ath card with two antennas and rfkill question

[Markus Dolze]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:54:17 -0500
> Von: "Yuri Lukin" <lists at swaggi.com>
> An: "Markus Dolze" <bsdfan at nurfuerspam.de>, freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> Betreff: Re: ath card with two antennas and rfkill question

> On Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:39:37 +0100, Markus Dolze wrote
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I recently got a Compex WLM54G mini-pci card for my Toshiba 6100. I 
> > connected the two internal antennas the laptop has and the card if 
> > working fine, except that the laptop's "wireless switch" does not 
> > work. I cannot turn the radio off (better this than the other way 
> > round). I remember having read that this switch is connected to one 
> > of the mini-pci pins and signals the card to turn off the radio. Why 
> > doesn't it work then? Or is it a software / driver issue?
> > 
> > My system is: 'FreeBSD kirika.zzz.de 6.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE 
> > #2: Mon Jan 21 23:49:38 CET 2008     
> > root at zzz.de:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/KIRIKA  i386'
> > 
> > 'sysctl dev.ath.0' shows (amoung others):
> > dev.ath.0.%desc: Atheros 5212
> > dev.ath.0.%driver: ath
> > dev.ath.0.%location: slot=10 function=0 handle=\_SB_.PCI0.PCIB.MPC0
> > dev.ath.0.%pnpinfo: vendor=0x168c device=0x001a subvendor=0x168c 
> > subdevice=0x2052 class=0x020000 dev.ath.0.%parent: pci2 
> > dev.ath.0.countrycode: 0 dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0 dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 
> > 1 dev.ath.0.diversity: 1
> > 
> > I am wondering as well: What are the countrycode, tx/rxantenna and 
> > diversity settings for? I found no documentation about these. Or are 
> > these settings read-only? How are the antenna numbers counted? 
> > Should I have 'txantenna=1'?
> > 
> > What does the 'countrycode' do and should I set any value (like 49 
> > for Germany)?
> > 
> 
> Typically the countrycode and regdomain is set in the EEPROM. I'm not sure
> if
> it's tunable with the 0.9.20.3 hal but you can set it in 0.9.30.7 to
> enable
> 900mhz cards:
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2007-February/068996.html
> 
> Also take a look at this page from madwifi:
> http://madwifi.org/wiki/UserDocs/CountryCode
> 
> 
>  Yuri

Thanks for pointing this out. I that that madwifi.org is a Linux specific driver so I have ignored that site up to now.

Setting 'countrycode=276' (Germany) allows the usage of the additional channels 12, 13.

I found the answer to my antenna question on madwifi.org, too. Basically if 'diversity=1' I should let the hardware / driver select the antennas to use.

Regards
Markus