Update from 2.0.3 to 2.1: WLAN card is no longer working

pvoigt

Yes, llburrito, symptoms look very similar. It's interesting that you are using the same WLAN card and probably the same mainboard. Currently it's hard for me to believe that the described issue is restricted to this special hardware combination. I more think that:

1.) many psSense installation are still waiting to be upgraded
2.) the majority of pfSense installations are not operating a WLAN card. They are probably combinded with an external access point.

That's why there are rare WLAN related threads dealing with pfSense 2.1.

I would really like to upgrade to version 2.1 but currently the WLAN issue is a show stopper. I've read another interesting thread where the author and contributers describe a similar problem where their non-WLAN OPT interface remains dead http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,66938.0.html. I feel the problems may be related but cannot say for sure without furter information.

Regards,
Peter

phil.davis

For the record, I have an Alix 2D13 with Atheros KIT-ALIX-5004MP-DUAL from NetGate WiFi card in it:

ath0: <atheros 5212=""> mem 0xe00c0000-0xe00cffff irq 9 at device 12.0 on pci0
ath0: [ITHREAD]
ath0: AR5212 mac 5.9 RF5112 phy 4.3
wlan0: changing name to 'ath0_wlan0'</atheros>

It is running happily on 2.1-RELEASE with multiple WiFi clients connected at a remote site as I type. Obviously a different model, but posting just to confirm that this version of ath0 works.

pvoigt

@phil.davis:

For the record, I have an Alix 2D13 with Atheros KIT-ALIX-5004MP-DUAL from NetGate WiFi card in it:
ath0: <atheros 5212=""> mem 0xe00c0000-0xe00cffff irq 9 at device 12.0 on pci0
ath0: [ITHREAD]
ath0: AR5212 mac 5.9 RF5112 phy 4.3
wlan0: changing name to 'ath0_wlan0'</atheros>
It is running happily on 2.1-RELEASE with multiple WiFi clients connected at a remote site as I type. Obviously a different model, but posting just to confirm that this version of ath0 works.

Thank you very much for your feedback. I am glad to hear that at least one WLAN card is working with pfSense 2.1. Unfortunately my AR5412 remains in an unusable state: Nor completely dead neither fully initialized. I am wondering if this is resticted to this special WLAN card/chipset or if there is something else wrong. Currently I am completely stuck, having no idea what I could do to find the reason. Most annoying is the lack of any logging information. If only I could swap the WLAN card with another one but I don't have.

Regards,
Peter

stephenw10

I'm running an AR5005 (AR2413 chip) MINIPCI card with no problems at all. I not using any virtual access points, don't know if that might effect things.

Steve

pvoigt

@stephenw10:

I'm running an AR5005 (AR2413 chip) MINIPCI card with no problems at all. I not using any virtual access points, don't know if that might effect things.

Steve

Thank you, Steve, for your feedback. Yes, the virtual access point could be a point to start. I've been thinking about it as well and tried pfSense 2.1 without it during my various attempts to delete and re-create the wireless setup. Unfortunately this also did not help. I simply could not make my WLAN card to coperate properly with pfSense 2.1. Only re-installing pfSense 2.0.3 helped - the WLAN card immediately worked as expected. So I am currently out of ideas leaving my Alix with pfSense 2.0.3. Because of these bad experiences - please see above for further details - I do not dare to install pfSense on my Soekris net6501 with an AR9280.

Regards,
Peter

Paul47

I just got a card from ebay with a similar result.


ath0: <atheros 2424="" 5424="">.....
ath0: [ITHREAD]
ath0: AR2425 mac 14.2 RF5424 phy 7.0
wlan0: changing name to 'ath0_wlan0'</atheros>

ifconfig shows both an ath0 device (status=associated) and a ath0_wlan0 device (status=no carrier). The latter has the correct wlan0 ip address. There is nothing in the wireless logs. I do not see the SSID being broadcast. WLAN0 is listed under 'interfaces" and has the appropriate setup options; I can enter some things but nothing makes it operate.

Oh, well! It cost almost nothing to try this out, at least. I hope the next device coming in from ebay does better…

I vaguely remember reading somewhere we have to put a command to load firmware for these, in /boot/loader.conf or /boot/loader.conf.local, but now I can't find that thread for some reason. Might that be required to get these working?

pvoigt

@Paul47:

Oh, well! It cost almost nothing to try this out, at least. I hope the next device coming in from ebay does better…

Thanks for your feedback. There are obviously some WLAN cards that stop working under pfSense 2.1. Unfortunately, nobody can currently exactly tell you which cards are affected. One may assume, the error might be relared to the underlying FrreeBSD upgrade. Perhaps you might have a look at this thread describing another affected card before you are going to order a new one:
http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,66823.new/topicseen.html

Regards,
Peter

Paul47

My next device will be a USB-based AP. Cross my fingers on that one too. :)

FYI I am also not using IEEE802.1X authentication.

notgeorge

Just submitted a bug request + suggested workaround & fix that seems to address the issue with the wireless interface defaulting to OPEN instead of setting WPA2 properly.

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/3562

Hasn't completely gotten 802.1x working, but it's probably a step in the right direction and at least I can get WPA2 with PSK to work properly.

pvoigt

@notgeorge:

Just submitted a bug request + suggested workaround & fix that seems to address the issue with the wireless interface defaulting to OPEN instead of setting WPA2 properly.

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/3562

Hasn't completely gotten 802.1x working, but it's probably a step in the right direction and at least I can get WPA2 with PSK to work properly.

Thank you very much for your feedback. This issue was that serious for me that I have decided to open a new thread for it:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=72483.0

Within this thread ermal has fixed the problem some 2.1.1-PRERELEASE snapshots ago. And 802.1x authentication is still working as expected with the latest 2.1.1 snapshot (i386 nanobsd) from 2014-03-26. Therefore I am regarding this issue as solved :)

Regards,
Peter

EDIT: I have just done some quick search on github. I am not very experienced with github but I strongly suppose, this commit of ermal has solved the 802.1x issue:
https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense/commit/315bdf65a12337f150bde11d95824528d90068be