URTWN(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual URTWN(4)NAMEurtwn — Realtek RTL8188CU/RTL8192CU USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless network
device
SYNOPSIS
urtwn* at uhub? port ?
DESCRIPTION
The urtwn driver supports USB 2.0 wireless network devices based on Real‐
tek RTL8188CUS, RTL8188CE-VAU, RTL8188RU and RTL8192CU chipsets.
The RTL8188CUS is a highly integrated 802.11n adapter that combines a
MAC, a 1T1R capable baseband and an RF in a single chip. It operates 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 is a highly integrated multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO)
802.11n adapter that combines 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 asso‐
ciating 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 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 communica‐
tion, 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/rtl8192cfw.bin
/libdata/firmware/if_urtwn/rtl8192cfwU.bin
HARDWARE
The following adapters should work:
Airlink101 AWLL5088
Aus. Linx AL-9604R1S
B-Link BL-LW05-5R
Belkin F7D1102 Surf Wireless Micro
D-Link DWA-121
D-Link DWA-133
D-Link DWA-135
Digitus DN-7042
Edimax EW-7811Un
EDUP EP-N8508
Full River FR-W100NUL
Hercules Wireless N USB Pico HWNUp-150
Netgear WNA1000A
Planex GW-USEco300
Planex GW-USNano2
Planex GW-USValue-EZ
Planex GW-USWExtreme
POWCHIP POW-N18
Sitecom WL-365
Solwise NET-WL-UMD-606N
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
Configure urtwn0 to join network “my_net” using WPA with passphrase
“my_passphrase”:
# ifconfig urtwn0 nwid my_net wpakey my_passphrase
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 transmis‐
sion did not complete in time. The driver will reset the hardware. This
should not happen.
SEE ALSOarp(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 7.0.
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.
BSD June 13, 2012 BSD
