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 March 25, 2009 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_hal" 44.Cd "options AH_SUPPORT_AR5416" 45.Cd "device ath_rate_sample" 46.Cd "device wlan" 47.Ed 48.Pp 49Alternatively, to load the driver as a 50module at boot time, place the following line in 51.Xr loader.conf 5 : 52.Bd -literal -offset indent 53if_ath_load="YES" 54.Ed 55.Sh DESCRIPTION 56The 57.Nm 58driver provides support for wireless network adapters based on 59the Atheros AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, and AR5416 programming APIs. 60These APIs are used by a wide variety of chips; most all chips with 61a PCI and/or CardBus interface are supported. 62.Pp 63Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, 64IBSS, TDMA, and host-based access point operation modes. 65All host/device interaction is via DMA. 66.Pp 67The 68.Nm 69driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however 70it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. 71Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable 72and depends on the specific chipset. 73AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds 74of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps. 75AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit 76speeds as above for 802.11a operation and 771Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation. 78AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation 79with transmit speeds appropriate to each. 80AR5416-class devices are capable of 802.11n operation 81but are supported only in legacy modes (802.11a, 11b, 11g). 82Most chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in 83the 5Ghz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds. 84Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4Ghz range with 802.11g 85though this support is not presently available due to regulatory requirements. 86(Note that Turbo modes are, however, 87only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.) 88AR5212-based devices also support half- (10MHz) and quarter-width (5MHz) channels. 89The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the 90.Dq "rate control" 91algorithm employed by the driver. 92All chips support WEP encryption. 93AR5212 and AR5416 parts have hardware support for the 94AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic 95operations required for WPA. 96To enable encryption, use 97.Xr ifconfig 8 98as shown below. 99.Pp 100The driver supports 101.Cm station , 102.Cm adhoc , 103.Cm adhoc-demo , 104.Cm hostap , 105.Cm wds , 106and 107.Cm monitor 108mode operation. 109Multiple 110.Cm hostap 111virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous 112use on cards that use a 5212 part. 113When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate 114mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac 115address assigned to the underlying device. 116Any number of 117.Cm wds 118virtual interfaces may be configured together with 119.Cm hostap 120interfaces. 121Multiple 122.Cm station 123interfaces may be operated together with 124.Cm hostap 125interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device. 126The driver also support 127.Cm tdma 128operation when compiled with 129.Cd "options IEEE80211_SUPPORT_TDMA" 130(which also enables the required 802.11 support). 131For more information on configuring this device, see 132.Xr ifconfig 8 . 133.Pp 134Devices supported by the 135.Nm 136driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages. 137Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly. 138.Sh HARDWARE 139The 140.Nm 141driver supports all Atheros Cardbus and PCI cards, 142except those that are based on the AR5005VL chipset. 143.Pp 144A list of cards that are supported can be found at 145.Pa http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts/default.asp . 146.Sh EXAMPLES 147Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point): 148.Pp 149.Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00" 150.Pp 151Join a specific BSS network with network name 152.Dq Li my_net : 153.Pp 154.Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net" 155.Pp 156Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption: 157.Bd -literal -offset indent 158ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 159ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 160 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624 161.Ed 162.Pp 163Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name 164.Dq Li my_net : 165.Bd -literal -offset indent 166ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode adhoc 167ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 168 mode 11b 169.Ed 170.Pp 171Create an 802.11g host-based access point: 172.Bd -literal -offset indent 173ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap 174ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e 175 mode 11g 176.Ed 177.Pp 178Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with 179with WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to 180the fxp0 (wired) device: 181.Bd -literal -offset indent 182ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap \e 183 ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e 184 mode 11a up 185ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e 186 ssid freeloaders up 187ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up 188.Ed 189.Pp 190Create a master node in a two slot TDMA BSS configured to use 1912.5 millisecond slots. 192.Bd -literal -offset indent 193ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode tdma \e 194 ssid tdma-test tmdaslot 0 tdmaslotlen 2500 \e 195 channel 36 up 196.Ed 197.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 198.Bl -diag 199.It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u" 200The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware 201as requested. 202The status code is explained in the HAL include file 203.Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h . 204.It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d" 205The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit 206and receive descriptors. 207This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented. 208.It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!" 209The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal 210data frames failed. 211This should not happen. 212.It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!" 213The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames 214frames failed. 215This should not happen. 216.It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s" 217The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed. 218.It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting" 219An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred. 220Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors. 221The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 222.It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting" 223The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be 224transferred to the host. 225This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive 226descriptors and had no place to transfer received data. 227The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 228.It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u" 229The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 230as requested. 231The status code is explained in the HAL include file 232.Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h . 233This should not happen. 234.It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic" 235The driver was unable to restart frame reception. 236This should not happen. 237.It "ath%d: device timeout" 238A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. 239The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 240This should not happen. 241.It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x" 242An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame. 243The frame is discarded. 244This should not happen. 245.It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u Mhz)" 246The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 247when switching channels during scanning. 248This should not happen. 249.It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping" 250The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers. 251This should not happen. 252.It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering" 253The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA. 254This should not happen. 255.It "ath%d: cannot map register space" 256The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space. 257This should not happen. 258.It "ath%d: could not map interrupt" 259The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt. 260This should not happen. 261.It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt" 262The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler. 263This should not happen. 264.El 265.Sh SEE ALSO 266.Xr ath_hal 4 , 267.Xr cardbus 4 , 268.Xr intro 4 , 269.Xr pcic 4 , 270.Xr wlan 4 , 271.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 , 272.Xr wlan_tkip 4 , 273.Xr wlan_wep 4 , 274.Xr wlan_xauth 4 , 275.Xr hostapd 8 , 276.Xr ifconfig 8 , 277.Xr wpa_supplicant 8 278.Sh HISTORY 279The 280.Nm 281device driver first appeared in 282.Fx 5.2 . 283.Sh CAVEATS 284Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an 285Intersil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver. 286.Sh BUGS 287There is no software retransmit; only hardware retransmit is used. 288.Pp 289The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip 290in station mode; consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop). 291.Pp 292WPA is not supported for 5210 parts. 293