NAME
iwx
—
Intel AX200/AX201/AX210/AX211 IEEE
802.11a/ac/ax/b/g/n wireless network devices
SYNOPSIS
iwx* at pci?
DESCRIPTION
The iwx
driver provides support for Intel
Wireless AX200/AX210 M.2 network adapters, and for Intel Wireless
AX201/AX211 Integrated Connectivity (CNVi) network adapters with companion
RF M.2 modules.
These are the modes the iwx
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 iwx
driver can be configured to use
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA1 and WPA2).
WPA2 is the current encryption standard for wireless networks. It is
strongly recommended that neither WEP nor WPA1 are used as the sole
mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses. WPA1
is disabled by default and may be enabled using the option
"wpaprotos
wpa1,wpa2". For standard WPA networks which use
pre-shared keys (PSK), keys are configured using the
"wpakey
" option. WPA-Enterprise networks
require use of the wpa_supplicant package. The iwx
driver offloads both encryption and decryption of unicast data frames to the
hardware for the CCMP cipher.
In BSS mode the driver supports background scanning; see ifconfig(8).
The iwx
driver can be configured at
runtime with
ifconfig(8) or on boot with
hostname.if(5).
FILES
The driver needs one of the following firmware files, which are loaded when an interface is brought up:
- /etc/firmware/iwx-cc-a0-67
- /etc/firmware/iwx-Qu-b0-hr-b0-63
- /etc/firmware/iwx-Qu-b0-jf-b0-63
- /etc/firmware/iwx-Qu-c0-hr-b0-63
- /etc/firmware/iwx-Qu-c0-jf-b0-63
- /etc/firmware/iwx-QuZ-a0-hr-b0-67
- /etc/firmware/iwx-QuZ-a0-jf-b0-63
- /etc/firmware/iwx-so-a0-gf-a0-67
- /etc/firmware/iwx-so-a0-gf4-a0-67
- /etc/firmware/iwx-so-a0-hr-b0-64
- /etc/firmware/iwx-so-a0-jf-b0-64
- /etc/firmware/iwx-ty-ao-gf-a0-67
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 can be installed using fw_update(8).
EXAMPLES
The following example scans for available networks:
# ifconfig iwx0 scan
The following hostname.if(5) example configures iwx0 to join network “mynwid”, using WPA key “mywpakey”, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
join mynwid wpakey mywpakey inet autoconf
DIAGNOSTICS
- iwx0: 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.
- iwx0: fatal firmware error
- For some reason, the firmware crashed. The driver will reset the hardware. This should not happen.
- iwx0: 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.
- iwx0: could not read firmware ... (error N)
- For some reason, the driver was unable to read the firmware image from the filesystem. The file might be missing or corrupted.
- iwx0: firmware too short: N bytes
- The firmware image is corrupted and can't be loaded into the adapter.
- iwx0: could not load firmware
- An attempt to load the firmware into the adapter failed. The driver will reset the hardware.
SEE ALSO
arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), hostname.if(5), ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The iwx
device driver first appeared in
OpenBSD 6.7.
CAVEATS
The iwx
driver does not support any of the
802.11ax capabilities offered by the adapters. Additional work is required
in ieee80211(9) before those features can be supported.
This driver does not support powersave mode.