AzureWave NB037H (WiFi+BT Combo) with Kext

[theandy94]

OK, setting RegDomain to 0x0 was no problem now, thanks to your help. But it still won't find any Networks in OS X.
When I activate Wifi in the top bar, console gives me: "performCountryCodeOperation: Not connected, scan in progress[0]" and next line is "flow_divert_kctl_disconnect (0): disconnecting group 1"
It seems, that OS X won't set my location. I also tried to use the matching country code for germany, but I get the same console output with it.
When I lookup Wifi in Systeminfo it shows ETSI as locale (with RegDomain set for germany, which should be the right setting) and FCC when I use 0x0, but it shows no country code with either setting.

Thanks in advance
theandy

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

If you're going to do a close reading of the system log, make sure you open the Inspector, and also the man page for `syslog`: errors are level 3, warnings 4. performCountryCodeOperation is level 7, debug, everyone gets it. Its easy when starting out to suffer from "sterility syndrome", the Console is always going to be full of messages, that's normal.
Besides that, the second line is clearly a disconnection of the service. The regdomain itself doesn't directly affect connectivity, it just posts warnings to the log and prevents the card from changing domains dynamically according to your location. Check the configuration in System Information

 

[theandy94]

Thanks for the explanation.
Here are two screenshots, first one is environment (Wi-Fi 2 is the AR9285), second for wifi:


EDIT: I now ordered a second antenna. The reseller I bought the card from writes on the product page, that a second antenna is mandatory for the card to work properly. Maybe this is what gives OS X the problem with no found networks. If you know of something other which may be the cause of the problem please share your info.

Thanks in advance,
theandy

 

[theandy94]

The second antenna is now installed, but nothing has changed.
The card still won't find any Networks.
And I'm have no clue why this could be...

theandy

 

[bluimago]

So i know a lot of previous work has been done on WiFi+BT mPCIe combo cards by the laptop users, but when building my DQ77KB, one of my requirements was a combo that fit on-board, for simplicity. After trying the BCM943225HMB and getting nowhere, I decided to try the IOath3kfrmwr kext used by the probook-ers and get an AW-NB037H (AzureWave) card working. The cards are cheap, <$10, and I know the AR9285 WiFi part works because my Rosewill uses the same chipset.
The card arrived yesterday and I quickly got the WiFi working using my old materials. If it's possible to permanently flash a device to a better state, I will do it, so I flashed the locale to 0x0 as described in that thread, allowing OSX to set the locale dynamically based on Location Services, and also preventing the warnings from spamming the log.
Bluetooth was much harder because the chip as-is will load the bluetooth stack, but not actually start functioning. When I realized the IOath3kfrmwr was designed for a slightly different chip, I reworked it, starting more-or-less from the ground up (in this case the Anchor USB example Apple bundles with IOUSBFamily), and carefully adding back the necessary elements, doing some housekeeping here and there (the debug version is significantly more verbose). The result is net.sourceforge.awnb037h, which I release with no claims of ownership.
For the NB037H, the kext now contains both WiFi and Bluetooth injectors, should be installed permanently, and was tested with the NB037H without issue both after installation and after cold boot. It will flash the chip to a different set of USB IDs, which unloads the flashing kext ("flashed successfully"). The result is pretty good, but both firmware files I could find for IOath3kfrmwr couldn't fix BT PM, so not only does it not support wake (PowerOptions 0xF), it doesn't even support power-off (PowerOptions 0x1), which means if your boot is particularly fast (my Mushkin) then the call to configurePM may timeout some time after you log in (the bluetooth menu extra will be in the broken/disabled state until the timeout).
I freely admit this isn't ideal, but both functions work, and the only requirement is a single kext.

Download AzureWave NB037H Source

Hi SJ_Underwater and thank you for the material: I've downloaded it from your last link, but (excuse me) I've never create a kext with Xcode. This would be my first time: can you tell me how to do, starting from your "AzureWaveNB037H" folder? I have an Intel NUC Core i5 (D54250WYK) with 8GB (2x4) Crucial RAM and 240GB Crucial mSata and Mavericks 10.9.3. Thank you in advance!

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

The second antenna is now installed, but nothing has changed.
The card still won't find any Networks.
And I'm have no clue why this could be...

theandy

Make sure theyre connected well. Even a loose connection will probably fail to find networks.

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

Hi SJ_Underwater and thank you for the material: I've downloaded it from your last link, but (excuse me) I've never create a kext with Xcode. This would be my first time: can you tell me how to do, starting from your "AzureWaveNB037H" folder? I have an Intel NUC Core i5 (D54250WYK) with 8GB (2x4) Crucial RAM and 240GB Crucial mSata and Mavericks 10.9.3. Thank you in advance!

There's really no need to quote my entire post, it just wastes space.
Download Xcode from the Mac App Store, then open the xcodeproj file (previously a folder) in Xcode. Choose Product > Archive, then Distribute in the window which eventually opens. Follow the prompts to generate either an installer or just grab the compiled kext.

 

[bluimago]

Hi SJ and thank you for your answer. I agree with you about the "wasted space" but you have to excuse me for I'm new to this forum and since I've seen that "usually" other users quote the entire post to reply it (like 2 times in this same thread with your same post I replied too)…I've done the same! I will not repeat the same mistake. Anyway, I tried your suggestion: I've opened your xcodeproj (exactly the file named "Ath3kFirmware.xcodeproj" in Xcode (version 5.1.1). Then I've chooses Archive (where I see no submenu) and instantly an hammer iconed hub opens and says "Build Failed"! I can't do anything else: can you help me?

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

If compiling for Mavericks, click the yellow triangle (yield) symbol at the top, then the issue titled Validate Project Settings, on the left with the xcodeproj (blue) icon. Follow the prompts to update the project settings, then Archive again.

 

[bluimago]

Hi SJ! Thank you very, very much for your suggestions: I was able to build my kext the day after your post but only tonight I've installed it and the wifi works perfectly! The bluetooth doesn't work (its icon does not appear in the system Preferences Panel) but…it doesn't matter: wifi is all I need, so I'm really happy! Perhaps can you help me with another minipci card I bought for the same purpose, exactly the "Atheros AR5B22"? I've not been able to make its kext…until now! Thank you a lot in advance.