NOTE: this page is for archival only, see the note at the end of the page.

Existing Linux Wireless drivers

We currently have a fair amount of working drivers that cover most of the available wireless networking cards. However, they don't implement all features and may have some issues, due to various reasons like companies not providing specs. Below is an alphabetically sorted list of drivers and what they currently can and can't do.

All drivers can run in station mode, but not all support the other modes, this is also shown in the table below.

Driver Manufacturer cfg80211
AP
IBSS
mesh
monitor
PHY modes Buses
acx1xx Texas Instruments yes ? ? no ? B PCI / PCMCIA / USB
adm8211 ADMtek/Infineon yes no no no ? B PCI
agnx Airgo/Qualcom yes ? ? ? ? A/B/G PCI
airo Aironet/Cisco no ? ? ? ? B PCI / PCMCIA
ar9170usb ZyDAS/Atheros yes no yes no yes A(1)/B/G/N USB
ar9271 Atheros no ? ? ? ? B/G/N USB
at76c50x-usb Atmel yes no no no no B USB
ath5k Atheros yes yes yes yes yes A/B/G PCI / PCI-E / PCMCIA
ath6kl Atheros yes no yes no no A/B/G/N SDIO
ath9k Atheros yes yes yes yes yes A/B/G/N PCI / PCI-E / AHB / PCMCIA
ath9k_htc Atheros yes no yes no yes B/G/N USB
atmel Atmel no ? ? ? ? B PCI / PCMCIA
b43 Broadcom yes yes yes yes yes A(2)/B/G SSB/PCI/PCI-E/PCMCIA
b43legacy Broadcom yes yes yes yes yes A(2)/B/G PCI/SSB
brcm80211 Broadcom yes no no no no A(1)/B/G/N PCI/AXI
carl9170 ZyDAS/Atheros yes yes yes no yes A(1)/B/G/N USB
hostap Intersil/Conexant no ? ? ? ? B PCI / PCMCIA
ipw2100 Intel no no yes no no B PCI
ipw2200 Intel no no (3) yes no no A/B/G PCI
iwl3945 Intel yes no yes no no A/B/G PCI-E
iwlagn Intel yes no yes no no A/B/G/N PCI-E
iwmc3200wifi Intel yes no yes no no A/G SDIO
mac80211_hwsim Jouni yes yes yes no yes A/B/G/N NONE!
mwl8k Marvell yes yes ? ? yes A/B/G/N PCI
libertas Marvell no no yes yes (4) no B/G USB / PCMCIA / SDIO / GSPI
libertas_tf Marvell yes yes no yes ? B/G USB
orinoco Agere/Intersil/Symbol yes no yes no yes B PCI / PCMCIA / USB
p54pci Intersil/Conexant yes yes yes yes yes A(1)/B/G PCI / PCMCIA
p54spi Conexant/ST-NXP yes yes yes yes yes A(1)/B/G SPI
p54usb Intersil/Conexant yes yes yes yes yes A(1)/B/G USB
poldhu NWN no ? ? ? ? B PCMCIA
prism2_usb Intersil/Conexant no ? ? ? ? B USB
ray_cs Raytheon no ? ? ? ? pre802.11 PCMCIA
rndis_wlan Broadcom yes no yes no no B/G USB
rt61pci Ralink yes yes yes no yes A(1)/B/G PCI
rt73usb Ralink yes yes yes no yes A(1)/B/G USB
rt2400pci Ralink yes yes yes no yes B PCI
rt2500pci Ralink yes yes yes no yes A(1)/B/G PCI
rt2500usb Ralink yes yes yes no yes A(1)/B/G USB
rt2800pci Ralink yes yes ? ? yes A(1)/B/G/N PCI
rt2800usb Ralink yes ? ? ? yes A(1)/B/G/N USB
rtl8180 Realtek yes no no no ? B/G PCI
rtl8187 Realtek yes no no no yes B/G USB
r8187se Realtek yes no no no ? B/G PCI-E
r8192e_pci Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E
r8712u Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N USB
r8192u_usb Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N USB
vt6655 VIA no ? ? ? ? A/B/G PCI
vt6656 VIA no ? ? ? ? A/B/G USB
winbond Winbond yes ? ? ? ? B USB
wl1251 Texas Instruments yes ? ? ? ? B/G SPI / SDIO
wl1271 Texas Instruments yes yes yes no no A(1)/B/G/N SPI / SDIO
wl3501_cs Z-Com no ? ? ? ? pre802.11 PCMCIA
wlags49_h2 Lucent/Agere no ? ? ? ? B/G PCI/PCMCIA
zd1201 ZyDAS/Atheros no ? ? ? ? B USB
zd1211rw ZyDAS/Atheros yes no yes yes no A(2)/B/G USB

Notes:

  1. 802.11a capabilities depend on the actual radio chip used.
  2. 802.11a devices exist, but currently can't be used with this driver, A/B/G devices will work in B/G mode only.
  3. There is support with a special, out-of-tree driver and special firmware, see http://sf.net/projects/ipw2200-ap.

  4. Slightly different mesh implementation than mac80211's, in firmware.

See also:

Wikipedia wireless drivers Wikipedia wireless drivers capabilities Seattle Wireless Features Comparison

Some drivers were abandoned/deprecated :

Driver

Manufacturer

cfg80211

AP

ad-hoc

mesh

monitor

PHY modes

BUS

arlan

Aironet/Cisco

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

ISA

at76_usb

Atmel

no

no

no

no

no

B

USB

netwave_cs

Netwave/Xircom

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

PCMCIA

otus

ZyDAS/Atheros

no

?

no

no

no

A/B/G/N

USB

prism54

Intersil/Conexant

no

?

?

?

?

A/B/G

PCI / PCMCIA

stlc45xx

ST/Nokia

yes

no

no

no

no

B/G

SPI

wavelan

Lucent

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

ISA / PCMCIA



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