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NAME

iwn — Intel WiFi Link 4965/5000/1000/6000 IEEE 802.11a/g/n wireless network devices

SYNOPSIS

iwn* at pci?

DESCRIPTION

The iwn driver provides support for Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965/5000/1000 and 6000 Series PCIe Mini Card network adapters.

The Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (codenamed Kedron) is a PCIe Mini Card network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra. It has 2 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (2T3R). It is part of the fourth-generation Centrino platform (codenamed Santa Rosa).

The Intel WiFi Link 5000 series is a family of wireless network adapters that operate in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra. They are part of the fifth-generation Centrino platform (codenamed Montevina). These adapters are available in both PCIe Mini Card (model code ending by MMW) and PCIe Half Mini Card (model code ending by HMW) form factor. The iwn driver provides support for the 5100 (codenamed Shirley Peak 1x2), 5150 (codenamed Echo Peak-V), 5300 (codenamed Shirley Peak 3x3) and 5350 (codenamed Echo Peak-P) adapters. The 5100 and 5150 adapters have 1 transmit path and 2 receiver paths (1T2R). The 5300 and 5350 adapters have 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R).

The Intel WiFi Link 1000 (codenamed Condor Peak) is a single-chip wireless network adapter that operates in the 2GHz spectrum. It is part of the sixth-generation Centrino platform (codenamed Calpella). It is available in both PCIe Mini Card (model code ending by MMW) and PCIe Half Mini Card (model code ending by HMW) form factor. It has 1 transmit path and 2 receiver paths (1T2R).

The Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (codenamed Puma Peak 3x3) is a single-chip wireless network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra. It has 3 transmit paths and 3 receiver paths (3T3R). The Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6250 (codenamed Kilmer Peak) is a combo WiFi/WiMAX network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra. It has 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R). The Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 (codenamed Puma Peak 2x2) is a wireless network adapter that operates in the 2GHz and 5GHz spectra. It has 2 transmit paths and 2 receiver paths (2T2R). These adapters are part of the sixth-generation Centrino platform (codenamed Calpella).

These are the modes the iwn 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.

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 iwn 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 iwn driver offloads both encryption and decryption of unicast data frames to the hardware for the CCMP cipher.

The iwn driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot with hostname.if(5).

FILES

The driver needs at least version 5.6 of the following firmware files, which are loaded when an interface is brought up:

These firmware files are not free because Intel refuses to grant distribution rights without contractual obligations. As a result, even though OpenBSD includes the driver, the firmware files cannot be included and users have to download these files on their own.

A prepackaged version of the firmware, designed to be used with pkg_add(1), can be found at:

http://firmware.openbsd.org/firmware/iwn-firmware-5.6.tgz

EXAMPLES

The following hostname.if(5) example configures iwn0 to join whatever network is available on boot, using WEP key “0x1deadbeef1”, channel 11, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

dhcp NONE NONE NONE nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11

Configure iwn0 to join network “my_net” using WPA with passphrase “my_passphrase”:

# ifconfig iwn0 nwid my_net wpakey my_passphrase

Join an existing BSS network, “my_net”:

# ifconfig iwn0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net

DIAGNOSTICS

iwn%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.

iwn%d: fatal firmware error

For some reason, the firmware crashed. The driver will reset the hardware. This should not happen.

iwn%d: radio is disabled by hardware switch

The radio transmitter is off and thus no packet can go out. The driver will reset the hardware. Make sure the laptop radio switch is on.

iwn%d: error %d, could not read firmware %s

For some reason, the driver was unable to read the firmware image from the filesystem. The file might be missing or corrupted.

iwn%d: firmware file too short: %d bytes

The firmware image is corrupted and can't be loaded into the adapter.

iwn%d: could not load firmware

An attempt to load the firmware into the adapter failed. The driver will reset the hardware.

SEE ALSO

pkg_add(1), arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

AUTHORS

The iwn driver was written by Damien Bergamini ⟨damien@openbsd.org⟩.

CAVEATS

The iwn 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.