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: src/share/man/man4/ath.4,v 1.52 2010/03/21 17:53:54 sam Exp $ 30.\" 31.Dd April 27, 2010 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, MBSS, 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 mesh , 106.Cm wds , 107and 108.Cm monitor 109mode operation. 110Multiple 111.Cm hostap 112virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous 113use on cards that use a 5212 part. 114When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate 115mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac 116address assigned to the underlying device. 117Any number of 118.Cm wds 119virtual interfaces may be configured together with 120.Cm hostap 121interfaces. 122Multiple 123.Cm station 124interfaces may be operated together with 125.Cm hostap 126interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device. 127The driver also support 128.Cm tdma 129operation when compiled with 130.Cd "options IEEE80211_SUPPORT_TDMA" 131(which also enables the required 802.11 support). 132For more information on configuring this device, see 133.Xr ifconfig 8 . 134.Pp 135Devices supported by the 136.Nm 137driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages. 138Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly. 139.Sh HARDWARE 140The 141.Nm 142driver supports all Atheros Cardbus and PCI cards, 143except those that are based on the AR5005VL chipset. 144.Pp 145A list of cards that are supported can be found at 146.Pa http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts/default.asp . 147.Sh EXAMPLES 148Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption: 149.Bd -literal -offset indent 150ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 151ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 152 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624 153.Ed 154.Pp 155Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name 156.Dq Li my_net : 157.Bd -literal -offset indent 158ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode adhoc 159ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 160 mode 11b 161.Ed 162.Pp 163Create an 802.11g host-based access point: 164.Bd -literal -offset indent 165ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap 166ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e 167 mode 11g 168.Ed 169.Pp 170Create an 802.11a mesh station: 171.Bd -literal -offset indent 172ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode mesh 173ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24 174.Ed 175.Pp 176Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with 177with WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to 178the fxp0 (wired) device: 179.Bd -literal -offset indent 180ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap \e 181 ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e 182 mode 11a up 183ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e 184 ssid freeloaders up 185ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up 186.Ed 187.Pp 188Create a master node in a two slot TDMA BSS configured to use 1892.5 millisecond slots. 190.Bd -literal -offset indent 191ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode tdma \e 192 ssid tdma-test tmdaslot 0 tdmaslotlen 2500 \e 193 channel 36 up 194.Ed 195.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 196.Bl -diag 197.It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u" 198The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware 199as requested. 200The status code is explained in the HAL include file 201.Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h . 202.It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d" 203The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit 204and receive descriptors. 205This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented. 206.It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!" 207The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal 208data frames failed. 209This should not happen. 210.It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!" 211The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames 212frames failed. 213This should not happen. 214.It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s" 215The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed. 216.It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting" 217An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred. 218Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors. 219The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 220.It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting" 221The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be 222transferred to the host. 223This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive 224descriptors and had no place to transfer received data. 225The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 226.It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u" 227The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 228as requested. 229The status code is explained in the HAL include file 230.Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h . 231This should not happen. 232.It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic" 233The driver was unable to restart frame reception. 234This should not happen. 235.It "ath%d: device timeout" 236A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. 237The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 238This should not happen. 239.It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x" 240An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame. 241The frame is discarded. 242This should not happen. 243.It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u MHz)" 244The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 245when switching channels during scanning. 246This should not happen. 247.It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping" 248The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers. 249This should not happen. 250.It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering" 251The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA. 252This should not happen. 253.It "ath%d: cannot map register space" 254The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space. 255This should not happen. 256.It "ath%d: could not map interrupt" 257The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt. 258This should not happen. 259.It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt" 260The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler. 261This should not happen. 262.El 263.Sh SEE ALSO 264.Xr ath_hal 4 , 265.Xr cardbus 4 , 266.Xr ifmedia 4 , 267.Xr intro 4 , 268.\".Xr pcic 4 , 269.Xr wlan 4 , 270.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 , 271.Xr wlan_tkip 4 , 272.Xr wlan_wep 4 , 273.Xr wlan_xauth 4 , 274.Xr hostapd 8 , 275.Xr ifconfig 8 , 276.Xr wpa_supplicant 8 277.Sh HISTORY 278The 279.Nm 280device driver first appeared in 281.Fx 5.2 282and was imported into 283.Dx 1.5 . 284.Sh CAVEATS 285Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an 286Intersil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver. 287.Sh BUGS 288There is no software retransmit; only hardware retransmit is used. 289.Pp 290The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip 291in station mode; consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop). 292.Pp 293WPA is not supported for 5210 parts. 294