From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 27 15:58:55 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F89416A4CE for ; Wed, 27 Apr 2005 15:58:55 +0000 (GMT) Received: from ebb.errno.com (ebb.errno.com [66.127.85.87]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDDC943D48 for ; Wed, 27 Apr 2005 15:58:54 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sam@errno.com) Received: from [66.127.85.91] (sam@[66.127.85.91]) (authenticated bits=0) by ebb.errno.com (8.12.9/8.12.6) with ESMTP id j3RFwqms076553 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 27 Apr 2005 08:58:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sam@errno.com) Message-ID: <426FB767.4050206@errno.com> Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 09:01:43 -0700 From: Sam Leffler User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2 (X11/20050327) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Will Saxon References: <0E972CEE334BFE4291CD07E056C76ED805A2C67B@bragi.housing.ufl.edu> In-Reply-To: <0E972CEE334BFE4291CD07E056C76ED805A2C67B@bragi.housing.ufl.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Wireless hardware support X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 15:58:55 -0000 Will Saxon wrote: > I recently purchased a Netgear WG311 card based on the fact that the > manpage for ath(4) says it is a supported card. As it turns out, at > least version 2 (the version I had) of this card is not supported - it > appears to be based on a Texas Instruments chipset that it not > supported by anything other than Windows. I was able to use the card > with the ndis wrapper, however it didn't work very well; console > messages stated that the driver was buggy and in fact my system would > panic randomly with the driver loaded. > > I returned the card this afternoon and swapped it out for another > card, a D-Link DWL-G520. While this particular model number is not > listed on the ath(4) manpage, it is listed as a supported ath(4) > device on the 5.3-RELEASE hardware notes for i386. Also, it is listed > at the atheros webpage linked from that same document. However, at > least revision B3 of this card ALSO is not supported by the ath > driver. I get the following error message when I try to load the > driver: > > ath0: mem 0xd0000000-0xd000ffff irq 16 at device 6.0 on pci5 > ath0: unable to attach hardware; HAL status 13 > device_attach: ath0 attach returned 6 > > I am able to use this card via the ndis wrapper, however I get > numerous console messages like these (I renamed the device ath with > ndiscvt): > > ath0: set filter failed: 45 > ath0: couldn't change DS config to 2417000kHz: 19 > NDIS: open file /compat/ndis/regAdd.txt failed: 2 > > I fixed the latter by touching the file. I have no idea what it is > supposed to do - there is no file by that name on the CD that came > with the card and I am not sure what it is for. > > Interestingly, the DWL-G520 is supposed to be an 802.11b/g part only > however the NDIS driver 'detects' 802.11a modes. Also the NDIS driver > does not detect the 108Mbps 'Super' mode that the card advertises on > the box. > > Thankfully, no panics yet with the D-Link card and the NDIS driver. > > Does anyone have a suggestion for a PCI wireless card that is > natively supported by FreeBSD? 5.3 has noticeably older ath support than -current. I've been unable to update 5.x with all the 6.x code because it breaks API's that are frozen for the life of 5.x. I'm considering backporting some of the driver-specific 6.x support to 5.x so the same cards are supported but that's a lot of work and won't happen until this summer. Sam