Pfsense router cant see built in wireless

robina80 · Dec 5, 2013, 11:10 PM

hi,

ive managed to install and get working pfsense and its great!

but i have a small problem when i come to add/assign another "interface" click "wireless" the "parent interface" of my wireless adapter doesnt show in the drop down, i have a zotac zbox ID42 with built in wireless card and in the bios i cant see it so i persume it comes already enabled

im just abit confused thats all and womdering why it cant see the adapter

stephenw10 · Dec 5, 2013, 11:32 PM

Possibly there is no FreeBSD for it. It looks to be an Intel Wireless-N 135 adapater, yes? The iwn(4) driver supports the 130 but doesn't mention the 135.

Steve

robina80 · Dec 6, 2013, 12:37 AM

Yes its the intel centrino 135

Do you know if they will bring out a driver for it?

stephenw10 · Dec 6, 2013, 12:54 AM

I'm not sure it's not supported already, though it seems unlikely. It looks like you need some firmware loaded to make it run.
You'd have to check the FreeBSD mailing lists to see if anyone is working on a driver. Even if they are it almost certainly won't be ported back to FreeBSD 8 so you'd have to wait for the next version of pfSense which will be built on FreeBSD 10. No time scale on that.

Looking at the source it looks like the 135 is not supported by the iwn(4) driver:

90 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6x05_1, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205" },
91 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_1000_1, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000" },
92 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_1000_2, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000" },
93 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6x05_2, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205" },
94 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6050_1, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250" },
95 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6050_2, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250" },
96 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_x030_1, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030" },
97 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_x030_2, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030" },
98 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_x030_3, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230" },
99 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_x030_4, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230" },
100 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6150_1, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N + WiMAX 6150" },
101 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6150_2, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N + WiMAX 6150" },
102 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_2x00_1, "Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2200 BGN" },
103 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_2x00_2, "Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless-N 2200 BGN" },
104 	/* XXX 2200D is IWN_SDID_2x00_4; there's no way to express this here! */
105 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_2x30_1, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230" },
106 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_2x30_2, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230" },
107 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_130_1, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 130" },
108 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_130_2, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 130" },
109 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_100_1, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 100" },
110 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_100_2, "Intel Centrino Wireless-N 100" },
111 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_4965_1, "Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965" },
112 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6x00_1, "Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300" },
113 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6x00_2, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200" },
114 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_4965_2, "Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965" },
115 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_4965_3, "Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965" },
116 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x00_1, "Intel WiFi Link 5100" },
117 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_4965_4, "Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965" },
118 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x00_3, "Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300" },
119 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x00_4, "Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300" },
120 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x00_2, "Intel WiFi Link 5100" },
121 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6x00_3, "Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300" },
122 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_6x00_4, "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200" },
123 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x50_1, "Intel WiMAX/WiFi Link 5350" },
124 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x50_2, "Intel WiMAX/WiFi Link 5350" },
125 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x50_3, "Intel WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150" },
126 	{ 0x8086, IWN_DID_5x50_4, "Intel WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150" },

It looks like that's the driver that should support it aswell, the Linux equivalent does: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi

The good news is that Adrian Chadd is working on the driver, as recently as 3 days ago, and his reputation precedes him. :) No specific 135 news though.

Steve

stephenw10 · Dec 6, 2013, 1:18 AM

Actually looking at this file:
http://svnweb.freebsd.org/base/head/sys/dev/iwn/if_iwn_devid.h?revision=257607&view=markup
It seems maybe the 135 is supported as a hardware revision of the 130.
I can't find the fimware iamge for the 13x though.

Steve

robina80 · Jan 2, 2014, 12:40 PM

Stephen,

the link you gave me -

It looks like that's the driver that should support it aswell, the Linux equivalent does: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi

how do i load/install the driver on my pfsense 2.1 machine?

stephenw10 · Jan 2, 2014, 2:43 PM

You don't.
That's a Linux driver and pfSense is built on FreeBSD which isn't Linux.
You need a more recent iwn(4) driver which might support it. Unfortunately recent development drivers will be built on FreeBSD 10 and pfSense 2.1 is built on 8.3 so you need an 8.X backport. It's not trivial.

Steve

robina80 · Jan 2, 2014, 4:01 PM

and how do you do that

sorry for the novice question

stephenw10 · Jan 2, 2014, 4:24 PM

If someone commits a new version of the driver to /stable/8 you could setup a FreeBSD 8.3 machine and try compiling a new iwn(4) kernel module. Otherwise you'd have to either attempt to backport it yourself or scour the mailing lists for any backported code that may be under development.

It's not easy. ::)

Steve

robina80 · Jan 2, 2014, 4:34 PM

ok thanks Steve for your help

ive got a usb wifi dongle, its the WNDA 3100 and the 3100v2 will this work?

stephenw10 · Jan 2, 2014, 5:10 PM

Probably not. :(
The WNDA3100 appears to be an Atheros AR9001 which isn't yet supported by the uath(4) driver.
The WNDA3100v2 appears to be a Broadcom BCM4323 which isn't supported at all AFAIK.

For known supported cards look here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AojFUXcbH0ROdHgwYkFHbkRUdV9hVWljVWl5SXkxbFE&hl=en#gid=0

Steve

robina80 · Jan 3, 2014, 9:19 AM

http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/?model=TL-WN821N#spec

will this one as its using the atheros chipset

what would you recommend for a USB network adapter?

stephenw10 · Jan 3, 2014, 12:28 PM

That looks to come in 4 versions. 3 are using the same AR9001 Atheros chipset and 1 an unknown Realtek chipset. I doubt any of them would work.

If you need a USB adapter that will run as an access point then some of the Ralink based devices are recommended. The RT3070 chipset should be supported.

Steve

robina80 · Jan 8, 2014, 3:27 PM

this one just comes in one version (atheros) and i think it will work -

http://www.dabs.com/products/tp-link-tl-wn722n-150mbps-high-gain-wireless-usb-adapter-92JW.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc%20product%20search&utm_content=Q200&utm_campaign=Networking%20-%20Network%20Devices%20-%20Network%20Interface%20Cards&origin=pla

stephenw10 · Jan 8, 2014, 9:44 PM

Looks like an AR9002 based device which will not work.
http://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_TL-WN722N

The FreeBSD USB Atheros driver, uath(4), supports only AR5005 devices. 802.11G only.

Try one of these:
http://www.dabs.com/products/tp-link-150mbps-high-power-wireless-usb-adapter-8S25.html?refs=4294946755-4294946753-50010000-50043&src=3

I have one here, I know it works. Assuming they only made 1 version that is. ;) I can only find reference to one though.
Some caveats: It doesn't work at N speeds. It can't do channels 12+13. It doesn't work well as a client (fine as an AP).

Steve