wi(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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WI(4)                   NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual                  WI(4)


NAME

     wi - WaveLAN/IEEE and PRISM-II 802.11 wireless network driver


SYNOPSIS

     wi* at pcmcia? function ?
     wi* at pci? dev ? function ?


DESCRIPTION

     The wi driver provides support for Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE
     PCCARD adapters (also known as WaveLAN II cards) and various
     PCI/MiniPCI/PCCARD adapters which use Intersil PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5
     chipsets.  Note that while Lucent sells both ISA and PCMCIA WaveLAN/IEEE
     devices, the ISA product is actually a PCMCIA card in an ISA to PCMCIA
     bridge adapter.  Consequently, the wi driver is required for both the ISA
     and PCMCIA NICs.  Also note that some of the PRISM-II adapters works only
     at 3.3V, hence cardbus(4) support is required for those cards to set VCC
     correctly, even though they are 16-bit cards.

     The core of the WaveLAN/IEEE is the Lucent Hermes controller.  All
     host/device interaction is via programmed I/O with the Hermes.  The Her-
     mes supports 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, WDS and ad-
     hoc operation modes.  The Silver and the Gold cards of the WaveLAN/IEEE
     also support WEP.  Unlike the other IEEE 802.11 network cards, the Wave-
     LAN Gold cards accept 104 bits key (13 characters) for WEP encryption.
     The Intersil PRISM-II controller supports WEP as well.

     The wi driver encapsulates all traffic as 802.11 frames, however it can
     receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.  Transmit speed is selectable
     between 1Mbps fixed, 2Mbps fixed or 2Mbps with auto fallback.  For Wave-
     LAN/IEEE Turbo adapters, speeds up to 6Mbps are available.  For Wave-
     LAN/IEEE Turbo 11Mbps adapters and PRISM-II adapters, speeds up to 11Mbps
     are available.

     The wi driver supports configuration of Lucent cards for special ad-hoc
     operation.  In this mode, the nwid is ignored and stations can communi-
     cate among each other without the aid of an access point.  Note that this
     mode is specific to Lucent chips, and not in the IEEE 802.11 specifica-
     tion.  Due to changes in the implementation of this special ad-hoc mode,
     Lucent-based cards with different firmware revisions may not interoperate
     in this mode.  This mode is no longer the default and must be selected
     using the ifconfig(8) (media option ``adhoc,flag0'') utility.

     Recent versions of Lucent and PRISM-II firmware support IBSS creation.
     IBSS is the standard IEEE 802.11 ad-hoc mode.  In this mode, the nwid
     should be specified.  At least one node must be able to create IBSS.  The
     IBSS mode is enabled by ``adhoc'' or ``ibss'' media option.  IBSS cre-
     ation is automatically enabled if supported.

     The wi driver defaults to infrastructure mode (i.e., using an access
     point).

     Recent versions of PRISM-II firmware support operating as an 802.11
     Access Point.  In this mode, the Access Point station should set the
     nwid.  This will create a standard 802.11 network, and the Access Point
     station will show up in an Access Point scan.  This mode is enabled using
     the ``hostap'' media option.

     For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8) and
     ifmedia(4).


HARDWARE

     Cards supported by the wi driver include:

           Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 2.0Mb Bronze
           Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE 2.0Mb Silver
           Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo
           Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo 11Mbps
           Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-PCM-L11, WLI-PCM-L11G
           Melco AIR CONNECT WLI-CF-S11G
           Compaq WL100 11Mbps Wireless
           Corega Wireless LAN PCC-11, PCCA_11, PCCB_11
           DEC/Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS High Rate
           D-Link DWL-520 11Mbps PCI Card
           D-Link DWL-650 11Mbps WLAN Card, DCF-650W CF Card
           ELECOM Air@Hawk LD-WL11
           ELSA AirLancer MC-11
           Ericsson Wireless LAN
           Farallon Skyline 11Mbps Wireless
           Intel PRO/Wireless 2011 LAN PC Card
           ICOM SL-1100
           IO-DATA WN-B11/PCM
           Intersil PRISM Mini-PCI
           Linksys Group, Inc. Instant Wireless Network PC Card, CF Card
           Linksys Group, Inc. Instant Wireless Network WMP11 PCI Card
           NCR WaveLAN/IEEE
           NEC Wireless Card CMZ-RT-WP, PK-WL001, PC-WL/11C
           PLANEX GeoWave/GW-NS110
           Symbol Spectrum24 Wireless Networker PC Card, CF Card
           TDK LAK-CD011WL

     The original PRISM-I chipset is supported by the awi(4) driver.


DIAGNOSTICS

     wi%d: init failed  The WaveLAN failed to come ready after an initializa-
     tion command was issued.

     wi%d: failed to allocate %d bytes on NIC  The driver was unable to allo-
     cate memory for transmit frames in the NIC's on-board RAM.

     wi%d: device timeout  The WaveLAN failed to generate an interrupt to
     acknowledge a transmit command.


SEE ALSO

     arp(4), ifmedia(4), netintro(4), pci(4), pcmcia(4), ifconfig(8),
     wiconfig(8)

     HCF Light programming specification, http://www.wavelan.com.


HISTORY

     The wi device driver first appeared in NetBSD 1.5.


AUTHORS

     The wi driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.


BUGS

     The execution of wiconfig(8) while the interface is down can produce some
     error messages.

NetBSD 2.1                     January 11, 2001                     NetBSD 2.1