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Small Tree gigabit driver not loaded on Mac OS 10.6.x/10.7.x/10.8.x
Last Updated: 05/17/2013

Make sure you have the latest driver from the Small Tree website:

http://www.small-tree.com/Articles.asp?ID=198

Sometimes if Avid software is installed after Small Tree's gigabit driver, it could cause the gigabit driver to be disabled. In this case, one would just have to re-install the gigabit driver. To verify if the Small Tree driver is installed and attached to the Small Tree card, execute the following in a Terminal/shell window:

kextstat | grep Small

The response back should contain a line looking similar to:

   32    0 0xffffff7f80922000 0x25000    0x25000    com.SmallTree.iokit.Intel8254x (3.4.24) <31 9 5 4 3 1>

There is also a Mac OS has a bug which is more prevalent on 10.6.x/10.7.x/10.8.x on the newer macPro5,1's but is also seen on older Mac hardware systems. Apple loads it's Intel 8254 chipset based
driver instead of Small Tree's even if the onboard ethernet ports are NOT 8254 based.
For MacPro and Intel Xserve 4,1 and 5,1 models do the following to fix the problem:

bring up a terminal/shell window

#sudo sh (supply password)
#cd /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins/AppleIntel8254XEthernet.kext/Contents
#cp Info.plist / (this saves the original Info.plist under the root directory in case you need it later)
#vi Info.plist (or use an editor of your choice)

at around line 87 you will see a line containing

                        <string>0x10008086&0x0000ffff</string>

change the line above to:

                        <string>0x10f68086&0xffffffff</string>

now write the updated file out, then execute

#cd /System/Library/Extensions
#touch .

Next, bring up the System preferences GUI, select network icon, find each Small Tree port and delete them, then Apply the changes. It is necessary to delete any knowledge of the Small Tree ports and the reboot process which is the next step, will add them back in correctly.

Now reboot and the system should allow the Small Tree gigabit driver to control the gigabit card.

For MacPro and Intel Xserve 1,1 1,2 and 1,3 models do the following to fix the problem:

bring up a terminal/shell window

#sudo sh (supply password)
#cd /System/Library/Extensions/IONetworkingFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins/AppleIntel8254XEthernet.kext/Contents
#cp Info.plist / (this saves the original Info.plist under the root directory in case you need it later)
#vi Info.plist (or use an editor of your choice)

at around line 87 you will find line containing

<string>0x10008086&0x0000ffff</string>

change the line above to:

<string>0x10968086&0xffffffff</string>

now write the update file out, then execute

#cd /System/Library/Extensions
#touch .

Next, bring up the System preferences GUI, select network icon, find each Small Tree port and delete them, then Apply the changes. It is necessary to delete any knowledge of the Small Tree ports and
the reboot process which is the next step, will add them back in correctly.

Now reboot and the system should allow the Small Tree gigabit driver to control the gigabit card.

If you are attempting to setup a bond/lacp with a multi-port gigabit card and all of the ports do not become active, you may have to remove all the information that Mac OS knows about network ports and have mac OS recreate all the ports with new properties. Please see the following Knowledge Base article entitled:

How to request Mac OS to reorder Network Devices names correctly

http://www.small-tree.com/kb_results.asp?ID=45

to do this.