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: head/share/man/man4/ath.4 264484 2014-04-15 00:45:38Z adrian $ 30.\" 31.Dd May 26, 2016 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, AR5416 and AR9300 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 67.\"Please note that from FreeBSD-9.0, the 68.\".Nm 69.\"driver does not include the PCI/PCIe bus glue. 70.\"The same driver supports multiple underlying bus types, including PCI/PCIe, 71.\"but also embedded (AHB) and USB in the future. 72.\".Pp 73.\"To enable use for PCI/PCIe systems, see the 74.\".Xr ath_pci 4 75.\"driver. 76.\"For embedded systems which use the AHB to connect the wireless MAC, see the 77.\".Xr ath_ahb 4 78.\"driver. 79.Pp 80The 81.Nm 82driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however 83it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames. 84Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable 85and depends on the specific chipset. 86AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds 87of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps. 88AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit 89speeds as above for 802.11a operation and 901Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation. 91AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation 92with transmit speeds appropriate to each. 93AR5416 and later class devices are capable of 802.11n operation. 94Most chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in 95the 5GHz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds. 96Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4GHz range with 802.11g 97though this support is not presently available due to regulatory requirements. 98(Note that Turbo modes are, however, 99only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.) 100AR5212-based and AR5416-based devices also support half- (10MHz) and quarter-width (5MHz) channels. 101The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the 102.Dq "rate control" 103algorithm employed by the driver. 104All chips support WEP encryption. 105AR5212, AR5416 and later parts have hardware support for the 106AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic 107operations required for WPA. 108To enable encryption, use 109.Xr ifconfig 8 110as shown below. 111.Pp 112The driver supports 113.Cm station , 114.Cm adhoc , 115.Cm adhoc-demo , 116.Cm hostap , 117.Cm mesh , 118.Cm wds , 119and 120.Cm monitor 121mode operation. 122Multiple 123.Cm hostap 124virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous 125use on cards that use a 5212 or later part. 126When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate 127mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac 128address assigned to the underlying device. 129Any number of 130.Cm wds 131virtual interfaces may be configured together with 132.Cm hostap 133interfaces. 134Multiple 135.Cm station 136interfaces may be operated together with 137.Cm hostap 138interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device. 139The driver also support 140.Cm tdma 141operation when compiled with 142.Cd "options IEEE80211_SUPPORT_TDMA" 143(which also enables the required 802.11 support). 144For more information on configuring this device, see 145.Xr ifconfig 8 . 146.Pp 147Devices supported by the 148.Nm 149driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages. 150Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly. 151.Sh HARDWARE 152The 153.Nm 154driver supports all Atheros Cardbus and PCI cards, 155except those that are based on the AR5005VL chipset. 156.Sh EXAMPLES 157Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption: 158.Bd -literal -offset indent 159ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 160ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 161 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624 162.Ed 163.Pp 164Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name 165.Dq Li my_net : 166.Bd -literal -offset indent 167ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode adhoc 168ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e 169 mode 11b 170.Ed 171.Pp 172Create an 802.11g host-based access point: 173.Bd -literal -offset indent 174ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap 175ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e 176 mode 11g 177.Ed 178.Pp 179Create an 802.11a mesh station: 180.Bd -literal -offset indent 181ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode mesh 182ifconfig wlan0 meshid my_mesh mode 11a inet 192.168.0.10/24 183.Ed 184.Pp 185Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with 186WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to 187the fxp0 (wired) device: 188.Bd -literal -offset indent 189ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap \e 190 ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e 191 mode 11a up 192ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e 193 ssid freeloaders up 194ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up 195.Ed 196.Pp 197Create a master node in a two slot TDMA BSS configured to use 1982.5 millisecond slots. 199.Bd -literal -offset indent 200ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode tdma \e 201 ssid tdma-test tmdaslot 0 tdmaslotlen 2500 \e 202 channel 36 up 203.Ed 204.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 205.Bl -diag 206.It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u" 207The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware 208as requested. 209The status code is explained in the HAL include file 210.Pa sys/dev/netif/ath/ath_hal/ah.h . 211.It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d" 212The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit 213and receive descriptors. 214This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented. 215.It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!" 216The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal 217data frames failed. 218This should not happen. 219.It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!" 220The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames 221failed. 222This should not happen. 223.It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s" 224The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed. 225.It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting" 226An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred. 227Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors. 228The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 229.It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting" 230The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be 231transferred to the host. 232This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive 233descriptors and had no place to transfer received data. 234The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 235.It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u" 236The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 237as requested. 238The status code is explained in the HAL include file 239.Pa sys/dev/netif/ath/ath_hal/ah.h . 240This should not happen. 241.It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic" 242The driver was unable to restart frame reception. 243This should not happen. 244.It "ath%d: device timeout" 245A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time. 246The driver will reset the hardware and continue. 247This should not happen. 248.It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x" 249An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame. 250The frame is discarded. 251This should not happen. 252.It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u MHz)" 253The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware 254when switching channels during scanning. 255This should not happen. 256.It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping" 257The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers. 258This should not happen. 259.It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering" 260The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA. 261This should not happen. 262.It "ath%d: cannot map register space" 263The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space. 264This should not happen. 265.It "ath%d: could not map interrupt" 266The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt. 267This should not happen. 268.It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt" 269The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler. 270This should not happen. 271.El 272.Sh SEE ALSO 273.Xr ath_hal 4 , 274.Xr cardbus 4 , 275.Xr ifmedia 4 , 276.Xr intro 4 , 277.Xr wlan 4 , 278.Xr wlan_ccmp 4 , 279.Xr wlan_tkip 4 , 280.Xr wlan_wep 4 , 281.Xr wlan_xauth 4 , 282.Xr hostapd 8 , 283.Xr ifconfig 8 , 284.Xr wpa_supplicant 8 285.Sh HISTORY 286The 287.Nm 288device driver first appeared in 289.Fx 5.2 290and was imported into 291.Dx 1.5 . 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