xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/mwl.4 (revision 5f4c09dd85bff675e0ca63c55ea3c517e0fddfcc)
1.\"-
2.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Sam Leffler, Errno Consulting
3.\" All rights reserved.
4.\""
5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
7.\" are met:
8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
9.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer,
10.\"    without modification.
11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce at minimum a disclaimer
12.\"    similar to the "NO WARRANTY" disclaimer below ("Disclaimer") and any
13.\"    redistribution must be conditioned upon including a substantially
14.\"    similar Disclaimer requirement for further binary redistribution.
15.\"
16.\" NO WARRANTY
17.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
18.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
19.\" LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTIBILITY
20.\" AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL
21.\" THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY,
22.\" OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
23.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
24.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER
25.\" IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
26.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF
27.\" THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
28.\"/
29.Dd July 8, 2009
30.Dt MWL 4
31.Os
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm mwl
34.Nd "Marvell 88W8363 IEEE 802.11n wireless network driver"
35.Sh SYNOPSIS
36To compile this driver into the kernel,
37place the following lines in your
38kernel configuration file:
39.Bd -ragged -offset indent
40.Cd "device mwl"
41.Cd "device mwlfw"
42.Cd "device wlan"
43.Cd "device firmware"
44.Ed
45.Pp
46Alternatively, to load the driver as a
47module at boot time, place the following line in
48.Xr loader.conf 5 :
49.Bd -literal -offset indent
50if_mwl_load="YES"
51.Ed
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53The
54.Nm
55driver provides support for IEEE 802.11n wireless network adapters based on
56Marvell 88W8363 parts.
57PCI and/or CardBus interfaces are supported.
58.Pp
59This driver requires the firmware built with the
60.Nm mwlfw
61module to work.
62Normally this module is loaded on demand by the driver but it may
63also be compiled into the kernel.
64.Pp
65Supported features include 802.11n, power management, BSS, MBSS,
66and host-based access point operation modes.
67All host/device interaction is via DMA.
68.Pp
69The
70.Nm
71driver encapsulates IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
72it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
73Devices support 802.11n, 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.11b operation with
74transmit speeds appropriate to each.
75The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the
76.Dq "rate control"
77algorithm implemented in the firmware.
78All chips have hardware support for WEP,
79AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic operations.
80.Pp
81The driver supports
82.Cm station ,
83.Cm hostap ,
84.Cm mesh ,
85and
86.Cm wds
87mode operation.
88Multiple
89.Cm hostap
90virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous use.
91When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate
92mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac
93address assigned to the underlying device.
94Any number of
95.Cm wds
96virtual interfaces may be configured together with
97.Cm hostap
98interfaces.
99Multiple
100.Cm station
101interfaces may be operated together with
102.Cm hostap
103interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device.
104For more information on configuring this device, see
105.Xr ifconfig 8 .
106.Pp
107Devices supported by the
108.Nm
109driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages.
110Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly.
111.Sh EXAMPLES
112Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
113.Bd -literal -offset indent
114ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \e
115	netmask 0xffffff00"
116.Ed
117.Pp
118Join a specific BSS network with network name
119.Dq Li my_net :
120.Bd -literal -offset indent
121ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \e
122	netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net"
123.Ed
124.Pp
125Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
126.Bd -literal -offset indent
127ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0
128ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
129	wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624
130.Ed
131.Pp
132Create an 802.11g host-based access point:
133.Bd -literal -offset indent
134ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap
135ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
136	mode 11g
137.Ed
138.Pp
139Create an 802.11a mesh station:
140.Bd -literal -offset indent
141ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode mesh
142ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24
143.Ed
144.Pp
145Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one
146with WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to
147the fxp0 (wired) device:
148.Bd -literal -offset indent
149ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap \e
150	ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e
151	mode 11a up
152ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e
153	ssid freeloaders up
154ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up
155.Ed
156.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
157.Bl -diag
158.It "mwl%d: unable to setup builtin firmware"
159There was a problem downloading and/or setting up the firmware.
160The device is not usable.
161.It "mwl%d: failed to setup descriptors: %d"
162There was a problem setting up the DMA data structures.
163This typically is caused by not being able to allocate contiguous memory.
164.It "mwl%d: transmit timeout"
165A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
166This should not happen.
167.It "mwl%d: device not present"
168A cardbus device was ejected while active; the request to the firmware
169was not completed.
170.El
171.Sh SEE ALSO
172.Xr cardbus 4 ,
173.Xr intro 4 ,
174.Xr mwlfw 4 ,
175.Xr pci 4 ,
176.Xr wlan 4 ,
177.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 ,
178.Xr wlan_tkip 4 ,
179.Xr wlan_wep 4 ,
180.Xr wlan_xauth 4 ,
181.Xr hostapd 8 ,
182.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
183.Xr wpa_supplicant 8
184.Sh HISTORY
185The
186.Nm
187device driver first appeared in
188.Fx 8.0 .
189.Sh BUGS
190The driver does not support power-save operation in station mode;
191consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop).
192