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.

Driver

Station

AP

Ad-hoc

Adv. monitor FootNote(monitor all frames during regular operation; wireless-dev development kernel only)

A/B/G

["en/users/Drivers/acx1xx" acx1xx]

?

?

?

?

?

["en/users/Drivers/adm8211" adm8211 (ADMtek devices)]

yes

no

no

?

B

["en/users/Drivers/bcm43xx" bcm43xx (Broadcom chips)]

yes

yesFootNote(wireless-dev development kernel only)

yesFootNote(wireless-dev development kernel only)

yes

B/GFootNote(802.11a devices exist, but currently can't be used with this driver, A/B/G devices will work in B/G mode only)

[http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net/ Intel ipw2100]

yes

no

yes

no

B

[http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/ Intel ipw2200]

yes

[http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipw2200-ap yes]

yes

no

A/B/G

[http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi Intel ipw3945]

yes

?

?

?

A/B/G

["en/users/Drivers/p54" p54 (Intersil chips)]

yes

no

no

?

B/GFootNote(A/B/G devices not supported yet)

["en/users/Drivers/rt61pci" rt61pci]

yes

?

?

?

A/B/GFootNote(802.11a capabilities depend on the actual radio chip used)

["en/users/Drivers/rt73usb" rt73usb]

yes

?

?

?

B/G

["en/users/Drivers/rtl8187" rtl8187]

yes

no

no

?

B/G

["en/users/Drivers/zd1211rw" zd1211rw (ZyDAS ZD1211/ZD1211B chips)]

yes

no

no

?

B/GFootNote(A/B/G devices not supported yet)

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