path: root/share/man/man4/iwn.4

.\" $OpenBSD: iwn.4,v 1.49 2015/02/10 20:38:58 stsp Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2007,2008
.\"	Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>. All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" 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.
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.\" 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 $Mdocdate: February 10 2015 $
.Dt IWN 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm iwn
.Nd Intel WiFi Link and Centrino IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n wireless network devices
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "iwn* at pci?"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver provides support for
.Tn Intel
Wireless WiFi Link 4965/5000/1000 and Centrino Wireless-N 1000/2000/6000
Series PCIe Mini Card network adapters.
.Pp
The Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (codenamed Kedron) is a PCIe
Mini Card network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra.
It has 2 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (2T3R).
It is part of the fourth-generation Centrino platform (codenamed Santa Rosa).
.Pp
The Intel WiFi Link 5000 series is a family of wireless network adapters
that operate in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra.
They are part of the fifth-generation Centrino platform (codenamed Montevina).
These adapters are available in both PCIe Mini Card (model code ending by MMW)
and PCIe Half Mini Card (model code ending by HMW) form factor.
The
.Nm
driver provides support for the 5100 (codenamed Shirley Peak 1x2),
5150 (codenamed Echo Peak-V), 5300 (codenamed Shirley Peak 3x3) and
5350 (codenamed Echo Peak-P) adapters.
The 5100 and 5150 adapters have 1 transmit path and 2 receiver paths (1T2R).
The 5300 and 5350 adapters have 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R).
.Pp
The Intel WiFi Link 1000 (codenamed Condor Peak) is a single-chip wireless
network adapter that operates in the 2GHz spectrum.
It is part of the sixth-generation Centrino platform (codenamed Calpella).
It is available in both PCIe Mini Card (model code ending by MMW)
and PCIe Half Mini Card (model code ending by HMW) form factor.
It has 1 transmit path and 2 receiver paths (1T2R).
.Pp
The Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (codenamed Puma Peak 3x3) is a single-chip
wireless network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra.
It has 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R).
The Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6250 (codenamed Kilmer Peak) is a combo
WiFi/WiMAX network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra.
It has 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R).
The Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (codenamed Puma Peak 2x2) is
a wireless network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra.
It has 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R).
These adapters are part of the sixth-generation Centrino platform
(codenamed Calpella).
.Pp
The Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 (codename Jackson Peak) and Intel
Centrino Wireless-N 2200 (codename Marble Peak) are wireless network
adapters that operate in the 2GHz spectrum.
These adapters have 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R).
The Intel Centrino Wireless-N 135 and Intel Centrino Wireless-N 105
(codename Canyon Peak) also operate in the 2GHz spectrum.
These adapters have 1 transmit path and 1 receiver path (1T1R).
.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 current 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.
The
.Nm
driver offloads both encryption and decryption of unicast data frames to the
hardware for the CCMP cipher.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver can be configured at runtime with
.Xr ifconfig 8
or on boot with
.Xr hostname.if 5 .
.Sh FILES
The driver needs at least version 5.6 of the following firmware files,
which are loaded when an interface is brought up:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-4965
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-5000
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-5150
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-1000
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-6000
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-6050
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-6005
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-6030
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-2030
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-2000
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-135
.It Pa /etc/firmware/iwn-105
.El
.Pp
These firmware files are not free because Intel refuses to grant
distribution rights without contractual obligations.
As a result, even though
.Ox
includes the driver, the firmware files cannot be included and
users have to download these files on their own.
.Pp
A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using
.Xr fw_update 1 .
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following example scans for available networks:
.Pp
.Dl # ifconfig iwn0 scan
.Pp
The following
.Xr hostname.if 5
example configures iwn0 to join network
.Dq mynwid ,
using WPA key
.Dq mywpakey ,
obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
nwid mynwid
wpakey mywpakey
dhcp
.Ed
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Bl -diag
.It "iwn0: 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.
.It "iwn0: fatal firmware error"
For some reason, the firmware crashed.
The driver will reset the hardware.
This should not happen.
.It "iwn0: radio is disabled by hardware switch"
The radio transmitter is off and thus no packet can go out.
The driver will reset the hardware.
Make sure the laptop radio switch is on.
.It "iwn0: could not read firmware ... (error N)"
For some reason, the driver was unable to read the firmware image from the
filesystem.
The file might be missing or corrupted.
.It "iwn0: firmware too short: N bytes"
The firmware image is corrupted and can't be loaded into the adapter.
.It "iwn0: could not load firmware"
An attempt to load the firmware into the adapter failed.
The driver will reset the hardware.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr arp 4 ,
.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr pci 4 ,
.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Damien Bergamini Aq Mt damien.bergamini@free.fr .
.Sh CAVEATS
The
.Nm
driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered by
the adapters.
Additional work is required in
.Xr ieee80211 9
before those features can be supported.