Is there any USB WiFi adapter that can be passed through to a MacOS VM on my new M5 MBP?

<< Au contraire, all it takes is to recompile your Driver to 64-bit, and spend "less than a day" [typical] fixing any incompatibilities that causes.. >>

So in the nearly 6 years since the M1 Mac was release not one vendor was willing to spend less than a day compiling their drivers to 64 bit. Not one maker of 3rd party drivers (like chris1111), and other open source drivers have done it.

Apple did more than just change to 64 bit. The entire device driver development process changed. They switched to a microkernel, and drivers are all in userspace now rather than being kernel extensions; which is why many products are no longer supported for recent MacOS versions even on Intel Macs. Then they implemented security measures that make it harder for anyone but the hardware vendor to create 3rd party drivers. These were decisions made by Apple.

I am not saying Apple was wrong to make all these decisions, but these were decisions that were made and from what I can tell, they have not provided industry the support it needs to develop compatible drivers. Drivers exist for ARM64 Windows and Linux, but not MacOS; its more than just a recompile.

MrHoffman wrote:

in no particular order…

Given ubiquitous Wi-Fi in Apple gear for an aeon or two, a small market for add-on external Wi-Fi is unsurprising.

Is it though? I haven't seen a laptop sold by any vendor without wifi in "an aeon or two". And most desktops these days, other than business machines, also include wi-fi, yet new USB devices come out all the time.

AirWire is Wi-Fi 7 with MLO (less than ubiquitous) and (per request) with Mac support.

Wi-Fi 7 MLO itself doesn’t sip power, as it is transmitting on multiple bands simultaneously.

Understood. I wasn't suggesting that its wrong that this thing uses 15W/20W, just that it makes it make less sense for adding wifi to a laptop for the express purpose of mobility.

UNiFi OS Server (free) allows running the Ubiquiti software on hardware commonly available locally.

I know, I have an Ubiquiti network at home. But the FAQ for this device states "Yes. AirWire requires a UniFi WiFi AP." so even if I stood up a Unifi controller/server to configure it, I don't think it will work with a non-ubiquiti access point.

An Ethernet dongle and an available AP with bridging capabilities might also work here. Some APs of my acquaintance can provide this (though I’m using dedicated device bridges), and Ethernet dongles are available. Bridge switches are available, too.

It would absolutely work... But I am looking for a mobile solution that I can carry around a building, not something I will put on a cart and have to plug into a wall.

A network vendor that is aimed at a prosumer and mid- and higher-end networking (networking, access, cameras, NAS, NVR, WISP, etc) market (and below enterprise networking gear) having support for Apple gear is (also) unsurprising. Ubiquiti also leans on privacy, with local and offline camera storage; with no cloud camera video hosting required. Those customers and those markets do overlap.

Oh I don't disagree with your assessment that Apple and Ubiquiti target similar customer bases. And this product, in particular seems to be trying to capitalize on the complete lack of 3rd party wifi solutions in the Apple ecosystem. Certainly no surprise. If anything, I'm more surprised that more wireless bridges haven't popped up that show up as an ethernet device; but use a mac os app for configuration. Perhaps one that does both ethernet and wifi even.

As for areas that diverge, Ubiquiti has little integration (no?) with HomeKit, and Matter and Thread. Unlike Apple.

HomeKit is proprietary, but operates over Wifi, so Ubiquiti does support it.

Thread is a mesh network between smarthome devices, not much room for Ubiquiti to participate there.

Matter is just a protocol that runs over WiFi or Thread, again Ubiquiti can provide the communications channel.

Ubiquiti only makes a handful of devices that would even make sense to integrate with any of these. Mostly access and camera products. But they aren't really targeting smarthomes with their products, but small and medium business where POE and NVR's dominate rather than Wifi, cloud recording, and smartphone notifications. Of the 72 cameras they sell, only 3 are wireless.

I’d suggest discussing the particular local configuration restrictions and requirements with those UTM familiar, and with local IT, as well.

I don't really need to discuss anything. I simply wanted a wireless adapter I could assign via USB pass though to a MacOS VM. But there are simply none that are compatible. As far as workarounds, the only thing that seems practical at this point is a travel router (ideally one that has a bridge mode). It will not be as power efficient as a simple wifi adapter, it will be a bit more awkward to carry around the office, and I won't be able to manage it's connection via the Mac settings menus, but it should connect me to the network.

MrHoffman wrote:

...

But given the previously-linked third-party Wi-Fi 7 adapter is available and supported on macOS, this is seemingly now either about price, or about some networking features and enhancements for UTM, or both.

Per Ubiquiti: “AirWire supports Windows, macOS, and Linux systems, and can also be used with iOS and Android devices when powered externally. Only iPhones and iPads with native USB-C or Thunderbolt interfaces are supported.”

The conversations diverged.

The Ubiquiti device you reference isn't a Wi-Fi adapter, its a travel router, but you can connect to it over USB (virtual ethernet adapter). Functionally the same as if you took any home gateway/router configured as a wireless bridge and connected to it with a usb to ethernet adapter.

So its adding a hop between my computer and the wireless network which may cause issues. It has to be managed via its webui rather than the wifi panel in MacOS, and likely uses considerably more power due the fact that its not a simple wifi device, but a full router with its own CPU.

There are no wifi adapters for Apple Silicon Macs because DriverKit or more specifically, NetworkingDriverKit doesn't support writing WiFi drivers; stating "Note that Ethernet is the only networking interface currently supported by NetworkingDriverKit."

This means that for a vendor to develop a driver, they would need to write a kernel extension for the Apple Silicon MacOS kernel, then instruct the customer to reboot into recovery mode to disable the security protections around kernel extensions, and of course hope that Apple doesn't finally block kernel extensions altogether in the next release when they stop supporting the Intel Macs that used them.

Anyway, this thread is way off track. After tons of research I am 99% certain that the answer to my question is no, there are no USB wireless network adapters that I can use; and until Apple adds WiFi support to the NetworkingDriverKit its likely to remain that way.

Just a followup for anyone interested.

I tried a variety of options, but what I finally settled on was just tethering an android phone over USB.

I can pass it through to my MacOS VM like any usb device. It appears as an ethernet device to the VM. It isn't a perfect solution because the vm is placed behind NAT and I cannot allow incoming connections to it if I need/want. But for the testing I am currently doing it works.

Its still something more to carry around, but its thin, light, easy to carry with the laptop, and no one ever asks what it is or why it's there like they would with a travel router or those other options discussed in this thread.

I think I will have to look at a travel router that also acts as a USB NIC.

Many travel routers support "tethering" to appear as a NIC. Then they could connect to my lab network. The challenge is the package and power. Old ones like https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-usb150/ were powered by the USB port. Newer ones introduced external power due to the power requirements of WiFi 6+. I could also make a stick like using a RPI zero 2 w, but it would max out at 2.4Ghz wireless N speeds.

So frustrating that I can't just grab a $20 USD wifi adapter and be done with it.

Ok, I will admit that "dozens" was a poor choice, probably should have been "dozen or so". But saying that only mediatek makes a wireless chipset is equally incorrect.

Qualcomm, Intel, Broadcom, Realtek, and MediaTek are the biggest players, but there are a lot of others:

These include Infineon, Espressif, Silicon Labs, Noridic, OnSemi, Celeno, Maxlinear, Newracom, Microchip Technology, Atmel, WiPro, Texas Instruments, and a few others (all credit to Google).

The fact that not one of these vendors produced anything that works with MacOS, other than Broadcom (who makes what is in the MBP) suggests that doing so is far harder than it should be. Whoever had one would get 100% of Apple's 15% of the laptop and desktop workstation market. You can't tell me that these companies would pass that up, especially because the margins on hardware for Apple is higher and they would have a monopoly on people like me who need it.

And then there are those who's wifi broke, those who want faster wifi than what shipped with the mac, and those who need multiple connections for other reasons. Keep in mind that this doesn't just impact mobile macbook users, but every Apple Silicon Mac. WiFi is used in many creative industries, like for video downlinks from drones. I have heard of budget setups broadcasting local sports using a handful of wifi cameras and drones.

So the market is non-zero, all that is needed is a driver to support existing chipsets, yet no one has one? The only logical reason is that its too difficult to get done, and the only reason that would be is that Apple has made it difficult.

The travel router is a travel router, yes.

The other device referenced is AirWire, and is an external Wi-Fi adapter.

AirWire has support for current versions of macOS, iOS, and (presumably) iPadOS.

I stand corrected, I did not research the AirWire device. Interesting piece of kit. It's not really a WiFi adapter either; at least not in the traditional sense. AirWire was always a wireless/ethernet bridge. So is this, but it uses a USB to ethernet adapter on the client end.

Biggest problem is that all configuration is done via the Ubiquiti console, so it's a single vendor solution which takes it out of the running for me... the 15W/20W power consumption is also a bit concerning (typical WiFi 7 adapters are 2.5W).

I feel like this was made specifically for Mac systems. If you look at all their marketing they actually use Mac in all of them. They saw that there was a captive market and are trying to capitalize on it... with the added value of up to 5Gbps over the air.

Thanks for sharing that, even if it's not a solution for me it was really interesting to read about.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

for a portable solution (still not exactly a simple or cheap solution):

use an ethernet adapter to create an ethernet cable connection.

add this Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz (only) adapter with an additional USB cord for power:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1203432-REG/iogear_gwu637_ethernet_2_wifi_universal_wireless_adapter.html

Another interesting solution... a bit on the slow side, but it would work... but then I would have a USB ethernet dongle, then a short piece of cat5/6 cable, this device, then a usb cable coming back for power in a little loop hanging off my laptop everywhere I go.

Creative, but its just absurd that these are the lengths that I would even consider going to when I can go into any office supply or best buy and chose from several $20-$50USD usb wifi adapters that will work on any computer except one running MacOS.

And I am most frustrated because it's a decision that Apple has made. They could add support for WiFi drivers to the NetworkDriverKit and the problem would be solved practically overnight.