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 June 16, 2020 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 "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" 54if_ath_pci_load="YES" 55.Ed 56.Sh DESCRIPTION 57The 58.Nm 59driver provides support for wireless network adapters based on 60the Atheros AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416 and AR9300 programming APIs. 61These APIs are used by a wide variety of chips; most all chips with 62a PCI, PCIe and/or CardBus interface are supported. 63.Pp 64Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS, 65IBSS, MBSS, WDS/DWDS TDMA, and host-based access point operation modes. 66All host/device interaction is via DMA. 67.Pp 68Please note that from FreeBSD-9.0, the 69.Nm 70driver does not include the PCI/PCIe bus glue. 71The same driver supports multiple underlying bus types, including PCI/PCIe, 72but also embedded (AHB) and USB in the future. 73.Pp 74To enable use for PCI/PCIe systems, see the 75.Xr ath_pci 4 76driver. 77For embedded systems which use the AHB to connect the wireless MAC, see the 78.Xr ath_ahb 4 79driver. 80.Pp 81The 82.Nm 83driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however 84it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. 85Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable 86and depends on the specific chipset. 87AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds 88of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps. 89AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit 90speeds as above for 802.11a operation and 911Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation. 92AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation 93with transmit speeds appropriate to each. 94AR5416 and later class devices are capable of 802.11n operation. 95Most chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in 96the 5GHz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds. 97Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4GHz range with 802.11g 98though this support is not presently available due to regulatory requirements. 99(Note that Turbo modes are, however, 100only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.) 101AR5212-based and AR5416-based devices also support half- (10MHz) and quarter-width (5MHz) channels. 102The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the 103.Dq "rate control" 104algorithm employed by the driver. 105All chips support WEP encryption. 106AR5212, AR5416 and later parts have hardware support for the 107AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic 108operations required for WPA. 109To enable encryption, use 110.Xr ifconfig 8 111as shown below. 112.Pp 113The driver supports 114.Cm station , 115.Cm adhoc , 116.Cm adhoc-demo , 117.Cm hostap , 118.Cm mesh , 119.Cm wds , 120and 121.Cm monitor 122mode operation. 123Multiple 124.Cm hostap 125virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous 126use on cards that use a 5212 or later part. 127When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate 128mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac 129address assigned to the underlying device. 130Any number of 131.Cm wds 132virtual interfaces may be configured together with 133.Cm hostap 134interfaces. 135Multiple 136.Cm station 137interfaces may be operated together with 138.Cm hostap 139interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device. 140The driver also support 141.Cm tdma 142operation when compiled with 143.Cd "options IEEE80211_SUPPORT_TDMA" 144(which also enables the required 802.11 support). 145For more information on configuring this device, see 146.Xr ifconfig 8 . 147.Pp 148Devices supported by the 149.Nm 150driver come in Cardbus, ExpressCard, Mini-PCI and Mini-PCIe packages. 151Wireless cards in Cardbus and ExpressCard slots may be inserted and 152ejected on the fly. 153.Sh HARDWARE 154The 155.Nm 156driver supports all Atheros Cardbus, ExpressCard, PCI and PCIe 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 supports optional station mode power-save operation. 297.Pp 298The AR5210 can only do WEP in hardware; consequently hardware assisted WEP 299is disabled in order to allow software implementations of TKIP and CCMP to 300function. 301Hardware WEP can be re-enabled by modifying the driver. 302