NAME
urtwn —
Realtek
RTL8188CU/RTL8188EU/RTL8192CU/RTL8192EU USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless
network device
SYNOPSIS
urtwn* at uhub? port ?
DESCRIPTION
Theurtwn driver supports USB 2.0 wireless network
devices based on Realtek RTL8188CUS, RTL8188CE-VAU, RTL8188EUS, RTL8188RU,
RTL8192CU and RTL8192EU chipsets.
The RTL8188CUS and RTL8188EUS are highly integrated 802.11n adapters that combine a MAC, a 1T1R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip. They operate in the 2GHz spectrum only. The RTL8188RU is a high-power variant of the RTL8188CUS. The RTL8188CE-VAU is a PCI Express Mini Card adapter that attaches to the USB interface.
The RTL8192CU and RTL8192EU are highly integrated multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) 802.11n adapters that combine a MAC, a 2T2R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip. It operates in the 2GHz spectrum only.
These are the modes the urtwn driver can
operate in:
- BSS mode
- Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through which all traffic passes. This mode is the default.
- IBSS mode
- Also known as IEEE ad-hoc mode or peer-to-peer mode. This is the standardized method of operating without an access point. Stations associate with a service set. However, actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.
- Host AP
- In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station) for other cards.
- 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.
The urtwn driver can be configured to use
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and
WPA2-PSK). WPA is the de facto 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 urtwn driver can be configured at
runtime with
ifconfig(8) or on boot with
ifconfig.if(5).
FILES
The driver needs the following firmware files, which are loaded when an interface is attached:
- /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8188eufw.bin
- /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfw.bin
- /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfwU.bin
- /libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192efw.bin
HARDWARE
The following adapters should work:
- Airlink101 AWLL5088
- Aus. Linx AL-9604R1S
- ASUSTeK USB-N10 NANO
- B-Link BL-LW05-5R
- Belkin F7D1102 Surf Wireless Micro
- D-Link DWA-121
- D-Link DWA-131
- D-Link DWA-133
- D-Link DWA-135
- Digitus DN-7042
- Edimax EW-7811Un
- EDUP EP-N8508
- ELECOM WDC-150SU2M
- Full River FR-W100NUL
- Hercules Wireless N USB Pico HWNUp-150
- IO-DATA WN-G150UMW
- Netgear WNA1000A
- Planex GW-USEco300
- Planex GW-USNano2
- Planex GW-USValue-EZ
- Planex GW-USWExtreme
- POWCHIP POW-N18
- Sitecom N300 USB (WLA-2102 v1)
- Sitecom WL-365
- Solwise NET-WL-UMD-606N
- TP-LINK TL-WN723N v3
- TP-LINK TL-WN725N v2
- TRENDnet TEW-648UBM
EXAMPLES
The following ifconfig.if(5) example configures urtwn0 to join whatever network is available on boot, using WEP key “0x1deadbeef1”, channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11 dhcp
Join an existing BSS network, “my_net”:
# ifconfig urtwn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
DIAGNOSTICS
- urtwn%d: error %d, could not read firmware %s
- For some reason, the driver was unable to read the microcode file from the filesystem. The file might be missing or corrupted.
- urtwn%d: 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.
SEE ALSO
arp(4), netintro(4), usb(4), ifconfig.if(5), wpa_supplicant.conf(5), ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8)
HISTORY
The urtwn device driver first appeared in
OpenBSD 4.9 and in NetBSD
6.0.
AUTHORS
The urtwn driver was written by
Damien Bergamini ⟨damien@openbsd.org⟩
for OpenBSD and ported to
NetBSD by NONAKA Kimihiro
⟨nonaka@NetBSD.org⟩.
CAVEATS
The urtwn driver does not support any of
the 802.11n capabilities offered by the adapters. Additional work is
required in
ieee80211(9) before those features can be supported.