IntelLucy for the Intel X500 family

[meg2014]

@KGP-iMacPro

 

I think you should wait on your purchase of a new switch.   Give it some time and carefully review what options you might have.  The Omada switch looks pretty good, btw.  I just have no experience with it.

 

I am very happy with my TP Link 10G switch, because it fits my needs.  But that doesn't mean it will necessarily fit your needs in your environment.  I like that's all SFP at purchase, because that gives me the option to run fiber, if I want to.  But the Omeda switch will allow that too.

 

So, I would only recommend to take your time and maybe order both switches and then see which you like best and return the one you don't want.

 

Just a thought......

[kgp]

@etorix, @Mieze.. order of TL-SX3008F canceled. Let's reconsider everything calmly before any purchase that might again not work with my X550-AT2 and IntelLucy. Would the TP-Link SX3206HPP finally be a good choice? It would perfectly suit my setup of required RJ45 (4x) and SFP+ (1x) connections. It is available at Jacob for 498 Euros with an actual discount of a few Euros. Or would it be better to try getting work IntelLucy with my Netgear ProSafe XS508M, which anyway works with the Smalltree.kext (but with KPs under Tahoe) and under Linux and Windows? The latter would not require any costs at my side but especially the willing of Mieze to invest more time on this issue, which I am not able to demand at all. 

 

KGP

 

Update: @meg2014, apparently we shared the same thought almost at the same time while I was writing the above.. 😉

Edited September 22, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[etorix]

1 hour ago, KGP-iMacPro said:

Would the TP-Link SX3206HPP finally be a good choice?

Honestly I have no idea… The ports fits your requirements, but this is also a PoE++ switch with maximum power of 245 W, including 200 W for PoE—which tells us that the switch itself can use 45 W for 4 copper + 2 SFP+ ports. It must have some serious heatsink and cooling; if the fans are well regulated, you may be happy using it without PoE++; if the fans just spin at max speed all the time, that's a fighter jet in your living room.

The SX3008 has a maximal power of 15.46 W (love that second decimal…) for 8 SFP+ ports, so I would not bet that it will take four copper transceivers and be happy.

 

At fs.com, RJ45 transceivers start at 83.50 €, and go up to 144 € for low power models. Are you sure you want four of these?

 

I'm confident that a QSW-M408-4C (one port short) should be quiet enough. The QSW-M3216R-8S8T looks like it is NOT (42 dB(A)?!); the fans appear to be standard 4-pin PWM, with standard headers on the board, but I'm not sure it would be safe to give this switch "the Noctua treatment" if needed. This could be the second best option though.

 

First best option: What are the remaining three 10G RJ45 devices? Can we change these to SFP+ and use a Mikrotik CRS309 with one copper transceiver (X550-AT), or at most two?  

 

And, of course, all the hardware options I do not know about…

Edited September 22, 2025 by etorix

[meg2014]

So, if you want to buy a new switch, like the Omeda SX3206HPP seems, from what I just read, a good possibility. But on Amazon, at least here in the US, it's almost $280.00 (US$) more than the SX3008F, and that makes no sense to me.  For me, that would be a no-brainer decision.

 

As for keeping your Netgear, thats your second Netgear switch as the first one you had failed, remember?  Maybe the smalltree folks will produce a driver that doesn't KP your system and works better on Tahoe.  I can't believe they wouldn't make some adjustment to their driver, but when? No way to know, really.

 

[Mieze]

@meg2014 Smalltree has removed all information about their network cards for macOS from their web site and the driver hasn't been updated for several years. Obviously they consider these products as obsolete.

 

By the way, an X520-DA1 costs about 40€ and pair of fiber optics transceivers costs about the same as one 10Gbase-T transceiver. Besides that, the card uses only 4W, much less than any copper adapter. A fiber optics transceiver adds about 0.7W. On the side of the switch you can have 4 fiber optics ports for the power budget of one RJ-45. That's something to consider. Without the need for a test device, I would have never bought a X550.

 

Mieze 😺

Edited September 22, 2025 by Mieze

[meg2014]

Ah, didn't know about smalltree.  Too bad.....I'm really happy with my X540, works great (and fast) with the Lucy driver.

[kgp]

@etorix, let's sort out all devices and find the best switch solution. Sounds like a good plan:

 

1.) Fritz!Box 7590 (currently 100Mb internet connection here at the country side for at least one more year before moving back to Berlin) -> 1 Gb RJ45

2.) Samsung ProXpress 2680 FX -> 1Gb RJ45

3.) X550-AT2 of my Asus X299 Sage 10G -> 10Gb RJ45

4.) QNAP -TS431X2 -> 10Gb SFP+

5.) MacBook Pro M1 -> 1Gb RJ45 via USB-C... no Thunderbolt 10Gb adapter so far but RJ45 planned for the future, could also be SFP+.. Will be replaced by a newer MacBook Pro as soon it does not receive anymore the latest macOS -> thus 10GB RJ45 or SFP+ in the future.

6.) Mac Studio M5 Max or Ultra should replace my X299 Hackintosh in 2026 after the release of macOS 27 -> I guess 10GB RJ45 by default, SFP+ with Thunderbolt adapter, makes not much sense to me (avoidable costs)

 

@meg2014, I honestly never have been really satisfied with the unmanaged Netgear switch, but fortunately I am not at all married to it 🙃.. If we find a better option I am ready to go..

The last version of the smalltree.kext was released for High Sierra or Mojave, if I remember correctly,  and has never been updated by Small-tree since. It is a miracle that it survived fully working even up to Sequoia. However, IntelLucy seems to be the way to go with Tahoe (as the DEXT driver does not inject either due to a missing IOMMU implementation of my onboard X550-AT2 NICs) and it works flawless without the Netgear switch just via a direct NIC -> Router LAN connection even with version 1.1.1. Thus, the new switch should be just fully compliant with IntelLucy and "manageable" at first place. Else it should just fulfil my above Hardware requirements.. Concerning the costs, I don't see much difference in price between the TP-Link TL-SX3206HPP and the TL-SX3008F equipped with for additional 10Gb RJ45 transceivers. However, the TL-SX3008F has the big advantage of being passively cooled, but it seems that everybody else has doubts with respect to heat dissipation and transceiver power consumption, although you do not report any problem with it. Update: after writing all this I have just seen that Mieze in the meanwhile answered your question concerning the small-tree driver anyway..   

Edited September 22, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[meg2014]

2 minutes ago, KGP-iMacPro said:

@etorix, let's sort out all devices and find the best switch solution. Sounds like a good plan:

 

1.) Fritz!Box 7590 (currently 100Mb internet connection here at the country side for at least one more year before moving back to Berlin) -> 1 Gb RJ45

2.) Samsung ProXpress 2680 FX -> 1Gb RJ45

3.) X550-AT2 of my Asus X299 Sage 10G -> 10GB RJ45

4.) QNAP -TS431X2 -> 10GB SFP+

5.) MacBook Pro M1: no Thunderbolt 10G adapter so far but RJ45 planned for the future, could also be SFP+.. Will be replaced by a newer MacBook Pro as soon it does not receive anymore the latest macOS -> thus 10GB RJ45 or SFP+

6.) Mac Studio M5 Max or Ultra should replace my X299 Hackintosh in 2026 after the release of macOS 27 -> I guess 10GB RJ45 by default, SFP+ with Thunderbolt adapter, makes not much sense to me (avoidable costs)

 

@meg2014, I honestly never have been really satisfied with the unmanaged Netgear switch, but fortunately I am not at all married to it 🙃.. If we find a better option I am ready to go..

The last version of the smalltree.kext was released for High Sierra or Mojave, if I remember correctly,  and has never been updated by Small-tree since. It is a miracle that it survived fully working even up to Sequoia. However, IntelLucy seems the way to go with Tahoe (as the DEXT driver does not inject either due to a missing IOMMU implementation of my onboard X550-AT2 NICs) and it already works flawless without the Netgear switch just via a direct NIC -> Router LAN connection. Thus, the new switch should be just fully compliant with IntelLucy and "manageable" at first place. Else it should just fulfil my above Hardware requirements.. Concerning the costs, I don't see much difference in price between the TP-Link TL-SX3206HPP and the TL-SX3008F with for additional 10Gb RJ45 transceivers. The TL-SX3008F has the big advantage of being passively cooled, but it seems that everybody else has doubts with respect to heat dissipation and transceiver power consumption, although you do not report any problem with it. 

 

Well, I don't want to be in the position of advocating one switch over another.  I don't think I can offer any more advice other than what I've done so far. I hope you find something that works for you. 

[kgp]

@meg2014, thanks for all your kind help and extended feedback! We now have a switch (TL-SX3008F) that reliably works with X540 and IntelLucy! An important aspect everybody should consider in helping with the final decision. Unfortunately, it turns out to be very difficult to order the respective H!Fiber or 6com 10Gb SFP+ RJ45 transceivers here in Germany.

 

Many thanks for this important and appreciated contribution 👍 

Edited September 22, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[etorix]

Well, then it's wrapped…

I count one SFP+ device, one 10GBase-T device, a prospective adapter for the laptop which could go any way (SFP+ or copper), and a future MacStudio which is a) expected to have native 10GBase-T (unless Apple sees the light and decides that the time of SFP28 has come, I unfortunately have to concur) and b) planned to replace the X299. That's a total of four devices on 10G, not five, and possibly only two or three at any given time, since the Studio replaces the Hackintosh and the MacBook Pro is only occasionally plugged in.

The Samsung printer may plug directly to the Fritz!Box.

 

The whole netwok fits on a QNAP QSW-M408-4C or M2106-4C (4 combo RJ45/SFP+: 440 € on geizahls.de).

Make your (present and future) life easier by going for a Sonnet Solo SFP+ rather than for the copper version:

The whole network now fits on a QSW-M408-2C (2 SFP+, 2 combo: 280 €, compared with the -4C model, these copper ports come at a cost), or on a Mikrotik CRS305-1G-4S+IN (4 SFP+… and you can use the management port as 1G uplink, 125 €), with a single RJ45 transceiver for the X299, to be inherited later by the MacStudio. (Printer attached to the Fritz!Box.)

In either case, the saving on the switch pays for the Solo SFP+ being more expensive than the 10G copper version (375 € vs. 240 €) 

 

SFP+ DAC: 17 € for 1.5 m

 

And, although I appreciate your efforts for using the on-board X550-AT, the resulting improvements to IntelLucy by @Mieze (thanks!!!), and the logic of using "what is already available", I have to point to the sunken cost fallacy: Contrary to a regular desktop, this X299 system has plenty of PCIe lanes to add a cheap second-hand SFP+ NIC, which costs less than a RJ45 transceiver.

 

(Note that the MacBook Pro and MacStudio might share a single Sonnet Solet SFP+ to plug into the network at 10G: When the laptop comes in, the MacStudio can relinquish the adapter and revert to WiFi—or just sleep unused. No need to buy two Sonnet Solo even if your network ends up purely SFP+.)

[Mieze]

One more thing to mention: I also installed the X540-T2 card, I bought for the original testing of IntelLucy last year, in the testmachine. Using this card, I ran the same tests with the card being connected to the S+RJ10 tranceiver without experiencing any problems. Unlike the X550, the X540 never showed any connection failures. Taking into account that I got this card for 10€ (shipping included) via Aliexpress, it's a perfect deal. The only disadvantage is the high power consumption (10W with one port disabled, 17W with both ports enabled), so that active cooling is required. I solved this problem by installing a Noctua fan, which was lying around, in the case to blow some cool air on the cards heatsing.

[kgp]

The only thing which always kept me staying with Hackintosh and my X299 system until today was to participate in making the "available" work with the latest macOS and in helping and transferring this message also to others. For me that's what Hackintosh is all about and it's really thrilling and a kind of magic. Unfortunately this will have its end with macOS 27 anyway and my private life will get kind of boring.

 

Also unfortunately, I cannot add any other PCIe card to my system (already tried to add a XG-C100C or a AQC113) as my PCIe lanes are fully exploited despite the above 4G decoding, and any further card won't be recognised by the board. In my Tahoe setup I am using a ASRock Radeon VII, a Gigabyte Titan Ridge, a Broadcom BCM94360CD (Bluetooth), an Intel AX210 (Wifi) and a PCIe adapter for my EVO960. The future OCLP-patch however will free another slot on my system, as I will be able to remove the Intel AX210 (Wifi) again.

 

I would have liked to achieve a fully working state of my current hardware implementation for Tahoe, but that seems rather like the only "mission impossible" I encountered so far. 

 

However, you gave me plenty of options how to continue and I just have to figure out which one would be the appropriate to go with. In the meanwhile, I am able to successfully work with IntelLucy and my onboard X550-AT2 NICs via the direct NIC -> router LAN connection.

 

Thus, having said all this, many thanks for all your kind help and contributions and all the best on your way making the impossible work on Hackintosh! 

 

KGP

Edited September 23, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[Mieze]

I wanted to share with you the latest debug built of IntelLucy (1.1.340), in which I refined some of the changes I already made and added more debug information. I've been testing this version during the last days and can confirm, that it's working stable on my test machine with the X550 in combination with the S+RJ10 transceiver. In situations, when the link is lost after wakeup (~30%), it recovers fast and reestablishes the link within a few seconds. Please try it and send me the log files. I published the source code on GitHub yesterday.

 

Good luck testing! 🤞

 

Mieze 😺

IntelLucy-1.1.340.zip

Edited September 24, 2025 by Mieze

[kgp]

@Mieze, I finally ordered the managed TP-Link TL-SX3008F with two H!Fiber 10Gb SFP+ RJ45 transceivers (everything 280 Euros in total) as recommended by Meg2014 and as definitely the cheapest option for any further testing. In case of no success, I can return everything without problems within 14 days. Everything should arrive by Friday. I will need a few days for setup and testing. I will use in this case IntelLucy-1.1.340. Please just let me know what would be the best "port" configuration on the switch side and best "Hardware" configuration in the Ethernet System Settings of macOS for such testing. For now I am anyway tied to the X550-AT2 onboard NICs until I am able to free a PCIe slot for alternatives in the future. I might not be the only one left with an ASUS X299 Sage 10G out there, thus this last attempt could be also of interest for others.

 

All the best, 

 

KGP

Edited September 24, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[kgp]

Update: After a delivery delay of 2 days and upon request, I was informed that the TP-Link TL-SX3008F was no longer in stock at Reichelt Electronics. I therefore canceled the order and finally purchased @Mieze `s Mikrotik CRS309 on Amazon for testing (230 Euros), as the Mikrotik CRS305 was also one of the suggestions of @etorix. Tomorrow noon I will be able to start with the setup and testing. I am still with the H!Fiber 10Gb SFP+ RJ45 transceivers, though..  👍

 

KGP

 

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[kgp]

@Mieze, @etorix – final success with X550-AT2 NICs of the ASUS X299 Sage 10G with MikroTik CRS309 and one of the two H!Fiber RJ45 SFP+ transceivers! 💫💥💯.

 

• IntelLucy works stable with either Auto-Negotiation (10GBase-T, Full Duplex, MTU 1500) or Hardware set to "manually" (10GBase-T, Full Duplex, MTU 1500 or Jumbo 9000).
• The second module appears faulty: it only connects at 1000Base-T, Full Duplex (MTU 1500 or Jumbo 9000) on every device tested (CRS309, Netgear ProSafe XS508M) with either IntelLucy, SmallTree, or even a MacBook Pro. At 10GBase-T, it always starts toggling after ~2 minutes, regardless of unplug/plug or switch reboot. I will return the faulty module to Amazon.

 

Additional notes:

 

• Normal operating temperature of the H!Fiber module stays around 50 °C.
• Sleep/Wake tests are still pending and will follow.

 

Tomorrow I’ll receive a MikroTik S+RJ10 module for final testing. 

However, already now: full success with CRS309 + IntelLucy + H!Fiber (good module) under both Sequoia and Tahoe 💫💥💯.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[Mieze]

Attached you'll find the release build of IntelLucy version 1.1.340, which I'm using on all of my machines (X520-DA1 with DAC and 10Gbase-SR, X540 and X550) for a few days now without experiencing any problems.

 

@KGP-iMacPro Congratulations! I have a question about the SFP+ module you are using. H!fiber offers three different 10Gbase-T modules:

• 30m range with Marvell AQR113C PHY for 36.99€
• 30m range with Realtek RTL8261BE PHY for 33.99€
• 80m range with Marvell CUX3610 PHY for 58.99€

Which one is yours?

 

Mieze 😺

IntelLucy-1.1.340-release.zip

[kgp]

@Mieze, I am very glad that the story finally has a happy ending and I am very grateful to you, @etorix and @meg2014!!

 

I purchased the one with 30m range and Marvell AQR113C PHY for 36.99€. Here is the Link to Amazon. H!Fiber-EU emphasises compatibility with MikroTik. Currently, there is an additional discount of 8%. You can get a package of 1x, 2x (which I ordered) or 10x.

 

All the best,

 

KGP 👍

 

Note:  I have now three of these transceivers. All three are able to successfully work with my X550-AT2 NICs and IntelLucy. However, each transceiver has to be initialised once with a MacBook Pro after being freshly plugged to the switch, as no initial link would establish with IntelLucy/X550-AT2. Once plugged and initialised, the transceiver works forever, also with changing connections.

 

Update: Plug & Play with the MikroTik S+RJ10 transceiver as expected. Everything works flawlessly now with all four transceivers, including sleep/wake. I am done. Everything is perfectly set. A more than satisfactory result after all initial troubles and a bunch of postings. 💫💯🙃

Edited September 29, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro
Update MikroTik S+RJ10 + sleep/wake tests

[kgp]

@Mieze, despite the overall success with IntelLucy, there’s still a tiny drawback on my specific system, which I just realised now:  IntelLucy only works with DisableIOMapper=true due to the missing IOMMU implementation of the X550-AT2 NICs on my ASUS X299 Sage 10G. With DisableIOMapper=false, the IP is "self-assigned" although the respective switch LEDs are green and blinking as usual . However, a new patch for native Apple BCM943602 Wi-Fi under Sequoia and Tahoe requires AppleVTD enabled. Do you see any possible workaround for this situation? If not, no worries – I guess I’ll just have to wait for the OCLP root patch for my BCM94360. 👍

Edited September 30, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[Mieze]

@KGP-iMacPro With AppleVTD enabled any I/O access (the driver accessing the NIC's configuration registers and the NIC doing DMA operations from/to RAM) has to be mapped by the IOMMU. Without a proper mapping the access will be blocked and there is no clean way to get around this for a driver. 

 

Besides that, the author of the patch you mentioned explicitly states that his method is experimental and that there might be kernel panics on sleep/wake. I wouldn't even consider it for a productive system at the moment.

 

Mieze 😺

[etorix]

7 hours ago, KGP-iMacPro said:

missing IOMMU implementation of the X550-AT2 NICs on my ASUS X299 Sage 10G

This is an issue which should be fixed by a BIOS update from Asus. Yes, I know, good luck with reaching Asus technical support…

[kgp]

Thanks a lot for the explanation, @Mieze. Just to clarify my former question: would it be possible to add a few lines of code to IntelLucy so that it simply ignores AppleVTD/IOMMU and still operates in non-IOMMU / direct DMA mode, even when DisableIOMapper=false, in line with the current situation on my particular system?

 

@etorix, my last hope was Adrian N. - I don’t know if you know him - but he also refused to help with this issue, simply saying “my board is not supported by macOS.” 😉 Let’s see if ASUS will eventually release a BIOS update that fixes the IOMMU implementation issue. I hope I’ve brought it to their attention sufficiently. There’s nothing more I can do on this issue from my side.

Edited October 1, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[Mieze]

@KGP-iMacPro The IOMMU is a hardware security device to prevent IO-Devices from unauthorised memory access, which is mainly used in combination with virtualisation. It can not be bypassed or ignored once it is enabled, which means that if AppleVTD is enabled any DMA operation of a PCIe device to/from memory must be allowed by a valid mapping. If no mapping exists, the DMA access is blocked, which results in a non-working device. Therefore it is impossible to ignore or circumvent AppleVTD while it is enabled.

 

Mieze 😺

[kgp]

@etorix, @Mieze, EFI-Folder of @apfelnico makes the magic happen 👍💥💯

 

Full Dext DriverKit implementation with my X550-AT2 NICs of the ASUS X299 Sage 10G ! 🙏

 

 

 

 

And evidently also IntelLucy works with DisableIOMapper= false 💯💥👍

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2025 by KGP-iMacPro

[Mieze]

@KGP-iMacPro Congratulations! You might want to check the config.plist's Booter->Quirks and Kernel->Quirks sections for differences in memory mapping related settings to find out what solved the issue.

 

Mieze 😺