xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/urtwn.4 (revision b7b7574d3bf8eeb51a1fa3977b59142ec6434a55)
1.\" $NetBSD: urtwn.4,v 1.10 2014/02/14 07:29:06 wiz 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 February 13, 2014
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 IBSS mode
55Also known as
56.Em IEEE ad-hoc
57mode or
58.Em peer-to-peer
59mode.
60This is the standardized method of operating without an access point.
61Stations associate with a service set.
62However, actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.
63.It Host AP
64In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station)
65for other cards.
66.It monitor mode
67In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
68associating with an access point.
69This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
70capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
71or to scan for access points.
72.El
73.Pp
74The
75.Nm
76driver can be configured to use
77Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or
78Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK).
79WPA is the de facto encryption standard for wireless networks.
80It is strongly recommended that WEP
81not be used as the sole mechanism
82to secure wireless communication,
83due to serious weaknesses in it.
84.Pp
85The
86.Nm
87driver can be configured at runtime with
88.Xr ifconfig 8
89or on boot with
90.Xr ifconfig.if 5 .
91.Sh FILES
92The driver needs the following firmware files,
93which are loaded when an interface is attached:
94.Pp
95.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
96.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfw.bin
97.It /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfwU.bin
98.El
99.Sh HARDWARE
100The following adapters should work:
101.Pp
102.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
103.It Airlink101 AWLL5088
104.It Aus. Linx AL-9604R1S
105.It B-Link BL-LW05-5R
106.It Belkin F7D1102 Surf Wireless Micro
107.It D-Link DWA-121
108.It D-Link DWA-133
109.It D-Link DWA-135
110.It Digitus DN-7042
111.It Edimax EW-7811Un
112.It EDUP EP-N8508
113.It Full River FR-W100NUL
114.It Hercules Wireless N USB Pico HWNUp-150
115.It Netgear WNA1000A
116.It Planex GW-USEco300
117.It Planex GW-USNano2
118.It Planex GW-USValue-EZ
119.It Planex GW-USWExtreme
120.It POWCHIP POW-N18
121.It Sitecom N300 USB (WLA-2102 v1)
122.It Sitecom WL-365
123.It Solwise NET-WL-UMD-606N
124.It TRENDnet TEW-648UBM
125.El
126.Sh EXAMPLES
127The following
128.Xr ifconfig.if 5
129example configures urtwn0 to join whatever network is available on boot,
130using WEP key
131.Dq 0x1deadbeef1 ,
132channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
133.Bd -literal -offset indent
134nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11
135dhcp
136.Ed
137.Pp
138Join an existing BSS network,
139.Dq my_net :
140.Bd -literal -offset indent
141# ifconfig urtwn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
142.Ed
143.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
144.Bl -diag
145.It "urtwn%d: error %d, could not read firmware %s"
146For some reason, the driver was unable to read the microcode file from the
147filesystem.
148The file might be missing or corrupted.
149.It "urtwn%d: device timeout"
150A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
151The driver will reset the hardware.
152This should not happen.
153.El
154.Sh SEE ALSO
155.Xr arp 4 ,
156.Xr netintro 4 ,
157.Xr usb 4 ,
158.Xr ifconfig.if 5 ,
159.Xr wpa_supplicant.conf 5 ,
160.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
161.Xr wpa_supplicant 8
162.Sh HISTORY
163The
164.Nm
165device driver first appeared in
166.Ox 4.9
167and in
168.Nx 6.0 .
169.Sh AUTHORS
170.An -nosplit
171The
172.Nm
173driver was written by
174.An Damien Bergamini
175.Aq damien@openbsd.org
176for
177.Ox
178and ported to
179.Nx
180by
181.An NONAKA Kimihiro
182.Aq nonaka@NetBSD.org .
183.Sh CAVEATS
184The
185.Nm
186driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered by the
187adapters.
188Additional work is required in
189.Xr ieee80211 9
190before those features can be supported.
191