FreeBSD-8.0 802.11n support with ath/mwl

[Rui Paulo]

On 1 Mar 2010, at 02:26, Jim Pingle wrote:

> On 2/28/2010 7:03 PM, Rui Paulo wrote:
>> On 28 Feb 2010, at 17:38, Jim Pingle wrote:
>>> Are there some other bits that need set in order to have clients
>>> associate with HT rates? Or some other prerequisite conditions such as
>>> number of attached antennae? I do only have one antenna attached as I
>>> didn't have a second pigtail for this test unit's case. The card
>>> actually has three connectors.
>> 
>> Having only 1 antenna connected will likely impact your connection.
> 
> I'll hook up two more and try again when I get a chance, I just need to
> pull them from a working unit that isn't using its wifi currently.
> 
>>> I didn't see hints in the mwl(4), wlan(4), hostapd(8), hostapd.conf(5),
>>> or ifconfig(8) man pages about troubleshooting rates. I see plenty of
>>> talk in ifconfig(8) about use and control of HT rates, but given what
>>> I'm seeing in ifconfig, it should be set to use them. I've tried several
>>> combinations of channels and standards (e.g. 11ng, 11na) but always end
>>> up with a 54Mbps link.
>>> 
>>> I'd appreciate any more pointers that you (or anyone else reading) may
>>> have. I'd like to write up something on the topic once I get it fully
>>> operational.
>> 
>> I don't know what's happening, but I guess your Windows 7 laptop isn't sending the necessary HT rates in the association. Try using wlandebug to see what's happening.
> 
> Ah, I wasn't aware of wlandebug(8). However, it doesn't seem to operate
> on this mwl(4) card. It sets the value of the sysctl net.wlan.0.debug
> and that doesn't show up on my system. Another system with a ral(4) card
> does have that sysctl. Judging by the information in the wlandebug(8)
> man page it appears as though this may be a side effect of mwl doing
> much of the work in firmware.
> 
> I appreciate the information though, thanks for taking the time to
> reply. I'll continue to work on this again once I relocate some pigtails
> from another box.

wlandebug takes an -i argument. I seem to recall you created your wlan interface named "mwl_wlan0", so you need to type wlandebug -i mwl_wlan0.

--
Rui Paulo