RTL8153 driver for MacOSX

Question

I just bought a USB Hub that has 1 Ethernet port, 2 USBs, and SD card support. Currently the Ethernet is not working although I see a green light on the port when I plug the Ethernet cable.

The adapter can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MNKHOKY

The description mentions it is compatible with MacOSX.

System information:

USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Bus:

  Host Controller Location: Built-in USB
  Host Controller Driver:   AppleUSBXHCI
  PCI Device ID:    0x9cb1 
  PCI Revision ID:  0x0003 
  PCI Vendor ID:    0x8086 
  Bus Number:   0x0a 

USB3.0 Hub:

  Product ID:   0x0616
  Vendor ID:    0x05e3  (Genesys Logic, Inc.)
  Version:  4.02
  Speed:    Up to 5 Gb/sec
  Manufacturer: GenesysLogic
  Location ID:  0x15200000 / 14
  Current Available (mA):   900
  Current Required (mA):    0

USB 10/100/1000 LAN:

  Product ID:   0x8153
  Vendor ID:    0x0bda  (Realtek Semiconductor Corp.)
  Version:  30.00
  Serial Number:    00E04D6804B6
  Speed:    Up to 5 Gb/sec
  Manufacturer: Realtek
  Location ID:  0x15230000 / 17
  Current Available (mA):   900
  Current Required (mA):    144
  BSD Name: en5

USB Storage:

  Product ID:   0x0743
  Vendor ID:    0x05e3  (Genesys Logic, Inc.)
  Version:  8.19
  Serial Number:    000000000819
  Speed:    Up to 5 Gb/sec
  Manufacturer: Generic
  Location ID:  0x15210000 / 16
  Current Available (mA):   900
  Current Required (mA):    896

Internal Memory Card Reader:

  Product ID:   0x8406
  Vendor ID:    0x05ac  (Apple Inc.)
  Version:  8.20
  Serial Number:    000000000820
  Speed:    Up to 5 Gb/sec
  Manufacturer: Apple
  Location ID:  0x15300000 / 3
  Current Available (mA):   900
  Current Required (mA):    896
  Built-In: Yes

I can't find any driver for RTL8153 Realtek chip. I tried to install various 'generic' drivers and none of them worked.

Is there a solution to this or should I just trash the adapter ?

Answer 1

Seven years later, but I'm sharing what I did in case it helps someone.

First: what you have is the Realtek 8153 chipset. It is known for having been finincky with macOS, and users have reported varying degrees of success over different macOS versions; sometimes a solution has involved downloading and installing new drivers from Realtek.

However, I got the chipset working on macOS without downloading any new drivers.

My system:

• laptop: MBP M1
• macOS version: Ventura 13.4

Short version

All I needed was

sudo kextload -b com.apple.driver.usb.realtek8153patcher

and possibly removing service + adding it back and unplugging+re-plugging the cable.

Full details

Name printed on my physical unit: Plexgear USB-C Multiport adapter IK113230 62099 (but note that the exact unit should play no role as long as it's the Realtek 8153 chipset).

Initial state/problem

• Settings -> Network: listed USB 10/100/1000 LAN, but "not connected"
• System information ->
  • -> Hardware -> USB: the tree shows USB 3.1 Bus -> USB 3.1 Hub, but nothing under that
  • -> Network:
    • the list at the top does show USB 10/100/1000 LAN
    • selecting it, shows some basic info, including BSD Device Name: en7 (however ifconfig en7 gives error about no such network interface)
  • -> Software -> Extensions
    • AppleUSBRealtek8153Patcher is in the list, but selecting it includes the text Loaded: No
• also, kextstat | grep -i realtek prints nothing

Fix: load realtek8153patcher manually

$ sudo kextload -b com.apple.driver.usb.realtek8153patcher
Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -b com.apple.driver.usb.realtek8153patcher

$ kextstat | grep -i realtek
248    0 0xfffffe0007589690 0x28e4     0x28e4     com.apple.driver.usb.realtek8153patcher (5.0.0) 7619D2B8-25E0-3C81-8901-0D8B73A7C9BE <56 5 4 3 1>

Now: Settings -> Network still lists the interface as "not connected"

I now did this:

1. Settings -> Network, deleted the service
2. (now: Add service... shows no interface USB 10/100/1000 LAN in the dropdown)
3. unplugged the cable, the plugged it back in
4. Add Service..., the interface now shows up in the dropdown
5. continued to add it

After that, it came up with the green dot, said "connected", and does work.

I measured the speed to 190/220 [Mbit/s], which is more than my ISP promises.

I did this only a few hours ago, so I don't know how stable it will be or what will happen upon reboot.

Resources

github gist with a lot of info, also see the comments:

• https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f054cc547b0
• archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20230608193143/https://gist.github.com/MadLittleMods/3005bb13f7e7178e1eaa9f054cc547b0

Realtek drivers if needed (I didn't):

• https://www.realtek.com/Download/List?cate_id=585
• (as long as you get the MAC OS 10.9 to 10.15 v.1.0.22 driver, both sites above will have you download the exact same file)

Answer 2

My network USB adaptor uses the RTL8153B, upon waking up from sleep, my MacBook Pro Sonoma 14.4.1 (Intel chip) will always use a self-assigned IP address, and this will cause it to lose network connection. This is shown under netowrk adaptor setting. If I deactivate the network adaptor, and then reactive it. It will be OK without reboots needed. But this is so annoying.