ATU(4)

💖 ATU(4) — the Atmel at76c50x 802.11B wireless situation 💖

okay so bestie, this is a page from the Kernel Interfaces Manual and it's all about atu, the driver for Atmel at76c50x 802.11B wireless network interfaces. yes that's a lot of numbers, no i will not be apologizing, let's go 🌸

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

atu* at uhub? port ?

that's it. that's the whole vibe. she attaches at uhub? and port ?. iconic. 🎀

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the atu driver is the whole support system for wireless network adapters built around these USB chipsets: Atmel at76c503, at76c503a, at76c505, and at76c505a. four chipsets, one driver, she's versatile like that. 💅

the supported features are literally:

• 802.11 and 802.3 frames
• power management
• BSS, IBSS, ad-hoc, and host-based access point mode

not me listing all of those. yes i am. because they all matter. 🫶

the atu driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, but plot twist, she can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. multitasking queen. 👑

so about transmit speed, you get options depending on your hardware, and here's the full list, no cap:

• 1Mbps fixed
• 2Mbps fixed
• 2Mbps with auto fallback
• 5.5Mbps
• 8Mbps
• 11Mbps

pick your fighter. 💀

also there are four different radio chipsets used along with the device, and each one requires a different firmware. so yeah, know your hardware, bestie. ngl that's the whole game. 🧚

by default the atu driver configures the card for BSS operation (aka infrastructure mode). and this mode requires the use of an access point (base station). so like, you can't just rawdog it. you need the AP. 🙈

for more info on configuring this device, go see ifconfig(8). she has lore. 📖

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🌈 the supported devices list 🌈

these are among those supported by the atu driver — "among" being the key word, there are more, but here's the roster:

• Acer Peripherals AWL400
• AcerP AWL-300
• Aincomm AWU2000B
• Atmel 2662W-V4
• Atmel BW002
• Atmel DWL-120
• Atmel WL-1330
• Belkin F5D6050
• Geowave GW-US11S
• Linksys WUSB11
• Linksys WUSB11-V28
• Ovislink AirLive
• SMC 2662W-AR

thirteen entries, all copied exactly, because we do not skip. periodt. 💜

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• arp(4)
• ifmedia(4)
• intro(4)
• netintro(4)
• usb(4)
• ifconfig(8)
• wiconfig(8)

go read those too, iykyk. 🍓

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

the atu driver was written by Daan Vreeken and ported to OpenBSD by Theo de Raadt and David Gwynne. then the OpenBSD driver was ported to NetBSD by Jesse Off ⟨joff@NetBSD.org⟩. shoutout to the whole squad, fr fr. 🔥

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💀 quick vibe check before you go: this is the Debian build of the page, dated January 23, 2005. so if something here looks vintage, that's because it literally is. 🕰️

okay bye bestie, go configure your wireless, you got this 💖✨🎀🦋