Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 802.11b Driver for Linux
README.ipw2100

October 13, 2004


Release 0.56 Current Features
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- IBSS and BSS modes
- 802.11 fragmentation
- WEP (shared key and open)
- wireless extension support 
- 802.1x EAP via xsupplicant
- Monitor/RFMon mode
- transmit power control
- long/short preamble support
- power states support (ACPI)

TODO
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- Fix bugs...  The biggies:
  C3 corruption
  Fragmentation


Command Line Parameters
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If the driver is built as a module, the following optional parameters are used
by entering them on the command line with the modprobe command using this
syntax:

	modprobe ipw2100 [<option>=<VAL1><,VAL2>...]

For example, to set the interface name for driver, entering:

	modprobe ipw2100 if_name=wlan%d

results in the ipw2100 driver defaulting to the wlan prefix, with the system
assigning a unique number in place of %d.  The default interface name is eth%d.

The ipw2100 driver supports the following module parameters:

Name		Value		Example:
debug		0x0-0xffffffff	debug=1024
if_name		string		if_name=wlan%d
mode		0,1,2		mode=1   /* AdHoc */
channel		int		channel=3 /* Only valid in AdHoc or Monitor */
associate	boolean		associate=0 /* Do NOT auto associate */
disable		boolean		disable=1 /* Do not power the HW */


Radio Kill Switch
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Most laptops provide the ability for the user to physically disable the radio.
Some vendors have implemented this as a physical switch that requires no
software to turn the radio off and on.  On other laptops, however, the switch
is controlled through a button being pressed and a software driver then making
calls to turn the radio off and on.  This is referred to as a "software based
RF kill switch"

To determine if you have such a switch, you can check the contents of:

	/sys/bus/pci/drivers/ipw2100/*/rf_kill

A value of:
	
	Radio is {en,dis}abled by RF switch

means that you have an RF switch and the radio is in the state 
described.

A value of:

	Your hardware does not have an RF switch

is self explanatory.  In this case you should not need to worry about 
enabling the radio.


Dynamic Firmware
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As the firmware is licensed under a restricted use license, it can not be 
included within the kernel sources.  To enable the IPW2100 you will need a 
firmware image to load into the wireless NIC's processors.

You can obtain these images from <http://ipw2100.sf.net/firmware.php>.

See INSTALL for instructions on installing the firmware.


Power Management
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The IPW2100 supports the configuration of the Power Save Protocol 
through a private wireless extension interface.  The IPW2100 supports 
the following different modes:

	off	No power management.  Radio is always on.
	on	Automatic power management
	1-5	Different levels of power management.  The higher the 
		number the greater the power savings, but with an impact to 
		packet latencies. 

Power management works by powering down the radio after a certain 
interval of time has passed where no packets are passed through the 
radio.  Once powered down, the radio remains in that state for a given 
period of time.  For higher power savings, the interval between last 
packet processed to sleep is shorter and the sleep period is longer.

When the radio is asleep, the access point sending data to the station 
must buffer packets at the AP until the station wakes up and requests 
any buffered packets.  If you have an AP that does not correctly support 
the PSP protocol you may experience packet loss or very poor performance 
while power management is enabled.  If this is the case, you will need 
to try and find a firmware update for your AP, or disable power 
management (via `iwconfig eth1 power off`)

To configure the power level on the IPW2100 you use a combination of 
iwconfig and iwpriv.  iwconfig is used to turn power management on, off, 
and set it to auto.

	iwconfig eth1 power off    Disables radio power down
	iwconfig eth1 power on     Enables radio power management to 
				   last set level (defaults to AUTO)
	iwpriv eth1 set_power 0    Sets power level to AUTO and enables 
				   power management if not previously 
				   enabled.
	iwpriv eth1 set_power 1-5  Set the power level as specified, 
				   enabling power management if not 
				   previously enabled.

You can view the current power level setting via:
	
	iwpriv eth1 get_power

It will return the current period or timeout that is configured as a string
in the form of xxxx/yyyy (z) where xxxx is the timeout interval (amount of
time after packet processing), yyyy is the period to sleep (amount of time to 
wait before powering the radio and querying the access point for buffered
packets), and z is the 'power level'.  If power management is turned off the
xxxx/yyyy will be replaced with 'off' -- the level reported will be the active
level if `iwconfig eth1 power on` is invoked.


Support
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For general information and support, go to:
	
    http://ipw2100.sf.net/

License
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  Copyright(c) 2003 - 2004 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it 
  under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free 
  Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) 
  any later version.
  
  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT 
  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 
  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for 
  more details.
  
  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
  this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 
  Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
  
  The full GNU General Public License is included in this distribution in the
  file called LICENSE.
  
  Contact Information:
  James P. Ketrenos <ipw2100-admin@linux.intel.com>
  Intel Corporation, 5200 N.E. Elam Young Parkway, Hillsboro, OR 97124-6497