Wierd issues with wifi in hostap mode in FreeBSD 11

[Stefan Lambrev]

Greetings,


I've just installed FreeBSD 11 on Soekris net5501 with the following wifi
card:


root@soekris:~ # dmesg |grep ath0
ath0: <Atheros 5413> mem 0xa0010000-0xa001ffff irq 15 at device 17.0 on pci0
ath0: AR5413 mac 10.5 RF5413 phy 6.1
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x0063

ath0@pci0:0:17:0: class=0x020000 card=0x110719b6 chip=0x001b168c
rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Qualcomm Atheros'
device = 'AR5413/AR5414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5006X(S)
802.11abg]'
class = network
subclass = ethernet


But wat is very strange for me is that I do not see ath0 device on ifconfig:


root@soekris:~ # ifconfig ath0
ifconfig: interface ath0 does not exist

At the same time if I crate wlan0 to list caps it works:

root@soekris:~ # ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0
root@soekris:~ # ifconfig wlan0 list caps
drivercaps=4f8defc1<STA,FF,TURBOP,IBSS,PMGT,HOSTAP,AHDEMO,TXPMGT,SHSLOT,SHPREAMB

LE,MONITOR,MBSS,WPA1,WPA2,BURST,WME,WDS,TXFRAG>
cryptocaps=1f<WEP,TKIP,AES,AES_CCM,TKIPMIC>
root@soekris:~ #


The issues is that when I try to start wlan0 in hostap mode - FreeBSD
freezes, unfortunatelly I cannot find my serial port cable atm and cannot
see what exactly is displayed on the console but it's a hard freeze and the
device do not reboot after it e.g. power cycle is required.


When configured from rc.conf it boots and do not freeze but still says
status: no carrier and hostapd complains that the device is not configured.

snippet from rc.conf:

cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
create_args_wlan0="wlanmod hostap"
ifconfig_wlan0="ssid cheffo country bg up"
ifconfig_bridge0="addm vr0 addm vr1 addm vr2 addm vr3 addm wlan0 up"
ifconfig_bridge0_alias0="inet 10.1.1.2 netmask 255.255.255.0"

I'm still with GENERIC kernel and there are no changes or custom cpu
optimizations done so far:

root@soekris:~ # uname -a
FreeBSD soekris.ziops-security.org 11.0-BETA3 FreeBSD 11.0-BETA3 #0
r303469: Fri Jul 29 04:28:58 UTC 2016
ro...@releng2.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
i386

root@soekris:~ # cat /boot/loader.conf
dcons_load="YES"
dcons_crom="YES"
crypto_load="YES"
cryptodev_load="YES"
glxsb_load="YES"
if_bridge_load="YES"
wlan_xauth_load="YES"


root@soekris:~ # kldstat
Id Refs Address Size Name
1 19 0xc0400000 1a9313c kernel
2 1 0xc1e95000 80d4 geom_label.ko
3 1 0xc1e9e000 bc80 if_bridge.ko
4 2 0xc1eaa000 6ce0 bridgestp.ko
5 1 0xc1eb1000 3a70 dcons.ko
6 1 0xc1eb5000 5978 cryptodev.ko
7 1 0xc1ebb000 548c glxsb.ko
8 1 0xc1ec1000 1d6c wlan_xauth.ko


I have to mention that I've tried with 11-BETA2 first and there were the
same behaviour, and also I have used this soekris setup for few years with
FreeBSD 7 and 8 for a home wifi router so I do know that the hardware is
supported and OK, as it worked rock solid just before reinstalling it with
FreeBSD 11.

Any advice on how to get wifi working again?

Thanks!
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[Kurt Jaeger]

Hi!

> But wat is very strange for me is that I do not see ath0 device on ifconfig:

The listing of the hardware specific interfaces, like ath0 etc
was removed in 11.

There's a sysctl for it now, I don't remember which one 8-(

--
p...@opsec.eu +49 171 3101372 4 years to go !

[Christian Schwarz]

On Wed, Aug 03, 2016 at 01:52:16PM +0200, Kurt Jaeger wrote:
> Hi!
>
> > But wat is very strange for me is that I do not see ath0 device on ifconfig:
>
> The listing of the hardware specific interfaces, like ath0 etc
> was removed in 11.
>
> There's a sysctl for it now, I don't remember which one 8-(
>
> --
> p...@opsec.eu +49 171 3101372 4 years to go !

See freebsd-stable:

> sysctl net.wlan.devices

--
Christian Schwarz

----

From: Ben Woods <wood...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2016 07:02:05 +0800
Message-ID: <CAOc73CCHdeNhKZA2ahUAiOPK...@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Release notes and handbook changes for identifying wireless adapters
To: freebsd...@freebsd.org
List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code <freebsd-stable.freebsd.org>
ender: owner-free...@freebsd.org

Hi,

FreeBSD wireless users who are upgrading to FreeBSD 11.0 will likely get a
surprise when they try and identify which wireless adapters are available
in their computer by using ifconfig. Neither the FreeBSD 11 release notes
or the FreeBSD handbook currently explain this change.

For example, if you have an atheros wireless driver, you would
previously be able to see it using ifconfig, even before configuring the
wlan0 clone device.

% ifconfig | grep -B3 -i wireless


That was changed with commit r287197:
https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=287197

The new way to show which wireless adapter is available is:
% sysctl net.wlan.devices

Whilst the configuration in /etc/rc.conf required to activate a wireless
adapter has not changed, people may run into the hurdle of not even finding
which wireless adapter to configure in the first place. This can be seen
here:
https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=203271

Regards,
Ben

[Daniel Braniss]

> On 3 Aug 2016, at 14:52, Kurt Jaeger <li...@opsec.eu> wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
>> But wat is very strange for me is that I do not see ath0 device on ifconfig:
>
> The listing of the hardware specific interfaces, like ath0 etc
> was removed in 11.
>
> There's a sysctl for it now, I don't remember which one 8-(

sysctl net.wlan.devices

>
> --
> p...@opsec.eu +49 171 3101372 4 years to go !

[Ronald Klop]

On Wed, 03 Aug 2016 10:05:57 +0200, Stefan Lambrev <che...@freebsd-bg.org>
wrote:

> Greetings,
>
>
> I've just installed FreeBSD 11 on Soekris net5501 with the following wifi
> card:
>
>
> root@soekris:~ # dmesg |grep ath0
> ath0: <Atheros 5413> mem 0xa0010000-0xa001ffff irq 15 at device 17.0 on
> pci0
> ath0: AR5413 mac 10.5 RF5413 phy 6.1
> ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x0063
>
> ath0@pci0:0:17:0: class=0x020000 card=0x110719b6 chip=0x001b168c
> rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
> vendor = 'Qualcomm Atheros'
> device = 'AR5413/AR5414 Wireless Network Adapter [AR5006X(S)
> 802.11abg]'
> class = network
> subclass = ethernet
>
>

> But wat is very strange for me is that I do not see ath0 device on
> ifconfig:
>
>

> root@soekris:~ # ifconfig ath0
> ifconfig: interface ath0 does not exist
>
> At the same time if I crate wlan0 to list caps it works:
>
> root@soekris:~ # ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0
> root@soekris:~ # ifconfig wlan0 list caps
> drivercaps=4f8defc1<STA,FF,TURBOP,IBSS,PMGT,HOSTAP,AHDEMO,TXPMGT,SHSLOT,SHPREAMB
>
> LE,MONITOR,MBSS,WPA1,WPA2,BURST,WME,WDS,TXFRAG>
> cryptocaps=1f<WEP,TKIP,AES,AES_CCM,TKIPMIC>
> root@soekris:~ #
>
>
> The issues is that when I try to start wlan0 in hostap mode - FreeBSD
> freezes, unfortunatelly I cannot find my serial port cable atm and cannot
> see what exactly is displayed on the console but it's a hard freeze and
> the
> device do not reboot after it e.g. power cycle is required.
>
>
> When configured from rc.conf it boots and do not freeze but still says
> status: no carrier and hostapd complains that the device is not
> configured.
>
> snippet from rc.conf:
>
> cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
> wlans_ath0="wlan0"
> create_args_wlan0="wlanmod hostap"
> ifconfig_wlan0="ssid cheffo country bg up"

Hi,

I don't know how people should know, but after some mails in the past
(when 11 was still CURRENT) I learned that the 'country' statement is
moved to create_args_wlan0 too. I don't know about ssid.

Oh!!! Cheer! The man page of ifconfig says 'The following parameters are
specific to cloning IEEE 802.11 wireless interfaces with the create
request:' and than has a very long list of parameters.

Cheers,
Ronald.

[Stefan Lambrev]

Hi,

Looks like I have made a typo in the configuration "wlanmod" instead of
"wlanmode".

Just for the record I have changed rc.conf as follows:

#network
cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
wlans_ath0="wlan0"

create_args_wlan0="wlanmode hostap country bg"
ifconfig_wlan0="ssid cheffo channel 5:g txpower 30 protmode rtscts dturbo
up"

and now wlan0 works.

wlan0: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0
mtu 1500
ether 00:0c:42:26:3d:b7
nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g <hostap>
status: running
ssid cheffo channel 5 (2432 MHz 11g) bssid 00:0c:42:26:3d:b7
regdomain ETSI country BG ecm authmode WPA privacy MIXED deftxkey 2
AES-CCM 2:128-bit txpower 30 scanvalid 60 protmode RTSCTS wme burst
dtimperiod 1 -dfs
groups: wlan


But still this does not explains the freezes when I was doing this manually.