NAME
rum —
Ralink Technology USB IEEE
802.11a/b/g wireless network device
SYNOPSIS
rum* at uhub? port ?
DESCRIPTION
The
rum driver supports USB 2.0 wireless adapters based on the
Ralink RT2501USB and RT2601USB chipsets.
The RT2501USB chipset is the second generation of 802.11a/b/g adapters from
Ralink. It consists of two integrated chips, an RT2571W MAC/BBP and an RT2528
or RT5226 radio transceiver.
The RT2601USB chipset consists of two integrated chips, an RT2671 MAC/BBP and an
RT2527 or RT5225 radio transceiver. This chipset uses the MIMO (multiple-input
multiple-output) technology with multiple antennas to extend the operating
range of the adapter and to achieve higher throughput. MIMO is the basis of
the forthcoming IEEE 802.11n standard.
These are the modes the
rum driver can operate in:
-
-
- BSS mode
- Also known as infrastructure mode, this
is used when associating with an access point, through which all traffic
passes. This mode is the default.
-
-
- IBSS mode
- Also known as IEEE ad-hoc mode or
peer-to-peer mode. This is the standardized method of
operating without an access point. Stations associate with a service set.
However, actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.
-
-
- Host AP
- In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base
station) for other cards.
-
-
- 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.
rum supports software WEP. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is
the de facto encryption standard for wireless networks. It can be typically
configured in one of three modes: no encryption; 40-bit encryption; or 104-bit
encryption. Unfortunately, due to serious weaknesses in WEP protocol it is
strongly recommended that it not be used as the sole mechanism to secure
wireless communication. WEP is not enabled by default.
CONFIGURATION
The
rum driver can be configured at runtime with
ifconfig(8) or on boot with
ifconfig.if(5) using the
following parameters:
-
-
- bssid
bssid
- Set the desired BSSID.
-
-
- -bssid
- Unset the desired BSSID. The interface will automatically
select a BSSID in this mode, which is the default.
-
-
- chan
n
- Set the channel (radio frequency) to be used by the driver
based on the given channel ID n.
-
-
- -chan
- Unset the desired channel to be used by the driver. The
driver will automatically select a channel in this mode, which is the
default.
-
-
- media
media
- The rum driver supports the following
media types:
- autoselect
- Enable autoselection of the media type and
options.
- DS1
- Set 802.11b DS 1Mbps operation.
- DS2
- Set 802.11b DS 2Mbps operation.
- DS5
- Set 802.11b DS 5.5Mbps operation.
- DS11
- Set 802.11b DS 11Mbps operation.
- OFDM6
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 6Mbps operation.
- OFDM9
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 9Mbps operation.
- OFDM12
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 12Mbps operation.
- OFDM18
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 18Mbps operation.
- OFDM24
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 24Mbps operation.
- OFDM36
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 36Mbps operation.
- OFDM48
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 48Mbps operation.
- OFDM54
- Set 802.11a/g OFDM 54Mbps operation.
-
-
- mediaopt
opts
- The rum driver supports the following
media options:
- hostap
- Select Host AP operation.
- ibss
- Select IBSS operation.
- monitor
- Select monitor mode.
-
-
- -mediaopt
opts
- Disable the specified media options on the driver and
return it to the default mode of operation (BSS).
-
-
- mode
mode
- The rum driver supports the following
modes:
- 11a
- Force 802.11a operation.
- 11b
- Force 802.11b operation.
- 11g
- Force 802.11g operation.
-
-
- nwid
id
- Set the network ID. The id can either
be any text string up to 32 characters in length, or a series of
hexadecimal digits up to 64 digits. An empty id
string allows the interface to connect to any available access points. By
default the rum driver uses an empty string. Note that
network ID is synonymous with Extended Service Set ID (ESSID).
-
-
- nwkey
key
- Enable WEP encryption using the specified
key. The key can either be a
string, a series of hexadecimal digits (preceded by ‘0x’), or
a set of keys of the form “n:k1,k2,k3,k4”, where
‘n’ specifies which of the keys will be used for transmitted
packets, and the four keys, “k1” through “k4”, are
configured as WEP keys. If a set of keys is specified, a comma
(‘,’) within the key must be escaped with a backslash. Note
that if multiple keys are used, their order must be the same within the
network. rum is capable of using both 40-bit (5
characters or 10 hexadecimal digits) or 104-bit (13 characters or 26
hexadecimal digits) keys.
-
-
- -nwkey
- Disable WEP encryption. This is the default mode of
operation.
FILES
The following firmware file is loaded when an interface is brought up:
- /libdata/firmware/rum/rum-rt2573
-
See
firmload(9) for how to
change this.
HARDWARE
The following adapters should work:
- Airlink101 AWLL5025
-
- ASUS WL-167g ver 2
-
- Belkin F5D7050 ver 3
-
- Belkin F5D9050 ver 3
-
- CNet CWD-854 ver F
-
- Conceptronic C54RU ver 2
-
- D-Link DWL-G122 rev C1
-
- D-Link WUA-1340
-
- Edimax EW-7318USG
-
- Gigabyte GN-WB01GS
-
- Hawking HWUG1
-
- LevelOne WNC-0301USB
-
- Linksys WUSB54G rev C
-
- Planex GW-USMM
-
- Senao NUB-3701
-
- Sitecom WL-113 ver 2
-
- Sitecom WL-172
-
- Synet MW-P54SS
-
- TP-LINK TL-WN321G
-
EXAMPLES
The following
ifconfig.if(5)
example configures rum0 to join whatever network is available on boot, using
WEP key “0x1deadbeef1”, channel 11:
inet 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 nwkey 0x1deadbeef1 chan 11
The following
ifconfig.if(5)
example creates a host-based access point on boot:
inet 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 media autoselect \
mediaopt hostap nwid my_net chan 11
Configure rum0 for WEP, using hex key “0x1deadbeef1”:
# ifconfig rum0 nwkey 0x1deadbeef1
Return rum0 to its default settings:
# ifconfig rum0 -bssid -chan media autoselect \
nwid "" -nwkey
Join an existing BSS network, “my_net”:
# ifconfig rum0 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 nwid my_net
DIAGNOSTICS
- rum%d: failed loadfirmware of file
%s
- For some reason, the driver was unable to read the
microcode file from the filesystem. The file might be missing or
corrupted.
- rum%d: could not load 8051
microcode
- An error occurred while attempting to upload the microcode
to the onboard 8051 microcontroller unit.
- rum%d: device timeout
- A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did
not complete in time. The driver will reset the hardware. This should not
happen.
SEE ALSO
arp(4),
ifmedia(4),
netintro(4),
usb(4),
ifconfig.if(5),
hostapd(8),
ifconfig(8),
firmload(9)
Ralink Technology
HISTORY
The
rum driver first appeared in
NetBSD
4.0 and
OpenBSD 4.0.
AUTHORS
The
rum driver was written by
Niall
O'Higgins
<
niallo@openbsd.org>
and
Damien Bergamini
<
damien@openbsd.org>.
CAVEATS
The
rum driver supports automatic control of the transmit
speed in BSS mode only. Therefore the use of a
rum adapter
in Host AP mode is discouraged.
The Synet MW-P54SS USB Wireless Broadband Router first attaches as a virtual
cd(4) device on the
umass(4) mass storage bus. It
will re-attach with this driver after using
eject(1) on the corresponding
device.