xref: /openbsd/share/man/man4/rtwn.4 (revision 73471bf0)
1.\" $OpenBSD: rtwn.4,v 1.12 2021/10/24 12:32:42 kn Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>
4.\" Copyright (c) 2015 Stefan Sperling <stsp@openbsd.org>
5.\"
6.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
7.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
8.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
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10.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
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12.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
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14.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
15.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
16.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
17.\"
18.Dd $Mdocdate: October 24 2021 $
19.Dt RTWN 4
20.Os
21.Sh NAME
22.Nm rtwn
23.Nd Realtek RTL8188CE/RTL8188EE/RTL8192CE/RTL8723AE PCIe IEEE 802.11b/g/n
24wireless network device
25.Sh SYNOPSIS
26.Cd "rtwn* at pci? port ?"
27.Sh DESCRIPTION
28The
29.Nm
30driver supports PCIe wireless network devices based on the Realtek
31RTL8188CE, RTL8188EE, RTL8192CE and RTL8723AE chipsets.
32.Pp
33The RTL8188CE, RTL8188EE and RTL8723AE are highly integrated 802.11n adapters
34that combine a MAC, a 1T1R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip.
35The RTL8723AE also includes a Bluetooth 2.1/3.0/4.0 controller.
36.Pp
37The RTL8192CE is a highly integrated multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO)
38802.11n adapter that combines a MAC, a 2T2R capable baseband and an
39RF in a single chip.
40.Pp
41These devices operate in the 2GHz spectrum only.
42.Pp
43These are the modes the
44.Nm
45driver can operate in:
46.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
47.It BSS mode
48Also known as
49.Em infrastructure
50mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
51which all traffic passes.
52This mode is the default.
53.It monitor mode
54In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
55associating with an access point.
56This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
57capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
58or to scan for access points.
59.El
60.Pp
61The
62.Nm
63driver can be configured to use
64Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or
65Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA1 and WPA2).
66WPA2 is the current encryption standard for wireless networks.
67It is strongly recommended that neither WEP nor WPA1
68are used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communication,
69due to serious weaknesses.
70WPA1 is disabled by default and may be enabled using the option
71.Qq Cm wpaprotos Ar wpa1,wpa2 .
72For standard WPA networks which use pre-shared keys (PSK),
73keys are configured using the
74.Qq Cm wpakey
75option.
76WPA-Enterprise networks require use of the wpa_supplicant package.
77.Pp
78The
79.Nm
80driver can be configured at runtime with
81.Xr ifconfig 8
82or on boot with
83.Xr hostname.if 5 .
84.Sh FILES
85The adapter needs firmware files to run, which are loaded on demand by
86the driver when the device is attached:
87.Pp
88.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
89.It Pa /etc/firmware/rtwn-rtl8188e
90.It Pa /etc/firmware/rtwn-rtl8192cU
91.It Pa /etc/firmware/rtwn-rtl8192cU_B
92.It Pa /etc/firmware/rtwn-rtl8723
93.It Pa /etc/firmware/rtwn-rtl8723_B
94.El
95.Sh EXAMPLES
96The following example scans for available networks:
97.Pp
98.Dl # ifconfig rtwn0 scan
99.Pp
100The following
101.Xr hostname.if 5
102example configures rtwn0 to join network
103.Dq mynwid ,
104using WPA key
105.Dq mywpakey ,
106obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
107.Bd -literal -offset indent
108join mynwid wpakey mywpakey
109inet autoconf
110.Ed
111.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
112.Bl -diag
113.It "rtwn0: could not read firmware ..."
114For some reason, the driver was unable to read the microcode file from the
115filesystem.
116The file might be missing or corrupted.
117.It "rtwn0: device timeout"
118A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
119The driver will reset the hardware.
120This should not happen.
121.El
122.Sh SEE ALSO
123.Xr arp 4 ,
124.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
125.Xr intro 4 ,
126.Xr netintro 4 ,
127.Xr pci 4 ,
128.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
129.Xr ifconfig 8
130.Sh HISTORY
131The
132.Nm
133driver first appeared in
134.Ox 5.8 .
135.Sh AUTHORS
136The
137.Nm
138driver was written by
139.An -nosplit
140.An Stefan Sperling Aq Mt stsp@openbsd.org .
141It was based on the
142.Xr urtwn 4
143driver written by
144.An Damien Bergamini Aq Mt damien.bergamini@free.fr .
145.Sh CAVEATS
146The
147.Nm
148driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered by the
149adapters.
150Additional work is required in
151.Xr ieee80211 9
152before those features can be supported.
153.Pp
154This driver does not support powersave mode.
155