MWL(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual MWL(4)NAMEmwl — Marvell 88W8363 IEEE 802.11n wireless network driver
SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your
kernel configuration file:
device mwl
device mwlfw
device wlan
device firmware
Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the
following line in loader.conf(5):
if_mwl_load="YES"
DESCRIPTION
The mwl driver provides support for IEEE 802.11n wireless network
adapters based on Marvell 88W8363 parts. PCI and/or CardBus interfaces
are supported.
This driver requires the firmware built with the mwlfw module to work.
Normally this module is loaded on demand by the driver but it may also be
compiled into the kernel.
Supported features include 802.11n, power management, BSS, MBSS, and
host-based access point operation modes. All host/device interaction is
via DMA.
The mwl driver encapsulates IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. Devices support 802.11n,
802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.11b operation with transmit speeds appropriate
to each. The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality
and the “rate control” algorithm implemented in the firmware. All chips
have hardware support for WEP, AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic
operations.
The driver supports station, hostap, mesh, and wds mode operation. Mul‐
tiple hostap virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous use.
When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate mac
address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac address
assigned to the underlying device. Any number of wds virtual interfaces
may be configured together with hostap interfaces. Multiple station
interfaces may be operated together with hostap interfaces to construct a
wireless repeater device. For more information on configuring this
device, see ifconfig(8).
Devices supported by the mwl driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI
packages. Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on
the fly.
EXAMPLES
Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
netmask 0xffffff00"
Join a specific BSS network with network name “my_net”:
ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net"
Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0
ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624
Create an 802.11g host-based access point:
ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap
ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \
mode 11g
Create an 802.11a mesh station:
ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode mesh
ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24
Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with with WEP
enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to the fxp0 (wired)
device:
ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap \
ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \
mode 11a up
ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap bssid \
ssid freeloaders up
ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up
DIAGNOSTICS
mwl%d: unable to setup builtin firmware There was a problem downloading
and/or setting up the firmware. The device is not usable.
mwl%d: failed to setup descriptors: %d There was a problem setting up
the DMA data structures. This typically is caused by not being able to
allocate contiguous memory.
mwl%d: transmit timeout A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmis‐
sion did not complete in time. This should not happen.
mwl%d: device not present A cardbus device was ejected while active; the
request to the firmware was not completed.
SEE ALSOcardbus(4), intro(4), mwlfw(4), pci(4), wlan(4), wlan_ccmp(4),
wlan_tkip(4), wlan_wep(4), wlan_xauth(4), hostapd(8), ifconfig(8),
wpa_supplicant(8)HISTORY
The mwl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.
BUGS
The driver does not support power-save operation in station mode; conse‐
quently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop).
BSD July 8, 2009 BSD
