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NAME

bwn — Broadcom BCM43xx SoftMAC IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver

SYNOPSIS

To compile this driver into the kernel, add the following lines to the kernel configuration file:

To load the driver as a module at boot, add the following lines to loader.conf(5):

if_bwn_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION

The bwn driver provides support for Broadcom BCM43xx based PCI/CardBus network adapters.

It supports station and monitor mode operation. Only one virtual interface may be configured at any time. For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

This driver requires firmware to be loaded before it will work. The ports/net/bwn-firmware-kmod port needs to be installed before ifconfig(8) will work. In most cases the bwn_v4_ucode kernel module from the port should be used. However, if an LP (low power) PHY is being used, the bwn_v4_lp_ucode module should be used.

HARDWARE

The bwn driver supports Broadcom BCM43xx based wireless devices, including:

Users of older Broadcom chipsets (BCM4301, BCM4303 and BCM4306 rev 2) must use bwi(4) because the v4 version of the firmware does not support these chips. The newer firmware is too big to fit into these old chips.

EXAMPLES

Join an existing BSS network (i.e., connect to an access point):

ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwn0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
    netmask 0xffffff00

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

Join a specific BSS network with 64-bit WEP encryption:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwn0 ssid my_net \
        wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 weptxkey 1 up

LOADER TUNABLES

Tunables can be set at the loader(8) prompt before booting the kernel or stored in loader.conf(5).

hw.bwn.usedma

This tunable enables DMA operations on the hardware. If the value is 0, PIO mode would be used. The default value is 1.

SEE ALSO

arp(4), bcma(4), bhnd(4), bhndb(4), bwi(4), cardbus(4), intro(4), pci(4), siba(4), wlan(4), wlan_amrr(4), ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8)

HISTORY

The bwn driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.1. The driver was updated to support the common Broadcom bhnd(4) bus interface in FreeBSD 12.0.

AUTHORS

The bwn driver was written by Weongyo Jeong <weongyo@FreeBSD.org>. Support for bhnd(4) was added by Landon Fuller <landonf@FreeBSD.org>.

CAVEATS

Some LP PHY devices have DMA operation problems that in that case try to use PIO mode.