WI(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual WI(4)NAME
wi — WaveLAN/IEEE, PRISM-II and Spectrum24 802.11DS wireless network
driver
SYNOPSIS
device wi
device wlan
DESCRIPTION
The wi driver provides support for wireless network adapters based around
the Lucent Hermes, Intersil PRISM-II, Intersil PRISM-2.5, and Symbol
Spectrum24 chipsets. All four chipsets provide a similar interface to
the driver.
All host/device interaction is via programmed I/O. Supported features
include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, IBSS, WDS and
old-style Lucent ad-hoc operation modes. Cards based on the Intersil
PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5 chips also support a host-based access point mode
which allows a card to act as a normal access point (with some assistance
from the wi driver). The Lucent Hermes and Symbol Spectrum24 chipsets do
not contain this functionality. PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5 chips do not sup‐
port the WDS functionality.
The wi driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, how‐
ever it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. Transmit speed is
selectable between 1Mbps fixed, 2Mbps fixed, 2Mbps with auto fallback,
5.5Mbps, 8Mbps, or 11Mbps depending on your hardware. The Lucent Wave‐
LAN/IEEE Silver and Gold cards as well as the Intersil and Symbol cards
have support for WEP encryption. The WaveLAN Gold as well as newer
Intersil and Symbol cards support 104bit keys, the others only accept
40bit keys. The Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Bronze cards do not support WEP at
all. To enable encryption, use ifconfig(8) as shown below.
By default, the wi driver configures the card for BSS operation (aka in‐
frastructure mode). This mode requires the use of an access point (base
station).
The wi driver also supports a point-to-point mode where the ssid is
ignored and stations can communicate amongst themselves without the aid
of an access point. Note that there are two possible point-to-point
modes. One mode, referred to as “ad-hoc demo mode”, or “legacy Lucent
ad-hoc mode”, predates the IEEE 802.11 specification and so may not
interoperate with cards from different vendors. The standardized point-
to-point mode, is called IBSS (or confusingly just ad-hoc mode), but is
not supported by cards with very old firmware revisions. If your cards
supports IBSS mode, it is recommended that you use it in preference to
the “ad-hoc demo mode” in new installations.
Cards based on the Intersil PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5 chips also have a
host-based access point mode which allows the card to act as an access
point (base station). Access points are different than operating in IBSS
mode. They operate in BSS mode. They allow for easier roaming and
bridge all ethernet traffic such that machines connected via an access
point appear to be on the local ethernet segment.
For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8). The wi
driver supports polling(4).
Cards supported by the wi driver come in a variety of packages, though
the most common are of the PCMCIA type. In many cases, the PCI version
of a wireless card is simply a PCMCIA card bundled with a PCI adapter.
The PCI adapters come in two flavors: true PCMCIA bridges and dumb PCMCIA
bridges. A true PCMCIA bridge (such as those sold by Lucent) will attach
as a real PCMCIA controller. The wireless card will then attach to the
PCMCIA bus. Wireless cards in PCMCIA slots may be inserted and ejected
on the fly.
A dumb bridge, on the other hand, does not show up as a true PCMCIA bus.
The wireless card will simply appear to the host as a normal PCI device
and will not require any PCMCIA support. Cards in this type of adapter
should only be removed when the machine is powered down.
The following cards are among those supported by the wi driver:
Card Chip Bus
3Com AirConnect 3CRWE737A Spectrum24 PCMCIA
3Com AirConnect 3CRWE777A Prism-II PCI
ACTIONTEC HWC01170 Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
Addtron AWP-100 Prism-II PCMCIA
Adtec Adlink/340C Prism-II PCMCIA
Agere Orinoco Hermes PCMCIA
Avaya Wireless Prism-II PCMCIA
Blue Concentric Circle WL-379F PRISM-II CF
BreezeNet Wireless Prism-II PCMCIA
Buffalo WLI-PCM-S11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Buffalo WLI-PCM-L11G Hermes PCMCIA
Buffalo WLI-CF-S11G Prism-II CF
Cabletron RoamAbout Hermes PCMCIA
Compaq Agency NC5004 Prism-II PCMCIA
Compaq WL100 Prism-II PCMCIA
Compaq WL110 Prism-II PCMCIA
Compaq WL200 Prism-II PCMCIA
Contec FLEXLAN/FX-DS110-PCC Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega PCC-11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega PCCA-11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega PCCB-11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega CGWLPCIA11 Prism-II PCI
Dell TrueMobile 1150 Hermes PCMCIA
Dlink DWL520 Prism-2.5 PCI
Dlink DWL650 Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
ELSA XI300 Prism-II PCMCIA
ELSA XI800 Prism-II CF
EMTAC A2424i Prism-II PCMCIA
Ericsson Wireless LAN CARD C11 Spectrum24 PCMCIA
Farallon Skyline Prism-II PCMCIA
Gemtek WL-311 Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
Hawking Technology WE110P Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
Home Wireless Networks Prism-II PCMCIA
IBM High Rate Wireless Hermes PCMCIA
ICOM SL-1100 Prism-II PCMCIA
I-O DATA WN-B11/PCM Prism-II PCMCIA
Intel PRO/Wireless 2011 Spectrum24 PCMCIA
Intersil Prism II Prism-II PCMCIA
Intersil Mini-PCI Prism-2.5 PCI
Linksys Instant Wireless WPC11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Linksys Instant Wireless WPC11 2.5 Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
Linksys Instant Wireless WPC11 3.0 Prism-3 PCMCIA
Lucent WaveLAN Hermes PCMCIA
Melco Airconnect Prism-II PCMCIA
NANOSPEED ROOT-RZ2000 Prism-II PCMCIA
NDC/Sohoware NCP130 Prism-II PCI
NEC CMZ-RT-WP Prism-II PCMCIA
NEC PK-WL001 Prism-II PCMCIA
NEC PC-WL/11C PRISM-II PCMCIA
Netgear MA401 Prism-II PCMCIA
NTT-ME 11Mbps Wireless LAN Prism-II PCMCIA
Planex GeoWave/GW-NS110 Prism-II PCMCIA
Planex GW-NS11H Prism-II PCMCIA
Proxim Harmony Prism-II PCMCIA
Proxim RangeLAN-DS Prism-II PCMCIA
Samsung MagicLAN SWL-2000N Prism-II PCMCIA
SMC 2602 EZ Connect (3.3V) Prism-II PCI or PCMCIA
SMC 2632 EZ Connect Prism-II PCMCIA
Socket Low Power WLAN-CF Prism-II CF
Sony PCWA-C100 Lucent PCMCIA
Symbol Spectrum24 Spectrum24 PCMCIA
Symbol LA-4100 Spectrum24 CF
TDK LAK-CD011WL Prism-II PCMCIA
Toshiba Wireless LAN Card Prism-II PCMCIA
U.S. Robotics Wireless Card 2410 Prism-II PCMCIA
Several vendors sell PCI adapters built around the PLX Technology 9050 or
9052 chip. The following such adapters are supported or expected to
work:
3Com AirConnect 3CRWE777A (3.3V)
Belkin F5D6000 (a rebadged WL11000P)
Eumitcom WL11000P
Global Sun Technology GL24110P (untested)
Global Sun Technology GL24110P02
LinkSys WDT11 (a rebadged GL24110P02)
Netgear MA301
US Robotics 2415 (rebadged WL11000P)
EXAMPLES
Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00
Join a specific BSS network with network name “my_net”:
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net
Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624
Join a Lucent legacy demo ad-hoc network with network name “my_net”:
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
mediaopt adhoc
Create an IBSS network with network name “my_net”:
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
mediaopt ibss-master
Note: The infrastructure for mediaopt ibss-master has not been committed
yet.
Join an IBSS network with network name “my_net”:
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
mediaopt ibss
Note: The infrastructure for mediaopt ibss has not been committed yet.
Create a host-based access point (Prism only):
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \
mediaopt hostap
Create a host-based access point with WEP enabled (Prism only):
ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \
wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 mediaopt hostap
Create a host-based wireless bridge to fxp0 (Prism only):
Add BRIDGE to the kernel config.
ifconfig wi0 inet up ssid my_ap mediaopt hostap
sysctl net.link.ether.bridge=1
sysctl net.link.ether.bridge_cfg="wi0 fxp0"
sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
This will give you approximately the same functionality as an access
point.
DIAGNOSTICS
wi%d: init failed The WaveLAN card failed to come ready after an ini‐
tialization command was issued.
wi%d: failed to allocate %d bytes on NIC The driver was unable to allo‐
cate memory for transmit frames in the NIC's on-board RAM.
wi%d: device timeout The WaveLAN failed to generate an interrupt to
acknowledge a transmit command.
SEE ALSOan(4), arp(4), ifmedia(4), netintro(4), polling(4), hostapd(8),
ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8)
HCF Light programming specification,
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.wavelan.com.
HISTORY
The wi device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.
AUTHORS
The wi driver was written by Bill Paul ⟨wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu⟩. This
man page comes from OpenBSD.
CAVEATS
Different regulatory domains have different default channels for adhoc
mode. See ifconfig(8) for information on how to change the channel.
The Intersil Prism family of chips' host-based access point mode has bugs
for station firmware versions prior to 0.8.3. The driver currently pre‐
cludes hostap functionality older station firmware. The best version of
the station firmware for the Prism family of chips seems to be 1.4.9.
Some users of Prism-II and 2.5 based cards report that station firmware
version 1.3.4 works better for them in hostap than 1.4.9. Older versions
of the Prism station firmware have a number of issues with hostap mode.
The IBSS/adhoc mode appears to work well on station firmware 1.3.1 and
later. The IBSS/adhoc mode appears to have problems for some people with
older versions of station firmware.
Lucent cards prior to firmware version 6.0.4 do not support IBSS mode.
These cards support only the pre 802.11 mode known as “demo ad-hoc mode”
which does not interoperate with stations in IBSS mode.
BUGS
Not all the new messages are documented here, and many of them are indi‐
cations of transient errors that are not indications of serious problems.
WL200 PCI wireless cards are based on a Cirrus Logic CL-PD6729 bridge
chips glued to an intersil prism-II pcmcia chipset w/o the PC Card form
factor being present. These chips are special and require special care
to use properly. One must set hw.pcic.pd6729_intr_path="2" in
/boot/loader.conf. This tells the pccard system to use PCI interrupts
for this odd beast. It is not possible to know automatically which kind
of interrupts to use. OLDCARD devices (pcic and card) support this
device.
BSD May 2, 2002 BSD
