Release notes and handbook changes for identifying wireless adapters

[Ben Woods]

Hi,

FreeBSD wireless users who are upgrading to FreeBSD 11.0 will likely get a
surprise when they try and identify which wireless adapters are available
in their computer by using ifconfig. Neither the FreeBSD 11 release notes
or the FreeBSD handbook currently explain this change.

For example, if you have an atheros wireless driver, you would
previously be able to see it using ifconfig, even before configuring the
wlan0 clone device.

% ifconfig | grep -B3 -i wireless


That was changed with commit r287197:
https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=287197

The new way to show which wireless adapter is available is:
% sysctl net.wlan.devices

Whilst the configuration in /etc/rc.conf required to activate a wireless
adapter has not changed, people may run into the hurdle of not even finding
which wireless adapter to configure in the first place. This can be seen
here:
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=203271

Regards,
Ben


-- 

--
From: Benjamin Woods
woodsb02 at gmail.com