1.\"- 2.\" Copyright (c) 2002-2009 Sam Leffler, Errno Consulting 3.\" All rights reserved. 4.\"" 5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 7.\" are met: 8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 9.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer, 10.\" without modification. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce at minimum a disclaimer 12.\" similar to the "NO WARRANTY" disclaimer below ("Disclaimer") and any 13.\" redistribution must be conditioned upon including a substantially 14.\" similar Disclaimer requirement for further binary redistribution. 15.\" 16.\" NO WARRANTY 17.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS 18.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT 19.\" LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTIBILITY 20.\" AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL 21.\" THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, 22.\" OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF 23.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS 24.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER 25.\" IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) 26.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF 27.\" THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 28.\" 29.\" $FreeBSD$ 30.\"/ 31.Dd April 14, 2014 32.Dt ATH 4 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm ath 36.Nd "Atheros IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver" 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38To compile this driver into the kernel, 39place the following lines in your 40kernel configuration file: 41.Bd -ragged -offset indent 42.Cd "device ath" 43.Cd "device ath_pci" 44.Cd "device ath_hal" 45.Cd "options AH_SUPPORT_AR5416" 46.Cd "device ath_rate_sample" 47.Cd "device wlan" 48.Ed 49.Pp 50Alternatively, to load the driver as a 51module at boot time, place the following line in 52.Xr loader.conf 5 : 53.Bd -literal -offset indent 54if_ath_load="YES" 55if_ath_pci_load="YES" 56.Ed 57.Sh DESCRIPTION 58The 59.Nm 60driver provides support for wireless network adapters based on 61the Atheros AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416 and AR9300 programming APIs. 62These APIs are used by a wide variety of chips; most all chips with 63a PCI and/or CardBus interface are supported. 64.Pp 65Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, 66IBSS, MBSS, TDMA, and host-based access point operation modes. 67All host/device interaction is via DMA. 68.Pp 69Please note that from FreeBSD-9.0, the 70.Nm 71driver does not include the PCI/PCIe bus glue. 72The same driver supports multiple underlying bus types, including PCI/PCIe, 73but also embedded (AHB) and USB in the future. 74.Pp 75To enable use for PCI/PCIe systems, see the 76.Xr ath_pci 4 77driver. 78For embedded systems which use the AHB to connect the wireless MAC, see the 79.Xr ath_ahb 4 80driver. 81.Pp 82The 83.Nm 84driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however 85it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. 86Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable 87and depends on the specific chipset. 88AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds 89of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps. 90AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit 91speeds as above for 802.11a operation and 921Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation. 93AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation 94with transmit speeds appropriate to each. 95AR5416 and later class devices are capable of 802.11n operation. 96Most chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in 97the 5GHz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds. 98Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4GHz range with 802.11g 99though this support is not presently available due to regulatory requirements. 100(Note that Turbo modes are, however, 101only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.) 102AR5212-based and AR5416-based devices also support half- (10MHz) and quarter-width (5MHz) channels. 103The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the 104.Dq "rate control" 105algorithm employed by the driver. 106All chips support WEP encryption. 107AR5212, AR5416 and later parts have hardware support for the 108AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic 109operations required for WPA. 110To enable encryption, use 111.Xr ifconfig 8 112as shown below. 113.Pp 114The driver supports 115.Cm station , 116.Cm adhoc , 117.Cm adhoc-demo , 118.Cm hostap , 119.Cm mesh , 120.Cm wds , 121and 122.Cm monitor 123mode operation. 124Multiple 125.Cm hostap 126virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous 127use on cards that use a 5212 or later part. 128When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate 129mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac 130address assigned to the underlying device. 131Any number of 132.Cm wds 133virtual interfaces may be configured together with 134.Cm hostap 135interfaces. 136Multiple 137.Cm station 138interfaces may be operated together with 139.Cm hostap 140interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device. 141The driver also support 142.Cm tdma 143operation when compiled with 144.Cd "options IEEE80211_SUPPORT_TDMA" 145(which also enables the required 802.11 support). 146For more information on configuring this device, see 147.Xr ifconfig 8 . 148.Pp 149Devices supported by the 150.Nm 151driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages. 152Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly. 153.Sh HARDWARE 154The 155.Nm 156driver supports all Atheros Cardbus and PCI cards, 157except those that are based on the AR5005VL chipset. 158.Sh EXAMPLES 159Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption: 160.Bd -literal -offset indent 161ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 162ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 163 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624 164.Ed 165.Pp 166Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name 167.Dq Li my_net : 168.Bd -literal -offset indent 169ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode adhoc 170ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 171 mode 11b 172.Ed 173.Pp 174Create an 802.11g host-based access point: 175.Bd -literal -offset indent 176ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap 177ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e 178 mode 11g 179.Ed 180.Pp 181Create an 802.11a mesh station: 182.Bd -literal -offset indent 183ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode mesh 184ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24 185.Ed 186.Pp 187Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with 188WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to 189the fxp0 (wired) device: 190.Bd -literal -offset indent 191ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap \e 192 ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e 193 mode 11a up 194ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e 195 ssid freeloaders up 196ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up 197.Ed 198.Pp 199Create a master node in a two slot TDMA BSS configured to use 2002.5 millisecond slots. 201.Bd -literal -offset indent 202ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode tdma \e 203 ssid tdma-test tmdaslot 0 tdmaslotlen 2500 \e 204 channel 36 up 205.Ed 206.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 207.Bl -diag 208.It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u" 209The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware 210as requested. 211The status code is explained in the HAL include file 212.Pa sys/dev/ath/ath_hal/ah.h . 213.It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d" 214The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit 215and receive descriptors. 216This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented. 217.It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!" 218The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal 219data frames failed. 220This should not happen. 221.It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!" 222The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames 223failed. 224This should not happen. 225.It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s" 226The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed. 227.It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting" 228An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred. 229Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors. 230The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 231.It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting" 232The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be 233transferred to the host. 234This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive 235descriptors and had no place to transfer received data. 236The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 237.It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u" 238The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 239as requested. 240The status code is explained in the HAL include file 241.Pa sys/dev/ath/ath_hal/ah.h . 242This should not happen. 243.It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic" 244The driver was unable to restart frame reception. 245This should not happen. 246.It "ath%d: device timeout" 247A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. 248The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 249This should not happen. 250.It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x" 251An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame. 252The frame is discarded. 253This should not happen. 254.It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u MHz)" 255The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 256when switching channels during scanning. 257This should not happen. 258.It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping" 259The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers. 260This should not happen. 261.It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering" 262The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA. 263This should not happen. 264.It "ath%d: cannot map register space" 265The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space. 266This should not happen. 267.It "ath%d: could not map interrupt" 268The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt. 269This should not happen. 270.It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt" 271The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler. 272This should not happen. 273.El 274.Sh SEE ALSO 275.Xr ath_hal 4 , 276.Xr cardbus 4 , 277.Xr intro 4 , 278.Xr pcic 4 , 279.Xr wlan 4 , 280.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 , 281.Xr wlan_tkip 4 , 282.Xr wlan_wep 4 , 283.Xr wlan_xauth 4 , 284.Xr hostapd 8 , 285.Xr ifconfig 8 , 286.Xr wpa_supplicant 8 287.Sh HISTORY 288The 289.Nm 290device driver first appeared in 291.Fx 5.2 . 292.Sh CAVEATS 293Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an 294Intersil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver. 295.Sh BUGS 296The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip 297in station mode; consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop). 298.Pp 299The AR5210 can only do WEP in hardware; consequently hardware assisted WEP 300is disabled in order to allow software implementations of TKIP and CCMP to 301function. 302Hardware WEP can be re-enabled by modifying the driver. 303