kern/53940: Some WiFi devices cannot connect to hostap access point with WEP enabled

[Scott Mitchell]

>Number:         53940
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       Some WiFi devices cannot connect to hostap access point with WEP enabled
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       medium
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Mon Jun 30 15:00:20 PDT 2003
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Scott Mitchell
>Release:        FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE i386
>Organization:
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD tuatara 4.8-STABLE FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE #0: Sun Apr 13 14:23:25 BST 2003 scott at tuatara:/local/0/obj/usr/src/sys/TUATARA i386

>Description:

I'm having some trouble getting hostap and WEP to play nicely together - some
cards work with the hostap access point while some others don't.

One machine is a 4.8R box with a SMC2602W PCI wireless adapter, configured in
hostap mode with a 128-bit WEP key:

FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE #0: Thu Apr  3 10:53:38 GMT 2003    root at freebsd-stable.sentex.ca:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
[...]
wi0: <PRISM2STA WaveLAN> port 0xe400-0xe43f,0xe000-0xe07f mem 0xde003000-0xde003fff irq 10 at device 20.0 on pci0
wi0: 802.11 address: 00:04:e2:0e:36:b0
wi0: using RF:PRISM2 MAC:HFA3841 CARD:HWB3163 rev.A
wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary 0.03.00, Station 0.08.03

The other machine is a laptop running 5.0-CURRENT from a couple of months ago.
It's running a slimmed-down OLDCARD kernel (old machine with no NEWCARD
support yet):

FreeBSD 5.0-CURRENT #3: Wed Apr  9 00:07:38 BST 2003    scott at tuatara:/local/0/obj/local/0/-CURRENT/src/sys/ORAC

Card #1 is a Dell Truemobile, which appears to be a rebadged Lucent/Orinoco
Gold card.  It works perfectly with the hostap box, with and without WEP
enabled:

wi0 at port 0x240-0x27f irq 3 slot 0 on pccard0
wi0: 802.11 address: 00:02:2d:50:ee:ff
wi0: using Lucent Technologies, WaveLAN/IEEE
wi0: Lucent Firmware: Station (8.10.1)
wi0: supported rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps

Card #2 is an Intel 2011, which works with WEP turned off but refuses to
associate with the AP when I turn WEP on:

wi0 at port 0x280-0x2c7 iomem 0xd4000-0xd43ff irq 3 slot 0 on pccard0
wi0: 802.11 address: 00:02:b3:04:a1:c5
wi0: using RF:PRISM2 MAC:HFA3841
wi0: Symbol Firmware: Primary (2.1.2), Station (2.20.2)
wi0: supported rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps

I'm using the same /etc/start_if.wi0 script to set up the card in both cases,
so I doubt it's a configuration error.  The Intel card works with a standalone
AP, WEP enabled, at the office, in a Windows laptop.

I've seen this problem mentioned on the lists before, but it's generally been
written off to 'flaky Windows drivers', eg. kern/41834.  That's pretty clearly
not the case here... I guess it could be a firmware issue, but I thought I
should ask here before I start trawling around for firmware and moving cards
into Windows boxes to flash them.

This is just a toy network, so I'm happy to try almost anything, especially on
the -CURRENT box.  And yes, I know WEP is rubbish, but it does at least put up
the wireless equivalent of a 'keep out' sign until I find the time to sort out
something better,

>How-To-Repeat:
Try to attach a Symbol WiFi card to a hostap access point.

>Fix:
Don't use Symbol cards, I guess :-(
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: