xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/rsu.4 (revision 9f3e7b75976b40107160d1d1676051792b45b0bc)

.\"-
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: ISC
.\"
.\" $OpenBSD: rsu.4,v 1.11 2013/02/14 07:40:42 jmc Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.Dd April 1, 2025
.Dt RSU 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm rsu
.Nd Realtek RTL8188SU/RTL8192SU USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless network driver
.Sh SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel,
place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Cd "device ehci"
.Cd "device uhci"
.Cd "device ohci"
.Cd "device usb"
.Cd "device rsu"
.Cd "device rsufw"
.Cd "device wlan"
.Ed
.Pp
Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time,
place the following lines in
.Xr loader.conf 5 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
if_rsu_load="YES"
rsu-rtl8712fw_load="YES"
.Ed
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver supports USB 2.0 wireless network devices based on Realtek
RTL8188SU, RTL8191SU and RTL8192SU chipsets.
.Pp
The RTL8188SU is a highly integrated 802.11n adapter that combines
a MAC, a 1T1R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip.
It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
.Pp
The RTL8191SU is a highly integrated multiple-in, single-out (MISO)
802.11n adapter that combines a MAC, a 1T2R capable baseband and an
RF in a single chip.
It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
.Pp
The RTL8192SU is a highly integrated multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO)
802.11n adapter that combines a MAC, a 2T2R capable baseband and an
RF in a single chip.
It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
.Pp
These are the modes the
.Nm
driver can operate in:
.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
.It BSS mode
Also known as
.Em infrastructure
mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
which all traffic passes.
This mode is the default.
.It monitor mode
In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
associating with an access point.
This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
or to scan for access points.
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver can be configured to use
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK).
WPA is the de facto encryption standard for wireless networks.
It is strongly recommended that WEP
not be used as the sole mechanism
to secure wireless communication,
due to serious weaknesses in it.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver can be configured at runtime with
.Xr ifconfig 8 .
.Sh HARDWARE
The
.Nm
driver provides support for Realtek RTL8188SU/RTL8192SU USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n
wireless network adapters, including:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
.It
ASUS USB-N10
.It
ASUS WL-167G V3
.It
Belkin F7D1101 v1
.It
D-Link DWA-131 A1
.It
EDUP EP-MS150N(W)
.It
Edimax EW-7622UMN
.It
Hercules HWGUn-54
.It
Hercules HWNUm-300
.It
Planex GW-USNano
.It
Sitecom WL-349 v1
.It
Sitecom WL-353
.It
Sitecom WLA-1100 v1001
.It
Sweex LW154
.It
TRENDnet TEW-646UBH
.It
TRENDnet TEW-648UB
.It
TRENDnet TEW-649UB
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/usr/share/doc/legal/realtek.LICENSE" -compact
.It Pa /usr/share/doc/legal/realtek.LICENSE
.Nm
firmware license
.El
.Pp
The driver needs at least version 1.2 of the following firmware file,
which is loaded when an interface is attached:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It Pa /boot/kernel/rsu-rtl8712fw.ko
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
Join an existing BSS network (i.e., connect to an access point):
.Pp
.Dl ifconfig wlan create wlandev rsu0 inet 192.0.2.20/24
.Pp
Join a specific BSS network with network name
.Ar my_net :
.Pp
.Dl ifconfig wlan create wlandev rsu0 ssid my_net up
.Pp
Join a specific BSS network with 64-bit WEP encryption:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
ifconfig wlan create wlandev rsu0 ssid my_net \e
    wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 weptxkey 1 up
.Ed
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Bl -diag
.It "%s: failed load firmware of file rsu-rtl8712fw"
For some reason, the driver was unable to read the microcode file from the
filesystem.
The file might be missing or corrupted.
.It "device timeout"
A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
The driver will reset the hardware.
This should not happen.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr intro 1 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr rsufw 4 ,
.Xr usb 4 ,
.Xr wlan 4 ,
.Xr networking 7 ,
.Xr arp 8 ,
.Xr hostapd 8 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
.Xr wpa_supplicant 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
driver first appeared in
.Ox 4.9 and
.Fx 10.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Damien Bergamini Aq Mt damien@openbsd.org
and ported by
.An Rui Paulo Aq Mt rpaulo@freebsd.org .
The 802.11n support was added by
.An Adrian Chadd Aq Mt adrian@freebsd.org .
.Sh CAVEATS
The
.Nm
driver currently does not support 802.11n transmit aggregation,
either A-MSDU or A-MPDU.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver does not capture management frames in non-monitor modes;
without this limitation some firmware functions (e.g., 'join bss')
will not work properly.