Atheros wireless card - 2 interfaces both only work 802.11g

dotdash

Mine was just a generic 9285/AR5B95 from a laptop.

rjcrowder

Hate to ask, but based on your prior post I wasn't sure - is there any way you can confirm getting "N" speed out of it? I just don't want to buy another one and have it not work… Also, did you try turning on WPA2 encryption? Thanks!

dotdash

Can't confirm speed at the moment. That box is not connected to the Internet, and it's back running 2.1.5 for the time being. Sorry.

stephenw10

Did you try removing the second virtual interface? It could be that it won't allow you switch radio modes when you have a multiple VAPs assigned or it's trying to operate on the virtual interface rather than the real hardware.

Steve

rjcrowder

Hmmm… Not sure I fully understand what you are suggesting...

How would I "remove the second virtual interface"? There are two interfaces - ath0_wlan0 and ath0_wlan1 - and it seems that they are auto-detected by FreeBSD at bootup. I have tried not setting one of them up in pfSense (on the interfaces menu) but that doesn't make any difference. In other words, even if I only set one of them up in pfSense, I still only get "G" speeds out of the configured interface...

dotdash

Go into interfaces, assign and click the X next to the second wireless interface.

rjcrowder

@dotdash:

Go into interfaces, assign and click the X next to the second wireless interface.

Yep… that's what I've done. I've also just tried not even setting it up in pfSense at all. Of course, even if I don't create an interface for it (say for example and opt1 interface associated with ath0_wlan1), it still shows as an option to pick in the dropdown list of interfaces on that page (for "opt" whatever).

dotdash

Did you flip to the wireless tab under assign interfaces?

stephenw10

I may have misunderstood the situation. Is this a dual radio card perhaps?
I have seen similar problems with trying to apply some driver specific config to a virtual interface. A vlan instead of it's parent interface for example.

Steve

rjcrowder

@stephenw10:

I may have misunderstood the situation. Is this a dual radio card perhaps?
I have seen similar problems with trying to apply some driver specific config to a virtual interface. A vlan instead of it's parent interface for example.

Steve

Yea… that was my first thought as well Steve... not sure if it is dual radio (or dual range which I guess ends up being two radios) or not. But I was asking if that is how a dual card would show up? Interfaces listed as I described? So, assuming you had two atheros based cards with each having two radios, would you end up with ath0_wlan0, ath0_wlan1, (for the first card) and ath1_wlan0, ath1_wlan1 (for the second card)?

dotdash

I doubt it's a dual radio card. Maybe dual band. I've tried an Atheros dual band miniPCI card under 2.2, and it showed up under assign interfaces as 'ath0'. I expect this is the 'friendly name' because if you create a second vap, it comes up as ath0_wlan1. IIRC, you can't use the raw interface (athx) under FreeBSD versions >8, so to use the interface, you have to create the inital vap (ath0_wlan).
Anyway, In my tests, I just got one interface unless I manually added a second one. The dual band card just allowed me to select 5GHz channels. I've only tried Atheros cards, apart from a run dongle, which I found out still doesn't have an n-capable driver under 10. (Mine was a 2800, errata suggests the 2700 chips work at n speed.)

Legion

@rjcrowder:

Anyone have any ideas why this card (Atheros AR9287/AR5B97) only works in G mode? If not, can anyone tell me cards that is tested to work in 2.2 in N mode?

I would have hoped (probably like many others) that 2.2 Atheros support would look something like this:

https://wiki.freebsd.org/dev/ath_hal(4)/HardwareSupport

In fact, this is one of the biggest drawcards of 2.2 for me. If you're having issues with a specific card, maybe search some FreeBSD forum links and see if its been discussed. I have AR5BXB92, which is just a AR9280, and I was really hoping it would support N speeds.

rjcrowder

As best I can figure it out… here's the deal.

1.) Having two interfaces was my fault. Apparently I had erroneously created a clone on the "wireless" tab. I've now deleted it.
2.) I have ath0 working and I am able to wirelessly connect. However, the interface will NOT come up if I select 802.11ng as the "standard". It will only start if I select 802.11g.

stephenw10

Any errors in the system log? Or other evidence?

Steve

rjcrowder

Nothing under "wireless"… grepping dmesg for "ath" gives...

[2.2-BETA][root@pfSense.localdomain]/var/log: dmesg | grep ath
ath0: <atheros 9287="">mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d0ffff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci3
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
ath0: AR9287 mac 384.2 RF5133 phy 15.15
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode enabled
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode disabled
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode enabled
ath0: <atheros 9287="">mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d0ffff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci3
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
ath0: AR9287 mac 384.2 RF5133 phy 15.15
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode enabled
ath0: <atheros 9287="">mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d0ffff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci3
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
ath0: AR9287 mac 384.2 RF5133 phy 15.15
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode enabled
ath0: <atheros 9287="">mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d0ffff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci3
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
ath0: AR9287 mac 384.2 RF5133 phy 15.15
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
wlan0: changing name to 'ath0_wlan0'
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode enabled
ath0: <atheros 9287="">mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d0ffff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci3
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
ath0: AR9287 mac 384.2 RF5133 phy 15.15
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
wlan0: changing name to 'ath0_wlan0'
ath0: ath_reset_grablock: didn't finish after 10 iterations
ath0: ath_reset_grablock: warning, recursive reset path!
ath0: ath_reset: concurrent reset! Danger!
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode enabled
ath0: ath_reset_grablock: didn't finish after 10 iterations
ath0: ath_reset_grablock: warning, recursive reset path!
ath0: ath_chan_set: concurrent reset! Danger!
ath0: <atheros 9287="">mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d0ffff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci3
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
ath0: AR9287 mac 384.2 RF5133 phy 15.15
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
wlan0: changing name to 'ath0_wlan0'
ath0_wlan0: promiscuous mode enabled</atheros></atheros></atheros></atheros></atheros></atheros>

Don't see anything anywhere else…

dotdash

It's a dual band card. Did you try setting it for na instead of ng?

rjcrowder

That's not an option… I've attached a screen shot.

![Screenshot from 2014-10-22 11:00:35.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screenshot from 2014-10-22 11:00:35.png)
![Screenshot from 2014-10-22 11:00:35.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screenshot from 2014-10-22 11:00:35.png_thumb)

rjcrowder

UPDATE…. if I select a channel (don't use the "Auto" channel select) the interface will start with 802.11ng selected.

I'm still not sure it is actually getting N speed - but I'm going to work on confirming.

rjcrowder

OK More info… Per previous, the card comes up with 802.11ng as the "standard" as long as I manually select a channel.

However, I've tried changing about every setting I can think of (including disabling security), but the card refuses to accept Wireless N connections. When I get connected, the link speed is always 54mbps and the actual throughput is always something lower. In addition, if I set the "minimum wireless standard" (setting a little further down the screen) to 802.11n, then the card refuses all connections. Seems that the card is only setup to accept a "G" connection! Driver issue?

BTW... this is what ifconfig shows...

ath0_wlan0: flags=8943 <up,broadcast,running,promisc,simplex,multicast>metric 0 mtu 1500
ether 18:f4:6a:32:be:c7
inet6 fe80::1af4:6aff:fe32:bec7%ath0_wlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8
nd6 options=21 <performnud,auto_linklocal>media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11ng <hostap>status: running
ssid pfsense channel 11 (2462 MHz 11g ht/40-) bssid 18:f4:6a:32:be:c7
regdomain FCC country US indoor ecm authmode WPA2/802.11i
privacy MIXED deftxkey 2 AES-CCM 2:128-bit txpower 30 scanvalid 60
protmode OFF ampdulimit 64k ampdudensity 8 shortgi burst -apbridge
dtimperiod 1 -dfs</hostap></performnud,auto_linklocal></up,broadcast,running,promisc,simplex,multicast>

dotdash

My 9285 also fails when channel is set to auto.
If I set mine to minimum standard n, I can still connect from a Windows laptop. The laptop shows an n connection.
I'm getting some errors in the logs- perhaps only when I change a setting and it reloads the interface…
kernel: ath0: ath_reset_grablock: didn't finish after 10 iterations
kernel: ath0: ath_reset_grablock: warning, recursive reset path!
kernel: ath0: ath_chan_set: concurrent reset! Danger!
But it seems to be working…