After several months of development (and regrettable delays due to work obligations and health issues), 203 packaged builds, 71 Alpha testers, and 4 test iterations, a new beta version of the Realtek RTL81xx driver is finally ready to be released.
The Functional/Visible Changes are:
- Adds support for newer RTL8111E, RTL8111E-VL, and RTL8111F chips (as found on many SandyBridge motherboards),
- Full support for WakeOnLAN,
- Full support for WakeOnDemand,
- Slight performance improvements
But the really exciting changes happened under the hood:
- Massive code refactoring (almost a full rewrite),
- Merged code with r8168 Linux driver v024,
- Partial Linux emulation layer
You might be asking why those changes are so exciting...
Well, a lot of effort has been invested to make the source more similar to the Linux Realtek driver.
The purpose of this is to allow to track changes in the Linux driver more easily, thus shortening the time needed to support new chips.
Additionally, with this, I'll be able to implement new features much more quickly.
The focus of this release was to provide a stable solution for RTL811x chips on Snow Leopard and Lion, adding support for chips found on many SandyBridge boards, and fixing some bugs of v0.0.67.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the 71 Alpha testers that put this version v0.0.90 through its paces, in several iterations, and on very different configurations for the last 3 months.
So, you might ask: Should I install this ?
Short answer: Definitely !
For more details, head on to the RealtekRTL81xx OSX Driver page.
Thanks,
Lnx2Mac
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