NAME

     bwn — Broadcom BCM43xx SoftMAC IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver

SYNOPSIS

     To compile this driver into the kernel, add the following lines to the kernel configuration
     file:

           device bwn
           device bhnd
           device bhndb
           device bhndb_pci
           device bcma
           device siba
           device gpio
           device wlan
           device wlan_amrr
           device firmware

     To load the driver as a module at boot, add the following lines to loader.conf(5):

           if_bwn_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION

     The bwn driver provides support for Broadcom BCM43xx based PCI/CardBus network adapters.

     It supports station and monitor mode operation.  Only one virtual interface may be
     configured at any time.  For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

     This driver requires firmware to be loaded before it will work.  The
     ports/net/bwn-firmware-kmod port needs to be installed before ifconfig(8) will work.  In
     most cases the bwn_v4_ucode kernel module from the port should be used.  However, if an LP
     (low power) PHY is being used, the bwn_v4_lp_ucode module should be used.

HARDWARE

     The bwn driver supports Broadcom BCM43xx based wireless devices, including:

     Card                     Chip       Bus         Standard
     Apple Airport Extreme    BCM4318    PCI         b/g
     ASUS WL-138g             BCM4318    PCI         b/g
     Buffalo WLI-CB-G54S      BCM4318    CardBus     b/g
     Dell Wireless 1390       BCM4311    Mini PCI    b/g
     Dell Wireless 1470       BCM4318    Mini PCI    b/g
     Dell Truemobile 1400     BCM4309    Mini PCI    b/g
     HP Compaq 6715b          BCM4312    PCI         b/g
     HP nx6125                BCM4319    PCI         b/g
     Linksys WPC54G Ver 3     BCM4318    CardBus     b/g
     Linksys WPC54GS Ver 2    BCM4318    CardBus     b/g
     US Robotics 5411         BCM4318    CardBus     b/g

     Users of older Broadcom chipsets (BCM4301, BCM4303 and BCM4306 rev 2) must use bwi(4)
     because the v4 version of the firmware does not support these chips.  The newer firmware is
     too big to fit into these old chips.

EXAMPLES

     Join an existing BSS network (i.e., connect to an access point):

           ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwn0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
               netmask 0xffffff00

     Join a specific BSS network with network name “my_net”:

           ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwn0 ssid my_net up

     Join a specific BSS network with 64-bit WEP encryption:

           ifconfig wlan create wlandev bwn0 ssid my_net \
                   wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 weptxkey 1 up

LOADER TUNABLES

     Tunables can be set at the loader(8) prompt before booting the kernel or stored in
     loader.conf(5).

     hw.bwn.usedma
             This tunable enables DMA operations on the hardware.  If the value is 0, PIO mode
             would be used.  The default value is 1.

SEE ALSO

     arp(4), bcma(4), bhnd(4), bhndb(4), bwi(4), cardbus(4), intro(4), pci(4), siba(4), wlan(4),
     wlan_amrr(4), ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8)

HISTORY

     The bwn driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.1.  The driver was updated to support the common
     Broadcom bhnd(4) bus interface in FreeBSD 12.0.

AUTHORS

     The bwn driver was written by Weongyo Jeong <weongyo@FreeBSD.org>.  Support for bhnd(4) was
     added by Landon Fuller <landonf@FreeBSD.org>.

CAVEATS

     Some LP PHY devices have DMA operation problems that in that case try to use PIO mode.