RAL(4)

NAME
ral - Ralink Technology IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver

SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

device ral
device ralfw
device wlan
device wlan_amrr
device firmware

Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):

    if_ral_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
The ral driver supports PCI/CardBus wireless adapters based on the Ralink Technology RT2500, RT2501, and RT2600 chipsets.

The RT2500 chipset is the first generation of 802.11b/g adapters from Ralink. It consists of two integrated chips, a RT2560 MAC/BBP and a RT2525 radio transceiver.

The RT2501 chipset is the second generation of 802.11b/g adapters from Ralink. It consists of two integrated chips, a RT2561 MAC/BBP and a RT2527 radio transceiver. This chipset provides support for the IEEE 802.11e standard with multiple hardware transmission queues and allows scatter/gather for efficient DMA operations.

The RT2600 chipset consists of two integrated chips, a RT2661 MAC/BBP and a RT2529 radio transceiver. This chipset uses the MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology with multiple antennas to extend the operating range of the adapter and to achieve higher throughput. MIMO is the basis of the forthcoming IEEE 802.11n standard.

The transmit speed is user-selectable or can be adapted automatically by the driver depending on the received signal strength and on the number of hardware transmission retries.

ral supports station, adhoc, hostap, mesh, wds, and monitor mode operation. Only one hostap or mesh virtual interface may be configured at a time. Any number of wds virtual interfaces may be configured together with a hostap interface. Multiple station interfaces may be operated together with a hostap interface to construct a wireless repeater device. For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

HARDWARE
The ral driver supports PCI/CardBus wireless adapters based on the Ralink Technology RT2500, RT2501, and RT2600 chipsets, including:

Card | MAC/BBP | Bus
A-Link WL54H | RT2560 | PCI
A-Link WL54PC | RT2560 | CardBus
AirLink101 AWLC5025 | RT2661 | CardBus
AirLink101 AWLH5025 | RT2661 | PCI
Amigo AWI-914W | RT2560 | CardBus
Amigo AWI-922W | RT2560 | mini-PCI
Amigo AWI-926W | RT2560 | PCI
AMIT WL531C | RT2560 | CardBus
AMIT WL531P | RT2560 | PCI
AOpen AOI-831 | RT2560 | PCI
ASUS WL-107G | RT2560 | CardBus
ASUS WL-130g | RT2560 | PCI
Atlantis Land A02-PCI-W54 | RT2560 | PCI
Atlantis Land A02-PCM-W54 | RT2560 | CardBus
Belkin F5D7000 v3 | RT2560 | PCI
Belkin F5D7010 v2 | RT2560 | CardBus
Billionton MIWLGRL | RT2560 | mini-PCI
Canyon CN-WF511 | RT2560 | PCI
Canyon CN-WF513 | RT2560 | CardBus
CC&C WL-2102 | RT2560 | CardBus
CNet CWC-854 | RT2560 | CardBus
CNet CWP-854 | RT2560 | PCI
Compex WL54G | RT2560 | CardBus
Compex WLP54G | RT2560 | PCI
Conceptronic C54RC | RT2560 | CardBus
Conceptronic C54Ri | RT2560 | PCI
Digitus DN-7001G-RA | RT2560 | CardBus
Digitus DN-7006G-RA | RT2560 | PCI
E-Tech WGPC02 | RT2560 | CardBus
E-Tech WGPI02 | RT2560 | PCI
Edimax EW-7108PCg | RT2560 | CardBus
Edimax EW-7128g | RT2560 | PCI
Eminent EM3036 | RT2560 | CardBus
Eminent EM3037 | RT2560 | PCI
Encore ENLWI-G-RLAM | RT2560 | PCI
Encore ENPWI-G-RLAM | RT2560 | CardBus
Fiberline WL-400P | RT2560 | PCI
Fibreline WL-400X | RT2560 | CardBus
Gigabyte GN-WI01GS | RT2561S | mini-PCI
Gigabyte GN-WIKG | RT2560 | mini-PCI
Gigabyte GN-WMKG | RT2560 | CardBus
Gigabyte GN-WP01GS | RT2561S | PCI
Gigabyte GN-WPKG | RT2560 | PCI
Hawking HWC54GR | RT2560 | CardBus
Hawking HWP54GR | RT2560 | PCI
iNexQ CR054g-009 (R03) | RT2560 | PCI
JAHT WN-4054P | RT2560 | CardBus
JAHT WN-4054PCI | RT2560 | PCI
LevelOne WNC-0301 v2 | RT2560 | PCI
LevelOne WPC-0301 v2 | RT2560 | CardBus
Linksys WMP54G v4 | RT2560 | PCI
Micronet SP906GK | RT2560 | PCI
Micronet SP908GK V3 | RT2560 | CardBus
Minitar MN54GCB-R | RT2560 | CardBus
Minitar MN54GPC-R | RT2560 | PCI
MSI CB54G2 | RT2560 | CardBus
MSI MP54G2 | RT2560 | mini-PCI
MSI PC54G2 | RT2560 | PCI
OvisLink EVO-W54PCI | RT2560 | PCI
PheeNet HWL-PCIG/RA | RT2560 | PCI
Pro-Nets CB80211G | RT2560 | CardBus
Pro-Nets PC80211G | RT2560 | PCI
Repotec RP-WB7108 | RT2560 | CardBus
Repotec RP-WP0854 | RT2560 | PCI
SATech SN-54C | RT2560 | CardBus
SATech SN-54P | RT2560 | PCI
Sitecom WL-112 | RT2560 | CardBus
Sitecom WL-115 | RT2560 | PCI
SMC SMCWCB-GM | RT2661 | CardBus
SMC SMCWPCI-GM | RT2661 | PCI
SparkLAN WL-685R | RT2560 | CardBus
Surecom EP-9321-g | RT2560 | PCI
Surecom EP-9321-g1 | RT2560 | PCI
Surecom EP-9428-g | RT2560 | CardBus
Sweex LC500050 | RT2560 | CardBus
Sweex LC700030 | RT2560 | PCI
TekComm NE-9321-g | RT2560 | PCI
TekComm NE-9428-g | RT2560 | CardBus
Unex CR054g-R02 | RT2560 | PCI
Unex MR054g-R02 | RT2560 | CardBus
Zinwell ZWX-G160 | RT2560 | CardBus
Zinwell ZWX-G360 | RT2560 | mini-PCI
Zinwell ZWX-G361 | RT2560 | PCI
Zonet ZEW1500 | RT2560 | CardBus
Zonet ZEW1600 | RT2560 | PCI

An up to date list can be found at http://damien.bergamini.free.fr/ral/list.html.

EXAMPLES
Join an existing BSS network (i.e., connect to an access point):

    ifconfig wlan create wlandev ral0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00

Join a specific BSS network with network name “my_net”:

    ifconfig wlan create wlandev ral0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
        netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net

Join a specific BSS network with 40-bit WEP encryption:

    ifconfig wlan create wlandev ral0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
        netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
        wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 weptxkey 1

Join a specific BSS network with 104-bit WEP encryption:

    ifconfig wlan create wlandev ral0 inet 192.168.0.20 \
        netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \
        wepmode on wepkey 0x01020304050607080910111213 weptxkey 1

DIAGNOSTICS

ral%d: could not load 8051 microcode An error occurred while attempting to upload the microcode to the onboard 8051 microcontroller unit.

ral%d: timeout waiting for MCU to initialize The onboard 8051 microcontroller unit failed to initialize in time.

ral%d: device timeout A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. The driver will reset the hardware. This should not happen.

SEE ALSO
intro(4), cardbus(4), wlan(4), wlan_ccmp(4), wlan_tkip(4), wlan_wep(4), wlan_xauth(4), hostapd(8), ifconfig(8), wpa_supplicant(8). Ralink Technology, http://www.ralinktech.com/.

HISTORY
The ral driver first appeared in OpenBSD 3.7.

AUTHORS
The original ral driver was written by Damien Bergamini <damien@FreeBSD.org>.

BUGS
Host AP mode doesn't support client power save. Clients using power save mode will experience packet loss (disabling power saving on the client will fix this).