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 August 28, 2011 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, and AR5416 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-class devices are capable of 802.11n operation 96but are supported only in legacy modes (802.11a, 11b, 11g). 97Most chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in 98the 5GHz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds. 99Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4GHz range with 802.11g 100though this support is not presently available due to regulatory requirements. 101(Note that Turbo modes are, however, 102only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.) 103AR5212-based devices also support half- (10MHz) and quarter-width (5MHz) channels. 104The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the 105.Dq "rate control" 106algorithm employed by the driver. 107All chips support WEP encryption. 108AR5212 and AR5416 parts have hardware support for the 109AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic 110operations required for WPA. 111To enable encryption, use 112.Xr ifconfig 8 113as shown below. 114.Pp 115The driver supports 116.Cm station , 117.Cm adhoc , 118.Cm adhoc-demo , 119.Cm hostap , 120.Cm mesh , 121.Cm wds , 122and 123.Cm monitor 124mode operation. 125Multiple 126.Cm hostap 127virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous 128use on cards that use a 5212 part. 129When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate 130mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac 131address assigned to the underlying device. 132Any number of 133.Cm wds 134virtual interfaces may be configured together with 135.Cm hostap 136interfaces. 137Multiple 138.Cm station 139interfaces may be operated together with 140.Cm hostap 141interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device. 142The driver also support 143.Cm tdma 144operation when compiled with 145.Cd "options IEEE80211_SUPPORT_TDMA" 146(which also enables the required 802.11 support). 147For more information on configuring this device, see 148.Xr ifconfig 8 . 149.Pp 150Devices supported by the 151.Nm 152driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages. 153Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly. 154.Sh HARDWARE 155The 156.Nm 157driver supports all Atheros Cardbus and PCI cards, 158except those that are based on the AR5005VL chipset. 159.Sh EXAMPLES 160Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption: 161.Bd -literal -offset indent 162ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 163ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 164 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624 165.Ed 166.Pp 167Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name 168.Dq Li my_net : 169.Bd -literal -offset indent 170ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode adhoc 171ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 172 mode 11b 173.Ed 174.Pp 175Create an 802.11g host-based access point: 176.Bd -literal -offset indent 177ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap 178ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e 179 mode 11g 180.Ed 181.Pp 182Create an 802.11a mesh station: 183.Bd -literal -offset indent 184ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode mesh 185ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24 186.Ed 187.Pp 188Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with 189with WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to 190the fxp0 (wired) device: 191.Bd -literal -offset indent 192ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap \e 193 ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e 194 mode 11a up 195ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e 196 ssid freeloaders up 197ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up 198.Ed 199.Pp 200Create a master node in a two slot TDMA BSS configured to use 2012.5 millisecond slots. 202.Bd -literal -offset indent 203ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode tdma \e 204 ssid tdma-test tmdaslot 0 tdmaslotlen 2500 \e 205 channel 36 up 206.Ed 207.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 208.Bl -diag 209.It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u" 210The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware 211as requested. 212The status code is explained in the HAL include file 213.Pa sys/dev/ath/ath_hal/ah.h . 214.It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d" 215The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit 216and receive descriptors. 217This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented. 218.It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!" 219The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal 220data frames failed. 221This should not happen. 222.It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!" 223The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames 224frames failed. 225This should not happen. 226.It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s" 227The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed. 228.It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting" 229An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred. 230Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors. 231The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 232.It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting" 233The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be 234transferred to the host. 235This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive 236descriptors and had no place to transfer received data. 237The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 238.It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u" 239The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 240as requested. 241The status code is explained in the HAL include file 242.Pa sys/dev/ath/ath_hal/ah.h . 243This should not happen. 244.It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic" 245The driver was unable to restart frame reception. 246This should not happen. 247.It "ath%d: device timeout" 248A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. 249The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 250This should not happen. 251.It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x" 252An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame. 253The frame is discarded. 254This should not happen. 255.It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u MHz)" 256The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 257when switching channels during scanning. 258This should not happen. 259.It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping" 260The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers. 261This should not happen. 262.It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering" 263The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA. 264This should not happen. 265.It "ath%d: cannot map register space" 266The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space. 267This should not happen. 268.It "ath%d: could not map interrupt" 269The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt. 270This should not happen. 271.It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt" 272The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler. 273This should not happen. 274.El 275.Sh SEE ALSO 276.Xr ath_hal 4 , 277.Xr cardbus 4 , 278.Xr intro 4 , 279.Xr pcic 4 , 280.Xr wlan 4 , 281.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 , 282.Xr wlan_tkip 4 , 283.Xr wlan_wep 4 , 284.Xr wlan_xauth 4 , 285.Xr hostapd 8 , 286.Xr ifconfig 8 , 287.Xr wpa_supplicant 8 288.Sh HISTORY 289The 290.Nm 291device driver first appeared in 292.Fx 5.2 . 293.Sh CAVEATS 294Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an 295Intersil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver. 296.Sh BUGS 297There is no software retransmit; only hardware retransmit is used. 298.Pp 299The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip 300in station mode; consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop). 301.Pp 302WPA is not supported for 5210 parts. 303