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airo

AIRO(4)                                                                AIRO(4)



NAME
       airo  -  Driver  for  the Aironet 802.11 ISA/PCI/PCMCIA 4500 & 4800 and
       Cisco 340


SYNOPSIS
       insmod    airo.o    [io=i,j,...]      [irq=i,j,...]      [basic_rate=n]
       [rates=i,j,...]   [ssids=i,j,...]   [adhoc=1]  [aux_bap=1] [auto_wep=1]
       [maxencrypt=n]


DESCRIPTION
       This driver is for Cisco 340 and Aironet 4500 and  4800  ISA/PCI/PCMCIA
       cards  and  2.0  or  2.2  kernels.  Just for fun, I tested a 3500 for a
       total of 2 minutes and it seemed to work more or less.  (The configura-
       tion  information displayed in the Config file seemed a bit messed up.)

       The card will create an ethX device for each wireless card.   An  entry
       for  each  device will be created under /proc/aironet/ethX with entries
       to view the status of the card and configure it.


/proc/aironet
       In the /proc/aironet partition there will be a  subdirectory  for  each
       aironet interface. In that subdirectory are four files: Status, Config,
       WepKey, and SSID.


       Status Most of the fields in the Status file are self describing.   The
              Mode: field is a bitmask.  Here is the description from the pro-
              grammer's manual:

                 Bit Meaning
                 0x0001 Configured
                 0x0002 MAC Enabled
                 0x0004 Receive Enabled
                 0x0010 In Sync
                 0x0020 Associated
                 0x8000 Error

              I'm not sure what the units are in the Signal: field.


       Config The Config file is mode up  of  fields  separated  by  newlines.
              When  setting  the  fields, they can occur in any order.  If the
              values are in error, a sane default will be used.   Note,  there
              must be exactly one space between the colon and the value.


       Mode:  can be "adhoc" or "ESS".  Defaults to ESS.


       NodeName:
              Can be up to 16 characters in length


       PowerMode:
              Can  be  CAM  (Constantly  Awake  Mode), PSP (Power Saving some-
              thing...), PSPCAM (you guess...).  CAM is default.


       DataRates:
              Must be separated by exactly 1 space.  The units  are  500  kps.
              So 2 is 1 mbs.  There can be up to 8 rates specified.  The basic
              rate set by setting the high bit (bit 7).


       Channel:
              Don't know anything about this except that you can set it...


       XmitPower:
              Transmit power in milliwatts.


       WEP:   Can be open, encrypt, and  shared,  meaning  no  authentication,
              encrypted  data  only, shared key authentication and encryption.
              Note that when WEP is enabled the current cards (as  of  9/9/99)
              do not allow data rates above 2 mbs.


       Modulation:
              Can  be  cck  or mok.  Sets the modulation type for speeds above
              2mbs.


       WepKey This file allows all four wep keys to be set.  The key is set by
              writing  the  index  (0 == first key) of the key to be set, fol-
              lowed by a space, followed by the key as a string to  the  file.
              Each octet must be written in hexadecimal with leading zeros and
              separated by colons.  For security reasons  the  key  cannot  be
              read  from  the card.  Writing to this file sets both the perma-
              nent and temporary key.  (Anyone have a need for being  able  to
              write them separately?)  For example:

                   echo 0 12:04:78:9a:bc > /proc/aironet/eth0/WepKey

              When  the file is read, it shows the length of the keys that are
              set and the index of the key that is set as the transmit key.

       APList Contains the list of  MACs  of  the  preferred  APs.   Each  MAC
              address  must  be separated by a delimiter and each octet of the
              MAC should be separated by a delimiter  and  each  octet  should
              have  two  digits.   01:02:03:04:05:06 and 01-02-03:04:05,06 are
              valid.  1:2:3:4:5:6 is not.  I  usually  separate  the  MACs  by
              linefeeds but any character works.


       SSID   The  SSID  file  has  the  list  of usable SSIDs. If the list is
              empty, it will associate with any access point that it can find.
              The  SSIDs  are  separated  by line feeds. This file may also be
              written to to change the list.


       Stats/StatsDelta
              Basically a dump of all the statistics of the card.  The  source
              has  provisions  for all the statistics even though by default a
              lot of them are turned off.  Stats give the statistics from  the
              time  the  card was powered up.  StatsDelta gives the statistics
              from the time the statistics were last  reset.   The  statistics
              are reset by opening the StatsDelta file for writing.


PARAMETERS
       io=i,j,...
              Specifies  the  set of ioports used by the driver.  This is only
              used for ISA cards.  The irq to be used will match  the  irq  in
              the same position in the irq list.  So basically ioport at index
              i will be used with the irq at index i.

       irq=i,j,...
              Specifies the set of interrupts are used by the driver.

       rates=i,j,...
              A comma separated list of rates.  There are up  to  8  of  them.
              They are specified in 512 kps units.

       basic_rate=n
              Sets  the basic rate of the card.  Same units as the rates.  (It
              must be one of the rates.)

       ssids=i,j,k
              A comma separated list of ssids.  There can be up  to  3.   They
              are a maximum of 32 characters.

       maxencrypt=n
              Sets  the  maximum  speed of the card when doing encryption.  If
              zero (the default), it is not used.  Units are in 512kbs.  Older
              cards  could  only  do  2mbs  (n=4)  when doing encryption, even
              though they could do 11 mbs without encryption.

       auto_wep=n
              Turns on logic to cycle through the different WEP settings until
              the  card  is able to associate.  It will also cycle through the
              wep keys.  n is the number of keys to cycle through.   Note,  it
              only  cycles  through the keys for shared mode.  When encrypt is
              tried, it will use the permanent key index.  (See WepKey.)

       aux_bap=1
              Enables logic that gets around  bus  timing  problems  on  older
              cards  with  some  boards.   The timing problem manifests itself
              when receiving packets bigger than 70 bytes.


SPECIFIC NOTES
       When used with PCMCIA cards, it must be used with the airo_cs module.


AUTHOR
       Benjamin C. Reed - breed@almaden.ibm.com


SEE ALSO
       airo_cs(4), cardmgr(8), pcmcia(5), insmod(1),



IBM Almaden Research Center        10/25/00                            AIRO(4)