ACX(4)

💖 ACX(4) — the acx manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for acx, the driver for TI ACX100/ACX111 IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network devices, and it lives in the Kernel Interfaces Manual section. yes we're getting into it. no cap, it's giving vintage wifi chaos but we're gonna slay it together 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

acx — the TI ACX100/ACX111 IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device. that's the whole vibe. literally the wireless card driver.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

acx* at cardbus?
acx* at pci?

so it attaches either at cardbus? or at pci?, and those question marks are doing their whole wildcard thing. iconic.

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

The acx driver provides support for TI TNETW1100/TNETW1100B (ACX100) and TNETW1130 (ACX111) based PCI/CardBus network adapters. yes, both of those chip names, exactly like that, don't @ me.

The ACX100A and ACX100B are first generation 802.11b devices from TI. The ACX111 is a second generation device which supports 802.11b/g and in some cases 802.11a. so like, the glow-up generation. 💅

These are the modes the acx 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. main character energy, honestly.
• 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. so it's a group chat where everyone DMs everyone. 🦋
• Host AP — in this mode the driver acts as an access point (base station) for other cards. it's literally hosting the party.
• 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. lurking mode. respectfully. 👀

The acx driver can be configured to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) in software for ACX111 or in hardware for ACX100. it is strongly recommended that WEP not be used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses in it. like, seriously bestie, WEP is not it. it's giving glass door on a safe.

The transmit speed is user-selectable or can be adapted automatically by the driver depending on the number of hardware transmission retries. so the card can just figure it out, or you can pick.

In Host AP mode, the driver is compatible with clients using powersave. so the sleepy little clients still work, we love that for them.

The acx driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot with hostname.if(5). runtime or boot time — both valid, both slay.

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🧚 FILES 🧚

The driver needs a set of firmware files which are loaded when an interface is brought up:

/etc/firmware/tiacx100
/etc/firmware/tiacx100r0D
/etc/firmware/tiacx100r11
/etc/firmware/tiacx111
/etc/firmware/tiacx111c16
/etc/firmware/tiacx111r16

ok so here's the messy part 😭 these firmware files are not free because TI refuses to grant distribution rights. in fact they have rebuffed thousands of attempts to start a dialogue on this issue. THOUSANDS. the way that is so stubborn. as a result, even though OpenBSD includes the driver, the firmware files cannot be included and users have to download these files on their own. you're on your own for this one, babe.

A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using fw_update(8). okay so that's the cute shortcut, thank god. 🌈

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👑 HARDWARE 👑

The following cards are among those supported by the acx driver — every single one of them, we are not skipping a single icon:

• D-Link DWL-520+ — ACX100 — PCI — b
• D-Link DWL-650+ — ACX100 — CardBus — b
• D-Link DWL-G520+ — ACX111 — PCI — b/g
• D-Link DWL-G630+ — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• D-Link DWL-G650+ — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• Digitus DN-7001G — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• Ergenic ERG WL-003 — ACX100 — CardBus — b
• Hamlet HNWP254 — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• Hawking HWP54G — ACX111 — PCI — b/g
• Linksys WPC54Gv2 — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• Microcom Travelcard — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• Netgear WG311v2 — ACX111 — PCI — b/g
• Sceptre SC254W+ — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• Tornado/ADT 211g — ACX111 — PCI — b/g
• USR USR5410 — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• USR USR5416 — ACX111 — PCI — b/g
• ZyXEL G-160 — ACX111 — CardBus — b/g
• ZyXEL G-360 EE — ACX111 — PCI — b/g

(the original lays these out as Card / Chip / Bus / Standard columns, and yes i kept every single row because we don't do half-finished lists here 💅)

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💜 EXAMPLES 💜

The following example scans for available networks:

# ifconfig acx0 scan

so simple. so clean. scanning for networks is such a mood.

The following hostname.if(5) example configures acx0 to join network “mynwid”, using WEP key “mywepkey”, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

nwid mynwid nwkey mywepkey
inet autoconf

The following hostname.if(5) example creates a host-based access point on boot:

mediaopt hostap
nwid mynwid nwkey mywepkey
inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0

hostap on boot?? we love a self-sufficient icon. 🔥

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

arp(4), cardbus(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), pci(4), hostname.if(5), hostapd(8), ifconfig(8)

all the friends in the group chat. go read them, iykyk.

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

The acx driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.0. a whole era. 🎀

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🌸 AUTHORS 🌸

The acx driver was written by Sepherosa Ziehau. The manual page was written by Sascha Wildner. Both are based on the http://wlan.kewl.org project team's original code. legends.

The hardware specification was reverse engineered by the good folks at http://acx100.sourceforge.net. Without them this driver would not have been possible. and we are so grateful, fr fr. 🙏

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okay that's the whole page, nothing skipped, nothing invented, just the facts with significantly better vibes. 💖

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✿ Debian — January 5, 2022 — that's the source/version and date, bestie, now go configure your wifi ✿