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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.

See also:

NOTE: All drivers can of course run in station mode, but only a few drivers support the other available wireless modes! Support of cfg80211 also offers benefits.

Driver Manufacturer cfg80211
 AP
 IBSS
 mesh
 monitor
 PHY modes Buses
adm8211 ADMtek/Infineon yes no no no ? B PCI
airo Aironet/Cisco no ? ? ? ? B PCI / PCMCIA
ar5523 Atheros yes no no no yes A(2)/B/G 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 / USB
ath9k Atheros yes yes yes yes yes A/B/G/N PCI / PCI-E / AHB / PCMCIA
ath9k_htc Atheros yes yes yes yes yes B/G/N USB
ath10k Atheros yes yes yes (6) yes (6) yes (6) A/B/G/N/AC PCI-E / AHB / SDIO
ath11k Atheros yes yes no yes (6) yes (6) A/B/G/N/AC/AX PCI-E / AHB
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
brcmfmac Broadcom yes yes yes no no A(1)/B/G/N/AC USB / SDIO / PCI-E
brcmsmac Broadcom yes yes no no yes A(1)/B/G/N PCI-E / AXI
carl9170 ZyDAS/Atheros yes yes yes yes yes A(1)/B/G/N USB
cw1200 ST-Ericsson yes ? ? ? ? A/B/G/N SPI / SDIO
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
iwlegacy Intel yes no yes no no A/B/G PCI-E
iwlwifi Intel yes yes (6) yes no yes A/B/G/N/AC PCI-E
libertas Marvell no no yes yes (4) no B/G USB / PCMCIA / SDIO / GSPI
libertas_tf Marvell yes yes no yes ? B/G USB
mac80211_hwsim Jouni yes yes yes no yes A/B/G/N NONE!
mt76 Mediatek yes yes yes yes yes A/B/G/N/AC/AX PCIe / SoC / USB / SDIO
mt7601u Mediatek yes ? ? ? ? B/G/N/ USB
mwifiex Marvell yes yes yes ? ? A/B/G/N SDIO / PCI-E / USB
mwl8k Marvell yes yes ? ? yes A/B/G/N PCI
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
** prism2_usb Intersil/Conexant yes ? ? ? ? B USB
qtnfmac Quantenna yes yes no no no A/B/G/N/AC PCI-E
** r8192e_pci Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E
** r8192u_usb Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N USB
** r8712u Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N 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 yes yes(5) yes A(1)/B/G/N USB
rtl8xxxu Realtek yes ? ? ? ? A(1)/B/G/N USB
rtl8180 Realtek yes no no no ? B/G PCI
rtl8187 Realtek yes no yes no yes B/G USB
rtl8188ee Realtek yes ? ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E
rtl8192ce Realtek yes ? ? ? yes B/G/N PCI-E
rtl8192cu Realtek yes yes ? ? yes B/G/N USB
rtl8192de Realtek yes ? ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E
rtl8192se Realtek yes yes ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E
rtl8723ae Realtek yes ? ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E
rtl8723bs Realtek ? ? ? no no B/G/N SDIO
** r8723au Realtek yes ? ? ? ? B/G/N USB
** vt6655 VIA yes yes yes no no A/B/G PCI
** vt6656 VIA yes yes yes no no A/B/G USB
wcn36xx Qualcomm Atheros yes yes yes yes yes A/B/G/N
wfx Silicon Laboratories yes yes no no no A/B/G/N SPI / SDIO
wil6210 Atheros yes yes no no yes AD PCI-E
** winbond Winbond yes ? ? ? ? B USB
** wilc Microchip yes yes no no no A/B/G/N SPI / SDIO
wl1251 Texas Instruments yes no yes ? yes B/G SPI / SDIO
wl12xx Texas Instruments yes yes yes no no A(1)/B/G/N SPI / SDIO
wl18xx Texas Instruments yes yes yes ? ? A/B/G/N 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 yes yes yes yes A(2)/B/G USB

Note: ** staging drivers

Out of the tree drivers(Unsupported)

Driver Manufacturer cfg80211
 AP
 IBSS
 mesh
 monitor
 PHY modes Buses
acx1xx Texas Instruments yes ? ? no ? B PCI / PCMCIA / USB
agnx Airgo/Qualcom yes ? ? ? ? A/B/G PCI
ar6k Atheros ? ? ? ? ? B/G ?
poldhu NWN no ? ? ? ? B PCMCIA
RT2880 iNIC Ralink ? ? ? ? ? ? PCI

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.
  5. Tested with RT2870/RT3070 driver
  6. Only some devices

Abandoned/Deprecated Drivers(Unsupported)

Driver Manufacturer cfg80211 AP ad-hoc mesh monitor PHY modes BUS Replaced by
ar9170usb ZyDAS/Atheros yes no yes no yes A(1)/B/G/N USB carl9170
arlan Aironet/Cisco no ? ? ? ? pre802.11 ISA -
at76_usb Atmel no no no no no B USB at76c50x-usb
netwave_cs Netwave/Xircom no ? ? ? ? pre802.11 PCMCIA -
otus ZyDAS/Atheros no ? no no no A/B/G/N USB carl9170
prism54 Intersil/Conexant no ? ? ? ? A/B/G PCI / PCMCIA p54pci
stlc45xx ST/Nokia yes no no no no B/G SPI p54spi
wavelan Lucent no ? ? ? ? pre802.11 ISA / PCMCIA -
en/users/drivers.txt · Last modified: 2022/06/22 15:14 by Jérôme Pouiller

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