trouble setting up wireless

[Alexander Kapshuk]

>
>> On 06/09/13 01:24, Warren Block wrote:
>>> First, check the easy things: is there a physical switch to enable 
>>> wireless?  Is it on?
>> There is no physical switch to enable wireless there.
>
> Notebooks also have function-key combinations to enable and disable 
> the radio.
I've been able to use wireless on this laptop on FreeBSD 9.0. I just 
followed the instructions in the handbook and that was it. This time 
round, I seem to have done the same thing, but there's probably 
something I must be doing wrong.
>
>>> Please post the output of 'ifconfig -a'. 
>> root at box0:/root # ifconfig -a
>> ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 
>> 2290
>>        ether 00:24:2c:5e:06:f2
>>        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
>>        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g
>>        status: associated
>> wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 
>> mtu 1500
>>        ether 00:24:2c:5e:06:f2
>>        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
>>        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (autoselect)
>>        status: no carrier
>>        ssid "" channel 12 (2467 MHz 11g)
>>        regdomain 103 indoor ecm authmode WPA1+WPA2/802.11i privacy OFF
>>        txpower 20 bmiss 7 scanvalid 450 bgscan bgscanintvl 300 
>> bgscanidle 250
>>        roam:rssi 7 roam:rate 5 protmode CTS wme burst roaming MANUAL
>>        bintval 0
>
> I don't see anything obviously wrong.  Is an access point within 
> range? Has someone set it to have a "hidden" SSID?
The reason why ssid is empty in the output of ifconfig above, is because 
I've omitted it in /etc/rc.conf.

Here's my /etc/rc.conf:

  cat /etc/rc.conf
hostname="box0"
ifconfig_re0="DHCP"
sshd_enable="YES"
moused_enable="YES"
ntpd_enable="YES"
powerd_enable="YES"
# Set dumpdev to "AUTO" to enable crash dumps, "NO" to disable
dumpdev="AUTO"
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
hald_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
linux_enable="YES"

I didn't put anything related to the Atheros drivers in the 
/boot/loader.conf as support for them is compiled into the kernel and 
loaded at boot time:

kldstat -v|egrep 'wlan|ath_'
   98 pci/ath_pci
   434 wlan
   433 wlan_wep
   432 wlan_tkip
   431 wlan_ccmp
   430 wlan_amrr
   436 wlan_sta  435 wlan_ratectl_none

Quick question...

The ath_hal(4) man page says that the support for my wireless card is 
handled via ath_hal. It seems to be compiled into the kernel, but I'm 
not seeing it being loaded like the wpa_ and ath_pci modules are.

  dmesg|grep -i Ath
ath0: <Atheros 5424/2424> mem 0xd6000000-0xd600ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 
on pci2
ath0: AR2425 mac 14.2 RF5424 phy 7.0

  egrep 'ath_|wlan_' GENERIC
device   wlan_wep # 802.11 WEP support
device   wlan_ccmp  # 802.11 CCMP support
device   wlan_tkip  # 802.11 TKIP support
device   wlan_amrr  # AMRR transmit rate control algorithm
device   ath_pci  # Atheros pci/cardbus glue
device   ath_hal  # pci/cardbus chip support
device   ath_rate_sample  # SampleRate tx rate control for ath

Also, here's my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf just in case I overlooked 
something:
cat /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
eapol_version=2
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
         ssid="plan9"
          psk=wpa_passphrase-generated psk
}

Thanks.