Wifibox 0.10 – Enterprise for using Linux WiFi drivers in FreeBSD

Available Issue WIFIBOX 0.10 , aimed at solving the problem using wireless adapters in FreeBSD, for which there are no necessary drivers. The work of problematic adapters for FreeBSD is ensured through the launch of the guest system with Linux, in which natives for Linux drivers of wireless devices are loaded.

Installation of the guest system with drivers is automated, and
All the necessary components are decorated in the form of a finished package wifiBox , which is launched when loaded using the RC service. . Including correctly processes the transition to sleep mode. The environment can potentially be used for any WiFi cards supported in Linux, but is tested mainly on Intel chips. Correct work on systems with Qualcomm Atheros and AMD RZ608 (MediaTek MT7921K) is also checked.

The guest system is launched using the Bhyve hypervisor, in which access to the wireless card is organized. Work requires a system with support for hardware virtualization (AMD-VI or Intel VT-D). The filling of the guest system is based on the distribution of Alpine Linux, built on the basis of the MUSL system library and the Busybox utility set. The size of the image occupies about 30MB on a disk and consumes about 90 MB of RAM.

To connect to a wireless network, a WPA_SUPPLICANT package is used, the configuration files for which are synchronized with the settings from the main environment of FreeBSD. The WPA_SUPPLICANT CREATIONAL Control socket is thrown into a host-reduction, which allows you to use the standard FreeBSD utilities to connect and work with a wireless network, including the utilities WPA_CLI and WPA_GUI (NET/WPA_SUPPLICANT_GUI).

In the new issue, the WPA is processed mechanism in the main environment, which made it possible to provide work as with WPA_SUPPLICANT, and with Hostapd. Reduced the amount of memory necessary for the guest system. Contained support FreeBSD 13.0-Release.

You can additionally note work to improve relatives for FreeBSD drivers for wireless cards on Intel and Realtek chips. With the support of the FreeBSD Foundation organization, the new driver iwlwifi included in FreeBSD 13.1 continues. The driver is based on the Linux drive and code from the NET80211 Linux subsystem, supports the 802.11ac standard and can be used with new Intel wireless chips. The driver is loaded automatically during loading when you find the necessary wireless card. The work of the components of the Linux wireless stack is ensured using the Linuxkpi layer. Previously, the IWM driver was ported in a similar way for FreeBSD.

The development of drivers rtw88 and RTW89

/Media reports.