ATHEROS -- 802.11a/b/g Wireless Lan Mini PCI Express -- 6459-CTO

[Sam Leffler]

Alexandre "Sunny" Kovalenko wrote:
> On Sun, 2008-09-14 at 04:04 -0400, freebsd_user at guice.ath.cx wrote:
>   
>>>>>  > MACHINE: THINKPAD T61P
>>>>>  > MACHINE TYPE: 6459-CTO
>>>>>  > NETWORK ADAPTER: 11a/b/g Wireless Lan Mini PCI Express (windows)
>>>>>  > -
>>>>>  > FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE i386 <== fresh install
>>>>>  > -
>>>>>  > ==> pciconf -l -v |grep -i atheros
>>>>>  >     vendor     = 'Atheros Communications Inc.'
>>>>>  >     device     = 'AR5212 Atheros AR5212 802.11abg wireless'
>>>>>  > 
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>>> I was doing so while my em0 was connected to
>>>> the same LAN with an ip of: 192.168.1.6 netmask
>>>> 255.255.255.0 <== this is not the way I planned
>>>> on using the devices.  I only want to use the
>>>> 'ath0' unless the situation calls for cable.
>>>>
>>>> I'm also not sure what to read about setting up
>>>> 'WPA' and/or 'WEP' or, if the device/driver
>>>> will auto-detect.
>>>>         
>>> You don't say that you set the default route once you disconnected the
>>> LAN cable.  That will be necessary for access beyond the LAN.
>>>       
>> What I post below was currently done without disconnecting the LAN cable.
>>
>> FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE-p4 i386 GENERIC
>> ==
>> /etc/rc.conf | grep route
>> defaultrouter="192.168.1.1"
>> ==
>>
>> Not configured
>> ath0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
>> 	ether 00:1f:3a:4d:45:d1
>> 	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (autoselect)
>> 	status: no carrier
>> 	ssid "" channel 1 (2412 Mhz 11b)
>> 	authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 50 bmiss 7 scanvalid 60 bgscan
>> 	bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi11b 7 roam:rate11b 1 burst
>> 	bintval 0
>>
>> ifconfig ath0 "DHCP"  <== assigned my external IP to the ath0 :-\
>> ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST>
>> metric 0 mtu 1500
>>         ether 00:1f:3a:4d:45:d1
>>         inet 72.225.169.69 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast
>> 72.255.255.255
>>         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect
>> (OFDM/36Mbps)
>>         status: no carrier
>>         ssid SORRY channel 42 (5210 Mhz 11a)
>>         authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 31.5 bmiss 7
>> scanvalid 60 bgscan
>>         bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi11a 7
>> roam:rate11a 12 burst
>>
>> With regard to the above IP being set to 72.225.169.69;
>> the routers' DHCP server appears to be working fine with other
>> machines using cable and one (1) windows machine (another T61p
>> Atheros 5212) on the same network.  Its only this one,
>> topic of discuss machine, that gets the external IP
>> assigned to it when in fact the outside world see's
>> this 72.225.169.69.
>>
>> ifconfig ath0 inet 192.168.1.111 netmask 255.255.255.0 ssid SORRY
>> ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
>> 	ether 00:1f:3a:4d:45:d1
>> 	inet 192.168.1.111 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
>> 	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (OFDM/36Mbps)
>> 	status: no carrier
>>     
> What does 'ifconfig ath0 list scan' say? Do you know parameters of the
> base station you are trying to associate with?
>
> Few notes:
> -- on my ThinkPad X60, I have not seen wireless led lit up yet, which
> never prevented wireless from working ;)
> -- there is a setting for Fn-F5 (only available through Windows), I
> always keep it as "Turn all radios on or of" or some such thing.
> -- there is a slider switch located at the front of my X60 which does
> kill all radios, I do not know whether T61 has one or not. If it does,
> you might want to check its position.
>
>   
If you have a 5416/5418 part I think the led is driven by the driver 
using the gpio pins.  If you have the 0.10.5.10 hal you can try:

sysctl dev.ath.0.softled=1

It may also be necessary to toggle the polarity of the gpio pins; if the 
led doesn't operate right away (when wireless is working) then check the 
nearby sysctl knobs.

rfkill processing has never been fully implemented in the ath driver.  
Vendors implement this in various ways and sometimes it's wired s.t. the 
driver is not involved.  On some laptops the rfkill switch is wired to a 
gpio pin and pushing the button generates an interrupt that ath can 
field--but when I tried to get it working on Robert Watson's laptop long 
ago it didn't work right so I never committed the mods.

    Sam