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

adm8211 ADMtek/Infineon yes no no no ? B PCI

airo Aironet/Cisco no ? ? ? ? B PCI / PCMCIA

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

*brcmsmac Broadcom yes no no no no A(1)/B/G/N PCI/AXI

*brcmfmac Broadcom yes no no no no A(1)/B/G/N SDIO

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

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!

mwl8k Marvell yes yes ? ? yes A/B/G/N PCI

mwifiex Marvell ? ? ? ? yes A/B/G/N SDIO

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 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

r8192ce Realtek yes ? ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E

r8192cu Realtek yes ? ? ? ? B/G/N USB

*r8192e_pci Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N PCI-E

*r8192u_usb Realtek no ? ? ? ? B/G/N USB

*r8712u 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 no yes ? 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 yes yes yes yes A(2)/B/G USB

Note: * staging drivers

Out of the tree drivers(Unsupported)

Notes:

802.11a capabilities depend on the actual radio chip used.
802.11a devices exist, but currently can't be used with this driver, A/B/G devices will work in B/G mode only.
There is support with a special, out-of-tree driver and special firmware, see http://sf.net/projects/ipw2200-ap.
Slightly different mesh implementation than mac80211's, in firmware.