2011 MacBook Pros can support Handoff/Continuity

[MikeMAC827]

I've been following the posts and tutorials and it's time I take the plunge. Problem is there are lots of methods and I'm lost as to which is the recommended process.

MBP 15" early 2011
- ordered CAX card from ibyqparts on eBay
- saved copy of the IO80211 kext
- used 0x3ED to change first instance of "Mac-" to my board id (Mac-94245A3940C91C80)

Question: do i have to patch the BluetoothFamily kext too like the MBA tutorial recommends?
- I'm planning on installing card and using kext loader to load mod. then reboot and cycle iCloud. Is that right?

This will officially be the first time I mod anything mac related so i'm not afraid to admit I have lots to learn. Any help is GREATLY appreciated so i hopefully don't permanently mess up my laptop's wifi & BT capabilities

Thanks

 

[Lem3ssie]

I've been following the posts and tutorials and it's time I take the plunge. Problem is there are lots of methods and I'm lost as to which is the recommended process.

MBP 15" early 2011
- ordered CAX card from ibyqparts on eBay
- saved copy of the IO80211 kext
- used 0x3ED to change first instance of "Mac-" to my board id (Mac-94245A3940C91C80)

Question: do i have to patch the BluetoothFamily kext too like the MBA tutorial recommends?
- I'm planning on installing card and using kext loader to load mod. then reboot and cycle iCloud. Is that right?

This will officially be the first time I mod anything mac related so i'm not afraid to admit I have lots to learn. Any help is GREATLY appreciated so i hopefully don't permanently mess up my laptop's wifi & BT capabilities

Thanks

You have the same Mac id I have, so here is what you have to do, it's a 2 mn job, except for installing the card :

Download and unzip :
https://db.tt/ro0JtHJQ

Delete IO80211Family.kext from /Systeme/Library/Extensions

Reboot, wifi is now dead.

Copy unzipped IO80211Family.kext to /System/Library/Extensions

Terminal this :

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo chmod -R 644 /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

sudo kextcache -system-caches

Reboot.

Look for Handoff check box in System Preferences.

 

[Lem3ssie]

This worked for me, thanks a lot.

Don't use that one, this driver is very old.

 

[clemac]

You have the same Mac id I have, so here is what you have to do, it's a 2 mn job, except for installing the card :

Download and unzip :
https://db.tt/ro0JtHJQ

Delete IO80211Family.kext from /Systeme/Library/Extensions

Reboot, wifi is now dead.

Copy unzipped IO80211Family.kext to /System/Library/Extensions

Terminal this :

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo chmod -R 644 /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

sudo kextcache -system-caches

Reboot.

Look for Handoff check box in System Preferences.

tried this with my 2012 mid mbp. doesn't work...

 

[Lem3ssie]

Hey there, been reading this thread and the one on Apple's support forums for about 90 minutes now. Saw your posts on both and figured I would ask a quick question for you (since you seem to be consistently on top of things).


I have an A1286 MBP (Late 11) running Yosemite PB6 (10.10), iPhone 6 running iOS 8.0.2.

I have purchased the 4CAX card (due to arrive soon).

My question(s):

1) Your thorough tutorials mention the requirement of Yosemite Developer Preview and iOS beta. I do not have either. Does this affect the outcome of me following your tutorial given my info above?

2) Since it is rumored that the official Yosemite release is to be available as early as 10/17, in your opinion would you recommend waiting until I download that public OS release before attempting this BTLE 4.0 upgrade? I would assume there would be an iOS released shortly thereafter (could easily be wrong though!)


Thank you in advance for all of the support you have posted on these and other forums with this upgrade!

Yosemite DP and iOs beta were a requirement as Yosemite GM and ios 8 were not out yet, so I meant no Mavericks nor iOs 7.
You can easily do this tutorial with any OSX Yosemite or iOs 8 version you have. When Yosemite is released, you won't have anything to do as it's been 3 DP since the driver has been updated, i so suppose it won't be anytime soon.

You need iOs 8.1 for SMS relay to work, there is an option inside Messages app.
to activate it.

----------

tried this with my 2012 mid mbp. doesn't work...

What is yout Mac id ?, This driver was modified only for an early 2011 MacBook Pro.

ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'

 

[clemac]

Yosemite DP and iOs beta were a requirement as Yosemite GM and ios 8 were not out yet, so I meant no Mavericks nor iOs 7.
You can easily do this tutorial with any OSX Yosemite or iOs 8 version you have. When Yosemite is released, you won't have anything to do as it's been 3 DP since the driver has been updated, i so suppose it won't be anytime soon.

You need iOs 8.1 for SMS relay to work, there is an option inside Messages app.
to activate it.

----------



What is yout Mac id ?, This driver was modified only for an early 2011 MacBook Pro.

ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'

Mac-4B7AC7E43945597E

 

[luigi75]

Yosemite DP and iOs beta were a requirement as Yosemite GM and ios 8 were not out yet, so I meant no Mavericks nor iOs 7.
You can easily do this tutorial with any OSX Yosemite or iOs 8 version you have. When Yosemite is released, you won't have anything to do as it's been 3 DP since the driver has been updated, i so suppose it won't be anytime soon.

You need iOs 8.1 for SMS relay to work, there is an option inside Messages app.
to activate it.

----------



What is yout Mac id ?, This driver was modified only for an early 2011 MacBook Pro.

ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'

Hey Lem3ssie,
mine is a late 2011 15" MBP, same Mac-ID as yours. The driver you modified works for my MBP too.

 

[Lem3ssie]

Hey Lem3ssie,
mine is a late 2011 15" MBP, same Mac-ID as yours. The driver you modified works for my MBP too.

No it's not, late 2011 MacBook Pro has another one, but i may have added early and late Mac id in the same driver once to test, maybe it's this one you downloaded.

 

[zone23]

You have the same Mac id I have, so here is what you have to do, it's a 2 mn job, except for installing the card :

Download and unzip :
https://db.tt/ro0JtHJQ

Delete IO80211Family.kext from /Systeme/Library/Extensions

Reboot, wifi is now dead.

Copy unzipped IO80211Family.kext to /System/Library/Extensions

Terminal this :

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo chmod -R 644 /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

sudo kextcache -system-caches

Reboot.

Look for Handoff check box in System Preferences.

Don't use that one, this driver is very old.

OK thanks a lot. I assume the other post I quoted has the newer driver that I should be using?

 

[Lem3ssie]

OK thanks a lot. I assume the other post I quoted has the newer driver that I should be using?

You are right.

----------

Mac-4B7AC7E43945597E

Your Mac is already white listed by Apple, you don't have to do anything. Your mid 2012 MacBook Pro is already Handoff and Continuity capable.

 

[clemac]

You are right.

----------



Your Mac is already white listed by Apple, you don't have to do anything. Your mid 2012 MacBook Pro is already Handoff and Continuity capable.

This is exactly my problem! Look at my screenshot! gm3 is installed, but no ticking box is showing...
Any ideas?

 

[supraru]

After doing this:

Blair-MBox:~ xxxxx$ ioreg -l | grep "board-id" | awk -F\" '{print $4}'
Mac-94245A3940C91C80

It turns out my MBP, which I had stated was a late '11, has the same id as your early '11. Weird because it says "Late '11" on the "About this Mac" profiler. So, that being true, I am going to use the zipped .kext from the following post:

You have the same Mac id I have, so here is what you have to do, it's a 2 mn job, except for installing the card :

Download and unzip :
https://db.tt/ro0JtHJQ

Delete IO80211Family.kext from /Systeme/Library/Extensions

Reboot, wifi is now dead.

Copy unzipped IO80211Family.kext to /System/Library/Extensions

Terminal this :

sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1"

sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo chmod -R 644 /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel

sudo kextcache -system-caches

Reboot.

Look for Handoff check box in System Preferences.

Yosemite DP and iOs beta were a requirement as Yosemite GM and ios 8 were not out yet, so I meant no Mavericks nor iOs 7.
You can easily do this tutorial with any OSX Yosemite or iOs 8 version you have. When Yosemite is released, you won't have anything to do as it's been 3 DP since the driver has been updated, i so suppose it won't be anytime soon.

You need iOs 8.1 for SMS relay to work, there is an option inside Messages app.
to activate it.

----------

Thank you so much for this information, it answers all of my questions. Thanks for clearing up the OS requirements too. I am super-appreciative of this, as well as the idiots guide that you posted numerous times. I will report back after I compete the mod, although I expect no issues.

 

[supraru]

Hey Lem3ssie,
mine is a late 2011 15" MBP, same Mac-ID as yours. The driver you modified works for my MBP too.

luigi, looks like you and I are in the same boat. A little farther investigation reveals that I bought my machine precisely at the cutoff line between "early" and "late" 2011 models; I suspect you did as well. The cutoff is 10/11. If I remember correctly I purchased mine the third week in November, and one could assume that it somehow had Late '11 features ( I have the 2.5 GHz i7), but still had an Early '11 board ID like Lem3ssie's machine.

No it's not, late 2011 MacBook Pro has another one, but i may have added early and late Mac id in the same driver once to test, maybe it's this one you downloaded.

Just to clarify, as long as my board id comes up the same as yours, that .kext file you linked to in the post I quoted above will do the trick?

Thanks again.

 

[Lem3ssie]

luigi, looks like you and I are in the same boat. A little farther investigation reveals that I bought my machine precisely at the cutoff line between "early" and "late" 2011 models; I suspect you did as well. The cutoff is 10/11. If I remember correctly I purchased mine the third week in November, and one could assume that it somehow had Late '11 features ( I have the 2.5 GHz i7), but still had an Early '11 board ID like Lem3ssie's machine.



Just to clarify, as long as my board id comes up the same as yours, that .kext file you linked to in the post I quoted above will do the trick?

Thanks again.

Yes, I presume at least. Weird, but i'm pretty sure it will work.

 

[supraru]

Yes, I presume at least. Weird, but i'm pretty sure it will work.

Cool. luigi reported it worked already so there is no reason to not try. Thats why backups were invented. Thanks for the work on this.

----------

Wetransfer is far more reliable when integrity matters.

sorry Lem3ssie, one last question: you have a md5sum for your zipped file? I downloaded from the DB host, not the Wetransfer host.

 

[luigi75]

luigi, looks like you and I are in the same boat. A little farther investigation reveals that I bought my machine precisely at the cutoff line between "early" and "late" 2011 models; I suspect you did as well. The cutoff is 10/11. If I remember correctly I purchased mine the third week in November, and one could assume that it somehow had Late '11 features ( I have the 2.5 GHz i7), but still had an Early '11 board ID like Lem3ssie's machine.



Just to clarify, as long as my board id comes up the same as yours, that .kext file you linked to in the post I quoted above will do the trick?

Thanks again.

I definitely agree with you, supraru, the only difference is that I bought my MBP in may 2012... Strange, uh?
And yes, Mac-ID is the same as yours, and Lem3ssie's.

 

[zone23]

Don't use that one, this driver is very old.

Ok the driver in your download didn't work I now assume its because I need to edit it to work with my Macbook? the previous one was already modified.

Edit:

Ok I was able to fix it so thanks!

 

[Lem3ssie]

Cool. luigi reported it worked already so there is no reason to not try. Thats why backups were invented. Thanks for the work on this.

----------



sorry Lem3ssie, one last question: you have a md5sum for your zipped file? I downloaded from the DB host, not the Wetransfer host.

Just md5 in Terminal = 090346cfccb12f94c4bec257c3453a24

 

[supraru]

Just md5 in Terminal = 090346cfccb12f94c4bec257c3453a24

yep, same as what I downloaded. Thanks.

 

[bigdog5142]

I'm running an early 2011 15" MBP with the new Bluetooth card in it. I have applied all the kexts and Handoff works with Safari, Messages, Mail. However, it will not connect any iWork apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). Also, my iPhone is connecting but my iPad is not. I've signed in and out of iCloud on my iPad...wonder what's going on.

Any suggestions?

 

[Lem3ssie]

iPad 3 ?

 

[MikeMAC827]

Lem3ssie thank you so much for the instructions.
Ill try this out when the card arrives on Sat or Mon and post results

 

[bigdog5142]

iPad 3 ?

Nope...iPad Air. I reset the BT connection and re-paired...now it's connecting. However, the iWork suite still isn't working on anything. No Handoff at all for those apps. Everything else is working just fine. #

 

[Lem3ssie]

Nope...iPad Air. I reset the BT connection and re-paired...now it's connecting. However, the iWork suite still isn't working on anything. No Handoff at all for those apps. Everything else is working just fine. #

If I'm right, it has not been updated yet.

 

[supraru]

If I'm right, it has not been updated yet.

It is my understanding that this is correct; iWork suite release to come soon that supports the feature(s).