Atheros wireless card - 2 interfaces both only work 802.11g
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I have a build with an Atheros AR9287 (or AR5B97) pci-e card that I was hoping I could get to work at 802.11n speed in version 2.2. Unfortunately, it shows with two interfaces (ath0_wlan0 and ath0_wlan1) and neither of them will work if I select a speed (on the interface screen) greater than 802.11g. If I select 802.11n, the interface will not come up. I've also confirmed that it only gets G speeds when I select 802.11g.
Couple questions:
1.) Why does it show two interfaces (ath0_wlan0 and ath0_wlan1)?
2.) Why can't I get 802.11 speed on this card? Is it a driver issue?Thanks!
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I tried a recent 2.2 build with an AR5B95. It only created one interface by default. I could go to interfaces, assign and create a second one. If you don't want a second virtual AP, delete it. Maybe it was a bug in the build you had. Mine came up fine under 'ng' and I was able to connect to it with an n client. I did not test throughput.
I think I used this image: pfSense-2.2-BETA-2g-i386-nanobsd-20141009-1505.img.gz -
Interesting… This is the third build I've tried and it always shows two interfaces. and... like I said it will only let me select 802.11g as the speed. If I select 802.11n, the interfaces wont come up.
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Just bumping…
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?
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Mine was just a generic 9285/AR5B95 from a laptop.
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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!
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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.
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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
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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...
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Go into interfaces, assign and click the X next to the second wireless interface.
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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).
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Did you flip to the wireless tab under assign interfaces?
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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
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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)?
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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.) -
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.
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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. -
Any errors in the system log? Or other evidence?
Steve
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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…
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It's a dual band card. Did you try setting it for na instead of ng?
