Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 19:00:06 -0400 From: "Will Saxon" <WillS@housing.ufl.edu> To: <stable@freebsd.org> Subject: Wireless hardware support Message-ID: <0E972CEE334BFE4291CD07E056C76ED805A2C67B@bragi.housing.ufl.edu>
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I recently purchased a Netgear WG311 card based on the fact that the=20 manpage for ath(4) says it is a supported card. As it turns out, at=20 least version 2 (the version I had) of this card is not supported - it=20 appears to be based on a Texas Instruments chipset that it not=20 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 =20 messages stated that the driver was buggy and in fact my system would=20 panic randomly with the driver loaded. I returned the card this afternoon and swapped it out for another=20 card, a D-Link DWL-G520. While this particular model number is not=20 listed on the ath(4) manpage, it is listed as a supported ath(4)=20 device on the 5.3-RELEASE hardware notes for i386. Also, it is listed=20 at the atheros webpage linked from that same document. However, at=20 least revision B3 of this card ALSO is not supported by the ath=20 driver. I get the following error message when I try to load the=20 driver: ath0: <Atheros 5212> 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=20 numerous console messages like these (I renamed the device ath with=20 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=20 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=20 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=20 natively supported by FreeBSD?=20 -Will -- Will Saxon Systems Programmer, Network Services University of Florida Department of Housing Phone: (352) 392-2171 x10148 Email: wills@housing.ufl.edu
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