# A Realtek Wi-Fi driver package for Intel Macs that need a kext you cannot get otherwise > Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter is a packaged driver installer that makes Realtek 802.11n and 802.11ac USB Wi-Fi adapters work on Intel Macs and Hackintosh machines running macOS 10.14.6 through macOS Tahoe 26. It is a binary driver distribution with no source, and it asks you to turn off SIP and Gatekeeper to install it. **chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter** — Drivers for Realtek 802.11n and 802.11ac USB Wi-Fi adapters. Packages for macOS Hackintosh PC or Laptop - Repository: https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter - Website: https://chris1111.github.io/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter/ - Stars: 623 · Forks: 58 - Language: Shell - License: not declared - Published: 2026-10-22 · Updated: 2026-10-22 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/chris1111-wireless-usb-oc-big-sur-adapter ## What problem the package actually solves Apple stopped shipping drivers for most third party USB Wi-Fi chips years ago, so a Realtek adapter that works on Windows is a dead device on a Mac. This repository exists to fill that gap for Intel Macs and Hackintosh machines. The drivers covered are for Realtek 802.11n and 802.11ac USB adapters, and the project credits Realtek as the main builder of the chips. There is one hard exclusion stated at the top of the documentation: it does not work on Mediatek adapters, and a separate utility project is linked for those. The supported operating systems are listed explicitly, running from macOS Mojave 10.14.6 up through macOS Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14, Sequoia 15 and macOS Tahoe 26, with the instruction not to use it on other systems. The audience is narrow but real: Hackintosh PC and laptop builders, and anyone using the OpenCore Legacy Patcher. A detail that frames the whole project appears early. The documentation states there is no source for this project and that all the Wi-Fi companies have abandoned it, as well as Realtek the main builder. What you are installing is redistributed closed binary drivers plus an installer, not code you can read or patch. ## SIP has to be off, and that is the price of admission The install requirements are the part to read twice. The documentation states that to use any release, SIP Security must be disabled, fully disabled, and gives the command: ``` - csrutil disable ``` That is not a suggestion. A kernel extension that ships no source and is not signed by a recognised authority will not load under System Integrity Protection, so the requirement is structural rather than cautious. Gatekeeper is the second hurdle, and the documentation calls it out specifically for macOS Sequoia 15, linking to a separate Disable-Gatekeeper project with instructions for that path. The driver package therefore depends on two other repositories by the same author, and a third for OpenCore Legacy Patcher modifications. There is a second, narrower requirement that has appeared with recent macOS builds. Since some beta, the documentation says you need to disable the SecureBootModel setting, pointing at the Misc / Security section of the OpenCore configuration. On a Hackintosh that means editing your OpenCore config, and on a real Mac it means the equivalent firmware-adjacent setting. There is also a thread in the repository about running with SIP security enabled. Whether that path is reliable for you depends on the driver in question, and the documentation does not claim otherwise. ## The package, the status bar app and the OpenCore variant The repository layout reflects how the tool is distributed. There is a Package Source directory, a set of markdown guides including Usage-macOS-Tahoe.md, support.md, update.md and usb-mode-switching.md, and an index.md with a GitHub Pages configuration in _config.yml. The homepage is a GitHub Pages site built from the same content. The OpenCore package is the current line of development. The documentation points to a separate repository, WirelessUSB-Big-Sur-Adapter, for Clover users, and describes the OpenCore package as the one to use with OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Beyond the driver itself, the package includes a status bar application. The update history shows it being reworked repeatedly: a status bar app update and background change in July 2024, an instruction to open the StatusBarApp before reboot in January 2022, support for a page.html inside the program in December 2021, and a check of SIP status in August 2021 with a checkbox for auto start in July 2021. The November 2020 entry notes the project had moved to a blue Wi-Fi icon similar to Big Sur. Icons have been updated more recently, with a program icon update on 10 Jan 2026 and Wi-Fi icons on 18 Oct 2025. One legacy detail survives: a December 2021 entry mentions stripping and signing the nib with Xcode, which is the kind of step that tells you how old the underlying installer tooling is. ## A long compatibility list that doubles as a support boundary The most useful part of the documentation is the long list of known working and tested adapters. It runs to around seventy models across the obvious Realtek-based brands: TP-Link adapters including the Archer T2U, T3U, T4U and T9UH lines and the TL-WN723N and TL-WN725N ranges, Alfa AWUS036AC and AWUS036ACH, ASUS USB AC68, USB-N13 and USB Nano-AC53, EDIMAX models, D-Link DWA-121, DWA-131, DWA-171, DWA-182 and DWA-192, Netgear A6100, A6150 and A7000, Cudy WU1300S, WU1400 and WU700, COMFAST CF-811AC and CF-812AC, MERCUSYS MW300UM, UGreen CM448 and UGreen AC650, and a set of Realtek reference boards including the RTL8188, RTL8812BU, RTL8814AU and RTL8811CU. The entries are not all equal. Some are annotated, for instance the Fenvi AC1300 with its RTL8812BU, the Raimadim AC1300 with RTL8822BU, and the UGreen AC650, which carries a note pointing at usb-mode-switching.md, the document about USB mode switching for adapters that present themselves in more than one mode. This list is effectively the support boundary of the project. If your adapter is not on it, there is no confirmation that the driver combination works for your chipset, and the update history shows that adding an adapter to the list has been a manual step over the years. Contributors are asked for more than a symptom. The documentation states that you must give complete detailed information of your system and have the program log on a .TXT file, otherwise the issue could be deleted. ## What breaks, and the two hardware walls Two walls are stated clearly, and both are absolute. The first is Apple silicon. The documentation says it seems that it does not work on Mac M1, M2, M3 and M4 Apple chip, working only for Mac Intel. The phrasing leaves a little room, but the practical reading is that this is an Intel-only package. The second is the operating system range. The list of supported versions is closed, running from Mojave 10.14.6 through Tahoe 26, with an explicit instruction not to use it on other systems. Since macOS releases appear yearly and the update history shows support being added in batches (Ventura 13 in June 2022, Mojave 10.14.6 in July 2025, Tahoe 26 in July 2025), a new macOS release will not have a working package until someone adds it. There is also a security dimension that the documentation does not soften. Disabling SIP and Gatekeeper, and disabling SecureBootModel on a Hackintosh, means the machine is running with the platform protections that normally stop unsigned kernel code. On a machine that browses the web, that is a real trade-off, and no amount of configuration in this repository changes it. For a Hackintosh, the same applies with more force, since the machine is already running a modified system. ## MIT on the repository, no licence for the drivers inside The repository itself is published under the MIT licence, and the README links to the LICENSE file. That covers the documentation, the scripts in the Package Source directory and the support files in the repository. The drivers are a different matter. They are Realtek binaries redistributed by a third party, and the documentation states plainly that there is no source for the project and that the Wi-Fi companies and Realtek have abandoned it. Whether you are licensing those binaries correctly is a question the repository does not answer, and this is not legal advice, just the observation that an MIT licence on the wrapper does not settle the status of the payload. On upkeep, the picture is mixed. The last push was on 2026-06-17 and the repository is not archived, and the documentation records a program icon update on 10 Jan 2026, so someone is still touching the package. The only tagged release is V17, dated 2024-07-11, so the release artefact trails the commits by a long way. The pattern across the update list is reactive rather than planned. Each entry corresponds to a macOS release, an icon refresh, or a fix to the helper application. That is a reasonable way to maintain a driver package, and it also means the effective support window for any given macOS version is about as long as it takes the author to react. ## Conclusion Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter is worth trying when you have a Realtek USB Wi-Fi adapter on an Intel Mac or Hackintosh build that macOS no longer supports natively, and nothing else has given you a working connection. It is the wrong choice on Apple silicon, where the documentation states it does not work, and the wrong choice for anyone unwilling to disable SIP and Gatekeeper, since the install path requires both. Before running the installer, confirm your adapter appears in the known working list, check that your macOS version is between 10.14.6 and Tahoe 26, and read the Tahoe usage document, because the package is versioned V17 and the update history shows macOS support being added one release at a time. ## FAQ ### Does the Wireless USB OC Big Sur Adapter work on Apple silicon Macs? No. The documentation states it seems that it does not work on Mac M1, M2, M3 and M4 Apple chip, and that it works only for Mac Intel. It is aimed at Hackintosh PC and laptop builds and the OpenCore Legacy Patcher. ### Which USB Wi-Fi adapters are known to work with this driver package? The documentation lists around seventy tested adapters, including TP-Link Archer T2U, T3U, T4U and T9UH models, Alfa AWUS036AC and AWUS036ACH, ASUS USB AC68, EDIMAX, D-Link, Netgear, Cudy and COMFAST models, plus Realtek reference boards such as the RTL8812BU and RTL8814AU. Adapters not on that list have no confirmation of working support. ### What has to be disabled before installing the Realtek drivers? The documentation states that SIP Security must be fully disabled to use any release, giving the command csrutil disable. For macOS Sequoia 15 it also points to disabling Gatekeeper, and since some beta it says you need to disable the SecureBootModel setting under Misc / Security. ## Sources - [chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter on GitHub](https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter) - [Issues](https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter/issues) - [Project website](https://chris1111.github.io/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter/) - [README](https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/chris1111/Wireless-USB-OC-Big-Sur-Adapter/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/chris1111-wireless-usb-oc-big-sur-adapter