FWOHCI(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ FWOHCI(4) ✨

okay bestie, so this is fwohci from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, and we're gonna get you so comfy with it 💅

💖 NAME 💖

fwohci — the OHCI FireWire chipset device driver. that's it, that's the whole vibe. it's giving "guy who talks to your FireWire card" 🦋

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

so like, if you wanna bake this driver straight into your kernel (main character energy, no modules, we commit), you drop this line into your kernel configuration file:

device firewire

orrr, if you're more of a "load it at boot time" girly (valid!), you put this in loader.conf(5):

firewire_load="YES"

and now the important one 🚨 — if you wanna disable physical access (peep the BUGS section below for the full tea, it's a lot), put this line in loader.conf(5):

hw.firewire.phydma_enable=0

🌸 HARDWARE 🌸

the fwohci driver is out here supporting PCI/CardBus FireWire interface cards, periodt. and specifically, these IEEE 1394 OHCI chipsets are in its roster 👑

  • Adaptec AHA-894x/AIC-5800
  • Apple Pangea
  • Apple UniNorth
  • Intel 82372FB
  • IOGEAR GUF320
  • Lucent / Agere FW322/323
  • NEC uPD72861
  • NEC uPD72870
  • NEC uPD72871/2
  • NEC uPD72873
  • NEC uPD72874
  • National Semiconductor CS4210
  • Ricoh R5C551
  • Ricoh R5C552
  • Sony CX3022
  • Sony i.LINK (CXD3222)
  • Sun PCIO-2 (RIO 1394)
  • Texas Instruments PCI4410A
  • Texas Instruments PCI4450
  • Texas Instruments PCI4451
  • Texas Instruments TSB12LV22
  • Texas Instruments TSB12LV23
  • Texas Instruments TSB12LV26
  • Texas Instruments TSB43AA22
  • Texas Instruments TSB43AB21/A/AI/A-EP
  • Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A
  • Texas Instruments TSB43AB23
  • Texas Instruments TSB82AA2
  • VIA Fire II (VT6306)

like ok look at that list. it ATE. 🔥

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

go read these too bestie, they're all part of the same friend group:

🌈 HISTORY 🌈

the fwohci device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0. a real OG, no cap 💜

👑 AUTHORS 👑

the fwohci device driver was written by Katsushi Kobayashi and Hidetoshi Shimokawa. absolute legends, we stan 🫶

💀 BUGS 💀

okay so this is the part where we sit down and talk, because it's lowkey scary 😭

the driver allows physical access from any nodes on the bus by default. read that again. what that means is: any devices on the bus can read and modify any memory space which can be accessed by an IEEE 1394 OHCI chip. 🙈

it's allowed mostly for sbp(4) devices. this should be changed to allow it only for specific devices. (should!! it should!!) anyway — FireWire is a bus and not expected to be connected with un-trustable devices, because a node can monitor all the traffic. so like... be normal about who you plug in, fr fr.

🚨 if that gave you the ick, that's exactly what hw.firewire.phydma_enable=0 up in the SYNOPSIS is for. go set it.

that's the whole page, bestie!! this was the Debian build, dated March 3, 2008, and you just read the entire thing top to bottom like the scholar you are 💅✨ stay safe, stay firewired, mwah 🎀

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