RUM(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual RUM(4)
NAME
rum - Ralink Technology/MediaTek USB IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network
device
SYNOPSIS
rum* at uhub? port ?
DESCRIPTION
The rum driver supports USB 2.0 and PCI Express Mini Card wireless
adapters based on the Ralink RT2501USB and RT2601USB chipsets.
Ralink PCI Express Mini Card adapters show up as normal USB 2.0 devices
and are thus handled by the rum driver.
The RT2501USB chipset is the second generation of 802.11a/b/g adapters
from Ralink. It consists of two integrated chips, an RT2571W MAC/BBP and
an RT2528 or RT5226 radio transceiver.
The RT2601USB chipset consists of two integrated chips, an RT2671 MAC/BBP
and an RT2527 or RT5225 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.
These are the modes the rum 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.
IBSS mode Also known as IEEE ad-hoc mode or peer-to-peer mode. This
is the standardized method of operating without an access
point. Stations associate with a service set. However,
actual connections between stations are peer-to-peer.
Host AP In this mode the driver acts as an access point (base
station) for other cards.
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 rum 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. The rum
driver relies on the software 802.11 stack for both encryption and
decryption of data frames.
The rum driver can be configured at runtime with ifconfig(8) or on boot
with hostname.if(5).
FILES
The following firmware file is loaded when an interface is brought up:
/etc/firmware/rum-rt2573
HARDWARE
The following adapters should work:
3Com Aolynk WUB320g
Abocom WUG2700
Airlink101 AWLL5025
ASUS WL-167g ver 2
Atlantis Land A02-UP1-W54
Belkin F5D7050 ver 3
Belkin F5D9050 ver 3
Belkin F5D9050C
Buffalo WLI-U2-SG54HG
Buffalo WLI-U2-SG54HP
Buffalo WLI-U2-G54HP
CNet CWD-854 ver F
Conceptronic C54RU ver 2
Corega CG-WLUSB2GL
Corega CG-WLUSB2GO
Corega CG-WLUSB2GPX
D-Link DWA-110
D-Link DWA-111
D-Link DWL-G122 rev C1
D-Link WUA-1340
Digitus DN-7003GR
Edimax EW-7318Ug
Edimax EW-7318USg
Edimax EW-7618Ug
Gigabyte GN-WB01GS
Gigabyte GN-WI05GS
Hawking HWUG1
Hawking HWU54DM
Hercules HWGUSB2-54-LB
Hercules HWGUSB2-54V2-AP
LevelOne WNC-0301USB v3
Linksys WUSB200
Linksys WUSB54G rev C
Linksys WUSB54GR
Planex GW-US54HP
Planex GW-US54Mini2
Planex GW-USMM
Senao NUB-3701
Sitecom WL-113 ver 2
Sitecom WL-172
Sweex LW053
TP-LINK TL-WN321G
EXAMPLES
The following example scans for available networks:
# ifconfig rum0 scan
The following hostname.if(5) example configures rum0 to join network
"mynwid", using WPA key "mywpakey", obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
nwid mynwid wpakey mywpakey
inet autoconf
The following hostname.if(5) example creates a host-based access point on
boot:
mediaopt hostap
nwid mynwid wpakey mywpakey
inet 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
DIAGNOSTICS
rum0: 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.
rum0: could not load 8051 microcode An error occurred while attempting
to upload the microcode to the onboard 8051 microcontroller unit.
rum0: 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),
hostapd(8), ifconfig(8)
HISTORY
The rum driver first appeared in OpenBSD 4.0.
AUTHORS
The rum driver was written by Niall O'Higgins <
[email protected]> and
Damien Bergamini <
[email protected]>.
CAVEATS
The rum driver supports automatic control of the transmit speed in BSS
mode only. Therefore the use of a rum adapter in Host AP mode is
discouraged.
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 March 27, 2025 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8