xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/urtwn.4 (revision 6a493d6bc668897c91594964a732d38505b70cbb)
1.\" $NetBSD: urtwn.4,v 1.8 2013/08/10 21:32:07 jnemeth Exp $
2.\" $OpenBSD: urtwn.4,v 1.15 2011/11/26 06:39:33 ckuethe Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>
5.\"
6.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
7.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
8.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
9.\"
10.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
11.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
12.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
13.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
14.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
15.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
16.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
17.\"
18.Dd August 10, 2013
19.Dt URTWN 4
20.Os
21.Sh NAME
22.Nm urtwn
23.Nd Realtek RTL8188CU/RTL8192CU USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless network device
24.Sh SYNOPSIS
25.Cd "urtwn* at uhub? port ?"
26.Sh DESCRIPTION
27The
28.Nm
29driver supports USB 2.0 wireless network devices based on Realtek
30RTL8188CUS, RTL8188CE-VAU, RTL8188RU, and RTL8192CU chipsets.
31.Pp
32The RTL8188CUS is a highly integrated 802.11n adapter that combines
33a MAC, a 1T1R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip.
34It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
35The RTL8188RU is a high-power variant of the RTL8188CUS.
36The RTL8188CE-VAU is a PCI Express Mini Card adapter that attaches
37to the USB interface.
38.Pp
39The RTL8192CU is a highly integrated multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO)
40802.11n adapter that combines a MAC, a 2T2R capable baseband and an
41RF in a single chip.
42It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
43.Pp
44These are the modes the
45.Nm
46driver can operate in:
47.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
48.It BSS mode
49Also known as
50.Em infrastructure
51mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
52which all traffic passes.
53This mode is the default.
54.It monitor mode
55In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
56associating with an access point.
57This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
58capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
59or to scan for access points.
60.El
61.Pp
62The
63.Nm
64driver can be configured to use
65Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or
66Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK).
67WPA is the de facto encryption standard for wireless networks.
68It is strongly recommended that WEP
69not be used as the sole mechanism
70to secure wireless communication,
71due to serious weaknesses in it.
72.Pp
73The
74.Nm
75driver can be configured at runtime with
76.Xr ifconfig 8
77or on boot with
78.Xr ifconfig.if 5 .
79.Sh FILES
80The driver needs the following firmware files,
81which are loaded when an interface is attached:
82.Pp
83.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
84.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfw.bin
85.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfwU.bin
86.El
87.Sh HARDWARE
88The following adapters should work:
89.Pp
90.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
91.It Airlink101 AWLL5088
92.It Aus. Linx AL-9604R1S
93.It B-Link BL-LW05-5R
94.It Belkin F7D1102 Surf Wireless Micro
95.It D-Link DWA-121
96.It D-Link DWA-133
97.It D-Link DWA-135
98.It Digitus DN-7042
99.It Edimax EW-7811Un
100.It EDUP EP-N8508
101.It Full River FR-W100NUL
102.It Hercules Wireless N USB Pico HWNUp-150
103.It Netgear WNA1000A
104.It Planex GW-USEco300
105.It Planex GW-USNano2
106.It Planex GW-USValue-EZ
107.It Planex GW-USWExtreme
108.It POWCHIP POW-N18
109.It Sitecom N300 USB (WLA-2102 v1)
110.It Sitecom WL-365
111.It Solwise NET-WL-UMD-606N
112.It TRENDnet TEW-648UBM
113.El
114.Sh EXAMPLES
115The following
116.Xr ifconfig.if 5
117example configures urtwn0 to join whatever network is available on boot,
118using WEP key
119.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 ,
120channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
121.Bd -literal -offset indent
122nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11
123dhcp
124.Ed
125.Pp
126Join an existing BSS network,
127.Dq my_net :
128.Bd -literal -offset indent
129# ifconfig urtwn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
130.Ed
131.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
132.Bl -diag
133.It "urtwn%d: error %d, could not read firmware %s"
134For some reason, the driver was unable to read the microcode file from the
135filesystem.
136The file might be missing or corrupted.
137.It "urtwn%d: device timeout"
138A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
139The driver will reset the hardware.
140This should not happen.
141.El
142.Sh SEE ALSO
143.Xr arp 4 ,
144.Xr netintro 4 ,
145.Xr usb 4 ,
146.Xr ifconfig.if 5 ,
147.Xr wpa_supplicant.conf 5 ,
148.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
149.Xr wpa_supplicant 8
150.Sh HISTORY
151The
152.Nm
153device driver first appeared in
154.Ox 4.9
155and in
156.Nx 6.0 .
157.Sh AUTHORS
158.An -nosplit
159The
160.Nm
161driver was written by
162.An Damien Bergamini
163.Aq damien@openbsd.org
164for
165.Ox
166and ported to
167.Nx
168by
169.An NONAKA Kimihiro
170.Aq nonaka@NetBSD.org .
171.Sh CAVEATS
172The
173.Nm
174driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered by the
175adapters.
176Additional work is required in
177.Xr ieee80211 9
178before those features can be supported.
179