AirportRTW

AirportRTW is a macOS Wi-Fi driver for supported Realtek RTW89 PCIe cards. It provides a native Airport-style Wi-Fi interface, so Realtek wireless cards appear in the system Wi-Fi menu without a companion app.

The driver’s modular architecture is adapted from the OpenIntelWireless/itlwm project, connecting the Realtek backend to a native macOS Wi-Fi stack.

Supported Hardware

Wi-Fi	Controllers
Wi-Fi 7	RTL8922AE
Wi-Fi 6E	RTL8852CE
Wi-Fi 6	RTL8851BE, RTL8852AE, RTL8852BE, RTL8852BTE

Features

• Native Wi-Fi Interface: Appears in the system Wi-Fi menu and Control Center
• RTW89 PCIe Support: Covers the RTL8851/8852/8922 families
• WPA2/WPA3: Standard modern Wi-Fi security
• Actively Developed: Ongoing work, including experimental macOS Tahoe support

Installation

1. Install Lilu first
2. Download AirportRTW.kext from GitHub
3. Copy AirportRTW.kext to EFI/OC/Kexts/
4. Ensure Lilu loads before AirportRTW in Kernel > Add

macOS Tahoe (26) — Experimental

Tahoe support is experimental and uses the Ventura 13 build with a restored legacy Wi-Fi stack. Keep a working recovery USB and back up your EFI first.

1. Copy AirportRTW.kext from the Ventura 13 build to EFI/OC/Kexts.
2. Add current, mutually compatible builds of Lilu.kext, AMFIPass.kext, IOSkywalkFamily.kext, and IO80211FamilyLegacy.kext. Obtain the restored Apple networking components through OpenCore Legacy Patcher, not from unofficial kext archives.
3. In OpenCore Kernel -> Add, load the kexts in this order: Lilu, AMFIPass, IOSkywalkFamily, IO80211FamilyLegacy, then AirportRTW. For AirportRTW use Contents/MacOS/AirportRTW as ExecutablePath and restrict the entry to Darwin 25.0.0–25.99.99.
4. In Kernel -> Block, block com.apple.iokit.IOSkywalkFamily with strategy Exclude for Darwin 25.0.0–25.99.99, allowing the restored version to load.
5. Set Misc -> Security -> SecureBootModel to Disabled, boot through OpenCore, and apply OCLP’s Post-Install Root Patch. OCLP determines the required SIP/AMFI changes; do not copy security values from an unrelated machine.
6. Reboot and verify the stack with kmutil showloaded | grep -Ei 'AirportRTW|IO80211|Skywalk'.

Root patches are normally removed by macOS updates and must be reapplied. OCLP’s Tahoe wireless work remains in development; check its Tahoe support tracker before updating.

FAQ

Which cards are supported?

AirportRTW targets Realtek RTW89 PCIe cards: RTL8851BE, RTL8852AE, RTL8852BE, RTL8852BTE, RTL8852CE, and RTL8922AE.

Does it work with Broadcom or Intel cards?

No. This is a Realtek driver. For Broadcom use AirportBrcmFixup, and for Intel use itlwm.

Is macOS Tahoe support stable?

Not yet. Tahoe support is experimental and requires a restored legacy Wi-Fi stack via OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

Related Kexts

• Lilu - Required dependency
• itlwm - Intel Wi-Fi driver (architectural basis)
• AirportBrcmFixup - Broadcom Wi-Fi patches
• BlueToolFixup - Bluetooth patches for macOS Monterey and later

Resources

• GitHub Repository
• Download Latest Release
• OpenCore Legacy Patcher