How can I use a TP-LINK WiFi USB interface in OS X Lion?
I happen to have a TP-LINK TL-WN821N (it's a WiFi USB stick) around. Is there any chance to get that working on a Mac mini running OS X Lion?
There are no official drivers but it seems there are some kind of drivers for the ATHEROS AR9170+AR9102 chipset from other vendors like Ralink.
Update: The below hack worked when using D-Link's DWA-130 Rev. D drivers instead of the DWA-160 ones. Compatible drivers using the same chipset were identified with the help of the WikiDevi database.
A quick Google search shows that someone has had success in using D-Links DWA-160 driver (which uses the same chipset), although not without some minor hacking to make the driver recognize the different hardware IDs:
- Install driver package
- Extract kernel extension from installer:
- Show Package Contents of the installer
- unarchive Archive.pax.gz
- grab AtherosOtusMac.kext
- Edit plist and change or add your device id and product id converted to decimal (illustrated below):
- Show Package Contents of AtherosOtusMac.kext
- Open Info.plist within (using either Xcode or a text or XML editor)
- Open System Information, find your TP-Link under USB and note down Product ID and Vendor ID
- Convert both numbers from hexadecimal to decimal (you can use Calculator.app)
- Replace idProduct and idVendor on the first model with your numbers
- Use kext helper to install your modified AtherosOtusMac.kext
- use DWA-160.app (in
/Applications/Utilies) to connect
Although considering the price of a new Wifi USB stick with OS X drivers, this may not be worth the effort, unless you're doing this sort of thing for fun :-)
Illustration of the plist step (with my USB mouse as example, because I don't have a TL-WN821N laying around):
