RTL8127 / RTL8127ATF 10GbE support for Apple Silicon Macs, as a signed and
notarized DriverKit extension. Download RTL8127-0.2.29.pkg, run it, approve
the driver once in System Settings, plug the card in. No recoveryOS, no
Reduced Security, no csrutil changes.
beta3 is the first release aware of macOS 27, which ships its own
Realtek driver (see below). It installs and runs on macOS 26 too; the
driver is the same as in beta2 (0.2.27), only the app changed. beta2 stays
available for people who want to keep the macOS 26 behaviour.
Validated on hardware (M5 Mac, macOS 26.6, RTL8127ATF SFP+ in a
Thunderbolt enclosure, DAC to a 10G switch, Linux iperf3 peer):
| Test | MTU 1500 | MTU 9000 |
|---|---|---|
| TX, 1 stream | 9.40 Gbit/s | 9.63 Gbit/s |
| RX, 1 stream | 9.38 Gbit/s | 9.89 Gbit/s |
| TX, 4 streams | 9.22 Gbit/s | 9.65 Gbit/s |
| RX, 4 streams | 9.39 Gbit/s | 9.89 Gbit/s |
| TX, 8 streams | 4.5 Gbit/s | 9.71 Gbit/s |
| RX, 8 streams | 9.39 Gbit/s | 9.77 Gbit/s |
DHCP, IPv4/IPv6, multicast (mDNS/Bonjour), Network.framework and BSD socket
traffic, TCP segmentation offload (IPv4/IPv6), checksum offload, jumbo frames
up to 9000, all exercised on the card.
What is in the package
RTL8127App.app (Applications): installs and removes the driver, showsnet.wizzz.RTL8127Dext.dext inside it: the DriverKit driver, Developer IDmacOS 27 (0.2.29, 10 Oct 2026): macOS 27 ships its own driver for the
Realtek RTL8125/8126/8127 (AppleEthernetRL): line rate, no jumbo frames
(MTU capped at 1500), takes the card at every boot and cannot be displaced
from user space. The app now detects it. On macOS 27 and later a fresh
install leaves the card to the macOS driver and offers "Use this driver
instead"; a Mac upgraded from macOS 26 gets a one-time choice. If you pick
this driver, unplug and replug the card once after each boot; the app
checks at login and posts a notification when that is needed. New
"Uninstall completely" button (driver, login item, settings and app). The
driver itself is unchanged since 0.2.27.
Fixed in 0.2.27 (14 Sept 2026): RTL8127 RJ45 (10GBASE-T) cards linked
at 5G only. The PHY code inherited from the RTL8125/8126 driver never
advertised 10GBASE-T during auto-negotiation; it now does, like Realtek's
r8127 Linux driver. Reported by a board vendor's macOS test; not yet
re-tested on a copper card (the SFP+ path is unchanged). If you have an RJ45
RTL8127, please try it and open a hardware report.
Fixed in 0.2.26 (13 Sept 2026): Energy Efficient Ethernet was left
enabled on the SFP+ SerDes link (the kext and Realtek's Linux driver keep
it off there). Symptoms: a steady trickle of rx CRC errors when the link
was idle and a 1-2 s link drop every 20-40 minutes. EEE is now off. A link
drop is also confirmed by a second PHY read before the chip is reset.
Fixed in 0.2.23 (13 Sept 2026, replaces the 0.2.22 package first
published under this tag): reception stopped for good after the link
dropped and came back (a 1-2 s link flap on the DAC or switch), until the
card was replugged. The chip is soft-reset on every link drop and restarts
its rx ring at descriptor 0; the driver now restarts both rings with it, and
a 5-second safety net re-arms the rx ring if reception ever stalls again.
If you installed 0.2.22, run the new package; the card may need a replug
once to switch to the new driver instance.
Changes since beta1 (kext-only, June 2026)
tools/.Known limitations
Upgrading from an earlier 0.2.x package: run the pkg; if the card does
not come back, unplug and replug it (the previous driver instance can hold
the device until then).
Checksums (SHA-256):
RTL8127-0.2.29.pkg: c984ed8a26c8a113c1dd290b5269ad80946c07c6d8978ad03df83ceb65654d09