RealtekBluetoothFirmware

RealtekBluetoothFirmware is a kernel extension that uploads Realtek wireless Bluetooth firmware to provide native Bluetooth in macOS. The firmware binary files come from the Linux open-source project.

Overview

On Realtek combo cards, the Wi-Fi may be PCIe while the Bluetooth radio is an internal USB device. This kext matches that USB Bluetooth device and uploads its patch firmware. The chip is identified at runtime from its HCI version, so a board only needs its USB ID to be picked up.

Both Realtek firmware formats are supported — v1 (Realtech) and v2 (RTBTCore).

Features

• Native Bluetooth: Provides native Bluetooth functionality for Realtek combo cards
• Firmware Upload: Uploads patch firmware from Linux open-source sources
• Dual Format Support: Supports both v1 (Realtech) and v2 (RTBTCore) firmware formats
• Runtime Detection: Identifies the chip at runtime from HCI version

Installation

1. Download the latest release from GitHub
2. Copy RealtekBluetoothFirmware.kext to your EFI partition: EFI/OC/Kexts/
3. Add the kext to your config.plist under Kernel > Add
4. Reboot your system

Supported Devices

See the Supported Devices documentation for a full list of supported USB Bluetooth IDs.

Related Kexts

• Feixiao - Realtek PCIe Wi-Fi driver (the Wi-Fi half of combo cards)
• IntelBluetoothFirmware - Similar project for Intel Bluetooth
• BrcmPatchRAM - Similar project for Broadcom Bluetooth

Resources

• GitHub Repository
• Supported Devices
• Installation Guide
• Download Latest Release