In this guide, I’ll be showing you on how to rebrand a Broadcom card which OSX detects as a Third Party Wireless card to Apple’s genuine Airport card. There are few reasons on why you should rebrand.
Note, this guide is not made by the OSXLatitude, orginal links can be found here:
Link 1: Prasys
Link 2: InsanelyMac
If you need any help, please contact us on the forum or contact the original poster !
To rebrand your Broadcom wireless, you will need:
- A 2gb USB pen
- A usb pen with Ubuntu live 10.10
- UNetbootin from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
- A Broadcom Wireless Card (such as Dell 1505, 1510 , 1490 , 1390 , etc)
- Some time for fun =)
Allright, lets cut the crap and get started – unlike the orginal guides, this one will be a bit more rough.
Making your USB pen linux ready and boot it…
- Download UNetbootin and run it
- In the distribution dropdown select “Ubuntu” and in version select “10.10_live”
- In the “type” dropdown, select “USB Drive” and in the Drive dropdown select your usbpen
- Click “OK” and wait for the pen to be generated
- Boot the computer with the Broadcom network card from the Ubuntu on the USB pen (choose live mode when asked)
(This is truly a awesome utility, my hopes go that we one day will see Windows and OSX in that list, and hopefully a tool for OSX)
Lets get started… (once in Ubuntu)
- Open up a console (Its located in Applications -> Accessories –> Terminal)
- Install prerequisites – In a terminal window execute the following commands (you can skip remark likes which start with #):
# Install packages that are required and Install b43 driver and firmware, when asked if you’d like to fetch and extract firmware – say YES
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install build-essential curl git-core b43-fwcutter sudo modprobe b43
# Get, compile, and install the latest ssb-sprom tool
git clone git://git.bues.ch/b43-tools.git cd b43-tools/ssb_sprom make sudo cp ssb-sprom /usr/sbin/ sudo chmod 755 /usr/sbin/ssb-sprom sudo chown root:root /usr/sbin/ssb-sprom
- Update the sprom – Open up a terminal window and execute the following commands:
SSB_SPROM=$(find /sys/devices -name ssb_sprom) echo $SSB_SPROM cd ~ sudo cat $SSB_SPROM > ssb_sprom_copy ssb-sprom -i ssb_sprom_copy -P ssb-sprom -i ssb_sprom_copy --subv --subp --regrev 0x0001 --ccode US -o new_ssb_sprom_copy ssb-sprom -i new_ssb_sprom_copy -P echo $SSB_SPROM sudo cp new_ssb_sprom_copy $SSB_SPROM
IMPORTANT: Changing regrev and ccode is only needed if the max. bandwith of your n-draft WIFI card is limited (like on some DE cards). To get full 300mbit just insert the red text – if you already have 300mbit its not needed.
(Look in the table below to get the vendor/product ID for your card)
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There.. you are done.. boot into OSX and check out your wireless now…
Card compatibility list:
| Model Number | Original Product ID / Vendor ID | Patch to… | Result |
| BCM4311, revision 01 | Product: 0x1364 / Vendor: 0x103C | Vendor: 0x106B / Product: 0x0087 | Ok |
| BCM4311, revision 02 | Product: 0x1375 / Vendor: 0x103C | Vendor: 0x106B / Product: 0x0087 | Ok |
| BCM4312, revision 01 | Product: 0x0007 / Vendor: 0x1028 | Vendor: 0x106B / Product: 0x004E | Ok |
| BCM4321, revision 03 | Product: 0x1028 / Vendor: 0x0226 | Vendor: 0x106B / Product: 0x008C | Ok |
| BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03) | Product: 0x000A / Vendor: 0x1028 | Vendor: 0x106B / Product: 0x008B | Ok |
| BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01) | Product: 0x1380 / Vendor: 0x103C | Vendor: 0x106B / Product: 0x0093 | Ok |
Notes:
* If you are re-branding a card to work in a HP NC**** machine, then use Vendor: 0x103c and Product: 0x136 – it will allow you to use a broadcom instead of intel