ndis_events(8) [freebsd man page]

NDIS_EVENTS(8)						    BSD System Manager's Manual 					    NDIS_EVENTS(8)

NAME

     ndis_events -- relay events from ndis(4) drivers to wpa_supplicant(8)

SYNOPSIS

     ndis_events [-a] [-d] [-v]

DESCRIPTION

     The ndis_events utility listens for events generated by an ndis(4) wireless network driver and relays them to wpa_supplicant(8) for possible
     processing.  The three event types that can occur are media connect and disconnect events, such as when a wireless interface joins or leaves
     a network, and media-specific events.  In particular, ndis(4) drivers that support WPA2 will generate media-specific events containing PMKID
     candidate information which wpa_supplicant(8) needs in order to properly associate with WPA2-capable access points.

     The ndis_events daemon works by listening for interface information events via a routing socket.  When it detects an event that was generated
     by an ndis(4) interface, it transmits it via UDP packet on the loopback interface, where wpa_supplicant(8) is presumably listening.  The
     standard wpa_supplicant(8) distribution includes its own version of this utility for use with Windows(R).	The FreeBSD version performs the
     same functions as the Windows(R) one, except that it uses an ioctl(2) and routing socket interface instead of WMI.

     Note that a single instance of ndis_events is sufficient to scan for events for any number of ndis(4) interfaces in a system.

OPTIONS

     The ndis_events daemon supports the following options:

     -a      Process all events.  By default, ndis_events will only process and forward media-specific events, which contain PMKID candidate
	     information, and not bother forwarding connect and disconnect events, since wpa_supplicant(8) normally can determine the current link
	     state on its own.	In some cases, the additional connect and disconnect events only confuse it and make the association and authenti-
	     cation process take longer.

     -d      Run in debug mode.  This causes ndis_events to run in the foreground and generate any output to the standard error instead of using
	     the syslog(3) facility.

     -v      Run in verbose mode.  This causes ndis_events to emit notifications when it receives events.

SEE ALSO

     ndis(4), wpa_supplicant(8)

HISTORY

     The ndis_events utility first appeared in FreeBSD 6.0.

AUTHORS

     The ndis_events utility was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@windriver.com>.

BSD
								  August 30, 2007							       BSD

NDIS(4) 						   BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual 						   NDIS(4)

NAME

     ndis -- NDIS miniport driver wrapper

SYNOPSIS

     options NDISAPI
     device ndis
     device wlan

DESCRIPTION

     The ndis driver is a wrapper designed to allow binary Windows(R) NDIS miniport network drivers to be used with FreeBSD.  The ndis driver is
     provided in source code form and must be combined with the Windows(R) driver supplied with your network adapter.  The ndis driver uses the
     ndisapi kernel subsystem to relocate and link the Windows(R) binary so that it can be used in conjunction with native code.  The ndisapi sub-
     system provides an interface between the NDIS API and the FreeBSD networking infrastructure.  The Windows(R) driver is essentially fooled
     into thinking it is running on Windows(R).  Note that this means the ndis driver is only useful on x86 machines.

     To build a functional driver, the user must have a copy of the driver distribution media for his or her card.  From this distribution, the
     user must extract two files: the .SYS file containing the driver binary code, and its companion .INF file, which contains the definitions for
     driver-specific registry keys and other installation data such as device identifiers.  These two files can be converted into a kernel module
     file using the ndisgen(8) utility.  This file contains a binary image of the driver plus registry key data.  When the ndis driver loads, it
     will create sysctl(3) nodes for each registry key extracted from the .INF file.

     The ndis driver is designed to support mainly Ethernet and wireless network devices with PCI, PCMCIA and USB bus attachments.  (Cardbus
     devices are also supported as a subset of PCI.)  It can support many different media types and speeds.  One limitation however, is that there
     is no consistent way to learn if an Ethernet device is operating in full or half duplex mode.  The NDIS API allows for a generic means for
     determining link state and speed, but not the duplex setting.  There may be driver-specific registry keys to control the media setting which
     can be configured via the sysctl(8) command.

DIAGNOSTICS

     ndis%d: watchdog timeout  A packet was queued for transmission and a transmit command was issued, however the device failed to acknowledge
     the transmission before a timeout expired.

SEE ALSO

     altq(4), arp(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), ifconfig(8), ndis_events(8), ndiscvt(8), ndisgen(8), wpa_supplicant(8)

     NDIS 5.1 specification, http://www.microsoft.com.

HISTORY

     The ndis device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.3.

AUTHORS

     The ndis driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@windriver.com>.

BSD
								  March 14, 2010							       BSD