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Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:53 EST.

1	
2	Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux in support of:
3	
4	Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
5	Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection
6	
7	Note: The Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux and Intel(R)
8	PRO/Wireless 2200BG Driver for Linux is a unified driver that works on
9	both hardware adapters listed above. In this document the Intel(R)
10	PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux will be used to reference the
11	unified driver.
12	
13	Copyright (C) 2004-2006, Intel Corporation
14	
15	README.ipw2200
16	
17	Version: 1.1.2
18	Date   : March 30, 2006
19	
20	
21	Index
22	-----------------------------------------------
23	0.   IMPORTANT INFORMATION BEFORE USING THIS DRIVER
24	1.   Introduction
25	1.1. Overview of features
26	1.2. Module parameters
27	1.3. Wireless Extension Private Methods
28	1.4. Sysfs Helper Files
29	1.5. Supported channels
30	2.   Ad-Hoc Networking
31	3.   Interacting with Wireless Tools
32	3.1. iwconfig mode
33	3.2. iwconfig sens
34	4.   About the Version Numbers
35	5.   Firmware installation
36	6.   Support
37	7.   License
38	
39	
40	0.   IMPORTANT INFORMATION BEFORE USING THIS DRIVER
41	-----------------------------------------------
42	
43	Important Notice FOR ALL USERS OR DISTRIBUTORS!!!! 
44	
45	Intel wireless LAN adapters are engineered, manufactured, tested, and
46	quality checked to ensure that they meet all necessary local and
47	governmental regulatory agency requirements for the regions that they
48	are designated and/or marked to ship into. Since wireless LANs are
49	generally unlicensed devices that share spectrum with radars,
50	satellites, and other licensed and unlicensed devices, it is sometimes
51	necessary to dynamically detect, avoid, and limit usage to avoid
52	interference with these devices. In many instances Intel is required to
53	provide test data to prove regional and local compliance to regional and
54	governmental regulations before certification or approval to use the
55	product is granted. Intel's wireless LAN's EEPROM, firmware, and
56	software driver are designed to carefully control parameters that affect
57	radio operation and to ensure electromagnetic compliance (EMC). These
58	parameters include, without limitation, RF power, spectrum usage,
59	channel scanning, and human exposure. 
60	
61	For these reasons Intel cannot permit any manipulation by third parties
62	of the software provided in binary format with the wireless WLAN
63	adapters (e.g., the EEPROM and firmware). Furthermore, if you use any
64	patches, utilities, or code with the Intel wireless LAN adapters that
65	have been manipulated by an unauthorized party (i.e., patches,
66	utilities, or code (including open source code modifications) which have
67	not been validated by Intel), (i) you will be solely responsible for
68	ensuring the regulatory compliance of the products, (ii) Intel will bear
69	no liability, under any theory of liability for any issues associated
70	with the modified products, including without limitation, claims under
71	the warranty and/or issues arising from regulatory non-compliance, and
72	(iii) Intel will not provide or be required to assist in providing
73	support to any third parties for such modified products.  
74	
75	Note: Many regulatory agencies consider Wireless LAN adapters to be
76	modules, and accordingly, condition system-level regulatory approval
77	upon receipt and review of test data documenting that the antennas and
78	system configuration do not cause the EMC and radio operation to be
79	non-compliant.
80	
81	The drivers available for download from SourceForge are provided as a 
82	part of a development project.  Conformance to local regulatory 
83	requirements is the responsibility of the individual developer.  As 
84	such, if you are interested in deploying or shipping a driver as part of 
85	solution intended to be used for purposes other than development, please 
86	obtain a tested driver from Intel Customer Support at:
87	
88	http://support.intel.com
89	
90	
91	1.   Introduction
92	-----------------------------------------------
93	The following sections attempt to provide a brief introduction to using 
94	the Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux.
95	
96	This document is not meant to be a comprehensive manual on 
97	understanding or using wireless technologies, but should be sufficient 
98	to get you moving without wires on Linux.
99	
100	For information on building and installing the driver, see the INSTALL
101	file.
102	
103	
104	1.1. Overview of Features
105	-----------------------------------------------
106	The current release (1.1.2) supports the following features:
107	
108	+ BSS mode (Infrastructure, Managed)
109	+ IBSS mode (Ad-Hoc)
110	+ WEP (OPEN and SHARED KEY mode)
111	+ 802.1x EAP via wpa_supplicant and xsupplicant
112	+ Wireless Extension support 
113	+ Full B and G rate support (2200 and 2915)
114	+ Full A rate support (2915 only)
115	+ Transmit power control
116	+ S state support (ACPI suspend/resume)
117	
118	The following features are currently enabled, but not officially
119	supported:
120	
121	+ WPA
122	+ long/short preamble support
123	+ Monitor mode (aka RFMon)
124	
125	The distinction between officially supported and enabled is a reflection 
126	on the amount of validation and interoperability testing that has been
127	performed on a given feature. 
128	
129	
130	
131	1.2. Command Line Parameters
132	-----------------------------------------------
133	
134	Like many modules used in the Linux kernel, the Intel(R) PRO/Wireless
135	2915ABG Driver for Linux allows configuration options to be provided 
136	as module parameters.  The most common way to specify a module parameter 
137	is via the command line.  
138	
139	The general form is:
140	
141	% modprobe ipw2200 parameter=value
142	
143	Where the supported parameter are:
144	
145	  associate
146		Set to 0 to disable the auto scan-and-associate functionality of the
147		driver.  If disabled, the driver will not attempt to scan 
148		for and associate to a network until it has been configured with 
149		one or more properties for the target network, for example configuring 
150		the network SSID.  Default is 0 (do not auto-associate)
151		
152		Example: % modprobe ipw2200 associate=0
153	
154	  auto_create
155		Set to 0 to disable the auto creation of an Ad-Hoc network 
156		matching the channel and network name parameters provided.  
157		Default is 1.
158	
159	  channel
160		channel number for association.  The normal method for setting
161	        the channel would be to use the standard wireless tools
162	        (i.e. `iwconfig eth1 channel 10`), but it is useful sometimes
163		to set this while debugging.  Channel 0 means 'ANY'
164	
165	  debug
166		If using a debug build, this is used to control the amount of debug
167		info is logged.  See the 'dvals' and 'load' script for more info on
168		how to use this (the dvals and load scripts are provided as part 
169		of the ipw2200 development snapshot releases available from the 
170		SourceForge project at http://ipw2200.sf.net)
171	  
172	  led
173		Can be used to turn on experimental LED code.
174		0 = Off, 1 = On.  Default is 1.
175	
176	  mode
177		Can be used to set the default mode of the adapter.  
178		0 = Managed, 1 = Ad-Hoc, 2 = Monitor
179	
180	
181	1.3. Wireless Extension Private Methods
182	-----------------------------------------------
183	
184	As an interface designed to handle generic hardware, there are certain 
185	capabilities not exposed through the normal Wireless Tool interface.  As 
186	such, a provision is provided for a driver to declare custom, or 
187	private, methods.  The Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux 
188	defines several of these to configure various settings.
189	
190	The general form of using the private wireless methods is:
191	
192		% iwpriv $IFNAME method parameters
193	
194	Where $IFNAME is the interface name the device is registered with 
195	(typically eth1, customized via one of the various network interface
196	name managers, such as ifrename)
197	
198	The supported private methods are:
199	
200	  get_mode
201		Can be used to report out which IEEE mode the driver is 
202		configured to support.  Example:
203		
204		% iwpriv eth1 get_mode
205		eth1	get_mode:802.11bg (6)
206	
207	  set_mode
208		Can be used to configure which IEEE mode the driver will 
209		support.  
210	
211		Usage:
212		% iwpriv eth1 set_mode {mode}
213		Where {mode} is a number in the range 1-7:
214		1	802.11a (2915 only)
215		2	802.11b
216		3	802.11ab (2915 only)
217		4	802.11g 
218		5	802.11ag (2915 only)
219		6	802.11bg
220		7	802.11abg (2915 only)
221	
222	  get_preamble
223		Can be used to report configuration of preamble length.
224	
225	  set_preamble
226		Can be used to set the configuration of preamble length:
227	
228		Usage:
229		% iwpriv eth1 set_preamble {mode}
230		Where {mode} is one of:
231		1	Long preamble only
232		0	Auto (long or short based on connection)
233		
234	
235	1.4. Sysfs Helper Files:
236	-----------------------------------------------
237	
238	The Linux kernel provides a pseudo file system that can be used to 
239	access various components of the operating system.  The Intel(R)
240	PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux exposes several configuration
241	parameters through this mechanism.
242	
243	An entry in the sysfs can support reading and/or writing.  You can 
244	typically query the contents of a sysfs entry through the use of cat, 
245	and can set the contents via echo.  For example:
246	
247	% cat /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/debug_level
248	
249	Will report the current debug level of the driver's logging subsystem 
250	(only available if CONFIG_IPW2200_DEBUG was configured when the driver
251	was built).
252	
253	You can set the debug level via:
254	
255	% echo $VALUE > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/debug_level
256	
257	Where $VALUE would be a number in the case of this sysfs entry.  The 
258	input to sysfs files does not have to be a number.  For example, the 
259	firmware loader used by hotplug utilizes sysfs entries for transferring 
260	the firmware image from user space into the driver.
261	
262	The Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux exposes sysfs entries 
263	at two levels -- driver level, which apply to all instances of the driver 
264	(in the event that there are more than one device installed) and device 
265	level, which applies only to the single specific instance.
266	
267	
268	1.4.1 Driver Level Sysfs Helper Files
269	-----------------------------------------------
270	
271	For the driver level files, look in /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/
272	
273	  debug_level  
274		
275		This controls the same global as the 'debug' module parameter
276	
277	
278	
279	1.4.2 Device Level Sysfs Helper Files
280	-----------------------------------------------
281	
282	For the device level files, look in
283		
284		/sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/{PCI-ID}/
285	
286	For example:
287		/sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200/0000:02:01.0
288	
289	For the device level files, see /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2200:
290	
291	  rf_kill
292		read - 
293		0 = RF kill not enabled (radio on)
294		1 = SW based RF kill active (radio off)
295		2 = HW based RF kill active (radio off)
296		3 = Both HW and SW RF kill active (radio off)
297		write -
298		0 = If SW based RF kill active, turn the radio back on
299		1 = If radio is on, activate SW based RF kill
300	
301		NOTE: If you enable the SW based RF kill and then toggle the HW
302	  	based RF kill from ON -> OFF -> ON, the radio will NOT come back on
303		
304	  ucode 
305		read-only access to the ucode version number
306	
307	  led
308		read -
309		0 = LED code disabled
310		1 = LED code enabled
311		write -
312		0 = Disable LED code
313		1 = Enable LED code
314	
315		NOTE: The LED code has been reported to hang some systems when 
316		running ifconfig and is therefore disabled by default.
317	
318	
319	1.5. Supported channels
320	-----------------------------------------------
321	
322	Upon loading the Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Driver for Linux, a
323	message stating the detected geography code and the number of 802.11
324	channels supported by the card will be displayed in the log.
325	
326	The geography code corresponds to a regulatory domain as shown in the
327	table below.
328	
329						  Supported channels
330	Code	Geography			802.11bg	802.11a
331	
332	---	Restricted			11 	 	 0
333	ZZF	Custom US/Canada		11	 	 8
334	ZZD	Rest of World			13	 	 0
335	ZZA	Custom USA & Europe & High	11		13
336	ZZB	Custom NA & Europe    		11		13
337	ZZC	Custom Japan			11	 	 4
338	ZZM	Custom 				11	 	 0
339	ZZE	Europe				13		19
340	ZZJ	Custom Japan			14	 	 4
341	ZZR	Rest of World			14	 	 0
342	ZZH	High Band			13	 	 4
343	ZZG	Custom Europe			13	 	 4
344	ZZK	Europe 				13		24
345	ZZL	Europe				11		13
346	
347	
348	2.   Ad-Hoc Networking
349	-----------------------------------------------
350	
351	When using a device in an Ad-Hoc network, it is useful to understand the 
352	sequence and requirements for the driver to be able to create, join, or 
353	merge networks.
354	
355	The following attempts to provide enough information so that you can 
356	have a consistent experience while using the driver as a member of an 
357	Ad-Hoc network.
358	
359	2.1. Joining an Ad-Hoc Network
360	-----------------------------------------------
361	
362	The easiest way to get onto an Ad-Hoc network is to join one that 
363	already exists.
364	
365	2.2. Creating an Ad-Hoc Network
366	-----------------------------------------------
367	
368	An Ad-Hoc networks is created using the syntax of the Wireless tool.
369	
370	For Example:
371	iwconfig eth1 mode ad-hoc essid testing channel 2
372	
373	2.3. Merging Ad-Hoc Networks
374	-----------------------------------------------
375	
376	
377	3.  Interaction with Wireless Tools
378	-----------------------------------------------
379	
380	3.1 iwconfig mode
381	-----------------------------------------------
382	
383	When configuring the mode of the adapter, all run-time configured parameters
384	are reset to the value used when the module was loaded.  This includes
385	channels, rates, ESSID, etc.
386	
387	3.2 iwconfig sens
388	-----------------------------------------------
389	
390	The 'iwconfig ethX sens XX' command will not set the signal sensitivity
391	threshold, as described in iwconfig documentation, but rather the number
392	of consecutive missed beacons that will trigger handover, i.e. roaming
393	to another access point. At the same time, it will set the disassociation
394	threshold to 3 times the given value.
395	
396	
397	4.   About the Version Numbers
398	-----------------------------------------------
399	
400	Due to the nature of open source development projects, there are 
401	frequently changes being incorporated that have not gone through 
402	a complete validation process.  These changes are incorporated into 
403	development snapshot releases.
404	
405	Releases are numbered with a three level scheme: 
406	
407		major.minor.development
408	
409	Any version where the 'development' portion is 0 (for example
410	1.0.0, 1.1.0, etc.) indicates a stable version that will be made 
411	available for kernel inclusion.
412	
413	Any version where the 'development' portion is not a 0 (for
414	example 1.0.1, 1.1.5, etc.) indicates a development version that is
415	being made available for testing and cutting edge users.  The stability 
416	and functionality of the development releases are not know.  We make
417	efforts to try and keep all snapshots reasonably stable, but due to the
418	frequency of their release, and the desire to get those releases 
419	available as quickly as possible, unknown anomalies should be expected.
420	
421	The major version number will be incremented when significant changes
422	are made to the driver.  Currently, there are no major changes planned.
423	
424	5.  Firmware installation
425	----------------------------------------------
426	
427	The driver requires a firmware image, download it and extract the
428	files under /lib/firmware (or wherever your hotplug's firmware.agent
429	will look for firmware files)
430	
431	The firmware can be downloaded from the following URL:
432	
433	    http://ipw2200.sf.net/
434	
435	
436	6.  Support
437	-----------------------------------------------
438	
439	For direct support of the 1.0.0 version, you can contact 
440	http://supportmail.intel.com, or you can use the open source project
441	support.
442	
443	For general information and support, go to:
444		
445	    http://ipw2200.sf.net/
446	
447	
448	7.  License
449	-----------------------------------------------
450	
451	  Copyright(c) 2003 - 2006 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
452	
453	  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it 
454	  under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as 
455	  published by the Free Software Foundation.
456	  
457	  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 
458	  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 
459	  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for 
460	  more details.
461	  
462	  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
463	  this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 
464	  Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
465	  
466	  The full GNU General Public License is included in this distribution in the
467	  file called LICENSE.
468	  
469	  Contact Information:
470	  James P. Ketrenos <ipw2100-admin@linux.intel.com>
471	  Intel Corporation, 5200 N.E. Elam Young Parkway, Hillsboro, OR 97124-6497
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