WIFI-6E 6ghz bands NOT being detected (airportltlwm.kext / AX211 WiFI)

[rbelusko]

First Hackintosh post. Basically everything works perfectly, with the exception that my WiFI is not picking up my 6ghz band from my Ubiquiti U6 Enterprise WAP . I've seen posts about WiFi-6 compatibility, but I haven't seen anything directly related to the 6ghz bands. Is detection of the 6ghz bands possible? With patches? Any help is appreciated.

FYI airportltlwm version is 2.3.0 alpha for Sonoma. The on-board WiFI 6 chip is AX211. 2.4/5ghz WiFi bands are detected properly.

Hardware:

• Asus Z790-Prime-A-WIFI
• 13900K with Corsair RGB Commander Core cooler (works with OpenRGB)
• Radeon AMD-6600
• G-Skill RGB ram (works with OpenRGB)
• 10gTEK 10G Fiber / on-board 2.5GB LAN

Services working:

• Audio/Video
• Airplay/Airdrop/Bluetooth/WiFi (sort of....)
• Acronis CyberProtect for Windows (for backup/recovery)

I've also attached a list of my kexts. Does anyone see anything that's not needed? Or anything missing?

Happy to share sections of my EFI if it can help others solve a problem that I've been through! Just reply/message.

Thanks!
Bob

 

[Edhawk]

You have Airportitlwm.kext and Itlwm.kext in your /EFI/OC/Kexts folder, and I assume they are both enabled in your config.plist. This is a big NO, NO. The two kexts should never be used together.

I would recommend deleting Itlwm.kext from your Kexts folder and config.plist.

I don't need to use CPUFriend.kext & CPUFriendDataProvider.kext along with CPUTopologyRebuild.kext. You should either use the first two kexts or the TopologyRebuild kext, not all three kexts together.

Never seen macUSPCIO.kext before. I just read the information for this kext and I don't think your system actually needs it. Not unless you are debugging a PCI driver. This is the blurb from the Kexts GitHub page.

This driver (kext) is built using IOKit to allow communication between a user space application and the IO Space of a PCI Device. The driver is intended as an aid in writing other drivers in user space first where it is easier to debug and test before converting to kernel space. Apple's new DriverKit provides similar benefits but does not yet expose all functionalities available in IOKit.​

​

The driver can be configured to match with any pci device specified in the info.plist -> IOKitPersonalities -> macUSPCIO -> IOPCIClassMatch (or any other matching property)​

Are you doing anything of this nature? If not, delete the kext from your setup.

 

[rbelusko]

Thanks - Itlwm.ext was disabled, but there. I deleted it.
I tried deleting your suggested kexts. The system panicked without CPUFriend and CPUFriendDataProvider. However it worked if I kept those but deleted TopologyRebuild.

Also deleted macUSPCIO. Can't even remember why I put it there now, I think I was following some guide early on. Works fine without it.

Still no luck on getting that 6ghz wifi band though.

Not doing anything special. Every day use. I was trying to run some Windows 10/11 VMs in VMWare Fusion, but they kept crashing randomly so I gave up. I'm now wondering if that was actually rooted in an OpenCore configuration problem.

 

[Edhawk]

How are you seeing the WiFi-6 band as not working?
What download speed are you getting with your AX211 card?

Here is what OpenIntelWireless FAQ says about poor performance:

Performance SUCKS​

Using the latest stable version (v2.1.0) connected to 5 GHz (160 MHz), the expected maximum speed is 950 Mbps for download and 650 Mbps for upload.

Tested with 9560AC & AX201 using iperf3

Performance is expected to have no difference when compared with other OS in 802.11AC mode.

So the chances of you getting WiFi-6 working on top of WiFi-5 with either kext looks unlikely, as both Kexts appear to be speed capped as stated above.

Given there have been a few updates to the kexts since the information above was posted, it may have changed but if the WiFi-6 band was active, I am fairly sure they would have stated that quite clearly somewhere on there site.

 

[rbelusko]

How are you seeing the WiFi-6 band as not working?
What download speed are you getting with your AX211 card?

I have a special WiFi band with only 6 ghz. My hackintosh will not see it in the list of available WiFi networks.

Connected to the 5G band, I get about 330 mbps.

When booted into Windows 11 on the same machine, I can see the 6GHZ band, and it's over 1500 mbps.

 

[Edhawk]

Is your special WiFi-6 band's SSID hidden? If yes, Airportitlwm.kext will not see it and will not connect.

Only Itlwm.kext using the Heliport app might see the hidden SSID and WiFi-6 channel.

You need to read up about the different ways the two intel WiFi kexts work before switching. As they don't work in similar ways. Airportitlwm.kext uses the built-in WiFi software in macOS. Itlwm.kext requires a separate app (Heliport) and makes macOS think the WiFi device is another Ethernet device.

 

[rbelusko]

Not a hidden band.. my iPhone 15 pro, and the Asus Z790 (booted into Windows) sees the 6ghz band both see the 6ghz band just fine.

I prefer Airportitlwm because it uses the native WiFi and offers the native features, such as Airdrop, which work.

But, I also tried Itlwm and it has the same behavior: ~330 mbps and will not find the 6ghz network.

 

[Edhawk]

That’s low, do you have any old WiFi devices, i.e. pre AC WiFi devices, on your network that might limit the throughput?

My Linksys WiFi 5 Router caps the WiFi speed at around 700 mbps. I am not sure if this is native to the Router or caused by a setting the broadband provider has implemented.

 

[rbelusko]

Shouldn't be. My iPhone 15 Pro, and the Windows side of this system both get full speed on the WiFi 6ghz band. I'm going to have to do more research, but leaning towards this being a current limitation.