MWL(4)

💖 MWL(4) — the Marvell 88W8363 IEEE 802.11n wireless network driver, bestie edition 💖

okay so. welcome to mwl(4), from the Kernel Interfaces Manual section, and no cap this page is about to be your new hyperfixation. grab a snack 🍓

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✨ NAME ✨

mwl — the Marvell 88W8363 IEEE 802.11n wireless network driver. that's it. that's the name. iconic.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

so if you wanna compile this driver into the kernel, you're gonna drop these lines into your kernel configuration file, periodt:

      device mwl
      device mwlfw
      device wlan
      device firmware

or, alternate route bestie: load it as a module at boot time by putting this line in loader.conf(5):

      if_mwl_load="YES"

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

the mwl driver is literally here to support IEEE 802.11n wireless network adapters based on Marvell 88W8363 parts. PCI and/or CardBus interfaces are supported. slay.

this driver requires the firmware built with the mwlfw module to work — like, it will not function without it, no cap. normally that module gets loaded on demand by the driver itself, but you can also compile it into the kernel if that's your vibe.

supported features include 802.11n, power management, BSS, MBSS, and host-based access point operation modes. and the way that all host/device interaction happens? via DMA. every bit of it. obsessed. ✨

the mwl driver encapsulates IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, BUT — plot twist — it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. devices support 802.11n, 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.11b operation, with transmit speeds appropriate to each one. the actual transmit speed used depends on signal quality and the "rate control" algorithm implemented in the firmware. and all chips have hardware support for WEP, AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic operations. we love a secure queen 💅

the driver supports station, hostap, mesh, and wds mode operation. multiple hostap virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous use — yes, plural, go off. when multiple interfaces are configured, each may have a separate mac address, formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac address assigned to the underlying device. any number of wds virtual interfaces may be configured together with hostap interfaces. and multiple station interfaces may be operated together with hostap interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device. for more info on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

devices supported by the mwl driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages. and wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly. hot-swap main character energy 🔥

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🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):

      ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
              netmask 0xffffff00"

Join a specific BSS network with network name "my_net":

      ifconfig wlan create wlandev mwl0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
              netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net"

Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:

      ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0
      ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
              wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624

Create an 802.11g host-based access point:

      ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap
      ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \
              mode 11g

Create an 802.11a mesh station:

      ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode mesh
      ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24

Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to the fxp0 (wired) device:

      ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap \
              ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \
              mode 11a up
      ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev mwl0 wlanmode hostap bssid \
              ssid freeloaders up
      ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up

not me putting the paying customers on WEP and the freeloaders on open wifi 😭 the audacity is unmatched fr fr

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💀 DIAGNOSTICS 💀

• mwl%d: unable to setup builtin firmware — there was a problem downloading and/or setting up the firmware. the device is not usable. sorry bestie, she's done. 🫠
• mwl%d: failed to setup descriptors: %d — there was a problem setting up the DMA data structures. this typically is caused by not being able to allocate contiguous memory.
• mwl%d: transmit timeout — a frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. this should not happen. (lowkey rude of it.)
• mwl%d: device not present — a cardbus device was ejected while active; the request to the firmware was not completed.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

cardbus(4), intro(4), mwlfw(4), pci(4), wlan(4), wlan_ccmp(4), wlan_tkip(4), wlan_wep(4), wlan_xauth(4), hostapd(8), ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8)

the whole friend group 💖 go read them, iykyk.

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

the mwl device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0. a true elder statesman. respect the OG. 👑

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🙈 BUGS 🙈

the driver does not support power-save operation in station mode; consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop). so yeah, your battery is gonna be a lil dramatic about it. not her fault, but also, kind of her fault. 💀

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this lil beauty came from the Debian crew, dated July 8, 2009 — so when you see MWL(4) sitting there in the footer, just know it's giving vintage, it's giving legacy, it's giving absolutely still in your man pages. mwah 💋✨🦋