Thinkpads Forum

Hi Folks,

First time post, I'm wondering if any of you clued up Thinkpad guys can point me in the right direction.

Using iBoot/Multibeast/xMove I now have what appears to be a stable and reasonably functional install of OSX Lion on my T61. The last piece in the puzzle is to replace the Intel Wifi card with an Atheros based card.

I've read an alarming post that Lenovo block all non Lenovo cards in the BIOS is this the case?

Can anyone tell me which Lenovo card, or other I need to buy to get my wifi up and running.

Cheers folks

Manxmann

You need to install the Whitelist(ed) BIOS for the card to work.

PS: Would you mind sharing your experience (steps) on getting Lion to work on T61. Which Video card/ Thinkpad model do you have?

Get one of these if you want airdrop too.

Manxmann wrote:I've read an alarming post that Lenovo block all non Lenovo cards in the BIOS is this the case?

Yep the BIOS contains a list of wifi vendor ID's that will allow the computer to boot. If your wifi card's ID is not on the list it will display an error similar to the following "1802: Unauthorized network card is plugged in. Power off and remove the miniPCI network card". [this wiki page has some info about the issue: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... twork_card]. Yeah, I know... wish they wouldn't have done that but eh.


So you've got three options (I think):
1. Buy a wifi card that has an ID that the BIOS recognises, i.e. a Lenovo branded card that was shipped with any(?) model of your current laptop.
2. Flash a modified BIOS which should allow you to install any wifi card you like (but BIOS flashing is risky and may brick your laptop if not done correctly).
3. Change the vender ID of the wifi card. Safer since you only risk 'bricking' the wifi card and not your laptp but you'll need another computer than can accept the card in order to modify it.


For option 1:
Apparently the T61/p came with one of four types of wifi cards [http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T61] :

• - Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter
  - Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Mini-PCI Express Adapter
  - ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter
  - ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter

Ignore the first two Intel ones since they don't work properly in OSX. However the other two "Thinkpad" cards are just rebranded Atheros cards, so I'd say try and find someone selling one of those BUT make sure they are are Lenovo branded (not just the same chipset from Atheros or another rebrand). The a/b/g one is probably going to be cheaper and easier to find than the a/b/g/n one.

One more thing, check if the chipsets that the Thinkpad wifi cards use are known to work with OSX.

Manxmann wrote:Hi Folks,

First time post, I'm wondering if any of you clued up Thinkpad guys can point me in the right direction.

Using iBoot/Multibeast/xMove I now have what appears to be a stable and reasonably functional install of OSX Lion on my T61. The last piece in the puzzle is to replace the Intel Wifi card with an Atheros based card.

I've read an alarming post that Lenovo block all non Lenovo cards in the BIOS is this the case?

Can anyone tell me which Lenovo card, or other I need to buy to get my wifi up and running.

Here is my personal method that I can recommend:

1. First of all, determine which exact product number your ThinkPad has. This number consists of

• the machine type of your ThinkPad T61 and
• its model number.

"T61" is not enough information, each T61 has a specific machine type number of four digits/letters and a model number of three digits/letters which both combined give you the ThinkPad's product number, for instance "6458-BN2". Just have a look at a few users' signatures here and you'll find a number of examples for that.

2. With this exact machine type number, visit Lenovo's Product and Parts Website which lists all components used in specific products. Choose your T61 in Lenovo's six steps to determine the product. You may omit the query for your Operating System which is not relevant for our usage case - just choose the second tab "Parts detail" on the appearing webpage and click on "Networking". - This step will give you all different Wi-Fi cards that have been build into this specific product and should therefore be white-listed in your T61's BIOS.

3.Now choose the Atheros cards that are probably part of the list and - important! - note down their "Marketing part number" and their "Field Replaceable Unit part number".

4.With these two part numbers you just retrieved, go to eBay and search for either the "Marketing part number" or the "Field Replaceable Unit part number" with "include description" enabled.

This whole process should return a few results of Wi-Fi cards that are very likely to be white-listed in your T61's BIOS.

I personally would recommend to choose the Atheros A/B/G variant instead of the more advanced A/B/G/N version which in my experience is obviously quite a "heater", at least in my 12.1 inch ThinkPad X60 Tablet. It sure is possible that the bigger T61 is more effective when it comes to ventilation, but I have rather bad experiences with the A/B/G/N variant in that respect and will soon replace it with the simpler A/B/G card that Sebinouse is using, too.

Good luck, hope this helps!

You all are putting way too much energy into this, IMO. I would just install one of the hacked BIOSes that middleton has posted on NBR that removes the wifi whitelist.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... ost6501443

And then just use a dell dw 1390 off of ebay, as they're about 4 bucks and they use the same broadcom chipset as an 802.11g aircard. (So osx always detects it)

I did exactly that, bios mod is excellent, Used CD install since I was running 10.5.7 and installed one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/160911784222?ss ... 1439.l2649
Airport Extreme N working OOB with AirDrop for $10!