man/man4/urtwn.4

.\" $NetBSD: urtwn.4,v 1.19 2024/05/26 09:27:20 nia Exp $
.\" $OpenBSD: urtwn.4,v 1.15 2011/11/26 06:39:33 ckuethe Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.Dd May 26, 2024
.Dt URTWN 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm urtwn
.Nd Realtek RTL8188CU/RTL8188EU/RTL8192CU/RTL8192EU USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless network device
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "urtwn* at uhub? port ?"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver supports USB 2.0 wireless network devices based on Realtek
RTL8188CUS, RTL8188CE-VAU, RTL8188EUS, RTL8188RU, RTL8192CU and RTL8192EU
chipsets.
.Pp
The RTL8188CUS and RTL8188EUS are highly integrated 802.11n adapters that
combine a MAC, a 1T1R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip.
They operate in the 2GHz spectrum only.
The RTL8188RU is a high-power variant of the RTL8188CUS.
The RTL8188CE-VAU is a PCI Express Mini Card adapter that attaches
to the USB interface.
.Pp
The RTL8192CU and RTL8192EU are highly integrated multiple-in, multiple-out
(MIMO) 802.11n adapters that combine a MAC, a 2T2R capable baseband and an
RF in a single chip.
It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
.Pp
These are the modes the
.Nm
driver can operate in:
.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
.It BSS mode
Also known as
.Em infrastructure
mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
which all traffic passes.
This mode is the default.
.It IBSS mode
Also known as
.Em IEEE ad-hoc
mode or
.Em peer-to-peer
mode.
This is the standardized method of operating without an access point.
Stations associate with a service set.
However, actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.
.It Host AP
In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station)
for other cards.
.It monitor mode
In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
associating with an access point.
This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
or to scan for access points.
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver can be configured to use
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK).
WPA is the de facto encryption standard for wireless networks.
It is strongly recommended that WEP
not be used as the sole mechanism
to secure wireless communication,
due to serious weaknesses in it.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver can be configured at runtime with
.Xr ifconfig 8
or on boot with
.Xr ifconfig.if 5 .
.Sh FILES
The driver needs the following firmware files,
which are loaded when an interface is attached:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8188eufw.bin
.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfw.bin
.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfwU.bin
.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192efw.bin
.El
.Sh HARDWARE
The following adapters should work:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It Airlink101 AWLL5088
.It Aus. Linx AL-9604R1S
.It ASUSTeK USB-N10 NANO
.\".It ASUSTek USB-N13 B1
.It B-Link BL-LW05-5R
.It Belkin F7D1102 Surf Wireless Micro
.It D-Link DWA-121
.It D-Link DWA-125
.It D-Link DWA-131
.It D-Link DWA-133
.It D-Link DWA-135
.It Digitus DN-7042
.It Edimax EW-7811Un
.It EDUP EP-N8508
.It ELECOM WDC-150SU2M
.It Full River FR-W100NUL
.It Hercules Wireless N USB Pico HWNUp-150
.It IO-DATA WN-G150UMW
.It Mercusys MW150US v2
.It Netgear WNA1000A
.It Planex GW-USEco300
.It Planex GW-USNano2
.It Planex GW-USValue-EZ
.It Planex GW-USWExtreme
.It POWCHIP POW-N18
.It Sitecom N300 USB (WLA-2102 v1)
.It Sitecom WL-365
.It Solwise NET-WL-UMD-606N
.It TP-LINK TL-WN722N v2
.It TP-LINK TL-WN723N v3
.It TP-LINK TL-WN725N v2
.It TP-LINK TL-WN821N
.It TP-LINK TL-WN822N v4
.It TP-LINK TL-WN823N v2
.It TRENDnet TEW-648UBM
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following
.Xr ifconfig.if 5
example configures urtwn0 to join whatever network is available on boot,
using WEP key
.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 ,
channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11
dhcp
.Ed
.Pp
Join an existing BSS network,
.Dq my_net :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
# ifconfig urtwn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
.Ed
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Bl -diag
.It "urtwn%d: error %d, could not read firmware %s"
For some reason, the driver was unable to read the microcode file from the
filesystem.
The file might be missing or corrupted.
.It "urtwn%d: device timeout"
A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
The driver will reset the hardware.
This should not happen.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr arp 4 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr usb 4 ,
.Xr ifconfig.if 5 ,
.Xr wpa_supplicant.conf 5 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
.Xr wpa_supplicant 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
device driver first appeared in
.Ox 4.9
and in
.Nx 6.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Damien Bergamini
.Aq damien@openbsd.org
for
.Ox
and ported to
.Nx
by
.An NONAKA Kimihiro
.Aq nonaka@NetBSD.org .
.Sh CAVEATS
The
.Nm
driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered by the
adapters.
Additional work is required in
.Xr ieee80211 9
before those features can be supported.