[[!meta title="Current state of wifi drivers"]]

We currently have 26 wifi drivers in the source tree. A few of them have already been converted for the wifi renewal branch (see [[Wifi renewal on hg]], [[Converting drivers to the new wifi stack]], and [[tutorials/Converting USB drivers to usbwifi(9)]].).

| Device 		 		| at 			| usbwifi	| converted	| tested	|
|---------------------------------------|-----------------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|
| [an](https://man.NetBSD.org/an.4)	| pci, pcmcia[1], isapnp | -		| no		| no		|
| [ath](https://man.NetBSD.org/ath.4)	| pci[1], cardbus[1]	| -		| no		| no		|
| [athn](https://man.NetBSD.org/athn.4)	| pci[1], cardbus, usb[1]| +/-/?		| no		| no		|
| [atu](https://man.NetBSD.org/atu.4)	| usb[1]		| +		| no		| no		|
| [atw](https://man.NetBSD.org/atw.4)	| pci, cardbus[1]	| -		| no		| no		|
| [awi](https://man.NetBSD.org/awi.4)	| pcmcia		| -		| no		| no		|
| [bwfm](https://man.NetBSD.org/bwfm.4)	| pci, sdmmc[1], usb[1]	| +/-/?		| no		| no		|
| [bwi](https://man.NetBSD.org/bwi.4)	| pci, cardbus[1]	| -		| no		| no		|
| [ipw](https://man.NetBSD.org/ipw.4)	| pci			| -		| yes		| no		|
| [iwi](https://man.NetBSD.org/iwi.4)	| pci			| -		| no		| no		|
| [iwm](https://man.NetBSD.org/iwm.4)	| pci[1]		| -		| yes		| ?		|
| [iwn](https://man.NetBSD.org/iwn.4)	| pci[1]		| -		| yes		| ?		|
| [malo](https://man.NetBSD.org/malo.4)	| pci			| -		| no		| no		|
| [otus](https://man.NetBSD.org/otus.4)	| usb[1]		| +		| no		| no		|
| [ral](https://man.NetBSD.org/ral.4)	| pci, cardbus[1]	| +/-/?		| no		| no		|
| [rtw](https://man.NetBSD.org/rtw.4)	| pci, cardbus[1]	| -		| no		| no		|
| [rtwn](https://man.NetBSD.org/rtwn.4)	| pci[1]		| -		| yes		| yes		|
| [rum](https://man.NetBSD.org/rum.4)	| usb[1]		| +		| no		| no		|
| [run](https://man.NetBSD.org/run.4)	| usb[1]		| +		| no		| no		|
| [upgt](https://man.NetBSD.org/upgt.4)	| usb[1]		| +		| no		| no		|
| [ural](https://man.NetBSD.org/ral.4)	| usb[1]		| +		| no		| no		|
| [urtw](https://man.NetBSD.org/urtw.4)	| usb[1]			| +		| no		| no		|
| [urtwn](https://man.NetBSD.org/urtwn.4) | usb[1]		| +		| yes		| yes		|
| [wi](https://man.NetBSD.org/wi.4)	| pci, pcmcia[1]	| -		| no		| no		|
| [wpi](https://man.NetBSD.org/wpi.4)	| pci			| -		| no		| no		|
| [zyd](https://man.NetBSD.org/zyd.4)	| usb[1]		| +		| no		| no		|

[1] = Martin has hardware in testable condition

usbwifi = + means: the driver will be converted to usbwifi, which is an easy conversion

usbwifi = +/-/? means: at this point it is not clear if the driver (or parts of it) will be able to use usbwifi, the bus frontend vs. backend driver split has to be reviewed to analyze if usbwifi is feaseable/practical and an improvement over manual conversion.

Currently the drivers for urtwn(4) and rtwn(4) are converted, the former using usbwifi (see [[tutorials/Converting USB drivers to usbwifi(9)]]), but it is not clear if there is a unified aproach that lets the usb frontend profit from usbwifi while not stopping the usb and the other frontends from sharing most parts of the driver - this still has to be evaluated.

Other drivers sharing similar chipsets accross different busses including usb have not yet been converted, they are marked with +/-/? in the usbwifi column of above table.

# Looking for hardware

For every chipset without a [1] mark in the table above, I am looking for hardware:

 * if you have spare wifi hardware for PCI, pcmcia or cardbus and would be willing to donate it to a good home, please contact me privately (I am in germany, shipping from within europe and UK should be cheap)

 * if you have a link where to buy a cheap USB or PCIe wifi dongle with known chipset that is not marked [1] in above table, please also contact me privately