Getting AirPort Management Utility to Run on Intel Macs

September 27, 2006 - 11:34pm

I hate it when Apple makes good software and then abandons it entirely, then goes on to update the OS such that it breaks horribly. Or, in some cases, simply fail to include required frameworks entirely.

As a part of the move to Intel, some moron at Apple decided that he didn’t need to port the AirPortConfig framework because things worked fine without it. No, they don’t. After I reinstalled my system I couldn’t run the AirPort Management Utility because it said, crazily enough, I didn’t have AirPort 3.4 or higher. AirPort 3.4 is two years old.

After sliding through some Internet tubes I found this enlightening Apple Discussions port which says, in short:

Download this.
Go inside the package and pull Archive.pax.gz out and onto your desktop.
Double-click to expand.
Grab the AirPortConfig.framework file out of its PrivateFrameworks folder and put it into your /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks folder.
Run AirPort Management Utility.

For those worried about binary compatibility, don’t. AMU is a PPC app, as is the library. It was completely omitted from the system, so other things obviously don’t require it.

About Adam Knight

Location
Austin, TX

Home page/site
http://www.hopelessgeek.com/

Author Biography

Adam Knight is one of the founders of Mac Geekery and is a geek at heart. Programmer by day, hacker by night, his daily life revolves around the Macintosh platform, which he has been a user and programmer for since the early days of System 7 when his LCII replaced his Apple //c.

In-between tech jobs, he’s managed to learn the basics of any web hacker: PHP, MySQL, Perl, Apache, Linux, *BSD, and the intricacies of ./configure —prefix=~/bombshelter/. Today, codepoet is concentrating on blogging again, writing some software for the Mac by himself (including Notae) and for his company (such as Photonic) and has a few other toys coming out soon.

Bug him over AIM or email [link fixed].

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September 28, 2006 - 7:48am

diamondsw said

Framework already existed on my MacBook Pro with 10.4.7, and I know I’ve never done anything like this before. Airport Management Utility ran without a hitch. I can confirm that the framework is PPC only.

September 28, 2006 - 8:06am

Adam Knight said

Right, and as I mentioned, this worked on my first install on this machine. It’s only after I reinstalled it that I had the problem. Did you use the Migration Assistant when you first setup the machine?

September 28, 2006 - 10:06am

diamondsw said

Actually, I did use the Migration Assistant – perhaps it caught it and brought it along. If so, nice work, Apple.

September 28, 2006 - 8:55am

sparrow said

Airport Management Utility also works fine on my MacBook Pro, even after I’ve reinstalled. And I didn’t use the Migration Assisstant either.

April 8, 2007 - 2:43am

plaintiger said

well AMU wouldn’t run on my 17” PowerBook – even after the first install – for the same reason it wouldn’t run on Adam’s machine. i applied the fix and now it works fine. thanks Adam!

November 5, 2007 - 10:44am

Joshua Ochs said

Will there be an update to this hint, since this framework apparently causes significant Airport problems on Leopard? There are numerous reports of the Airport card vanishing entirely in the presence of this framework.

November 29, 2007 - 1:44pm

Adam Knight said

The management utilities are not compatible with Leopard. As the tags on this article indicate, this tip is Tiger-only.

Sorry. :\

December 10, 2007 - 1:03pm

Tech_at_MSAD6 said

This is absolutely great! I have multiple computers to manage in multiple elementary schools. Any way that I can minimize the miles I drive in these Maine winters is worthwhile.
But – working in a public school system, I often cope with legacy equipment. I have more Snow Airports than Extreme. And I find that the Airport Management Utility will not allow me to manage my Snow airports (firmware 4.0.9) – only the Extreme airports (firmware version 5.5.1). I am working on a MacBook Pro running 10.4.11.
Is there a fix up your sleeve for this, as well?

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