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xjn819

macrumors newbie
Jan 1, 2023
23
11
Hackintosh A(success):
13700K
MSI Z690i Unify
6800XT
MacOS Ventura 13.0
SIP and VTD enabled

Hackintosh B(fail):
13700K
Gigabyte Z690 Aero D
6800XT
MacOS Ventura 13.3.1
SIP and VTD enabled

I just tried to disable the SIP for hackintosh B. It didn't help though. VTD is necessary to enable the onboard Thunderbolt, i225 nic and aqc113 nic, and prevent system crush, so I can't turn it off. Both hackintosh use the similar EFI. Only differences are USB mapping, alcid and aqc113 config. So I think the problem could be MacOS13.3.1. I didn't backup the system so I can't roll back to 13.0 to test it without a fresh installation. It's still really helpful. Thanks a lot for your suggestion again!
Well,because the motherboard is gigabyte. Starting from 13.3, Apple added an 'addMemoryRegion' method for mapping pci-bridge with AppleVTD, which can cause issues with enabling VT-d even after removing ReservedMemory from DMAR on Gigabyte motherboards.
This issue has been solved from OpenCore 0.9.2 by turning on `DisableIoMapperMapping`. if not, try to block by adding:
`
identifier. : com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily
Base : __ZN8AppleVTD14addMemoryRangeEyy
Relace : C3
MinKernel : 22.4.0
`

check:https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/pull/440
 

Cartsett

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2023
8
2
Well,because the motherboard is gigabyte. Starting from 13.3, Apple added an 'addMemoryRegion' method for mapping pci-bridge with AppleVTD, which can cause issues with enabling VT-d even after removing ReservedMemory from DMAR on Gigabyte motherboards.
This issue has been solved from OpenCore 0.9.2 by turning on `DisableIoMapperMapping`. if not, try to block by adding:
`
identifier. : com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily
Base : __ZN8AppleVTD14addMemoryRangeEyy
Relace : C3
MinKernel : 22.4.0
`

check:https://github.com/acidanthera/OpenCorePkg/pull/440
So I just tried adding the patch provided by CaseySJ and the one you provided, it still didn't help.
`
identifier. : com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily
Base : __ZN8AppleVTD14addMemoryRangeEyy
Relace : C3
MinKernel : 22.4.0
`
I tested it by enabling one of them at a time.

And the weird thing is that my hackintosh can work normally even without adding this appleVTD patch.Everything works fine including Wifi, ethernet, thunderbolt, etc.

Here is my EFI if you want to take a look. The MTU setting is actually not important to me. But I'm still excited to see if it can work flawlessly with hackintosh!
 

Attachments

  • EFI.zip
    5.8 MB · Views: 82
Last edited:
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xjn819

macrumors newbie
Jan 1, 2023
23
11
So I just tried adding the patch provided by CaseySJ, it still didn't help. And my hackintosh won't boot if I add

I tested it by enabling one of them at a time.

And the weird thing is that my hackintosh can work normally even without adding this appleVTD patch.Everything works fine including Wifi, ethernet, thunderbolt, etc.

Here is my EFI if you want to take a look. The MTU setting is actually not important to me. But I'm still excited to see if it can work flawlessly with hackintosh!
I haven't found any conflicts between this EFI and the MLX network card, so I'm not sure where the issue lies. However, these steps could be taken:

1. SSDT-DMAR.aml is not needed.
2. Disable IGPU via BIOS.
3. Update to OpenCore 0.9.2.
4. Enable 'DisableIoMapperMapping'

These steps are unrelated to the issue of the MLX network card KEXT driver being unable to load, it's better to wait for Apple to support MTU adjustment.
 

Cartsett

macrumors newbie
Apr 10, 2023
8
2
I haven't found any conflicts between this EFI and the MLX network card, so I'm not sure where the issue lies. However, these steps could be taken:

1. SSDT-DMAR.aml is not needed.
2. Disable IGPU via BIOS.
3. Update to OpenCore 0.9.2.
4. Enable 'DisableIoMapperMapping'

These steps are unrelated to the issue of the MLX network card KEXT driver being unable to load, it's better to wait for Apple to support MTU adjustment.
I see. I'll wait for opencore 0.9.2 to see if anything changes. Thank you!
Here is a quick test of cx4411a on hackintosh connecting to the cx4411a on truenas. Both MTU 1500.

截屏2023-04-13 下午9.39.52.png
 
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metacollin

macrumors newbie
Jun 18, 2010
11
14
Hello, will cx4131a gcat work? it is 1g.10g.25g.40g.50g
Nope, it doesn't.

I just tested a MCX4131A-GCAT card on Ventura 13.3 and is no good.

The driver loads and attaches to it fine, no errors in the kernel logs, but no network interface gets created.

Much more significantly however, after installing the card, my system began to kernel panic at random, probably an average of 1 every 6 hours or so. The kernel panics resolved once I removed the card.
 

xjn819

macrumors newbie
Jan 1, 2023
23
11
Nope, it doesn't.

I just tested a MCX4131A-GCAT card on Ventura 13.3 and is no good.

The driver loads and attaches to it fine, no errors in the kernel logs, but no network interface gets created.

Much more significantly however, after installing the card, my system began to kernel panic at random, probably an average of 1 every 6 hours or so. The kernel panics resolved once I removed the card.
a hackintosh or apple silicon?
Could you please attach your panic report.
 

Dandu

macrumors regular
Jan 23, 2009
118
14
forgot, 25gb eth cards included
Hi. Is there a way to see all the card supported ?

In a KEXT, there is a list with all the couple vendor ID/product ID in the plist, but i don't know where the list is with the DEXT.
 

Florist9266

macrumors newbie
Dec 1, 2022
10
4
just upgrade to last Ventura, Apple has released 40gb ETH dirverkit, the dext mlx5, according to the VID it supports all the MLX connectX 4 + from 40GB to 200GB (I guess). MTU cannot be set through GUI, but I think `networksetup -setMTU en4 9000` will work. I have no conditions to test if ROCE2 works.

another dirverkit called `i40e`, obviously is the driver for intel's 40gb+ cards.
Hello xjn819 nice work! I checked the MacOS 13.1 public release.

There is no kext file that you attached, instead, it is dext driver. So kext file might only exist in the beta version prior to 13.1.

In MacOS 13.1, there are three Eth drivers: AppleEthernetE1000.dext, AppleEthernetIXGBE.dext, and AppleEthernetMLX5.dext.

But in MacOS 13.3.1, there are 4 dext drivers including AppleEthernetIXL.dext
 
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xjn819

macrumors newbie
Jan 1, 2023
23
11
Hello xjn819 nice work! I checked the MacOS 13.1 public release.

There is no kext file that you attached, instead, it is dext driver. So kext file might only exist in the beta version prior to 13.1.

In MacOS 13.1, there are three Eth drivers: AppleEthernetE1000.dext, AppleEthernetIXGBE.dext, and AppleEthernetMLX5.dext.

But in MacOS 13.3.1, there are 4 dext drivers including AppleEthernetIXL.dext
yes, XGBE for intel 82599
IXL for intel i40e guess like E810
 

etorix

macrumors newbie
May 9, 2023
13
8
ixgbe is for X500 series (which indeed includes the 82599).
ixl is for X700 series (some of which actually do SFP28/25 GbE rather than QSFP+/40 GbE, as the name would suggest)
The X800 series uses the ice driver. Maybe this one will come next?

Very nice find for the ixl and mlx5 drivers!
 
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metacollin

macrumors newbie
Jun 18, 2010
11
14
If anyone is looking for a relatively cheap (at least for what you get. ~$80-$100 on ebay) 100GbE card, the MCX455A might work but not without some finagling.

Its a dual Infiniband/Ethernet card, and it defaults to the Infiniband PCIEClass, so the AppleEthernetMLX5.dext driver doesn't match against it (the dext only matches against the ethernet class code of 0x020000 but the card uses has 0x020700).

I tried injecting the ethernet class code using OpenCore (I'm on a hackintosh) and low and behold, the driver loaded, successfully read the name, serial number, and various other bits of information from the card, and is up and attached to the card in the system profiler.

But no network iface :(. Checking the kernel logs:

Code:
(com.apple.DriverKit-AppleEthernetMLX5.dext) mlx5: QUERY_HCA_CAP : type(0) opmode(1) Failed(-536870212)
(com.apple.DriverKit-AppleEthernetMLX5.dext) mlx5: failed to handleHCACap in load:111

I don't know if this is the driver though or a problem with the card itself. I'll post again when I know more.


a hackintosh or apple silicon?
Could you please attach your panic report.

I'm on a hackintosh. And there aren't any useful panic logs, I already checked. The actual panic is due to a window server watchdog timeout. The system just freezes completely. Though I am now wondering if this card is bad since I am buying only the cheapest, shadiest cards ebay has to offer. It really seems like the card is taking down the whole PCIe bus (and the graphics card along with it), which would cause these symptoms.

But whatever the problem is, it isn't actually causing a direct kernel panic so there aren't any logs coming from anything inside the MLX5 driver.



One last update on the Chelsio T580:

Using my binpatched driver, you can't control all that much about it... but both ifaces work and here are the speeds I am getting using iperf3 (going from one port through a 40GbE switch and back out another port to the card's second port, so the card is doing double the data shown overall):

Code:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on 5201 (test #1)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Accepted connection from 10.0.1.10, port 49344
[  5] local 10.0.1.173 port 5201 connected to 10.0.1.10 port 49345
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  4.22 GBytes  36.3 Gbits/sec
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  4.08 GBytes  35.0 Gbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  4.28 GBytes  36.7 Gbits/sec
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  4.30 GBytes  36.9 Gbits/sec
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  4.31 GBytes  37.0 Gbits/sec
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  4.40 GBytes  37.8 Gbits/sec
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  4.42 GBytes  38.0 Gbits/sec
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  4.33 GBytes  37.2 Gbits/sec
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  4.39 GBytes  37.7 Gbits/sec
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  4.42 GBytes  37.9 Gbits/sec
[  5]  10.00-10.00  sec  1.77 MBytes  46.0 Gbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  43.2 GBytes  37.1 Gbits/sec                  receiver
-----------------------------------------------------------

Dunno what sorcery happened to get that 46Gbit/sec burst at the end but I'll take it.
 
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metacollin

macrumors newbie
Jun 18, 2010
11
14
Oh! One thing to be aware of: many of these higher speed ethernet cards are designed for use in 1U or 2U servers where there is a large amount of airflow flowing over everything inside the case. Whenever you see a card with a heatsink and the fins are parallel to the edge of the card, this is sure sign it is intended to be cooled by server case fans moving air through those fins.

If you put it in a normal desktop case, you will likely need to add some active cooling to your PCIE slot area if you don't have any already. Without decent air flow, some cards will overheat and shut down, while others will work but get hot enough to burn you if you aren't careful which can't be terrific for the life of the card I'd imagine.

If using an external thunerbolt case, just be sure you get one with a fan/active cooling, or just put a fan on the front or something.

I just put 1 120mm fan (and not a good one, 50cfm I think) in front of my PCIE cards and that was plenty to keep the 40GbE test cards from overheating. That said, without that fan, they would eventually go into thermal shutdown.

Just a little gotchya to watch out for. The MCX-455A requires it and the T580 certainly benefit from this. May not be strictly needed for some cards, but definitely is needed for others.

If you look up the card's spec sheet, it should have a 'minimum air flow' in LFM (linear feet per minute, basically how fast air needs to be moving through the heatsink fins of the card) spec if it requires active cooling. As for how you know how much LFM you're getting...don't worry about it. Just about any airflow will usually be enough, these cards are like 16-20W max. Its just natural convection is so much worse than even a bit of slow moving air.
 
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xjn819

macrumors newbie
Jan 1, 2023
23
11
Oh! One thing to be aware of: many of these higher speed ethernet cards are designed for use in 1U or 2U servers where there is a large amount of airflow flowing over everything inside the case. Whenever you see a card with a heatsink and the fins are parallel to the edge of the card, this is sure sign it is intended to be cooled by server case fans moving air through those fins.

If you put it in a normal desktop case, you will likely need to add some active cooling to your PCIE slot area if you don't have any already. Without decent air flow, some cards will overheat and shut down, while others will work but get hot enough to burn you if you aren't careful which can't be terrific for the life of the card I'd imagine.

If using an external thunerbolt case, just be sure you get one with a fan/active cooling, or just put a fan on the front or something.

I just put 1 120mm fan (and not a good one, 50cfm I think) in front of my PCIE cards and that was plenty to keep the 40GbE test cards from overheating. That said, without that fan, they would eventually go into thermal shutdown.

Just a little gotchya to watch out for. The MCX-455A requires it and the T580 certainly benefit from this. May not be strictly needed for some cards, but definitely is needed for others.

If you look up the card's spec sheet, it should have a 'minimum air flow' in LFM (linear feet per minute, basically how fast air needs to be moving through the heatsink fins of the card) spec if it requires active cooling. As for how you know how much LFM you're getting...don't worry about it. Just about any airflow will usually be enough, these cards are like 16-20W max. Its just natural convection is so much worse than even a bit of slow moving air.
thought T580 only works before Monterey?
 

Florist9266

macrumors newbie
Dec 1, 2022
10
4
If anyone is looking for a relatively cheap (at least for what you get. ~$80-$100 on ebay) 100GbE card, the MCX455A might work but not without some finagling.

Its a dual Infiniband/Ethernet card, and it defaults to the Infiniband PCIEClass, so the AppleEthernetMLX5.dext driver doesn't match against it (the dext only matches against the ethernet class code of 0x020000 but the card uses has 0x020700).

I tried injecting the ethernet class code using OpenCore (I'm on a hackintosh) and low and behold, the driver loaded, successfully read the name, serial number, and various other bits of information from the card, and is up and attached to the card in the system profiler.

But no network iface :(. Checking the kernel logs:

Code:
(com.apple.DriverKit-AppleEthernetMLX5.dext) mlx5: QUERY_HCA_CAP : type(0) opmode(1) Failed(-536870212)
(com.apple.DriverKit-AppleEthernetMLX5.dext) mlx5: failed to handleHCACap in load:111

I don't know if this is the driver though or a problem with the card itself. I'll post again when I know more.




I'm on a hackintosh. And there aren't any useful panic logs, I already checked. The actual panic is due to a window server watchdog timeout. The system just freezes completely. Though I am now wondering if this card is bad since I am buying only the cheapest, shadiest cards ebay has to offer. It really seems like the card is taking down the whole PCIe bus (and the graphics card along with it), which would cause these symptoms.

But whatever the problem is, it isn't actually causing a direct kernel panic so there aren't any logs coming from anything inside the MLX5 driver.



One last update on the Chelsio T580:

Using my binpatched driver, you can't control all that much about it... but both ifaces work and here are the speeds I am getting using iperf3 (going from one port through a 40GbE switch and back out another port to the card's second port, so the card is doing double the data shown overall):

Code:
-----------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on 5201 (test #1)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Accepted connection from 10.0.1.10, port 49344
[  5] local 10.0.1.173 port 5201 connected to 10.0.1.10 port 49345
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  4.22 GBytes  36.3 Gbits/sec
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  4.08 GBytes  35.0 Gbits/sec
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  4.28 GBytes  36.7 Gbits/sec
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  4.30 GBytes  36.9 Gbits/sec
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  4.31 GBytes  37.0 Gbits/sec
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  4.40 GBytes  37.8 Gbits/sec
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec  4.42 GBytes  38.0 Gbits/sec
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  4.33 GBytes  37.2 Gbits/sec
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  4.39 GBytes  37.7 Gbits/sec
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  4.42 GBytes  37.9 Gbits/sec
[  5]  10.00-10.00  sec  1.77 MBytes  46.0 Gbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  43.2 GBytes  37.1 Gbits/sec                  receiver
-----------------------------------------------------------

Dunno what sorcery happened to get that 46Gbit/sec burst at the end but I'll take it.
My T580 arrived today, I bought it on eBay. My issue is I do not have the full-height bracket, does anyone know where I can get it?

metacollin, thanks for your driver! it works in my Z690 Hackintosh.

I use one port in and the other port out. Here are my results (way more than 40Gbit/sec):


Connecting to host 169.254.2.200, port 5201
[ 5] local 169.254.45.39 port 50877 connected to 169.254.2.200 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate
[ 5] 0.00-1.00 sec 7.07 GBytes 60.7 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 1.00-2.00 sec 6.89 GBytes 59.2 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 2.00-3.00 sec 6.86 GBytes 59.0 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 3.00-4.00 sec 7.40 GBytes 63.6 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 4.00-5.00 sec 7.16 GBytes 61.5 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 5.00-6.00 sec 7.38 GBytes 63.4 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 6.00-7.00 sec 7.13 GBytes 61.3 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 7.00-8.00 sec 7.05 GBytes 60.6 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 8.00-9.00 sec 7.15 GBytes 61.4 Gbits/sec
[ 5] 9.00-10.00 sec 6.76 GBytes 58.1 Gbits/sec
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 70.9 GBytes 60.9 Gbits/sec sender
[ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 70.9 GBytes 60.9 Gbits/sec receiver
 

llowrey

macrumors newbie
May 15, 2023
1
0
I would like to try to get the mlx5 driver to work and could use some help. I haven't used a mac since about... 1985... so I'm extremely inexperienced with macos.

I'm running Ventura in a VM (qemu/libvirt) and am using the virtio driver for the network interface. Works fine. The VM host has a ConnectX-4 in SR-IOV mode and I'm using the virtual function (VF) interfaces in my other VMs (linux/windows). A VF interface appears like a regular PCI device with the same Mellanox vendor id (0x15b3) but with a different product id (0x1014) instead of the primary (physical function / PF) id (0x1013). My other VMs all detect it as a Mellanox nic but they are aware that it's a VF and not a PF.

Ventura doesn't seem to be loading the driver. Is there something I need to do to enable the MLX5 driver? Or is it automatic?

Here's what 'System Information' shows me:

1684174234793.png


I'm wondering if perhaps the driver isn't loading because it doesn't know how to init VFs... or if it has something to do with the fact that it's being detected as 'ExpressCard'.

I saw mention of the class code but don't see where I can see that.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 

markfrog

macrumors newbie
Apr 8, 2023
8
1
Nope, it doesn't.

I just tested a MCX4131A-GCAT card on Ventura 13.3 and is no good.

The driver loads and attaches to it fine, no errors in the kernel logs, but no network interface gets created.

Much more significantly however, after installing the card, my system began to kernel panic at random, probably an average of 1 every 6 hours or so. The kernel panics resolved once I removed the card.

Nope, it doesn't.

I just tested a MCX4131A-GCAT card on Ventura 13.3 and is no good.

The driver loads and attaches to it fine, no errors in the kernel logs, but no network interface gets created.

Much more significantly however, after installing the card, my system began to kernel panic at random, probably an average of 1 every 6 hours or so. The kernel panics resolved once I removed the card.
Thanks guy though I just saw your reply after I got the mcx4131a-gcat today. The situation is just as what you meet. I can find the card in the system report or Networks setting in Setting.
And I should buy MCX4131a BCAT.
 

markfrog

macrumors newbie
Apr 8, 2023
8
1
Finally I got the mcx4131a bcat and it worked for one time on a HACKINTOSH. Ad than I rebooted the computer and it showed disconnected. I can't find the issues for I had done nothing to it. It looks like that it has not load the drivers. Does anyone know what the issue is and how to solve it?
截屏2023-05-21 15.06.46.png
 
Last edited:

markfrog

macrumors newbie
Apr 8, 2023
8
1
Finally I got the mcx4131a bcat and it worked for one time on a HACKINTOSH. Ad than I rebooted the computer and it showed disconnected. I can't find the issues for I had done nothing to it. It looks like that it has not load the drivers. Does anyone know what the issue is and how to solve it? View attachment 2205109


SOLVED. It is the problem of pcie slot. Now I put it into the first Pice slot which connect to cpu directly and works great.
The gpu card put into the slot which connect to pch.
 
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jamesq

macrumors newbie
May 30, 2023
4
1
Monterey 13.3.1 M1Max macbookPro
thunderbolt 3 dock + mellanox CX4212A-ACAT 25G nic Work very well

The only problem is that only 2034 largest mtu

Hi, can you please confirm that you have this exact model "mellanox CX4212A-ACAT"? I cannot find information about this nic anywhere. Maybe you meant this one?
Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4121A-ACAT

I want to try a similar combination, but afraid that M1 macOS will require some drivers that does not exist. Did your 25GbE mellanox nic worked out of the box without any drivers or you had tweaked something?

Thank you in advance.

I want to buy Sonnet Echo Express SEL Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe 3.0 x8 expansion enclosure and then attach a Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4121A-ACAT (dual port) or MCX4111A-ACAT (single port) NIC.

Recently Sonnet announced and started to sell a new product called Sonnet Twin25G thunderbolt 3 adapter:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/twin25g/overview.html

and it looks like it uses the Mellanox 25gbe network adapters from the same family ConnectX-4 Lx. They prodive some drivers here:
http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=635&expand=_a3&action=b1219#b1219

But they require macOS 13.2+ Ventura. Does anyone know if their driver can work with any Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4121A-ACAT or they can somehow vendor lock their driver to work only with their version of this card?
 
Last edited:
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daemonpw

macrumors newbie
Mar 13, 2023
4
1
Hi, can you please confirm that you have this exact model "mellanox CX4212A-ACAT"? I cannot find information about this nic anywhere. Maybe you meant this one?
Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4121A-ACAT

I want to try a similar combination, but afraid that M1 macOS will require some drivers that does not exist. Did your 25GbE mellanox nic worked out of the box without any drivers or you had tweaked something?

Thank you in advance.

I want to buy Sonnet Echo Express SEL Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe 3.0 x8 expansion enclosure and then attach a Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4121A-ACAT (dual port) or MCX4111A-ACAT (single port) NIC.

Recently Sonnet announced and started to sell a new product called Sonnet Twin25G thunderbolt 3 adapter:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/twin25g/overview.html

and it looks like it uses the Mellanox 25gbe network adapters from the same family ConnectX-4 Lx. They prodive some drivers here:
http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=635&expand=_a3&action=b1219#b1219

But they require macOS 13.2+ Ventura. Does anyone know if their driver can work with any Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4121A-ACAT or they can somehow vendor lock their driver to work only with their version of this card?
sonnettech driver com.sonnettech.sntmlx5e, it should base mxl5, the main app first scan pcie dev, if dev property(maybe Subsystem Vendor ID) valid, request system launch the driver.
 

jamesq

macrumors newbie
May 30, 2023
4
1
sonnettech driver com.sonnettech.sntmlx5e, it should base mxl5, the main app first scan pcie dev, if dev property(maybe Subsystem Vendor ID) valid, request system launch the driver.

Thank you for your reply. Although I did not understand anything. By "request system launch the driver" do you mean these drivers most likely work only with their hardware?

What is mxl5? cannot find anything in Google about this.
 

etorix

macrumors newbie
May 9, 2023
13
8
I want to try a similar combination, but afraid that M1 macOS will require some drivers that does not exist.
Easy to check: Look into /System/Library/DriverExtensions/
(Terminal: ls /System/Library/DriverExtensions/)
ixgbe is the driver for Intel X500 series of NICs (10 GbE)
ixl for Intel X700 series (10/25/40 GbE)
mlx5 for Mellanox ConnectX-4 to 6 series
A French blogger reported on using an Intel X520 in Thunderbolt enclosure with an iPad! M1 Mac should be a breeze.

But they require macOS 13.2+ Ventura. Does anyone know if their driver can work with any Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4121A-ACAT or they can somehow vendor lock their driver to work only with their version of this card?
Apparently, Sonnet ported the driver independently of Apple (and has jumbo frames which are reportedly missing from the Apple driver for now). For this to make commercial and technical sense, Sonnet likely changes some ID on the cards they sell, and lock the driver to their modded cards, as with their 10 GbE offers. It should be possible to patch the driver, or alter IDs of a generic card, but why would one attempt that as first intention rather than using Apple's native driver with genuine, unaltered, cards?
 
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