Linux Wireless
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.
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 |
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.
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 | — |