xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/mwl.4 (revision af23369a6deaaeb612ab266eb88b8bb8d560c322)
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31.Dd July 8, 2009
32.Dt MWL 4
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm mwl
36.Nd "Marvell 88W8363 IEEE 802.11n wireless network driver"
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38To compile this driver into the kernel,
39place the following lines in your
40kernel configuration file:
41.Bd -ragged -offset indent
42.Cd "device mwl"
43.Cd "device mwlfw"
44.Cd "device wlan"
45.Cd "device firmware"
46.Ed
47.Pp
48Alternatively, to load the driver as a
49module at boot time, place the following line in
50.Xr loader.conf 5 :
51.Bd -literal -offset indent
52if_mwl_load="YES"
53.Ed
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The
56.Nm
57driver provides support for IEEE 802.11n wireless network adapters based on
58Marvell 88W8363 parts.
59PCI and/or CardBus interfaces are supported.
60.Pp
61This driver requires the firmware built with the
62.Nm mwlfw
63module to work.
64Normally this module is loaded on demand by the driver but it may
65also be compiled into the kernel.
66.Pp
67Supported features include 802.11n, power management, BSS, MBSS,
68and host-based access point operation modes.
69All host/device interaction is via DMA.
70.Pp
71The
72.Nm
73driver encapsulates IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
74it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
75Devices support 802.11n, 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.11b operation with
76transmit speeds appropriate to each.
77The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the
78.Dq "rate control"
79algorithm implemented in the firmware.
80All chips have hardware support for WEP,
81AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic operations.
82.Pp
83The driver supports
84.Cm station ,
85.Cm hostap ,
86.Cm mesh ,
87and
88.Cm wds
89mode operation.
90Multiple
91.Cm hostap
92virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous use.
93When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate
94mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac
95address assigned to the underlying device.
96Any number of
97.Cm wds
98virtual interfaces may be configured together with
99.Cm hostap
100interfaces.
101Multiple
102.Cm station
103interfaces may be operated together with
104.Cm hostap
105interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device.
106For more information on configuring this device, see
107.Xr ifconfig 8 .
108.Pp
109Devices supported by the
110.Nm
111driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages.
112Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly.
113.Sh EXAMPLES
114Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
115.Bd -literal -offset indent
116ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \e
117	netmask 0xffffff00"
118.Ed
119.Pp
120Join a specific BSS network with network name
121.Dq Li my_net :
122.Bd -literal -offset indent
123ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \e
124	netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net"
125.Ed
126.Pp
127Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
128.Bd -literal -offset indent
129ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0
130ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
131	wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624
132.Ed
133.Pp
134Create an 802.11g host-based access point:
135.Bd -literal -offset indent
136ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap
137ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
138	mode 11g
139.Ed
140.Pp
141Create an 802.11a mesh station:
142.Bd -literal -offset indent
143ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode mesh
144ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24
145.Ed
146.Pp
147Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one
148with WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to
149the fxp0 (wired) device:
150.Bd -literal -offset indent
151ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap \e
152	ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e
153	mode 11a up
154ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e
155	ssid freeloaders up
156ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up
157.Ed
158.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
159.Bl -diag
160.It "mwl%d: unable to setup builtin firmware"
161There was a problem downloading and/or setting up the firmware.
162The device is not usable.
163.It "mwl%d: failed to setup descriptors: %d"
164There was a problem setting up the DMA data structures.
165This typically is caused by not being able to allocate contiguous memory.
166.It "mwl%d: transmit timeout"
167A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
168This should not happen.
169.It "mwl%d: device not present"
170A cardbus device was ejected while active; the request to the firmware
171was not completed.
172.El
173.Sh SEE ALSO
174.Xr cardbus 4 ,
175.Xr intro 4 ,
176.Xr mwlfw 4 ,
177.Xr pci 4 ,
178.Xr wlan 4 ,
179.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 ,
180.Xr wlan_tkip 4 ,
181.Xr wlan_wep 4 ,
182.Xr wlan_xauth 4 ,
183.Xr hostapd 8 ,
184.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
185.Xr wpa_supplicant 8
186.Sh HISTORY
187The
188.Nm
189device driver first appeared in
190.Fx 8.0 .
191.Sh BUGS
192The driver does not support power-save operation in station mode;
193consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop).
194