IPW(4)

💖 IPW(4) — the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 era, bestie edition 💖

okay so you found the ipw page in the Kernel Interfaces Manual (that's section 4, networking drivers, iykyk) and you're like "what is this ancient wifi relic" — girl, same, but also it's kind of iconic and here's literally everything about it.

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✨ NAME ✨

ipw — the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 IEEE 802.11 driver 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

so to compile this driver into the kernel, you drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device ipw
device ipwfw
device pci
device wlan
device firmware

or, alternative route, if you'd rather load it as a module at boot time, put this line in loader.conf(5):

if_ipw_load="YES"

and in both cases (yes, both, don't skip this) you also put this line in loader.conf(5) to acknowledge the firmware license (more on that below):

legal.intel_ipw.license_ack=1

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

The ipw driver provides support for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 MiniPCI network adapter. It supports station, adhoc, and monitor mode operation. Only one virtual interface may be configured at any time. (one at a time, she's monogamous 💅)

For more info on configuring this device, go see ifconfig(8).

This driver requires the firmware built with the ipwfw module to work. And for the loaded firmware to actually be enabled for use, the license at /usr/share/doc/legal/intel_ipw.LICENSE must be agreed to by adding this line to loader.conf(5):

legal.intel_ipw.license_ack=1

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🗂️ FILES 🗂️

• /usr/share/doc/legal/intel_ipw.LICENSE — the ipw firmware license 📜

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

Join an existing BSS network (i.e., connect to an access point):

ifconfig wlan create wlandev ipw0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
    netmask 0xffffff00

Join a specific BSS network with network name “my_net”:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev ipw0 ssid my_net up

Join a specific BSS network with 64-bit WEP encryption:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev ipw0 ssid my_net \
        wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 weptxkey 1 up

Join a specific BSS network with 128-bit WEP encryption:

ifconfig wlan create wlandev ipw0 wlanmode adhoc ssid my_net \
    wepmode on wepkey 0x01020304050607080910111213 weptxkey 1

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💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

• ipw%d: device timeout — The driver will reset the hardware. This should not happen. 😭
• ipw%d: firmware error — The onboard microcontroller crashes for some reason. The driver will reset the hardware. This should not happen. 🫠
• ipw%d: timeout waiting for firmware initialization to complete — The onboard microcontroller failed to initialize in time. This should not happen. 🙈
• ipw%d: could not load firmware image '%s' — The driver failed to load the firmware image using the firmware(9) subsystem. Verify the ipwfw(4) firmware module is installed and the license agreement loader(8) tunable has been set. 🔍
• ipw%d: could not load microcode — An attempt to upload the microcode image to the onboard microcontroller failed. This should not happen. 💀
• ipw%d: could not load firmware — An attempt to upload the firmware image to the onboard microcontroller failed. This should not happen. 😵

fr fr if you're seeing any of the "this should not happen" ones, that's the universe telling you something is deeply wrong and the vibes are off. bestie, run. 🏃♀️

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

ipwfw(4), pci(4), wlan(4), wlan_ccmp(4), wlan_tkip(4), wlan_wep(4), ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8)

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

The original ipw driver was written by Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>. 🫶

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and that's the whole page, no crumbs left 💖 this Debian-flavored version is dated October 15, 2015 and lives under the name IPW(4) — thank you for coming to my ted talk, go forth and acknowledge your firmware license 🎀✨