Hi Qube’s forum users,
I’m trying to get a Realtek 8821CE Wi-Fi PCI card working in sys-net, and I’m running into a situation where the hardware appears to be passed through correctly, but it still doesn’t function inside the qube.
Here’s what I’ve confirmed so far:
• The Realtek PCI device is visible in dom0
• It is assigned to sys-net in Qubes Manager
• IOMMU passthrough is enabled and working
• Inside sys-net, the device is visible when checking the PCI bus, so the VM does see a PCI device
• However, no Wi-Fi interface appears, and no driver binds
• The BDF inside sys-net does not match dom0’s physical BDF, due to Xen’s remapping
• Kernel modules never attach to the device
Attempted driver installation
I have tried installing the driver from:
The installation process completes, but after restarting the qube, nothing changes — the device still has no driver bound, and no Wi-Fi interface appears.
Additional details:
• The PCI device shows up in sys-net, but the kernel doesn’t treat it as Wi-Fi hardware.
• No Realtek-related modules load automatically.
• This is a fresh install of Qubes os 12/1/25.
• No wireless interface appears at all.
• I’ve tried most if not all tutorials and have read most topics about Realtek being bad here on the qubes forums.
What I’m trying to determine:
1. Whether the required Realtek module is missing or failing to load
2. Whether the device requires specific PCI passthrough options (e.g., reset options)
3. Whether Xen’s PCI remapping prevents the driver from binding correctly
I can provide:
• The physical BDF from dom0
• The resolved physical BDF found via the PCI symlink inside sys-net
• Vendor/device IDs
• Kernel messages related to PCI, Realtek, or networking
• Template information and kernel version
• Any other available logs
If anyone has experience with Realtek Wi-Fi PCI cards in Qubes OS or with PCI passthrough issues where the Qube sees the device but no driver binds, I’d appreciate any guidance.
Thanks everyone who took the time to read this — I’ve tried everything I can think of, and I’m stuck on what to try next.