Big Sur Wifi + BCM94321 + Mikrotik RB14e (opencore)

[Spckyactnfrmadstnce]

Hi!

 

I have recently installed big sur on my HP EliteDesk 800 g1 SFF with everything working except for wifi. 

To try to get wifi to run on this machine, I have gathered a BCM94321 Airport Card (from an early 2008 iMac), and a Mikrotik RB14e Mini PCIe to PCIe Card. The Opencore installation is iMac14,4.

The Card combo works with wifi (without bluetooth) in Windows 10. In MacOS Big Sur, I am unsure if it's possible to use either card. 

I was hoping someone could answer a couple of questions for me?:

- Is there a procedure for installing Mini PCIe to PCIe adapters in Opencore? (any kexts/drivers/plist entries to add?) It seems that I could have purchased a card not suitable for the task in the RB14e.

- Is the BCM94321 possible to get running in Big Sur with kexts/plist changes? I've tried a few different methods to install the outdated card as I've seen a few success stories online (though I haven't seen any for the BCM94321).

 

Thanks for any help. I'll attach my config.plist

 

Mikrotik RB14e

https://mikrotik.com/product/RB14e

config.plist

[Spckyactnfrmadstnce]

Thank you very, very much for the comprehensive reply Hervé. It’s very much appreciated. 
 

I live in an area of the world where the local shops don’t stock such things, and they are generally very expensive when they do. It’s a long wait for anything overseas - this is why I went for this old PCIe to PCIe adapter. It was on sale for $40 (half price) 

 

I was going to rip the antenna out of the old iMac and use that. But I think the PCIe board will just be too much trouble to configure. (It’s designed for 3G/4G/Mobile cards I think, and asks for configuration in MacOS11). Anyways…
 

I think I’ll buy an ‘Apple Wireless Card’ and a good PCIe adapter from the states. It’ll take a few months to get here but I’ll jerry rig something else for internet on the machine till then. 
 

I was hoping you might simplify things a bit for me and tell me a make/model of PCIe adapter that will work well? This will eliminate the chance that I’ll make the same mistake again.
 

thanks again.  

Edited August 20, 2022 by Spckyactnfrmadstnce