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

mac80211

AP

ad-hoc

mesh

monitor

PHY modes

BUS

acx1xx

Texas Instruments

yes

?

?

no

?

B

PCI / PCMCIA / USB

adm8211

ADMtek/Infineon

yes

no

no

no

?

B

PCI

airo

Aironet/Cisco

no

?

?

?

?

B

PCI / PCMCIA

agnx

Airgo/Qualcom

yes

?

?

?

?

A/B/G

PCI

ar9170usb

ZyDAS/Atheros

yes

no

yes

no

yes

A1 /B/G/N

USB

arlan

Aironet/Cisco

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

ISA

at76_usb

Atmel

no

no

no

no

no

B

USB

at76c50x-usb

Atmel

yes

no

no

no

no

B

USB

ath5k

Atheros

yes

no

yes

yes

?

A/B/G

PCI / PCI-E

ath9k

Atheros

yes

yes

yes

no

yes

A/B/G/N

PCI / PCI-E / AHB

atmel

Atmel

no

?

?

?

?

B

PCI / PCMCIA

b43

Broadcom

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

B/G2

SSB/PCI/PCI-E/PCMCIA

b43legacy

Broadcom

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

B/G2

PCI/SSB

hostap

Intersil/Conexant

no

?

?

?

?

B

PCI / PCMCIA

ipw2100

Intel

no

no

yes

no

no

B

PCI

ipw2200

Intel

no

yes 3

yes

no

no

A/B/G

PCI

iwl3945

Intel

yes

no

yes

no

no

A/B/G

PCI-E

iwl4965

Intel

yes

no

yes

no

no

A/B/G/N

PCI-E

mac80211_hwsim

Jouni

yes

no

yes

no

no

A/B/G/N

NONE!

mwl8k

Marvell

yes

?

?

?

?

A/B/G/N

PCI

netwave_cs

Netwave/Xircom

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

PCMCIA

libertas

Marvell

yes

no

yes

yes4

no

B/G

USB / PCMCIA / SDIO

libertas_tf

Marvell

yes

yes

no

yes

?

B/G

USB

orinoco

Agere/Intersil/Symbol

-

no

yes

no

yes

B

PCI / PCMCIA

otus

ZyDAS/Atheros

no

?

no

no

no

A/B/G/N

USB

p54pci

Intersil/Conexant

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

A1 /B/G

PCI

p54usb

Intersil/Conexant

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

A1 /B/G

USB

p54spi

Intersil/Conexant

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

A1 /B/G

SPI

poldhu

NWN

no

?

?

?

?

B

PCMCIA

prism2_usb

Intersil/Conexant

no

?

?

?

?

B

USB

rndis_wlan

Broadcom

no

no

yes

no

no

B/G

USB

rt2400pci

Ralink

yes

yes

yes

no

yes

B

PCI

rt2500pci

Ralink

yes

yes

yes

no

yes

A/B/G1

PCI

rt2500usb

Ralink

yes

yes

yes

no

yes

A/B/G1

USB

rt2800pci

Ralink

yes

?

?

?

?

(A/)B/G/N

PCI

rt2800usb

Ralink

yes

?

?

?

?

(A/)B/G/N

USB

rt61pci

Ralink

yes

yes

yes

no

yes

A/B/G1

PCI

rt73usb

Ralink

yes

yes5

yes

no

yes

A/B/G1

USB

ray_cs

Raytheon

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

PCMCIA

rtl8180

Realtek

yes

no

no

no

?

B/G

PCI

rtl8187

Realtek

yes

no

no

no

?

B/G

USB

stlc45xx

ST-Ericsson

yes

no

no

no

no

B/G

SDIO

rndis_wlan

Broadcom

no

?

?

?

?

A/G

USB

wavelan

Lucent

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

ISA

wavelan_cs

Lucent

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

PCMCIA

winbond

Winbond

yes

?

?

?

?

B

USB

wl3501_cs

Z-Com

no

?

?

?

?

pre802.11

PCMCIA

zd1201

ZyDAS/Atheros

no

?

?

?

?

B

USB

zd1211rw

ZyDAS/Atheros

yes

no

no

yes

no

(A)2 B/G

USB

See also: Wikipedia wireless drivers tables

  1. 802.11a capabilities depend on the actual radio chip used (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)

  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 (9 10 11)

  3. requires special driver and firmware (12)

  4. slightly different mesh implementation than mac80211's, in firmware (13)

  5. in development (14)

This is a static dump of the old wiki, taken after locking it in January 2015. The new wiki is at https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/.
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