For the first time ever - Realtek PCI WLAN (RTL8822CE) sees a byte on macOS
A finest piece of art. Absolute cinema, as one might say.
Decided to revisit hackintoshing my 14s (Ryzen 3 5300U) 2-3 years after I initially couldn't install Big Sur on it due to NVMe ASPM issues. Buying a Mac has influenced my decision on doing that as well.
Got it up and running, everything was working superb.....except for WiFi
Thought about going to a local store to pick up an Intel card (for itlwm) or a Fenvi BCM (for all of the bells and whistles of an Apple product). But no. Another community member buying an another card, instead of making what they have work, would mean an another device with a Realtek card that doesn't have support for macOS, extending the case of "no it's never going to work" even further in time.
Then, I started actually looking thru things...itlwm is mostly based off OpenBSD's iwlwifi, and macOS compatibility was achieved via writing a compatibility layer, usually abbreviated as KPI. Then, I went deeper: FreeBSD uses rtw88...from Linux....with nearly 0 edits... How do they do that? By writing LinuxKPI, which is a compatibility layer that translates Linux APIs and ABI symbols to BSD. So I thought to myself => Why don't I do that as well?
With a good bunch of a week before my exam session starts (up until today), I've done exactly that. Not exactly me, but also a buddy of mine who prefers to stay unmentioned.
Introducing....Feixiao! A (partly vibeslopped) project that brings rtw88 to macOS.
Right as of now, it can do this:
- Scan networks across 30+ channels (2.4GHz-5GHz)
- Join Open 2.4GHz networks (for now)
- Actually download/upload stuff.
Roadmap currently is blurred, because joining WPA networks is current priority (4-way EAPOL/HMAC isn't implemented yet), joining 5GHz networks do not work yet (minor DMA violations when driver asks the card for a RFcal recalibration).
But, it's possible. It always was possible. Question was simple and clear: why? But now, it's no longer a question, it's just a "well I have to get it working completely"
I'll be happy to answer all of your questions!
Posted Jun 3, 2026, 1:14 PM UTC