domenica 31 gennaio 2016

Apple AirPort Utility 5.6.1 on El Capitan

I have an "ancient" :-) but still working AirPort Extreme (mod. A1034).
The latest AirPort Utility included with El Capitan, can see my AirPort Extreme base station but cannot manage it.
The latest version of AirPort Utility be able to configure the A1034 model is 5.6.1 still available on Apple Support site at this link https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1536 but, is not working on El Capitan (or is it?).

Well, it turned out that AirPort Utility 5.6.1 can also run on El Capitan despite its icon's prohibition sign


Follow along this guide to know how.

First of all, you need to download the Apple AirPort Utility from the link above, plus this little Apple Script utility, AirPort Utility 5.6.1 Launcher, by Corey J. Mahler from his site here.

  • Create a new folder on the desktop. For this example I'll name it Foo.
  • Double click AirPortUtility.dmg downloaded from Apple support site
  • Open Terminal and issue the following commands


cd ~/Desktop/Foo
xar -xf /Volumes/AirPortUtility/AirPortUtility.pkg
cat AirPortUtility.pkg/Payload | gunzip -dc | cpio -i

Open the Foo folder and rename Utility AirPort as AirPort Utility 5.6.1


The last step is very important, otherwise Mahler's Script does not work.

  • Create another folder on the desktop, in my example AirPortUtil561
  • Move AirPort Utility 5.6.1 and AirPort-Utility-5.6.1-Launcher.app_.zip inside AirPortUtil561
  • Open folder AirPortUtil561
  • Double click AirPort-Utility-5.6.1-Launcher.app_.zip
  • Trash AirPort-Utility-5.6.1-Launcher.app_.zip
  • Trash the desktop Foo folder

The final result in AirPortUtil561 folder is


Double click AirPort Utility 5.6.1 Launcher to start the old AirPort Utility 5.6.1

*** Enjoy

You can put AirPortUtil561 wherever you want as long as you include the two items above.
I tested this on El Capitan but should also work on Yosemite and Mavericks.

*** Dismiss the warning about a new AirPort Utility version when the program launches.