Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H rev 1.1 ETHERNET FIX

Hi,
I just discovered a fix for the infamous Atheros AR8161 on the new Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H.
I found this fix at this link: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/to...heros-ar813132515261627172-driver-for-107108/
All credit is given to Shailua.
Please read the link above throughly before installation.

Here are Shailua's Installation Instructions:

"Installing:
Use your favourite method of adding kexts to /System/Library/Extensions. Personally I prefer doing it manually from the terminal.
For testing or reporting bugs, please use the kext in the "Debug" subdirectory. This will output much more info to /var/log/system.log.

Remove any old version:
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/ALXEthernet.kext
(Don't forget to also remove any potentially conflicting kexts from the Extensions directory, e.g. AtherosL1cEthernet.kext!)

Copy the new version from wherever you extracted it, such as Downloads:
sudo cp -r /Users/yourusername/Downloads/ALXEthernet/ALXEthernet.kext /System/Library/Extensions/

Clean out the kernel cache:
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kext.caches/*

Then reboot to be safe.
If you find your system becomes unbootable due to panics, the easiest way to fix this is to temporarily disable the ethernet card in the BIOS/UEFI, boot into Mac OS X and then perform the the first and last installation steps above.

Alternative (test) install:
To avoid breaking your system if the module is installed but panics every time, you can just test by installing to the temporary directory:
sudo cp -r /Users/yourusername/Downloads/ALXEthernet/ALXEthernet.ext /tmp/

Then load the module for testing:
sudo kextload /tmp/ALXEthernet.kext

The contents of /tmp will be automatically wiped upon reboot so you'll have to repeat these two steps each time."

After I rebooted I got instantly connected to the internet. Ethernet Cards in System Report reads:

Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet:


Name: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet
Type: Ethernet Controller
Bus: PCI
Vendor ID: 0x1969
Device ID: 0x1091
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x1458
Subsystem ID: 0xe000
Revision ID: 0x0010
Link Width: x1
BSD name: en0
Kext name: ALXEthernet.kext
Location: /System/Library/Extensions/ALXEthernet.kext
Version: 1.0.1

I have found this method very effective. And again I would like to reiterate that I am not the creator nor do I take any credit for this kext. I am just sharing the method I used to get ethernet compatibility with Atheros AR8161 on my Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H.

If you post questions on this thread I may or may not be able to help so I recommend posting questions to the Insanelymac thread I listed.

Later peeps!

Great news, even though i own a r1.0 board.

Confirmed working for me on my GA-Z77-DS3H rev 1.1 purchased from Newegg about a month ago.

guyhersh said:

Confirmed working for me on my GA-Z77-DS3H rev 1.1 purchased from Newegg about a month ago.

Click to expand...

Wow- thanks for posting this- we'll get this into MultiBeast.

Here is the popup I get intermittently when using the ALXEthernet.kext (1.0.2):

The system extension “/System/Library/Extensions/ALXEthernet.kext” was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product’s vendor for an update.

I had to add -f to the Kernel Flags in my boot plist, but otherwise it continues to work fine.

I am running 10.8.2 if that's in any way related to this error.

Thank you so much for sharing this... Been fiddling with Ethernet kexts for days wondering if I was stupid or if there was a real issue with these rev 1.1 boards. Installed with KextBeast and all is working great now.

Any news on when this fix will be added to MultiBeast? Saw the new version (5.2) yesterday but it doesn't list Atheros AR8161 in the list.

Edit: This is my first post but I have been a Tonymac follower for some time now. This is my 2nd build. 1st build used Z68xp-UD3-iSSD MB

Actually, they added it in. It's in:

Added Bootloaders -> Drivers -> Network -> Atheros - Shailua's ALXEthernet v1.0.2

This should be the correct kext. Although I haven't tested it, tonymacx86 is pretty thorough.

later peeps

crystalinecorruption said:

Actually, they added it in. It's in:

Added Bootloaders -> Drivers -> Network -> Atheros - Shailua's ALXEthernet v1.0.2

This should be the correct kext. Although I haven't tested it, tonymacx86 is pretty thorough.

later peeps

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply!

The description doesn't list AR8161 though so I wasn't sure. The description reads as follows:
"Enables Atheros AR8132 Fast Ethernet, AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet, AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet, AR8151 v2.0 Gigabit Ethernet, AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet and AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet controllers. Created by maolj and updated by thecandle. Installs AtherosL1cEthernet.kext in /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns."

Can anyone confirm that this will work on the Atheros AR8161? If so, it will be welcome news to those of us with Rev 1.1

Just ran the new MB and installed the new FakeSMC w/Plugins and the Atheros - Shailua's ALXEthernet v1.0.2 network driver and can confirm that Ethernet and hardware monitor is working. Great job guys and thanks!!