Intel Wi-Fi Kext w/ Auto-connect tools [Catalina]

[paox2za]

As we all know that multiple Intel Wi-Fi kexts are under development for quite a while. There are 2 kexts that currently working, AppleIntelWiFi.kext by a Chinese Developer (zhong?) and itlwm.kext and itlwmx.kext by zxystd. I believe the kext pretty much support majority of the Intel Wi-Fi, but you can follow PhaNtazm thread for more info. However, they are still not complete, you need to manually change the Wi-Fi SSID and password and load the kext every time you want to connect to a network. After googling around, I've found a pretty useful tool created by 林嘉杰 using BitBar, but in Chinese, so I decided to translate it into English version. It's a little taskbar tool for easily change and connect to different WiFi network easily. You can also save a credential for auto connect every time you startup your computer. This tool will use AppleIntelWiFi.kext because the zxystd's kext are built as a Ethernet device. The latest version of the kext is 1.2.5 but I decided to use 1.2.3 instead, since it's more stable for my card.

Spoiler: Supported Devices:

6 series:
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_22500_1 0x2723 /* Wi-Fi 6 AX200 */ (ver 1.8.1)

9000 series:
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_9260_1 0x2526 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 9260 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_9560_1 0x9df0 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 9560 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_9560_2 0xa370 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 9560 */

8000 series：
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_8260_1 0x24f3 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 8260 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_8260_2 0x24f4 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 8260 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_8265_1 0x24fd /* Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 */

7000 series：
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_7260_1 0x08b1 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 7260 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_7260_2 0x08b2 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 7260 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_7265_1 0x095a /* Dual Band Wireless AC 7265 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_7265_2 0x095b /* Dual Band Wireless AC 7265 */

3000 series：
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_3165_1 0x3165 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 3165 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_3165_2 0x3166 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 3165 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_3160_1 0x08b3 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 3160 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_3160_2 0x08b4 /* Dual Band Wireless AC 3160 */
#define PCI_PRODUCT_INTEL_WL_3168_1 0x24fb /* Dual Band Wireless-AC 3168 */

Main selling point of original package is provide wifi switching without reboot system, when replacing kext to ver 1.2.3, this feature will be lost, if only provide auto connect feature then this package became meaningless.

As suggested by shuhung, if you want the wifi switching feature, please use the ver 1.2.5 instead of ver 1.2.3 which I found more stable.

Before starting the installation, please uninstall all previous Intel Wi-Fi kext and make sure that they are not being loaded before installation by checking it in terminal as example below

kextstat | grep itlwm

If the output is empty, it means that the kext is not running.​

1. Installation

1.1 Double-click install.command to execute the installation​

1.2 Drag Bitbar.app to the application directory​

1.3 Open Bitbar. Then it will prompt you to select the Plugin Folder, if not, click the Bitbar icon on taskbar, then "Preferense" -> "Change Plugin Folder".​

1.4 Please navigate and select /Users/Shared/MenubarTools/ as the Plugin Folder. Then the Bitbar icon on taskbar will change to a blue network icon.​

1.5 Set Bitbar to run at every startup by clicking network icon on the taskbar, then "Preferense" -> "Open at Login"​

2. Setting up the connection for the first time

2.1 Click the tool icon on taskbar, select "Join other networks...", fill in a connectable SSID and password. Then restart your machine. After restarted, the connection should be automatically connected to provided network.​

2.2 Open terminal and type​

networksetup -listallhardwareports

2.3 Identify your Wi-Fi network interface in the output, the output should look like​

Hardware Port: Ethernet
Device: en0
Ethernet Address: 11:22:33:44:55:66

Hardware Port: Wi-Fi (here is the Wi-Fi network connection name)
Device: en2 (This is the interface name you need for the next step)
Ethernet Address: d0:c6:37:b8:10:eb

Hardware Port: Bluetooth PAN
Device: en1
Ethernet Address: d0:c6:37:b8:10:ef

2.4 Click the tool on taskbar, select "Set Network Interface", fill in the interface name (Device) found above, and click Refresh. The Wi-Fi Network Information should showed up.​

​

Note 1: Each time you turn on the computer, it will automatically connect to the last saved network.
Note 2: Only 1 network credential can be saved at a time.
Note 3: To connect to other network, click Refresh and choose the network you wish to connect and fill in the password. It will then automatically connect to the new network.
Note 4: To connect to Wi-Fi networks that are not listed, you can click "Join Other Network..." and fill in both SSID and password to connect.
Note 5: There are 2 options when you connect to a new network, "Connect" - temporary connect to a network (Credential won't be saved) and "Save and Connect" - save as a default network credential and connect to the network.
Note 6: To reconnect to the network with the saved credential, simply Turn the Wi-Fi Off and On with the tool.

 

[shuhung]

The latest version of the kext is 1.2.5 but I decided to use 1.2.3 instead

Main selling point of original package is provide wifi switching without reboot system, when replacing kext to ver 1.2.3, this feature will be lost, if only provide auto connect feature then this package became meaningless.

 

[paox2za]

Main selling point of original package is provide wifi switching without reboot system, when replacing kext to ver 1.2.3, this feature will be lost, if only provide auto connect feature then this package became meaningless.

Hi, shuhung. Thanks for the information. Since I only connect to one network, I didn't realize it. I probably gonna stick with ver 1.2.3 since I barely switch between networks. I find more package loss on ver 1.2.5.