man/man4/uath.4

.\" $OpenBSD: uath.4,v 1.38 2021/10/24 12:32:42 kn Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2006
.\"     Damien Bergamini <damien.bergamini@free.fr>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: October 24 2021 $
.Dt UATH 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm uath
.Nd Atheros USB IEEE 802.11a/b/g wireless network device
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "uath* at uhub? port ?"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver supports USB 2.0 wireless network devices based on Atheros
Communications fifth generation AR5005UG and AR5005UX chipsets.
.Pp
The AR5005UG chipset is made of an AR5523 multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor
and an AR2112 Radio-on-a-Chip that can operate between 2300 and 2500MHz
(802.11b/g).
.Pp
The AR5005UX chipset is made of an AR5523 multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor
and an AR5112 dual band Radio-on-a-Chip that can operate between 2300 and
2500MHz (802.11b/g) or 4900 and 5850MHz (802.11a).
.Pp
The AR5005UG and AR5005UX chipsets both have an integrated 32-bit MIPS
R4000-class processor that runs a firmware and manages, among other things,
the automatic control of the transmit rate and the calibration of the radio.
.Pp
These are the modes the
.Nm
driver can operate in:
.Bl -tag -width "IBSS-masterXX"
.It BSS mode
Also known as
.Em infrastructure
mode, this is used when associating with an access point, through
which all traffic passes.
This mode is the default.
.It monitor mode
In this mode the driver is able to receive packets without
associating with an access point.
This disables the internal receive filter and enables the card to
capture packets from networks which it wouldn't normally have access to,
or to scan for access points.
.El
.Pp
.Nm
supports hardware WEP.
It can be typically configured in one of three modes:
no encryption; 40-bit encryption; or 104-bit encryption.
It is strongly recommended that WEP
not be used as the sole mechanism
to secure wireless communication,
due to serious weaknesses in it.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver can be configured at runtime with
.Xr ifconfig 8
or on boot with
.Xr hostname.if 5 .
.Sh FILES
The following firmware file is loaded when a device is plugged:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It Pa /etc/firmware/uath-ar5523
.El
.Pp
This firmware file is not freely redistributable.
.Pp
A prepackaged version of the firmware can be installed using
.Xr fw_update 1 .
.Sh HARDWARE
The following adapters should work:
.Bl -column "TRENDware International TEW-444UB" "AR5005UX" -offset 6n
.It Em Adapter Ta Em Chipset
.\".It Belkin F6D3050	AR5005UX
.It Li "Compex WLU108AG" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "Compex WLU108G" Ta AR5005UG
.\".It Li "D-Link DWL-AG132" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "D-Link DWL-G132" Ta AR5005UG
.\".It Li "Edimax EW-7315Ug" Ta AR5005UG (AR2414???)
.\".It Li "Lancom USB-54ag" Ta AR5005UX
.\".It Li "NEC WL54TU" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "IODATA WN-G54/US" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "MELCO WLI-U2-KAMG54" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "Netgear WG111T" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "Netgear WG111U" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "Netgear WPN111" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "Olitec 000544" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "Philips SNU6500" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "PLANET WDL-U357" Ta AR5005UX
.\".It Li "Senao WUB-8004" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "Siemens Gigaset 108" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "SMC SMCWUSBT-G" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "SMC SMCWUSBT-G2" Ta AR5005UG
.\".It Li "SparkLAN WL-685GS" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "SparkLAN WL-785A" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "TP-Link TL-WN620G" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "TRENDware International TEW-444UB" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "TRENDware International TEW-504UB" Ta AR5005UX
.It Li "Unex Technology UR054ag" Ta AR5005UX
.\".It Li "Wistron NeWeb DCUA-81" Ta AR5005UX
.\".It Li "Wistron NeWeb DRUA-81" Ta AR5005UG
.\".It Li "Wistron NeWeb DRUA-82" Ta AR5005UX
.\".It Li "ZyXEL G-200 v2" Ta AR5005UG
.It Li "ZyXEL XtremeMIMO M-202" Ta AR5005UX
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following example scans for available networks:
.Pp
.Dl # ifconfig uath0 scan
.Pp
The following
.Xr hostname.if 5
example configures uath0 to join network
.Dq mynwid ,
using WEP key
.Dq mywepkey ,
obtaining an IP address using DHCP:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
join mynwid nwkey mywepkey
inet autoconf
.Ed
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Bl -diag
.It "uath0: error N, could not read firmware ..."
For some reason, the driver was unable to read the firmware image from the
filesystem.
The file might be missing or corrupted.
.It "uath0: could not load firmware (error=...)"
An error occurred while attempting to upload the firmware to the onboard
MIPS R4000 processor.
.It "uath0: could not initialize adapter"
The firmware was uploaded successfully but did not initialize properly or
in time.
.It "uath0: could not send command 0xXX (error=...)"
An attempt to send a command to the firmware failed.
.It "uath0: timeout waiting for command reply"
A read command was sent to the firmware but the firmware failed to reply in
time.
.It "uath0: device timeout"
A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
The driver will reset the hardware.
This should not happen.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr arp 4 ,
.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr usb 4 ,
.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
driver first appeared in
.Ox 4.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Damien Bergamini Aq Mt damien.bergamini@free.fr .
.Sh CAVEATS
Atheros Communications refuses to release any documentation for their products.
Atheros proprietary 108 Mbps mode (aka Super AG mode) is not supported.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver does not attempt to do any regulation of radio frequencies.
.Pp
This driver does not support powersave mode.