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.

See also

Linux wireless drivers in Wikipedia

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.

Supported drivers

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	Qualcomm Atheros	yes	yes	yes (6)	yes (6)	yes (6)	A/B/G/N/AC	PCI-E / AHB / SDIO
ath11k	Qualcomm Atheros	yes	yes	no	yes (6)	yes (6)	A/B/G/N/AC/AX	PCI-E / AHB
ath12k	Qualcomm Atheros	yes	yes	no	yes (6)	yes (6)	A/B/G/N/AC/AX/BE	PCI-E
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/AX/BE	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

Notes:

1. 802.11a capabilities depend on the actual radio chip used.

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.

3. There is support with a special, out-of-tree driver and special firmware, see http://sf.net/projects/ipw2200-ap

4. Slightly different mesh implementation than mac80211’s, in firmware.

5. Tested with RT2870/RT3070 driver

6. Only some devices

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