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Half Mini PCIE Network Cards For Handoff/Continuity Support

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lunaoso

lunaoso

Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
123
Motherboard
Razer Blade 15 (2018)
CPU
I7-8750H
Graphics
GTX 1070HQ
Mac
  1. iMac
  2. MacBook
  3. Mac mini
Classic Mac
  1. iBook
  2. iMac
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
Hi, as you can see in my system description, I have a GA H87N Wifi motherboard, which is mITX and has a 16x PCIe slot and a half mini PCIe slot for the network card. The included card does not work for wifi, and with that, continuity or handoff. I use ethernet for internet, but I would like to add these features to my build.

The 16x slot is taken up by my graphics card, so the remaining option is to use a half mini PCIe card. I've been checking out the BCM94352HMB: http://www.amazon.com/AzureWave-Broadcom-BCM94352HMB-802-11-867Mbps/dp/B00IFYEYXC, which seems perfect as it has AC wireless for if I do end up needing wifi in the future, and bluetooth 4.0.

My only question though is does it work with continuity and handoff? I see most people using the BCM94360CD, which I would use, but its full height mini PCIe, which will not fit in my motherboard due to size constraints. I could get an adapter but I'd rather not go that route, and I'm not sure how I'd get 4 antennae to fit.

So will the above card work with continuity and handoff, even if it requires a few hacks, or are there any other options that would help me, and probably many others? Thanks in advance for your time and help.
 
The Orange Box
Z97-A |  i5 4690K |  GeForce GTX 1070 SC2
lunaoso said:
... I've been checking out the BCM94352HMB: http://www.amazon.com/AzureWave-Broadcom-BCM94352HMB-802-11-867Mbps/dp/B00IFYEYXC, which seems perfect as it has AC wireless for if I do end up needing wifi in the future, and bluetooth 4.0.

My only question though is does it work with continuity and handoff?
Click to expand...

It does.

BCM94352 requirements:
- FakePCIID.kext and FakePCIID_BCM94352Z_as_BCM94360CS2.kext: https://github.com/RehabMan/OS-X-Fake-PCI-ID. Install with Kext Wizard to /S/L/E.
- BrcmPatchRAM.kext: https://github.com/RehabMan/OS-X-BrcmPatchRAM. Install with Kext Wizard to /S/L/E.
- 5Ghz patch for WiFi documented here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/104850-guide-airport-pcie-half-mini-v2.html
- handoff patch for bluetooth documented here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/104850-guide-airport-pcie-half-mini-v2.html
 
Awesome! That was the news I was hoping to hear! I'll order it and hopefully be able to report back with success. I'll try to give a sort of basic guide as well to help out any fellow mITX hackintoshers that need it :).
 
The Orange Box
Z97-A |  i5 4690K |  GeForce GTX 1070 SC2
The card came in today and it works without a hitch thanks to Rehab Man's instructions! This was the order in which I did things:


  1. Install the card.
  2. Booted up OS X, saw that bluetooth and wifi both weren't working, which was expected.
  3. Went to https://github.com/RehabMan/OS-X-Fake-PCI-ID per Rehab Man's instructions. On github I found the download link for the files and downloaded the most recent one.
  4. Repeated step 3 for BrcmPatchRAM.kext but on https://github.com/RehabMan/OS-X-BrcmPatchRAM, again, as per Rehab Man's instructions.
  5. I opened up Kext Wizard and dragged "FakePCIID.kext", "FakePCIID_BCM94352Z_as_BCM94360CS2.kext", and "BrcmPatchRAM.kext" into the window and hit install. (The first two are in ~/Downloads/RehabMan-FakePCIID-Year-Date; while the last one is in ~/Release)
  6. Rebooted and found that Wifi and Bluetooth were working to perfection.
  7. Went to [Guide] Airport - PCIe Half Mini v2 (again following Rehab Man's instructions) and then to Toleda's github page (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here, but its on the airport guide).
  8. On the github page I discovered that I needed the "wireless_bcm94352-100-v3.0a.command.zip" file, so I clicked that, clicked view raw, and that downloaded and unzipped the file.
  9. This is where it got a little tricky. Just double clicking the command file said I didn't have the proper permissions, so I had to open terminal and run this command:
    Code: 
    chmod u+x ~/Downloads/wireless_bcm94352-100-v3.0a.command
  10. That made the command executable, so I just double-clicked it from there.That opened a new terminal window with instructions. I wanted patch option 2- "Handoff/BCM94352/US-FCC". So, I entered 2 and hit enter. I waited until it was finished and then restarted.
  11. Boom 5GHz wifi, Bluetooth 4.0, airdrop, and continuity/handoff all working perfectly. It took a few minutes for handoff to start working between my computer and iPhone, but after that it worked almost instantly.

I hope this guide helps anyone like me that was kind of overwhelmed by all of the info at first. The BCM94352HMB worked in my Gigabyte GA-H87N-Wifi perfectly. Good luck! :D
 
The Orange Box
Z97-A |  i5 4690K |  GeForce GTX 1070 SC2
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