From owner-freebsd-mips@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 23 15:21:42 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mips@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A759A1065670 for ; Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:21:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from adrian.chadd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-vw0-f54.google.com (mail-vw0-f54.google.com [209.85.212.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 535248FC0A for ; Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:21:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: by vws9 with SMTP id 9so1207296vws.13 for ; Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:21:41 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:sender:received :in-reply-to:references:date:x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject :from:to:cc:content-type; bh=MIzS4qp954IiE0MhlcCnzNmN2Ye7lsRx4MPKRluSiVM=; b=hMzjD9E9kQTN3KTW7kI1JyF1KUp2B8u3fU87Q75i0sHgQW3ZoeKx+OVLVBKkDxG0yH S1L/4ydvIE5A47q5/avbdYncfd5OJlqxV9V0BDdHIL0DrYEJemHHbVVnQqLMnul6Pa5+ 8C/g87U/0Y5AAs9+DymiNZf9X7CS/qHGHSZqQ= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; b=n9s3sa9otQRw2RQmpZGAUvqF7oLs0swxUQSQSWVp0NjLZteRJQVaO/zp/nRvJwqotE GAX10AL7WB3lC1aEmtaBuEC8IBXIkAgcYaN6bR9EvammtolXcU1g8mzWw+pQ2WpNi5Ev tJOVbmcd/tGwcfwDfhaCIWIzevODOObC+JUg8= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.216.191.210 with SMTP id g60mr6758848wen.5.1290525699952; Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:21:39 -0800 (PST) Sender: adrian.chadd@gmail.com Received: by 10.216.65.210 with HTTP; Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:21:39 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: References: Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:21:39 +0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: MeemjM5l084oHBjQil3H880eh2A Message-ID: From: Adrian Chadd To: Larry Vaden Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: freebsd-mips@freebsd.org Subject: Re: does anyone have a recommendation for a solid FreeBSD-based 802.11b/g/n AP package for MIPS-based APs and CPEs? X-BeenThere: freebsd-mips@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to MIPS List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:21:42 -0000 On 23 November 2010 23:01, Larry Vaden wrote: > You have been a very productive fellow while taking exams! Hah! :) I explicitly didn't do any of this during exams! > What can you tell us about how the stuck beacon problem is handled > (and indeed if the problem remains in the development code branch)? "stuck beacon" is a symptom of many, many potentially inter-related causes. I've fixed some of the code related problems that upset the AR9160's I was using. I can't fix RF issues, nor can I fix issues that require detailed documentation about the behaviour of the radio. I have almost no documentation about the atheros stuff and certainly nothing at all about the radio. All I really have is ath5k/ath9k and some helpful contacts that answer the (frequent!) questions I have. I haven't yet sat down and tried to use the AR9280 I have here in any real way; I'm specifically ignoring it until I've finished off the 11n TX path. I have to go over the ath9k code to see what bits we're missing that could impact stability - there's definitely calibration and TX power related code that we don't have in our HAL. Rui had problems with the AR9280 stability and I'm thus focusing on the chipset that -is- closer to working in a useful way (AR9160), even if it's "old" and "unsupported" today. > Will Rogers said "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." > and I'm ignorant about TX. Well, in summary - the TX descriptor format has changed between chipsets (ie, what fields mean in the TX descriptors.) The 11n chipsets have different expectations for programming TX rates, rts/cts stuff, etc. There's also extra stuff to care about for handling 11n TX A-MPDU which I'm just going to ignore for the first pass. I've been slowly figuring out what's going on by reading ath9k/ath5k source and asking a few atheros people some questions but it's taking (a lot of) time. That said, the relevant ath5k/ath9k people have been very, very helpful. :-) I'm short on free time at the moment and I do need a bit of a break from concentration, so there's no real timeline for: * merging my platform work back into -head; * finishing the AR724x so (in theory) the Bullet M2/M5 can boot FreeBSD; * finishing up the if_ath TX path code so it works for both legacy and 11n chipsets "right enough" to trust it; * even thinking about merging any of this initial 11n stuff from Rui/Sam into -HEAD. I'll post an update on -mips when I've hacked together the AR724x support to test. Adrian