Manual browser: bwi(4)

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BWI(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual BWI(4)

NAME

bwiBroadcom BCM430x/4318 IEEE 802.11b/g wireless network driver

SYNOPSIS

bwi* at pci? dev ? function ?
bwi* at cardbus? function ?

DESCRIPTION

The bwi driver provides support for Broadcom BCM430x/4318 wireless network adapters. For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

MIB Variables

The following per-interface variables are implemented in the hw.bwiX branch of the sysctl(3) MIB.
debug
Debug flags.
dwell_time
Channel dwell time during scan (msec).
fw_version
Firmware version.
led_idle
Number of ticks before LED enters idle state.
led_blink
Allow LED to blink.
txpwr_calib
Enable software TX power calibration.

HARDWARE

The following cards are among those supported by the bwi driver:

Card Chip Bus Standard
Buffalo WLI-CB-G54 BCM4306 CardBus b/g
Buffalo WLI3-CB-G54L BCM4318 CardBus b/g
Buffalo WLI-PCI-G54S BCM4306 PCI b/g
Dell Wireless 1370 BCM4318 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Wireless 1470 BCM4318 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Truemobile 1400 BCM4309 Mini PCI b/g
Dell Latitude D505 BCM4306 PCI b/g
Apple AirPort Extreme b/g

FILES

The firmware for the adapter is not shipped with NetBSD and must be obtained separately. An archive with firmware files that are known to work can be found at:

http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/~sephe/bwi/v3.tbz

The firmware files conventionally reside in /libdata/firmware/bwi and will be loaded when the interface is brought up. Note: the v3 subdirectory in the above firmware archive should exist in the firmware folder. The full list of paths checked for firmware can be found in the hw.firmware.path sysctl(3) node.

HISTORY

The bwi driver first appeared in NetBSD 6.0.

AUTHORS

The bwi driver was written by Sepherosa Ziehau for Dragonfly BSD. It was ported to NetBSD by Taylor R. Campbell <riastradh@NetBSD.org>.

The hardware specification was reverse engineered by the people at http://bcm-specs.sipsolutions.net. Thanks go also to johill and mb on the #bcm-specs channel.

BUGS

BCM4306 and BCM4309 chips do not work properly on channel 1, 2, and 3.
April 25, 2012 NetBSD 7.0