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)
