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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_sample"
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 programming api's.
64 These api's are used by a wide variety of chips; all chips with
65 a PCI and/or CardBus interface are supported.
66 Chip-specific support is provided by the Atheros Hardware Access Layer
67 (HAL), that is packaged separately.
69 Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS,
70 IBSS, and host-based access point operation modes.
71 All host/device interaction is via DMA.
75 driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
76 it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
77 Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable
78 and depends on the specific chipset.
79 AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds
80 of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps.
81 AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit
82 speeds as above for 802.11a operation and
83 1Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation.
84 AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation
85 with transmit speeds appropriate to each.
86 Most chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in
87 the 5Ghz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds.
88 Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4Ghz range with 802.11g
89 though this support is not presently available due to regulatory requirements.
90 (Note that Turbo modes are, however,
91 only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.)
92 The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the
94 algorithm employed by the driver.
95 All chips support WEP encryption.
96 The AR5212 has hardware support for the AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic
97 operations required for WPA.
98 To enable encryption, use
104 driver configures the card for BSS operation (aka infrastructure
106 This mode requires the use of an access point (base station).
110 driver also supports the standard IBSS point-to-point mode
111 where stations can communicate amongst themselves without the
112 aid of an access point.
114 The driver may also be configured to operate in hostap mode.
115 In this mode a host may function as an access point (base station).
116 Access points are different than operating in IBSS mode.
117 They operate in BSS mode.
118 They allow for easier roaming and bridge all Ethernet traffic such
119 that machines connected via an access point appear to be on the local
122 For more information on configuring this device, see
125 Devices supported by the
127 driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages.
128 Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly.
130 The following cards are among those supported by the
134 .Bl -column -compact "Samsung SWL-5200N" "AR5212" "Cardbus" "a/b/g"
135 .It Em "Card Chip Bus Standard"
136 .It "Aztech WL830PC AR5212 CardBus b/g"
137 .It "Cisco AIR-CB21AG AR5115 Cardbus a/b/g"
138 .It "Cisco AIR-PI21AG AR5115 PCI a/b/g"
139 .It "D-Link DWL-A650 AR5210 CardBus a"
140 .It "D-Link DWL-AB650 AR5211 CardBus a/b"
141 .It "D-Link DWL-A520 AR5210 PCI a"
142 .It "D-Link DWL-AG520 AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
143 .It "D-Link DWL-AG650 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
144 .It "D-Link DWL-G520B AR5212 PCI b/g"
145 .It "D-Link DWL-G650B AR5212 CardBus b/g"
146 .It "Elecom LD-WL54AG AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
147 .It "Elecom LD-WL54 AR5211 Cardbus a"
148 .It "Fujitsu E5454 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
149 .It "Fujitsu FMV-JW481 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
150 .It "Fujitsu E5454 AR5212 Cardbus a/b/g"
151 .It "HP NC4000 AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
152 .It "I/O Data WN-AB AR5212 CardBus a/b"
153 .It "I/O Data WN-AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
154 .It "I/O Data WN-A54 AR5212 CardBus a"
155 .It "Linksys WMP55AG AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
156 .It "Linksys WPC51AB AR5211 CardBus a/b"
157 .It "Linksys WPC55AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
158 .It "NEC PA-WL/54AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
159 .It "Netgear WAG311 AR5212 PCI a/b/g"
160 .It "Netgear WAB501 AR5211 CardBus a/b"
161 .It "Netgear WAG511 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
162 .It "Netgear WG311T AR5212 PCI b/g"
163 .It "Netgear WG511T AR5212 CardBus b/g"
164 .It "Orinoco 8480 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
165 .It "Orinoco 8470WD AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
166 .It "Proxim Skyline 4030 AR5210 CardBus a"
167 .It "Proxim Skyline 4032 AR5210 PCI a"
168 .It "Samsung SWL-5200N AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
169 .It "SMC SMC2536W-AG AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
170 .It "SMC SMC2735W AR5210 CardBus a"
171 .It "Sony PCWA-C700 AR5212 Cardbus a/b"
172 .It "Sony PCWA-C300S AR5212 Cardbus b/g"
173 .It "Sony PCWA-C500 AR5210 Cardbus a"
174 .It "3Com 3CRPAG175 AR5212 CardBus a/b/g"
177 An up to date list can be found at
178 .Pa http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts .
180 Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
182 .Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00"
184 Join a specific BSS network with network name
187 .Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net"
189 Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
190 .Bd -literal -offset indent
191 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
192 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624
195 Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name
197 .Bd -literal -offset indent
198 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
199 mode 11b mediaopt adhoc
202 Create an 802.11g host-based access point:
203 .Bd -literal -offset indent
204 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
205 mode 11g mediaopt hostap
208 Create an 802.11a host-based access point with WEP enabled:
209 .Bd -literal -offset indent
210 ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
211 wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 mode 11a mediaopt hostap
214 Create a host-based wireless bridge to fxp0:
215 .Bd -literal -offset indent
216 ifconfig ath0 inet up ssid my_ap media DS/11Mbps mediaopt hostap
217 sysctl net.inet.ip.check_interface=0
219 ifconfig bridge0 create
220 ifconfig bridge0 addm ath0 addm fxp0
223 This will give you the same functionality as an access point.
226 .It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u"
227 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware
229 The status code is explained in the HAL include file
230 .Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h .
231 .It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d"
232 The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit
233 and receive descriptors.
234 This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented.
235 .It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!"
236 The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal
238 This should not happen.
239 .It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!"
240 The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames
242 This should not happen.
243 .It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s"
244 The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed.
245 .It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting"
246 An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred.
247 Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors.
248 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
249 .It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting"
250 The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be
251 transferred to the host.
252 This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive
253 descriptors and had no place to transfer received data.
254 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
255 .It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u"
256 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware
258 The status code is explained in the HAL include file
259 .Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h .
260 This should not happen.
261 .It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic"
262 The driver was unable to restart frame reception.
263 This should not happen.
264 .It "ath%d: device timeout"
265 A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
266 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
267 This should not happen.
268 .It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x"
269 An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame.
270 The frame is discarded.
271 This should not happen.
272 .It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u Mhz)"
273 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware
274 when switching channels during scanning.
275 This should not happen.
276 .It "ath%d: unable to allocate channel table"
277 The driver was unable to allocate memory for the table used to hold
278 the set of available channels.
279 .It "ath%d: unable to collect channel list from hal"
280 A problem occurred while querying the HAL to find the set of available
281 channels for the device.
282 This should not happen.
283 .It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping"
284 The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers.
285 This should not happen.
286 .It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering"
287 The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA.
288 This should not happen.
289 .It "ath%d: cannot map register space"
290 The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space.
291 This should not happen.
292 .It "ath%d: could not map interrupt"
293 The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt.
294 This should not happen.
295 .It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt"
296 The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler.
297 This should not happen.
313 device driver first appeared in
316 Different regulatory domains have different default channels for adhoc
320 for information on how to change the channel.
323 for information on different regulatory domains.
324 Different regulatory domains may not be able to communicate with each
325 other with 802.11a as different regulatory domains do not necessarily
326 have overlapping channels.
328 Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an
329 Intersil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver.
331 There is no software retransmit; only hardware retransmit is used.
333 The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip;
334 consequently power use is suboptimal.
336 The driver honors the regulatory domain programmed into the EEPROM of a
337 device and does not support overriding this setting.
338 This is done to insure compliance with local regulatory agencies when
339 operating as an access point.
340 Unfortunately this also means that devices purchased for use in one locale
341 may not be usable in another.
342 Changes are planned to remove this restriction when operating in station mode.
344 WPA is not supported for 5210 parts.
346 Atheros' SuperG functionality is not supported.