TP-link tl-wdn4800 Wireless NIC not being detected

tuprox

I'm going through the default setup and am at the part where the interfaces are being listed and it has my onboard Realtek NIC listed and the 4 port Intel Pro server card listed. I also have a tp-link tl-wdn4800 wireless NIC that I thought would show up, it is using a Atheros 9380 chipset (from what i have heard) and I've been told that it works with pfSense. Is there anything special that has to be done with wireless cards to make them show up? This is my first time installing pfSense so I'm very new to it.

stephenw10

It does look like it's using the Atheros 9380:
http://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_TL-WDN4800
Can you see the card in pciconf? Please post the output here.
It looks like the drivers in pfSense 2.1 are just not new enough. They are backported from FreeBSD 9 already so I guess it just depends when the backport was done.

Steve

anton1209

Same problem with TP-LINK TL-WDN4800…

none2@pci0:1:0:0:	class=0x028000 card=0x3112168c chip=0x0030168c rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    class      = network

PfSense 2.1-RELEASE (i386).
Is there a 2.2 snapshot for testing?

Thanks

stephenw10

Not yet.
You could try FreeBSD 10 to confirm the drivers support your card.

Steve

anton1209

@stephenw10:

Not yet.
You could try FreeBSD 10 to confirm the drivers support your card.

Steve

Thanks for the answer!

The problem is solved now.
It works with latest FreeBSD 10.

Hi Adrian,
Do you know if this card is affected (TP-LINK WDN4800)?
I would like to use it w/pfsense as AccessPoint but I note that it has Atheos AR9380.
Thanks
Hernan.

The card works fine but you have to run -HEAD. Hopefully the pfsense guys will update it to use -HEAD soon!

adrianchadd.blogspot.ru/2013/03/ar9380-support-on-freebsd-why-its-taken.html

ZGruk

Is there a list somewhere of the different Atheros chipsets supported in 2.1? I've found differing lists, most of which don't say if they're from FreeBSD 8, 9, or 10.

stephenw10

If you look at the actual patch to 8.3 that is included in 2.1, here:
https://github.com/pfsense/pfsense-tools/blob/master/patches/RELENG_8_3/ath_9-STABLE.tgz
You can look in the ah_devid.h file to see what ids are defined by ath_hal. Of the most recent those are:

/* AR5416 compatible devid's  */
#define AR5416_DEVID_PCI	0x0023          /* AR5416 PCI (MB/CB) Owl */
#define AR5416_DEVID_PCIE	0x0024          /* AR5416 PCI-E (XB) Owl */
#define	AR5416_AR9130_DEVID     0x000b          /* AR9130 SoC WiMAC */
#define AR9160_DEVID_PCI	0x0027          /* AR9160 PCI Sowl */
#define AR9280_DEVID_PCI	0x0029          /* AR9280 PCI Merlin */
#define AR9280_DEVID_PCIE	0x002a          /* AR9280 PCI-E Merlin */
#define AR9285_DEVID_PCIE	0x002b          /* AR9285 PCI-E Kite */
#define	AR2427_DEVID_PCIE	0x002c		/* AR2427 PCI-E w/ 802.11n bonded out */
#define	AR9287_DEVID_PCI	0x002d		/* AR9227 PCI Kiwi */
#define	AR9287_DEVID_PCIE	0x002e		/* AR9287 PCI-E Kiwi */

Steve

yes, we fully expect to support this in pfSense 2.2 (which is based on FreeBSD 10).