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ATH(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual ATH(4) NAME ath -- Atheros IEEE 802.11 driver SYNOPSIS device ath device ath_hal device wlan DESCRIPTION The ath driver provides support for wireless network adapters based on the Atheros AR5210, AR5211, and AR5212 chips. Chip-specific support is provided by the Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL), that is packaged separately. Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, IBSS, and host-based access point operation modes. All host/de- vice interaction is via DMA. The ath driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable depending on your hardware. AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps. AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit speeds as above for 802.11a operation and 1Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation. AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation with transmit speeds appropri- ate to each. All chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in the 802.11a frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds. (This mode is, however, only interoperable with other Atheros-based de- vices.) The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the ``rate control'' algorithm employed by the driver. All chips support WEP encryption. AR5211 and AR5212 support the AES, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic operations required for WPA but at this time the driver does not support them. To enable encryption, use ifconfig(8) as shown below. By default, the ath driver configures the card for BSS operation (aka infrastructure mode). This mode requires the use of an access point (base station). The ath driver also supports the standard IBSS point-to-point mode where stations can communicate amongst themselves without the aid of an access point. The driver may also be configured to operate in hostap mode. In this mode a host may function as an access point (base station). Access points are different than operating in IBSS mode. They operate in BSS mode. They allow for easier roaming and bridge all ethernet traffic such that machines connected via an access point appear to be on the local ethernet segment. For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8). Devices supported by the ath driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages. Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly. The following cards are among those supported by the ath driver: Card Chip Bus Standard Aztech WL830PC AR5212 CardBus b/g D-Link DWL-A650 AR5210 CardBus a D-Link DWL-AB650 AR5211 CardBus a/b D-Link DWL-A520 AR5210 PCI a D-Link DWL-AG520 AR5212 PCI a/b/g D-Link DWL-AG650 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g D-Link DWL-G520B AR5212 PCI b/g D-Link DWL-G650B AR5212 CardBus b/g Elecom LD-WL54AG AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g Elecom LD-WL54 AR5211 Cardbus a Fujitsu E5454 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g Fujitsu FMV-JW481 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g Fujitsu E5454 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g HP NC4000 AR5212 PCI a/b/g I/O Data WN-AB AR5212 CardBus a/b I/O Data WN-AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g I/O Data WN-A54 AR5212 CardBus a Linksys WMP55AG AR5212 PCI a/b/g Linksys WPC51AB AR5211 CardBus a/b Linksys WPC55AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g NEC PA-WL/54AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g Netgear WAG311 AR5212 PCI a/b/g Netgear WAB501 AR5211 CardBus a/b Netgear WAG511 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g Netgear WG311 AR5212 PCI b/g Netgear WG511T AR5212 PCI b/g Orinoco 8480 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g Orinoco 8470WD AR5212 CardBus a/b/g Proxim Skyline 4030 AR5210 CardBus a Proxim Skyline 4032 AR5210 PCI a Samsung SWL-5200N AR5212 CardBus a/b/g SMC SMC2735W AR5210 CardBus a Sony PCWA-C700 AR5212 Cardbus a/b Sony PCWA-C300S AR5212 Cardbus b/g Sony PCWA-C500 AR5210 Cardbus a 3Com 3CRPAG175 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g An up to date list can be found at http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts. EXAMPLES Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point): ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 Join a specific BSS network with network name "my_net": ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption: ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \ wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624 Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name "my_net": ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \ mode 11b mediaopt adhoc Create an 802.11g host-based access point: ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \ mode 11g mediaopt hostap Create an 802.11a host-based access point with WEP enabled: ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \ wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 mode 11a mediaopt hostap Create a host-based wireless bridge to fxp0: Add BRIDGE to the kernel config. ifconfig ath0 inet up ssid my_ap media DS/11Mbps mediaopt hostap sysctl net.link.ether.bridge.enable=1 sysctl net.link.ether.bridge.config="ath0 fxp0" sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1 This will give you the same functionality as an access point. DIAGNOSTICS ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware as requested. The status code is explained in the HAL include file sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h. ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d The driver was unable to al- locate contiguous memory for the transmit and receive descriptors. This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented. ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue! The request to the HAL to setup the transmit queue for normal data frames failed. This should not happen. ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue! The request to the HAL to setup the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames frames failed. This should not happen. ath%d: 802.11 address: %s The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed. ath%d: hardware error; resetting An unrecoverable error in the hard- ware occurred. Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors. The driver will reset the hardware and continue. ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be transferred to the host. This typ- ically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive descriptors and had no place to transfer received data. The driver will reset the hardware and continue. ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware as requested. The status code is explained in the HAL include file sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h. This should not happen. ath%d: unable to start recv logic The driver was unable to restart frame reception. This should not happen. ath%d: device timeout A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmis- sion did not complete in time. The driver will reset the hardware and continue. This should not hapen. ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame. The frame is discarded. This should not happen. ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u Mhz) The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware when switching channels during scanning. This should not happen. ath%d: unable to allocate channel table The driver was unable to allo- cate memory for the table used to hold the set of available channels. ath%d: unable to collect channel list from hal A problem occurred while querying the HAL to find the set of available channels for the device. This should not happen. ath%d: %s: %dM -> %dM (%d ok, %d err, %d retr) The driver's rate con- trol algorithm changed the current rate for transmitting frames. This message is temporarily enabled for normal use to help in diagnosing and improving the rate control algorithm. The message indicates the new and old transmit rates and the statistics it used to decide on this change. ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers. This should not happen. ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA. This should not happen. ath%d: cannot map register space The driver was unable to map the de- vice registers into the host address space. This should not happen. ath%d: could not map interrupt The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt. This should not happen. ath%d: could not establish interrupt The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler. This should not happen. SEE ALSO an(4), arp(4), ath_hal(4), card(4), netintro(4), pcic(4), wi(4), wlan(4), ifconfig(8), wicontrol(8) HISTORY The ath device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.2. CAVEATS Different regulatory domains have different default channels for adhoc mode. See ifconfig(8) for information on how to change the channel. See wicontrol(8) for information on different regulatory domains. Dif- ferent regulatory domains may not be able to communicate with each other with 802.11a as different regualtory domains do not necessarily have overlapping channels. Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an Inter- sil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver. BUGS Performance in lossy environments is suboptimal. The algorithm used to select the rate for transmitted packets is very simplistic. There is no software retransmit; only hardware retransmit is used. Contributors are encouraged to replace the existing rate control algorithm with a better one (hint: all the information needed is availble to the dri- ver). The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip; con- sequently power use is suboptimal. GNU November 4, 2003 ATH(4)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLES | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | CAVEATS | BUGS
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