FreeBSD 7.0-RC2 ath wireless issues

Sun Feb 24 17:55:57 UTC 2008

Hello list
I'm having problems with Atheros on a Toshiba M70  - I
put the mods posted
recently but not much better. I have come to believe
the root of the problem
is entropy harvesting. On sign-in the first letter I
type disappears. If
this is happening on the wifi drivers then the "try
three times" patch makes
sense. In most cases a device will just try again. A
base station will
assume you went away if no ack is received. So the AP
sends the ack request,
harvester steals it, so AP receives no ack to continue
protocol.  This is on
vanilla 6.3 RELEASE. Any info to resolve will be
appreciated.

I'll play with this some more and will post device
info then.
Thanks,
Dell

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
[mailto:owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of
Ian Smith
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 5:43 AM
To: freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
Subject: FreeBSD 7.0-RC2 ath wireless issues

Hello list,

I have some issues with an Atheros card in a Dell
Inspiron 6000 that I was
hoping someone may be able to shed some light on. I
can associate with an
access point but am unable to connect to anything via
the wireless card. The
card appears to be associated (see below) but I am
unable to connect/ping
the router or anything connected/beyond it. Please see
the following for
more details:

Hardware info:
Laptop: Dell Inspiron 6000
Wireless Card: Complex WLM54G23
(http://www.msdist.co.uk/product_compex_WLM54G23_200mW_miniPCI.php)

FreeBSD output:
root#   uname -a
FreeBSD dmon.bsd.home 7.0-RC2 FreeBSD 7.0-RC2 #0: Sun
Feb 24 09:08:01 GMT
2008     root at my.domain:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC 
i386

root# dmesg | grep ath0
ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xdfcf0000-0xdfcfffff irq 17
at device 3.0 on pci3
ath0: [ITHREAD]
ath0: using obsoleted if_watchdog interface
ath0: Ethernet address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
ath0: mac 10.4 phy 6.1 radio 6.3

root# pciconf -lv
    ...
    vendor     = 'Atheros Communications Inc.'
    device     = 'AR5006 family 802.11abg Wireless
NIC'
    class      = network
    subclass   = ethernet

root# sysctl hw.ath
hw.ath.hal.swba_backoff: 0
hw.ath.hal.sw_brt: 10
hw.ath.hal.dma_brt: 2
hw.ath.hal.version: 0.9.20.3
hw.ath.txbuf: 200
hw.ath.rxbuf: 40
hw.ath.regdomain: 0
hw.ath.countrycode: 0
hw.ath.xchanmode: 1
hw.ath.outdoor: 1
hw.ath.calibrate: 30

root# sysctl dev.ath.0
dev.ath.0.%desc: Atheros 5212
dev.ath.0.%driver: ath
dev.ath.0.%location: slot=3 function=0
dev.ath.0.%pnpinfo: vendor=0x168c device=0x001b
subvendor=0x168c
subdevice=0x2063 class=0x020000
dev.ath.0.%parent: pci3
dev.ath.0.smoothing_rate: 95
dev.ath.0.sample_rate: 10
dev.ath.0.countrycode: 0
dev.ath.0.regdomain: 0
dev.ath.0.slottime: 9
dev.ath.0.acktimeout: 48
dev.ath.0.ctstimeout: 48
dev.ath.0.softled: 0
dev.ath.0.ledpin: 0
dev.ath.0.ledon: 0
dev.ath.0.ledidle: 2700
dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0
dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 2
dev.ath.0.diversity: 1
dev.ath.0.txintrperiod: 5
dev.ath.0.diag: 0
dev.ath.0.tpscale: 0
dev.ath.0.tpc: 0
dev.ath.0.tpack: 63
dev.ath.0.tpcts: 63
dev.ath.0.monpass: 24

Attempting to get an address from the AP after
associating:
root# dhclient ath0
DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
interval 6 DHCPDISCOVER on
ath0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to
255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 14 DHCPDISCOVER on
ath0 to 255.255.255.255
port 67 interval 17 DHCPDISCOVER on ath0 to
255.255.255.255 port 67 interval
11 No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

With manual IP address:
root# ifconfig -v ath0
ath0:
flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST>
metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
        inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 0xffffff00
broadcast xxx.xxx.xxx.255
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet
autoselect (OFDM/54Mbps)
        status: associated
        ssid XXXXX channel 11 (2462 Mhz 11g) bssid
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
        authmode OPEN privacy OFF deftxkey UNDEF
powersavemode OFF
        powersavesleep 100 txpower 31.5 txpowmax 23.0
rtsthreshold 2346
        fragthreshold 2346 bmiss 7 scanvalid 60 bgscan
bgscanintvl 300
        bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi11a 7 roam:rate11a 12
roam:rssi11b 7
        roam:rate11b 1 roam:rssi11g 7 roam:rate11g 5
-pureg protmode CTS -ht
        -htcompat -ampdu ampdulimit 8k ampdudensity -
-amsdu -shortgi
        htprotmode RTSCTS -puren -wme burst -ff
-dturbo roaming AUTO
        bintval 100

In either case pinging anything on the network results
in the following:
root# ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
PING xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx): 56 data bytes
^C
--- xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ping statistics ---
9 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0%
packet loss

For the purpose of this testing the AP was running
without a firewall,
encryption or an access list.

Interestingly when I run `tcpdump -ttt -vv -n -i ath0`
I am able to see
broadcasts from other clients on the network. Also if
I run ` airodump-ng
--band bg ath0` I can see a whole host of wireless
networks including the
one I am trying to connect to.

Any information/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ian.

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