QWX(4)

✨ NAME ✨

qwx(4) — from the Kernel Interfaces Manual — is the Qualcomm IEEE 802.11a/ac/ax/b/g/n wireless network device page, bestie 💖. She contains multitudes, and she's ready to spill the Wi-Fi tea.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

qwx* at pci?

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so listen: the qwx driver provides support for Qualcomm Technologies QCNFA765 802.11ax devices. periodt 💅.

These are the modes the qwx driver can operate in:

• BSS mode — also known as infrastructure mode. This is the one you use when associating with an access point, through which all traffic passes. This mode is the default, and yes she's giving main character energy 👑.

The qwx driver can be configured to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA1 and WPA2). WPA2 is currently the most secure encryption standard for wireless networks supported by OpenBSD. ngl that part matters.

⚠️ seriously bestie: it is strongly recommended that neither WEP nor WPA1 are used as the sole mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses.

WPA1 is disabled by default and may be enabled using the option "wpaprotos wpa1,wpa2". For standard WPA networks which use pre-shared keys (PSK), keys are configured using the "wpakey" option. WPA-Enterprise networks require use of the wpa_supplicant package. The qwx driver offloads both encryption and decryption of unicast data frames to the hardware for the CCMP cipher ✨.

The qwx driver supports protected management frames (PMF) which prevents spoofing of management frames such as deauthentication, disassociation, and block-ack negotiation, on networks using WPA. obsessed with a security feature that actually shows up 🙈.

In BSS mode the driver supports background scanning; see ifconfig(8).

The qwx driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot with hostname.if(5). iykyk 🫶.

🎀 FILES 🎀

The driver needs the following firmware files, which are loaded when an interface is brought up:

/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.0-amss
/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.0-board-2
/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.0-m3
/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.0-regdb
/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.1-amss
/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.1-board-2
/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.1-m3
/etc/firmware/qwx-wcn6855-hw2.1-regdb

These firmware files are not free because Qualcomm refuses to grant distribution rights without contractual obligations. 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. ugh, the licensing drama 😭.

A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using fw_update(8). slay, one less thing to stress about 💖.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

The following example scans for available networks:

# ifconfig qwx0 scan

The following hostname.if(5) example configures qwx0 to join network mynwid, using WPA key mywpakey, obtaining an IP address using DHCP:

join mynwid wpakey mywpakey
inet autoconf

💅 SEE ALSO 💅

• arp(4)
• ifmedia(4)
• intro(4)
• netintro(4)
• pci(4)
• hostname.if(5)
• ifconfig(8)

👑 HISTORY 👑

The qwx driver first appeared in OpenBSD 7.5. iconic behavior, no cap ✨.

🧚 CAVEATS 🧚

The qwx driver does not support any of the 802.11ac and 802.11ax capabilities offered by the hardware. lowkey tragic but true 💀.

💀 BUGS 💀

Broadcast and Multicast frames are only received on networks which do not use encryption or which use WPA. This prevents ARP and IPv6 from working correctly on networks which use WEP encryption. not the WEP jump scare 😭.

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that's the whole Debian QWX(4) page, dated December 1, 2025 — mwah, bestie 💋✨