how to install wireless n.i.c. on FreeBSD 9.1

[leeoliveshackelford at surewest.net]

Good afternoon, dear Polytropon. May this message find you in good
spirits. Thank you for your detailed response yesterday. I made the
corrections that you indicated in two configuration files. Upon
re-starting the computer, the error message "SYNCDHCP: Command not
found" was absent. The response to the command, "pciconf -lv" was
exactly the same as before. The response to the ifconfig command did not
indicate the presence of the wireless n.i.c. Thank you for advising me
about a possible error in security concerning one of my attached files.
I have alerted the system administrator. Have you, or has anyone any
comment about what it is that I am doing wrong here? On a different
topic, can or do you recommend a character mode programer's editor, that
is, an editor that prints a line number to the left of each line? Thank
you for any and all comments. Yours truly, Lee 

On 08/25/2014 05:28 PM, Polytropon wrote: 

> On Mon, 25 Aug 2014 11:22:10 -0700, leeoliveshackelford at surewest.netwrote:
> 
>> The complete name of the circuit board is as follows: "TP-Link TL-WDN4800 450 Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter."
> 
> Ah, "N"... there are still N chipsets not fully supported
> by FreeBSD, maybe you accidentally picked one of those?
> But first let's check the configuration before we scream
> in despair for having bought the _one_ model that is _not_
> supported. :-)
> 
>> In my previous message, I mis-identified the manufacturer, as you correctly noted. To the command "pciconf -lv," I received the following response: none0 at pci0:40:0:0 class=0x028000 card=0x3112168c chip=0x0030168c rev=0x01 hdr=0x00 vendor = 'Atheros Communications Inc.' device = 'AR9300 Wireless LAN adaptor' class = network
> 
> So the Atheros chipset is correctly identified, good.
> 
>> Upon checking the webpage specified in your message, I read the following line: "The ath(4) driver supports all Atheros Cardbus and PCI cards, except those that are based on the AR5005VL chipset."
> 
> Good, so this one will probably be supported, I hope.
> 
>> The three modified files are /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, and /etc/rc.conf, and /boot/loader.conf. Copies of these files are attached.
> 
> Let's see:
> 
> [loader.conf text/plain (84B)]
> 
> if_ath_ahb_load="YES"
> wlan_wep_load="YES"
> wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
> wlan_tkip_load="YES"
> 
> The first line looks strange. There are /boot/kernel/if_ath.ko
> and /boot/kernel/ahb.ko, and "man ahb" reveals that this one is
> for "Adaptec EISA SCSI host adapter driver". But as if_ath_ahb.ko
> does not exist, the _correct_ module won't be loaded.
> 
> The first line should read:
> 
> if_ath_load="YES"
> 
> Change the file accordingly.
> 
> Next file.
> 
> [rc.conf text/plain (206B)]
> 
> hostname="HP7USH74200Y0"
> wlans_ath0="wlan0"
> ifconfig_wlan0="WPA" SYNCDHCP
> sshd_enable="YES"
> ntpd_enable="YES"
> powerd_enable="YES"
> dumpdev="NO"
> 
> Again, there's an error which explains your initial 
> 
> SYNCDHCP: command not found
> 
> message: The SYNCDHCP has to be _inside_ the quotes. Keep in mind
> that /etc/rc.conf is basically a shell script, so it follows all
> the rules from "man sh". What you have here is: setting a variable
> and calling a command (which doen't exist).
> 
> The correct line:
> 
> ifconfig_wlan0="WPA SYNCDHCP"
> 
> This should work. The common syntax is keyword="VALUE", where the
> VALUE can contain spaces.
> 
> Last file.
> 
> [wpa_supplicant.conf text/plain (42B)]
> 
> network={
> ssid="WPA"
> psk="F70FA10C57"
> }
> 
> While "WPA" is a strange name of a network, it's a valid one. :-)
> The rest of the file looks fine.
> 
> But note: freebsd-questions is a _public_ mailing list, so I
> hope "F70FA10C57" isn't your _actual_ key. If it is, change
> it quickly! You don't want to tell the whole Internet your
> access credentials.
> 
> Passwords are like underwear: change yours often, don't
> share with friends, the longer the better, they must remain
> mysterious, don't leave them lying around. :-)
> 
> It's common to enter "obvious nonsense" in such cases, like
> 
> network={
> ssid="MYNETWORKNAME"
> psk="SECRETPASSWORD"
> }
> 
> As long as the syntax is kept correct, the actual information
> does not matter here (except, maybe, if a password contained
> quote characters or other things that might cause a hickup
> for wpa-supplicant, but that's not the case here).
> 
> After you have corrected the files, restart your system and
> see if it works. Chances are high that there were just those
> two little mistakes, and your WLAN should be up and running
> quickly. It's not that working WLAN is something magical... :-)