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39 .Nd "Atheros IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver"
41 To compile support for the
43 driver into your kernel, place the following lines in your
44 kernel configuration file:
45 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
48 .Cd "device ath_rate_onoe"
52 Alternatively, to load the
54 driver at boot time, place the following lines in
56 .Bd -literal -offset indent
62 driver provides support for wireless network adapters based on
63 the Atheros AR5210, AR5211, and AR5212 chips.
64 Chip-specific support is provided by the Atheros Hardware Access Layer
65 (HAL), that is packaged separately.
67 Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS,
68 IBSS, and host-based access point operation modes.
69 All host/device interaction is via DMA.
73 driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
74 it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
75 Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable
76 and depends on the specific chipset.
77 AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds
78 of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps.
79 AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit
80 speeds as above for 802.11a operation and
81 1Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation.
82 AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation
83 with transmit speeds appropriate to each.
84 All chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in
85 the 5Ghz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds.
86 Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4Ghz range with 802.11g.
87 (These modes are, however, only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.)
88 The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the
90 algorithm employed by the driver.
91 All chips support WEP encryption.
92 The AR5212 has hardware support for the AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic
93 operations required for WPA.
94 To enable encryption, use
100 driver configures the card for BSS operation (aka infrastructure
102 This mode requires the use of an access point (base station).
106 driver also supports the standard IBSS point-to-point mode
107 where stations can communicate amongst themselves without the
108 aid of an access point.
110 The driver may also be configured to operate in hostap mode.
111 In this mode a host may function as an access point (base station).
112 Access points are different than operating in IBSS mode.
113 They operate in BSS mode.
114 They allow for easier roaming and bridge all Ethernet traffic such
115 that machines connected via an access point appear to be on the local
118 For more information on configuring this device, see
121 Devices supported by the
123 driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages.
124 Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly.
126 The following cards are among those supported by the
130 .Bl -column -compact "Samsung SWL-5200N" "AR5212" "Cardbus" "a/b/g"
131 .It Em "Card Chip Bus Standard"
132 .It "Aztech WL830PC AR5212 CardBus b/g"
133 .It "Cisco AIR-CB21AG AR5115 Cardbus a/b/g"
134 .It "Cisco AIR-PI21AG AR5115 PCI a/b/g"
135 .It "D-Link DWL-A650 AR5210 CardBus a"
136 .It "D-Link DWL-AB650 AR5211 CardBus a/b"
137 .It "D-Link DWL-A520 AR5210 PCI a"
138 .It "D-Link DWL-AG520 AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
139 .It "D-Link DWL-AG650 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
140 .It "D-Link DWL-G520B AR5212 PCI b/g"
141 .It "D-Link DWL-G650B AR5212 CardBus b/g"
142 .It "Elecom LD-WL54AG AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
143 .It "Elecom LD-WL54 AR5211 Cardbus a"
144 .It "Fujitsu E5454 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
145 .It "Fujitsu FMV-JW481 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
146 .It "Fujitsu E5454 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
147 .It "HP NC4000 AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
148 .It "I/O Data WN-AB AR5212 CardBus a/b"
149 .It "I/O Data WN-AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
150 .It "I/O Data WN-A54 AR5212 CardBus a"
151 .It "Linksys WMP55AG AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
152 .It "Linksys WPC51AB AR5211 CardBus a/b"
153 .It "Linksys WPC55AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
154 .It "NEC PA-WL/54AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
155 .It "Netgear WAG311 AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
156 .It "Netgear WAB501 AR5211 CardBus a/b"
157 .It "Netgear WAG511 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
158 .It "Netgear WG311T AR5212 PCI b/g"
159 .It "Netgear WG511T AR5212 CardBus b/g"
160 .It "Orinoco 8480 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
161 .It "Orinoco 8470WD AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
162 .It "Proxim Skyline 4030 AR5210 CardBus a"
163 .It "Proxim Skyline 4032 AR5210 PCI a"
164 .It "Samsung SWL-5200N AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
165 .It "SMC SMC2536W-AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
166 .It "SMC SMC2735W AR5210 CardBus a"
167 .It "Sony PCWA-C700 AR5212 Cardbus a/b"
168 .It "Sony PCWA-C300S AR5212 Cardbus b/g"
169 .It "Sony PCWA-C500 AR5210 Cardbus a"
170 .It "3Com 3CRPAG175 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
173 An up to date list can be found at
174 .Pa http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts .
176 Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
178 .Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00"
180 Join a specific BSS network with network name
183 .Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net"
185 Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
186 .Bd -literal -offset indent
187 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
188 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624
191 Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name
193 .Bd -literal -offset indent
194 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
195 mode 11b mediaopt adhoc
198 Create an 802.11g host-based access point:
199 .Bd -literal -offset indent
200 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
201 mode 11g mediaopt hostap
204 Create an 802.11a host-based access point with WEP enabled:
205 .Bd -literal -offset indent
206 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
207 wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 mode 11a mediaopt hostap
210 Create a host-based wireless bridge to fxp0:
211 .Bd -literal -offset indent
212 Add BRIDGE to the kernel config.
213 ifconfig ath0 inet up ssid my_ap media DS/11Mbps mediaopt hostap
214 sysctl net.link.ether.bridge.enable=1
215 sysctl net.link.ether.bridge.config="ath0 fxp0"
216 sysctl net.inet.ip.check_interface=0
219 This will give you the same functionality as an access point.
222 .It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u"
223 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware
225 The status code is explained in the HAL include file
226 .Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h .
227 .It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d"
228 The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit
229 and receive descriptors.
230 This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented.
231 .It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!"
232 The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal
234 This should not happen.
235 .It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!"
236 The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames
238 This should not happen.
239 .It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s"
240 The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed.
241 .It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting"
242 An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred.
243 Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors.
244 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
245 .It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting"
246 The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be
247 transferred to the host.
248 This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive
249 descriptors and had no place to transfer received data.
250 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
251 .It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u"
252 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware
254 The status code is explained in the HAL include file
255 .Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h .
256 This should not happen.
257 .It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic"
258 The driver was unable to restart frame reception.
259 This should not happen.
260 .It "ath%d: device timeout"
261 A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
262 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
263 This should not happen.
264 .It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x"
265 An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame.
266 The frame is discarded.
267 This should not happen.
268 .It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u Mhz)"
269 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware
270 when switching channels during scanning.
271 This should not happen.
272 .It "ath%d: unable to allocate channel table"
273 The driver was unable to allocate memory for the table used to hold
274 the set of available channels.
275 .It "ath%d: unable to collect channel list from hal"
276 A problem occurred while querying the HAL to find the set of available
277 channels for the device.
278 This should not happen.
279 .It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping"
280 The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers.
281 This should not happen.
282 .It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering"
283 The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA.
284 This should not happen.
285 .It "ath%d: cannot map register space"
286 The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space.
287 This should not happen.
288 .It "ath%d: could not map interrupt"
289 The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt.
290 This should not happen.
291 .It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt"
292 The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler.
293 This should not happen.
309 device driver first appeared in
312 Different regulatory domains have different default channels for adhoc
316 for information on how to change the channel.
319 for information on different regulatory domains.
320 Different regulatory domains may not be able to communicate with each
321 other with 802.11a as different regulatory domains do not necessarily
322 have overlapping channels.
324 Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an
325 Intersil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver.
327 Performance in lossy environments is suboptimal.
328 The algorithm used to select the rate for transmitted packets is
330 There is no software retransmit; only hardware retransmit is used.
331 Contributors are encouraged to replace the existing rate control algorithm
332 with a better one (hint: all the information needed is available to the driver).
334 The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip;
335 consequently power use is suboptimal.
337 The driver honors the regulatory domain programmed into the EEPROM of a
338 device and does not support overriding this setting.
339 This is done to insure compliance with local regulatory agencies when
340 operating as an access point.
341 Unfortunately this also means that devices purchased for use in one locale
342 may not be usable in another.
343 Changes are planned to remove this restriction when operating in station mode.