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31 .Dd April 13, 2008
32 .Dt ATH 4
33 .Os
34 .Sh NAME
35 .Nm ath
36 .Nd "Atheros IEEE 802.11 wireless network driver"
37 .Sh SYNOPSIS
38 To compile this driver into the kernel,
39 place the following lines in your
40 kernel configuration file:
41 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
42 .Cd "device ath"
43 .Cd "device ath_hal"
44 .Cd "device ath_rate_sample"
45 .Cd "device wlan"
46 .Ed
47 .Pp
48 Alternatively, to load the driver as a
49 module at boot time, place the following line in
50 .Xr loader.conf 5 :
51 .Bd -literal -offset indent
52 if_ath_load="YES"
53 .Ed
54 .Sh DESCRIPTION
55 The
56 .Nm
57 driver provides support for wireless network adapters based on
58 the Atheros AR5210, AR5211, and AR5212 programming APIs.
59 These APIs are used by a wide variety of chips; most all chips with
60 a PCI and/or CardBus interface are supported.
61 Chip-specific support is provided by the Atheros Hardware Access Layer
62 (HAL), that is packaged separately.
63 .Pp
64 Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS,
65 IBSS, and host-based access point operation modes.
66 All host/device interaction is via DMA.
67 .Pp
68 The
69 .Nm
70 driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
71 it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
72 Transmit speed and operating mode is selectable
73 and depends on the specific chipset.
74 AR5210-based devices support 802.11a operation with transmit speeds
75 of 6 Mbps, 9 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, 36 Mbps, 48 Mbps, and 54 Mbps.
76 AR5211-based devices support 802.11a and 802.11b operation with transmit
77 speeds as above for 802.11a operation and
78 1Mbps, 2Mbps, 5.5 Mbps and 11Mbps for 802.11b operation.
79 AR5212-based devices support 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g operation
80 with transmit speeds appropriate to each.
81 Most chips also support an Atheros Turbo Mode (TM) that operates in
82 the 5Ghz frequency range with 2x the transmit speeds.
83 Some chips also support Turbo mode in the 2.4Ghz range with 802.11g
84 though this support is not presently available due to regulatory requirements.
85 (Note that Turbo modes are, however,
86 only interoperable with other Atheros-based devices.)
87 The actual transmit speed used is dependent on signal quality and the
88 .Dq "rate control"
89 algorithm employed by the driver.
90 All chips support WEP encryption.
91 The AR5212 has hardware support for the AES-CCM, TKIP, and Michael cryptographic
92 operations required for WPA.
93 To enable encryption, use
94 .Xr ifconfig 8
95 as shown below.
96 .Pp
97 The driver supports
98 .Cm station ,
99 .Cm adhoc ,
100 .Cm adhoc-demo ,
101 .Cm hostap ,
102 .Cm wds ,
103 and
104 .Cm monitor
105 mode operation.
106 Multiple
107 .Cm hostap
108 virtual interfaces may be configured for simultaneous
109 use on cards that use a 5212 part.
110 When multiple interfaces are configured each may have a separate
111 mac address that is formed by setting the U/L bits in the mac
112 address assigned to the underlying device.
113 Any number of
114 .Cm wds
115 virtual interfaces may be configured together with
116 .Cm hostap
117 interfaces.
118 Multiple
119 .Cm station
120 interfaces may be operated together with
121 .Cm hostap
122 interfaces to construct a wireless repeater device.
123 For more information on configuring this device, see
124 .Xr ifconfig 8 .
125 .Pp
126 Devices supported by the
127 .Nm
128 driver come in either Cardbus or mini-PCI packages.
129 Wireless cards in Cardbus slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly.
130 .Sh HARDWARE
131 The
132 .Nm
133 driver supports most Atheros Cardbus or PCI cards,
134 except those that are based on the AR5005VL chipset.
135 More recent parts may require a hal that is not part of
136 .Fb .
137 .Pp
138 A list of cards that are supported can be found at
139 .Pa http://customerproducts.atheros.com/customerproducts/default.asp .
140 .Sh EXAMPLES
141 Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
142 .Pp
143 .Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00"
144 .Pp
145 Join a specific BSS network with network name
146 .Dq Li my_net :
147 .Pp
148 .Dl "ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net"
149 .Pp
150 Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
151 .Bd -literal -offset indent
152 ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0
153 ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
154 wepmode on wepkey 0x8736639624
155 .Ed
156 .Pp
157 Join/create an 802.11b IBSS network with network name
158 .Dq Li my_net :
159 .Bd -literal -offset indent
160 ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode adhoc
161 ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
162 mode 11b
163 .Ed
164 .Pp
165 Create an 802.11g host-based access point:
166 .Bd -literal -offset indent
167 ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap
168 ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
169 mode 11g
170 .Ed
171 .Pp
172 Create two virtual 802.11a host-based access points, one with
173 with WEP enabled and one with no security, and bridge them to
174 the fxp0 (wired) device:
175 .Bd -literal -offset indent
176 ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap \e
177 ssid paying-customers wepmode on wepkey 0x1234567890 \e
178 mode 11a up
179 ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap bssid \e
180 ssid freeloaders up
181 ifconfig bridge0 create addm wlan0 addm wlan1 addm fxp0 up
182 .Ed
183 .Sh DIAGNOSTICS
184 .Bl -diag
185 .It "ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status %u"
186 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to configure the hardware
187 as requested.
188 The status code is explained in the HAL include file
189 .Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h .
190 .It "ath%d: failed to allocate descriptors: %d"
191 The driver was unable to allocate contiguous memory for the transmit
192 and receive descriptors.
193 This usually indicates system memory is scarce and/or fragmented.
194 .It "ath%d: unable to setup a data xmit queue!"
195 The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for normal
196 data frames failed.
197 This should not happen.
198 .It "ath%d: unable to setup a beacon xmit queue!"
199 The request to the HAL to set up the transmit queue for 802.11 beacon frames
200 frames failed.
201 This should not happen.
202 .It "ath%d: 802.11 address: %s"
203 The MAC address programmed in the EEPROM is displayed.
204 .It "ath%d: hardware error; resetting"
205 An unrecoverable error in the hardware occurred.
206 Errors of this sort include unrecoverable DMA errors.
207 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
208 .It "ath%d: rx FIFO overrun; resetting"
209 The receive FIFO in the hardware overflowed before the data could be
210 transferred to the host.
211 This typically occurs because the hardware ran short of receive
212 descriptors and had no place to transfer received data.
213 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
214 .It "ath%d: unable to reset hardware; hal status %u"
215 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware
216 as requested.
217 The status code is explained in the HAL include file
218 .Pa sys/contrib/dev/ath/ah.h .
219 This should not happen.
220 .It "ath%d: unable to start recv logic"
221 The driver was unable to restart frame reception.
222 This should not happen.
223 .It "ath%d: device timeout"
224 A frame dispatched to the hardware for transmission did not complete in time.
225 The driver will reset the hardware and continue.
226 This should not happen.
227 .It "ath%d: bogus xmit rate 0x%x"
228 An invalid transmit rate was specified for an outgoing frame.
229 The frame is discarded.
230 This should not happen.
231 .It "ath%d: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel %u (%u Mhz)"
232 The Atheros Hardware Access Layer was unable to reset the hardware
233 when switching channels during scanning.
234 This should not happen.
235 .It "ath%d: unable to allocate channel table"
236 The driver was unable to allocate memory for the table used to hold
237 the set of available channels.
238 .It "ath%d: unable to collect channel list from hal"
239 A problem occurred while querying the HAL to find the set of available
240 channels for the device.
241 This should not happen.
242 .It "ath%d: failed to enable memory mapping"
243 The driver was unable to enable memory-mapped I/O to the PCI device registers.
244 This should not happen.
245 .It "ath%d: failed to enable bus mastering"
246 The driver was unable to enable the device as a PCI bus master for doing DMA.
247 This should not happen.
248 .It "ath%d: cannot map register space"
249 The driver was unable to map the device registers into the host address space.
250 This should not happen.
251 .It "ath%d: could not map interrupt"
252 The driver was unable to allocate an IRQ for the device interrupt.
253 This should not happen.
254 .It "ath%d: could not establish interrupt"
255 The driver was unable to install the device interrupt handler.
256 This should not happen.
257 .El
258 .Sh SEE ALSO
259 .Xr ath_hal 4 ,
260 .Xr intro 4 ,
261 .Xr cardbus 4 ,
262 .Xr pcic 4 ,
263 .Xr wlan 4 ,
264 .Xr wlan_ccmp 4 ,
265 .Xr wlan_tkip 4 ,
266 .Xr wlan_wep 4 ,
267 .Xr wlan_xauth 4 ,
268 .Xr hostapd 8 ,
269 .Xr ifconfig 8 ,
270 .Xr wpa_supplicant 8 .
271 .Sh HISTORY
272 The
273 .Nm
274 device driver first appeared in
275 .Fx 5.2 .
276 .Sh CAVEATS
277 Different regulatory domains have different default channels for adhoc
278 mode.
279 See
280 .Xr ifconfig 8
281 for information on how to change the channel.
282 Different regulatory domains may not be able to communicate with each
283 other with 802.11a as different regulatory domains do not necessarily
284 have overlapping channels.
285 .Pp
286 Revision A1 of the D-LINK DWL-G520 and DWL-G650 are based on an
287 Intersil PrismGT chip and are not supported by this driver.
288 .Sh BUGS
289 There is no software retransmit; only hardware retransmit is used.
290 .Pp
291 The driver does not fully enable power-save operation of the chip
292 in station mode; consequently power use is suboptimal (e.g. on a laptop).
293 .Pp
294 WPA is not supported for 5210 parts.