xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/awi.4 (revision 8b0f9554ff8762542c4defc4f70e1eb76fb508fa)
1.\"     $NetBSD: awi.4,v 1.26 2006/01/12 21:05:18 wiz Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1999,2000,2001 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
7.\" by Bill Sommerfeld
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36.Dd January 2, 2006
37.Dt AWI 4
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm awi
41.Nd
42AMD PCnetMobile IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA wireless network driver
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Cd "awi*     at pcmcia? function ?"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48driver supports various IEEE 802.11 wireless cards
49that run AMD PCnetMobile firmware based on the AMD 79c930 controller
50with the Intersil (formerly Harris) PRISM radio chipset.
51It provides access to 32kb of memory shared between the controller
52and the host.
53All host/device interaction is accomplished via this shared memory, which
54can be accessed either via PCMCIA or I/O memory spaces.
55The
56.Nm
57driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic in 802.11 frames.
58.Pp
59The driver works both in infrastructure mode and in ad-hoc (independent
60BSS) mode.
61.Pp
62In infrastructure mode, it communicates with an Access Point,
63which serves as a link-layer bridge between an Ethernet segment and
64the wireless network.
65An access point also provides roaming capability,
66which allows a wireless node to move between access points.
67.Pp
68In ad-hoc mode, the device communicates peer to peer.
69Although it is more efficient to communicate between wireless nodes,
70the coverage is limited spatially due to the lack of roaming capability.
71.Pp
72In addition to these two modes in the IEEE 802.11 specification, the
73.Nm
74driver also supports a variant of ad-hoc mode outside of the spec for
75DS radio cards.
76This makes it possible to communicate with the WaveLAN ad-hoc mode of
77.Xr wi 4
78driver.
79The NWID has no effect in this mode.
80.Pp
81Another mode added to the
82.Nm
83driver can be used with old Melco access points with 2Mbps cards.
84This mode actually uses the IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc mode with encapsulation of
85raw Ethernet packets (including headers) in 802.11 frames.
86.Pp
87For more information on configuring this device, see
88.Xr ifconfig 8
89and
90.Xr ifmedia 4 .
91.Sh HARDWARE
92Cards supported by the
93.Nm
94driver include:
95.Pp
96.Bl -tag -width BayStack_650x -offset indent -compact
97.It BayStack 650
981Mbps Frequency Hopping PCCARD adapter
99.It BayStack 660
1002Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
101.It Icom SL-200
1022Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
103.It Melco WLI-PCM
1042Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
105.It NEL SSMagic
1062Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
107.It Netwave AirSurfer Plus
1081Mbps Frequency Hopping PCCARD adapter
109.It Netwave AirSurfer Pro
1102Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
111.It Nokia C020 WLAN
1122Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
113.It Farallon SkyLINE
1142Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter
115.It Zoom Air Model 4000
116.El
117.Pp
118The original Xircom Netwave AirSurfer is supported by the
119.Xr cnw 4
120driver, and the PRISM-II cards are supported by the
121.Xr wi 4
122driver.
123.Sh MEDIA SELECTION
124In addition to default
125.Em Auto
126media type,
127the DS cards support
128.Em DS1
129and
130.Em DS2
131media types, while the FH cards support the
132.Em FH1
133media type.
134For each media type, the
135.Em adhoc
136mediaopt can be used to indicate to the driver to operate in ad-hoc mode.
137The
138.Em flag0
139mediaopt
140should be used only with old access points, which operate in IBSS mode.
141For DS radio cards, the
142.Em adhoc,flag0
143mediaopt can be used for
144.Xr wi 4
145compatible WaveLAN ad-hoc mode.
146.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
147.Bl -diag
148.It "awi0: no suitable CIS info found"
149The device cannot be mapped due to a resource conflict.
150Or, the device failed to initialize its firmware.
151.It "awi0: failed to complete selftest (%s)"
152The device failed to complete its self test.
153In some circumstances, resetting device after power on fails.
154Re-inserting the card or setting the interface up and then down again
155(using
156.Xr ifconfig 8 )
157may also be helpful.
158.It "awi0: transmit timeout"
159The device failed to generate an interrupt to acknowledge a
160transmitted packet.
161.It "awi0: failed to lock interrupt"
162The system was unable to obtain the lock to access shared memory.
163.It "awi0: command %d failed %x"
164The device failed to complete the request from the system.
165.El
166.Sh SEE ALSO
167.Xr arp 4 ,
168.Xr cnw 4 ,
169.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
170.Xr netintro 4 ,
171.Xr pcmcia 4 ,
172.Xr wi 4 ,
173.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
174.Xr wiconfig 8
175.Rs
176.%T Am79C930 PCnet Mobile Single-Chip Wireless LAN Media Access Controller
177.%O http://www.amd.com
178.Re
179.Sh HISTORY
180The
181.Nm
182device driver first appeared in
183.Nx 1.5 .
184.Sh AUTHORS
185The initial version of the
186.Nm
187driver was written by
188.An Bill Sommerfeld
189.Aq sommerfeld@NetBSD.org .
190It was then completely rewritten to support cards with the DS phy and
191ad-hoc mode by
192.An Atsushi Onoe
193.Aq onoe@NetBSD.org .
194