xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/rtwn.4 (revision d29e8b42ddc49cdf029260fa07edbf7eb85a969e)
1.\" $NetBSD: rtwn.4,v 1.3 2015/08/28 09:06:45 nonaka Exp $
2.\" $OpenBSD: rtwn.4,v 1.2 2015/07/09 11:28:53 stsp Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>
5.\" Copyright (c) 2015 Stefan Sperling <stsp@openbsd.org>
6.\"
7.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
8.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
9.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
10.\"
11.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
12.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
13.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
14.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
15.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
16.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
17.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
18.\"
19.Dd August 27, 2015
20.Dt RTWN 4
21.Os
22.Sh NAME
23.Nm rtwn
24.Nd Realtek RTL8188CE/RTL8192CE PCIe IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless network device
25.Sh SYNOPSIS
26.Cd "rtwn* at pci? dev ? function ?"
27.Sh DESCRIPTION
28The
29.Nm
30driver supports PCIe wireless network devices based on the Realtek
31RTL8188CE and RTL8192CE chipset.
32.Pp
33The RTL8188CE is a highly integrated 802.11n adapter that combines a MAC,
34a 1T1R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip.
35It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
36.Pp
37The RTL8192CE is a highly integrated multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO)
38802.11n adapter that combines a MAC, a 2T2R capable baseband and an
39RF in a single chip.
40It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
41.Pp
42These are the modes the
43.Nm
44driver can operate in:
45.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
46.It BSS mode
47Also known as
48.Em infrastructure
49mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
50which all traffic passes.
51This mode is the default.
52.It monitor mode
53In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
54associating with an access point.
55This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
56capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
57or to scan for access points.
58.El
59.Pp
60The
61.Nm
62driver can be configured to use
63Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or
64Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK).
65WPA is the current encryption standard for wireless networks.
66It is strongly recommended that WEP
67not be used as the sole mechanism
68to secure wireless communication,
69due to serious weaknesses in it.
70.Pp
71The
72.Nm
73driver can be configured at runtime with
74.Xr ifconfig 8
75or on boot with
76.Xr ifconfig.if 5 .
77.Sh FILES
78The driver needs the following firmware files,
79which are loaded when an interface is brought up:
80.Pp
81.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
82.It /libdata/firmware/if_rtwn/rtl8192cfw.bin
83.It /libdata/firmware/if_rtwn/rtl8192cfwU.bin
84.It /libdata/firmware/if_rtwn/rtl8192cfwU_B.bin
85.El
86.Sh EXAMPLES
87The following
88.Xr ifconfig.if 5
89example configures rtwn0 to join whatever network is available on boot,
90using WEP key
91.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 ,
92channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
93.Bd -literal -offset indent
94nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11
95dhcp
96.Ed
97.Pp
98Join an existing BSS network,
99.Dq my_net :
100.Bd -literal -offset indent
101# ifconfig rtwn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
102.Ed
103.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
104.Bl -diag
105.It "rtwn%d: could not read firmware ..."
106For some reason, the driver was unable to read the microcode file from the
107filesystem.
108The file might be missing or corrupted.
109.It "rtwn%d: device timeout"
110A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
111The driver will reset the hardware.
112This should not happen.
113.El
114.Sh SEE ALSO
115.Xr arp 4 ,
116.Xr netintro 4 ,
117.Xr pci 4 ,
118.Xr ifconfig.if 5 ,
119.Xr wpa_supplicant.conf 5 ,
120.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
121.Xr wpa_supplicant 8
122.Sh HISTORY
123The
124.Nm
125driver first appeared in
126.Ox 5.8
127and in
128.Nx 8.0 .
129.Sh AUTHORS
130.An -nosplit
131The
132.Nm
133driver was written by
134.An Stefan Sperling
135.Aq stsp@openbsd.org
136for
137.Ox
138and ported to
139.Nx
140by
141.An NONAKA Kimihiro
142.Aq nonaka@NetBSD.org .
143It was based on the
144.Xr urtwn 4
145driver written by
146.An Damien Bergamini
147.Aq damien.bergamini@free.fr .
148.Sh CAVEATS
149The
150.Nm
151driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered by the
152adapters.
153Additional work is required in
154.Xr ieee80211 9
155before those features can be supported.
156