NAME

zyd — ZyDAS ZD1211/ZD1211B USB IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network device

SYNOPSIS

zyd* at uhub? port ?

DESCRIPTION

The zyd driver provides support for wireless network adapters based around the ZyDAS ZD1211 and ZD1211B USB chips.

These are the modes the zyd 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 zyd driver can be configured to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK). WPA is the current 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 zyd driver relies on the software 802.11 stack for both encryption and decryption of data frames.

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

HARDWARE

The following devices are known to be supported by the zyd driver:

FILES

The adapter needs some firmware files, which are loaded on demand by the driver when a device is attached:

EXAMPLES

The following example scans for available networks:

The following hostname.if(5) example configures zyd0 to join network “mynwid”, using WPA key “mywpakey”, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

nwid mynwid
wpakey mywpakey
dhcp

DIAGNOSTICS

zyd0: error N, could not read firmware ...

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

zyd0: could not load firmware (error=N)

An error occurred while attempting to upload the firmware to the onboard microcontroller unit.

zyd0: could not send command (error=...)

An attempt to send a command to the firmware failed.

zyd0: sorry, radio ... is not supported yet

Support for the specified radio chip is not yet implemented in the driver. The device will not attach.

zyd0: device version mismatch: 0xXXXX (only >= 43.30 supported)

Early revisions of the ZD1211 chipset are not supported by this driver. The device will not attach.

zyd0: 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), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), usb(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)

AUTHORS

The zyd driver was written by Florian Stoehr <ich@florian-stoehr.de>, Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>, and Jonathan Gray <jsg@openbsd.org>.

CAVEATS

The zyd driver does not support a lot of the functionality available in the hardware. More work is required to properly support the IBSS and power management features.