OTUS(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual OTUS(4)
NAME
otus - Atheros USB IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n wireless network device
SYNOPSIS
otus* at uhub? port ?
DESCRIPTION
The otus driver supports USB 2.0 wireless network devices based on
Atheros Communications AR9001U chipset.
The AR9001U chipset is made of an AR9170 MAC/Baseband and an AR9101
(1T2R), AR9102 (2T2R) or AR9104 (dual-band 2T2R) Radio.
These are the modes the otus driver can operate in:
BSS mode Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when
associating with an access point, through which all
traffic passes. This mode is the default.
monitor mode In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
associating with an access point. This disables the
internal receive filter and enables the card to capture
packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have
access to, or to scan for access points.
The otus driver can be configured to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA1 and WPA2). WPA2 is currently the most
secure encryption standard for wireless networks supported by OpenBSD.
It is strongly recommended that neither WEP nor WPA1 are used as the sole
mechanism to secure wireless communication, due to serious weaknesses.
WPA1 is disabled by default and may be enabled using the option
"wpaprotos wpa1,wpa2". For standard WPA networks which use pre-shared
keys (PSK), keys are configured using the "wpakey" option. WPA-
Enterprise networks require use of the wpa_supplicant package.
"wpaprotos wpa1,wpa2". For standard WPA networks which use pre-shared
keys (PSK), keys are configured using the "wpakey" option. WPA-
Enterprise networks require use of the wpa_supplicant package.
The otus driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot
with hostname.if(5).
FILES
The driver needs at least version 1.0 of the following firmware files,
which are loaded when an interface is attached:
/etc/firmware/otus-init
/etc/firmware/otus-main
Although these firmware files are freely redistributable, their usage is
restricted. A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using
fw_update(8).
HARDWARE
The following adapters should work:
3Com 3CRUSBN275
Arcadyan WN7512
CACE AirPcap Nx
D-Link DWA-130 rev D1
D-Link DWA-160 rev A1
D-Link DWA-160 rev A2
IO-Data WN-GDN/US2
NEC Aterm WL300NU-G
Netgear WNDA3100
Netgear WN111 v2
Planex GW-US300
SMC Networks SMCWUSB-N2
TP-Link TL-WN821N v1, v2
Ubiquiti SR71 USB
Unex DNUA-81
Z-Com UB81
Z-Com UB82
ZyXEL NWD-271N
EXAMPLES
The following example scans for available networks:
# ifconfig otus0 scan
The following hostname.if(5) example configures otus0 to join network
"mynwid", using WPA key "mywpakey", obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
join mynwid wpakey mywpakey
inet autoconf
DIAGNOSTICS
otus0: error N, could not read firmware ... For some reason, the driver
was unable to read the microcode file from the filesystem. The file
might be missing or corrupted.
otus0: 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
arp(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), netintro(4), usb(4), hostname.if(5),
ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The otus driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.6.
AUTHORS
The otus driver was written by Damien Bergamini
<
[email protected]> based on source code licensed under the ISC
released in 2008 by Atheros Communications for Linux.
CAVEATS
The AVM FRITZ!WLAN USB Stick N adapter is currently not supported.
The otus driver does not support any of the 802.11n capabilities offered
by the AR9001U chipset. Additional work is required in ieee80211(9)
before those features can be supported.
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 March 27, 2025 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8