Ubuntu Manpage: mwl — Marvell 88W8363 IEEE 802.11n wireless network driver

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NAME

       mwl — 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. Multiple 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 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 transmission 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.

HISTORY

       The mwl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

BUGS

       The driver does not support power-save operation in station mode; consequently power  use  is  suboptimal
       (e.g. on a laptop).

Debian                                            July 8, 2009                                            MWL(4)