a wired Ethernet for my main setup.

My use of the wireless hardware is not that regular as I know the latching to the signal available is not that impressive when compared to the Apple hardware which uses an 'Interference Rubustness' setting that seems to boost the incoming signal reception or at least make more of it than the MorphOS system seems to currently, sadly.

I believe this issue of poor Wi-Fi reception within MorphOS is known about, and being looked into/addressed, but not resolved as yet.

I seem to remember I had a similar issue (apparently freezing) with the prefs when I initially set it up with MOS, but I know that it works OK now.

My Powerbook, that's registered for MOS, is a 5,8 model (A1138) which uses a slightly different card, but uses the same device, if I remember correctly, and that works OK with MorphOS, within the range limitations of MorphOS.

I currenty don't have MorphOS installed on my G5 PowerMac 7,3 (A1047-2061), A1107 or A1085, all of which use the A1026/A1027 Airport Extreme card as will your A1046/Powerbook 5,2 so I cannot currently offer any advice on that A1026/A1027 Airport Extreme Card, though I really cannot think there can be any perceptible difference between MorphOS recognising the card compared to any of the other MorphOS supported Apple Airport/Wi-Fi hardware.

Until you get anyone else's response I hope this information is of some use to you.

I've checked the in-built Airport from PowerBook 5.6 in the very same place and it works as expected under the same bcm43xx device, so I don't think it's a "no signal" issue. Unless the internal antenna is crippled somehow, but I find it hard to believe, as (as I've said earlier) the card just works on OSX.

Sadly, I have no more PowerBooks to swap and test the card :) I guess I'll have to do the swapping with my PowerMac G5.

OK, what I've figured out so far:

The cards in my PowerBook and PowerMac G5 aren't the same. I had an A1026 Airport Extreme in PowerBook and A1027 Airport Extreme in PowerMac G5. I've swapped them and the result was working WiFi in PowerBook (with A1027) and hanging prefs in PowerMac (with A1026). Is it possible that only one of those is supported by MorphOS ATM? Isn't that the same card (the same Broadcom chipset) with the difference being just some additional, euro-asian channels in A1027?

> Isn't that the same card (the same Broadcom chipset) with the difference
> being just some additional, euro-asian channels in A1027?

I don't know the difference between the A1026 card and the A1027 card, but AirPort Extreme uses at least two different Broadcom chipsets (BCM4318 and BCM4320) which should both be supported. I remember I once read about the older BCM4306 being used for AirPort Extreme also, but I don't know how accurate this information was.

Well, anyway the bcm43xx_wl.device should handle all of them, shouldn't it?

Can anyone confirm using A1026 successfully with MorphOS?

When I fitted an Airport Extreme card (unsure f it was an A1026 or A1027 card) in my PowerMac G5 (A1047/2061) a week or 2 ago, and initially switched on it was not found by Mac OSX system, but after I took the card out, and cleaned it (the gold-finger contacts) and when I pressed the card firmly back into its slot, the following time it was found by the Mac OSX system.

I'm not saying your problem is the same, but it just might be a simple thing like a bad 'gold-finger' contact, after all these cards are not new anymore.

>> (as I've said earlier) the card just works on OSX.

> I [...] cleaned it (the gold-finger contacts) and when I pressed the
> card firmly back into its slot, the following time it was found by the
> Mac OSX system. I'm not saying your problem is the same

...and it can't be, as far as I understand.

The MorphOS Broadcom WL driver doesn't support the older variants with BCM4306 chipset (A1026?) since it requires a different driver setup/code, sorry.

Quote:

And that's very informative, thank you. Now that I know that I'll just try to sell that A1026 and find something MorphOS compatible for that PowerBook.
Don't you think the wireless Apple adapters (non)compatibility is worth a note in helpdesk/FAQ on morphos-team.net?

Hi
I have a PowerBook 5.2 as well… its from september 2003 one of the first after the release.
I seem to have the same issue about WiFi. How do i check if i have a card that makes trouble?

What PowerBook does not have that issue … are all the 1.5 GHz doing fine+

Quote:

Just open the PowerBook up - take away the battery, remove the AirPort Extreme card from its place and see what's written on it. If it goes "Model No: A1026" then it won't work.

Quote:

It seems so, as they have a different version of the airport card (not the A1026/A1027 one).

Quote:
I haven't take it out yet, but the system says "Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (4.170.25.8)" so i think there's a big risk that it is the A1026

Change the AirPort card to a not so old one.. can that do the trick?

It seems - from what cyfm (Frank Mariak) said, and if anyone is going to know then I suppose it is Frank, that the Airport Extreme A1027 card IS supported by MorphOS as it must have the required BCM chipset, but the A1026 is NOT useable in MorphOS as it seems it has the older BCM chipset that is not supported by MorphOS.

That's right. There's no way you can tell you have an A1026 or A1027 unless you take it out of your computer, sadly. Luckily, there's a plethora of PCMCIA network cards based on Atheros5k chipset that work 'out of the box' and you can get them much cheaper than compatible Apple card (I got one for about 4 EUR, shipping included).

Quote:

Mine is the A1027 card and it does not show up in the list …. all works fine on OS X

Quote:

Can you please link to one of these?

Quote:

I've found it on local Polish advertisement site. It was Nec Aterm WL54SC and it's been properly recognized and initialized by MorphOS.

There are some interesting ones on eBay though: This one for example (the atheros.rapla.net page says it's based on Atheros5k) - although it's better to confirm it at other sources, as sometimes there are a few revisions of a given card that - mind you - use different chipsets.

Quote:

Type in (ebay, google, whatever) WG511T and you'll find a card that works with MorphOS.
I have 4 of them, all working as expected.

Here are some that i found immediately on the net while answering.

Netgear WG511T

WG511T

another one :)

Cheers

Reviving this old thread since I have some questions unanswered.. :
1) Does any of the standard airport cards work on MorphOS? I refer to the 802.11b cards which come under pc24h code, since I don't couldn't find any concrete answer on MorphOS hardware compatibility neither after a search on the forums here..

2) Have a G4 Sawtooth model, should I presume that airport extreme wifi version cards are incompatible with my slot hardware wise, correct?

3) Is it correct to assume that airport slot on the Sawtooth is actually a standard PCMCIA slot and as such Netgear with the specific atheros chipset mentioned above will work on MorphOS (can you also work the slot with a PCMCIA cf card, like on an actual amiga)?

> 1) Does any of the standard airport cards work on MorphOS?

No.

> couldn't find any concrete answer [...] after a search on the forums here..

I advise to read these ancient threads:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7786&forum=11&start=14
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6042&forum=11

> 2) Have a G4 Sawtooth model, should I presume that airport extreme wifi
> version cards are incompatible with my slot hardware wise, correct?

Yes, all G4 PowerMacs except FW800 use original AirPort, which is mechanically (but not electrically) PCMCIA/CardBus, whereas AirPort Extreme is electrically (but not mechanically) Mini PCI.

> 3) Is it correct to assume that airport slot on the Sawtooth is
> actually a standard PCMCIA slot [...]?

No, see above.

Thanks for taking the time answering my questions.

Is there any adapter from standard airport to airport extreme that exists so I can use the extreme version that works?

If not, is there any adapter that transforms the slot to standard pcmia slot so I work it out with a compatible netgear? I searched for both but no results came up so far.

Quote:

Why mess with additional adapters if you could use a standard PCI one?

> Is there any adapter from standard airport to airport extreme

Not that I know of.

> is there any adapter that transforms the slot to standard pcmia slot

Not that I know of.

@koszer

I have 2 out of 3 PCI slots populated one with SB Live and the other with NEC USB 2.0. Idk if the on board sound chipset is supported but nevertheless I would need the DVD to communicate with the sound card in order to have cdda. The 3rd PCI slot is blocked from the fan of the 9800 in the AGP slot. So there is no room for a wifi PCI option. Tbh I can't bare the fact that people paid so much for this system back in its day. Same year I had a custom gaming pc based on Asus mobo with 5 PCI slots, Isa slots, pcmcia slot, 4 USB, ps2 and many more compared to this config. Though it's great for morphos I have to admit nowadays!