NAME¶

wi — Lucent Hermes, and Intersil PRISM IEEE 802.11 driver

SYNOPSIS¶

To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):

if_wi_load="YES"

DEPRECATION NOTICE¶

This driver is scheduled for removal prior to the release of FreeBSD 13.0

DESCRIPTION¶

The wi driver provides support for 802.11b wireless network adapters based around the Lucent Hermes, Intersil PRISM-II, Intersil PRISM-2.5, and Intersil Prism-3 chipsets. All chipsets provide a similar interface to the driver. Only the Intersil chipsets support access point operation or WPA. Very old versions of firmware are not supported at all. Older versions of the firmware that are supported may severely limit the ability to use these cards in newer networks. Only relatively recent versions of Intersil firmware supports WPA. See CAVEATS for details. All host/device interaction is via programmed I/O, even on those cards that support a DMA interface.

For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

wi supports station, adhoc, adhoc-demo, hostap, and monitor mode operation. Only one virtual interface may be configured at a time. For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

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:

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)
• Wisecom Wireless LAN PCI Adapter

The following adapters have the same model numbers as those listed above, but might not work if the actual card is after the change away from the Prism family:

• DLink DWL520

EXAMPLES¶

Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):

ifconfig wlan create wlandev wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
    netmask 0xffffff00

Join a specific BSS network with network name “my_net”:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
    netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net

Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
    netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
    wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624 weptxkey 1

Join a Lucent legacy demo ad-hoc network with network name “my_net”:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev wi0 wlanmode ahdemo \
    inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net

Join/create an IBSS network with network name “my_net”:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev wi0 wlanmode adhoc wi0 \
    inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net

Create a host-based access point (Prism only):

ifconfig wlan create wlandev wi0 wlanmode hostap \
    inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap

Create a host-based access point with WEP enabled (Prism only) and plumb it into bridge to fxp0:

ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev wi0 wlanmode hostap \
    inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \
    wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 weptxkey 1
ifconfig bridge0 create
ifconfig bridge0 addm wlan0 addm fxp0 up

This will give you the same functionality as an access point.

DIAGNOSTICS¶

wi%d: init failed

The WaveLAN card failed to become ready after an initialization command was issued.

wi%d: failed to allocate %d bytes on NIC

The driver was unable to allocate memory for transmit frames in the NIC's on-board RAM. This can also be an indication of an incorrectly configured interrupt.

wi%d: device timeout

The WaveLAN card failed to generate an interrupt to acknowledge a transmit command.

SEE ALSO¶

intro(4), pccard(4), pccbb(4), pcic(4), wlan(4), wlan_ccmp(4), wlan_tkip(4), wlan_wep(4), wlan_xauth(4), hostapd(8), ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8).

HCF Light programming specification, http://web.archive.org/web/20040130141721/http://wavelan.com/.

HISTORY¶

The wi device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

AUTHORS¶

The original wi driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>. This man page comes from OpenBSD.

CAVEATS¶

The driver will reject devices with old firmware to avoid dealing with numerous defects. Unfortunately the driver does not support downloading new firmware to the card so if new firmware is needed users will have to boot a different system to accomplish this.

Intersil Prism cards must have firmware versions 0.8.0 or later and version 1.7.0 or later are required to support functionality such as WPA. 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 6.0.6 do not implement IBSS mode and are not supported.

Prior versions of wi supported Symbol firmware. That support has been removed due to persistent problems with this firmware as well as getting proper documentation on this firmware.

Hermes 2 and Hermes 3 chips are not supported by this driver.

Here's the above requirements in the form of a table

BUGS¶

Not all the new messages are documented here, and many of them are indications of transient errors that are not indications of serious problems.