# Atheros 9285



## lockfile (Jun 15, 2010)

I'm on an Eeepc 1005HA system with the now notorious Atheros 9285 wifi hardware. It worked under penguin with the ath9k driver, but I decided to try out FreeBSD for the ZFS benefits and to sharpen up for a small biz I'm thinking about starting up. All other hardware in the netbook works fine though.

I need advice on getting this to work. I searched around and found out that Rui Paulo has created a driver and patched the ath driver [http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?p=81530], but this patch is only in a later updated version of 8. The DVD of Freebsd 8 release has the unpatched ath.

So, I was wondering could I download a higher version kernel from the source tree and compile a new kernel that has the ath patch. Then I would be able to use my AR9285 wifi card after having the later driver with support for my card. Do you think that would work?


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## lockfile (Jun 15, 2010)

Oh, I forgot to mention that I have no ethernet connection to the machine. I use free (legal) wifi


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## zeiz (Jun 15, 2010)

If the patch is in 8-stable and you have connection (somehow you are online ) download 8.1-BETA1 from ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/ISO-IMAGES/8.1/ it should work. Actually 8.1-RC1 should be out very soon: it was scheduled for Jun 12 but it's sliding a bit. I'm on 8-stable and I have 8.1-prerelease (after recompiling from updated sources).
It's also possible to upgrade 8-release to 8-stable.


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## lockfile (Jun 15, 2010)

I'm on Penguin right now. That's how I'm on the net :|


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## lockfile (Jun 15, 2010)

Wait, one more question. How come the 8BETA-1 image is half the size of 8-release? What is missing in it?


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## zeiz (Jun 15, 2010)

Packages of course. Supposed you download yourself packages you need.
On dvd they give only docs in many languages and it weights ~300Mb.
So don't try to install xorg, gnome etc from this iso.
Use *pkg_add -r * or install ports and compile if you like.


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## Romanrp (Jul 17, 2010)

*Atheros AR9285 support*

Does this wireless card work with freebsd 8 straight out of the box?
Has the driver been committed to freebsd 8? 
I want to install freebsd on my laptop today, previous installations did not support it so I had to go back to linux . 
I hope the problem is fixed now, if it isn't then are there any patches I can install?


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## bschmidt (Jul 17, 2010)

8.1-RELEASE and 8-STABLE should support that card.


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## federator (Jul 31, 2010)

*Atheros AR9285 with ATH driver*

Hey everyone.
Running 8.1, the card gets recognized on the spot.
However, as the man page seems to state, it's got no WPA/2 support, is there any patch for this?
Before proceeding, the card is not usable.
Creating a wlandev for it as stated in the handbook works, but the newly created VAP doesn't work at all.
Trying to scan shields zero results.
Try to associate it to any AP shields zero results.
This is what I've added to /etc/rc.conf regarding it:

```
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
```


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## federator (Jul 31, 2010)

federator said:
			
		

> Hey everyone.
> Running 8.1, the card gets recognized on the spot.
> However, as the man page seems to state, it's got no WPA/2 support, is there any patch for this?
> Before proceeding, the card is not usable.
> ...



ARgh, damn, sorry scan results are parseable with:

```
ifconfig wlan0 list scan
```


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## lockfile (Aug 4, 2010)

UPDATE: Well, I tried the latest sources and I got some bittersweet results. The card is recognized by the driver 'ath' and can scan, but the hardware chip freezes. The driver detects this and prints the message "kernel: ath0: bb hang detected, resetting." I reported it to the freebsd-stable and then the PR-system admin referred it to freebsd-net mainling list - PR:kern/148112. There are a couple of PRs out on this same issue (the ar9285 chip freezing).


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## lockfile (Aug 4, 2010)

Oh and when it prints that message. It loses/cannot associate, it may associate, but the association is lost when the chip bonks.


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## lockfile (Aug 4, 2010)

8.1 Stable has a driver for it but it does not work....


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## DutchDaemon (Aug 4, 2010)

[ separate Atheros 9285 threads merged ]


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## federator (Aug 4, 2010)

In my case the chip doesn't hang, but encryption is entirely unsupported.
WEP doesn't work, let alone WPA/2.
If I connect to an unsecured network, I can use it freely, albeit at really low speeds.


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## lockfile (Aug 4, 2010)

What version (date/version tag) of sources do you have federator? Did you get sources via svn or cvs? 

The project says that svn is now used for src and all changes are migrated to cvs. I wonder how long does it take to migrate to cvs considering that its plenty of work and these guys may be working with slow hardware.


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## lockfile (Aug 4, 2010)

*the ath manual says that only the 5210 parts do not support WPA*

I think that you got that wrong. When I read the man page [the last 5 lines of the man page] only 5210 parts do not support the WPA encryption. All of the other supported cards support WEP, WPA, and host AP.

I'm currently downloading the 8.1 iso image vs getting sources (like I did) to investigate more. I think I somehow messed up when I got the sources because everybody has this driver working on ar9285 but me. 

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?...ion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.1-RELEASE&format=html



			
				federator said:
			
		

> In my case the chip doesn't hang, but encryption is entirely unsupported.
> WEP doesn't work, let alone WPA/2.
> If I connect to an unsecured network, I can use it freely, albeit at really low speeds.


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## lockfile (Aug 5, 2010)

UPDATE....

I tried the driver on the 8.1 iso release but that didn't work either. I still get the 
	
	



```
kernel: ath0: bb hang detected, resetting
```
 message, and dhclient still complains about "no dhcpoffers". I followed the Handbook and changed the obligatory /etc/rc.conf, wpa_supplicant.conf, and /boot/loader.conf but still I cannot get the card to get an IP. The card scans, associates with the AP ok, but dhclient nor `/etc/rc.d/netif start` cannot get an IP!

I had this problem with 8.0 and I was more confident when I seen the ar9285 support in the release notes for 8.1. But now I'm like why is it not working. I'm dual booting on penguin now to type this.


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## federator (Aug 5, 2010)

lockfile said:
			
		

> What version (date/version tag) of sources do you have federator? Did you get sources via svn or cvs?
> 
> The project says that svn is now used for src and all changes are migrated to cvs. I wonder how long does it take to migrate to cvs considering that its plenty of work and these guys may be working with slow hardware.



Well, I'm kind of new but the install came from the ISO image for 8.1 available on mirrors.
Haven't performed any update to the kernel at all.
I can associate if the network is unsecure (no encryption at all) otherwise it'll fail, telling me that it's associated, and if I set the IP and routes, I can't even ping the AP.
uname says this is 8.1-RELEASE (GENERIC).
I should try moving to -CURRENT then?


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## lockfile (Aug 5, 2010)

Well then it's a bug officially and not just n00bs failing to configure the card. http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=149307 and http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=148112 . Those two PRs are pretty much the same bug (I already notified them).

I guess we will just have to wait and see when the maintainers finish fixing the bug.


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## lockfile (Sep 25, 2010)

UPDATE:

In the mailing list, freebsd-stable/net, Adrian Chadd said that he is still working on the ar9280/ar9285 chipset. He said that this will take some more time, it's been about 1.5 months since he has accepted the task of fixing the chip's driver. Bugs take time to fix unfortunately. In the future, I hope that drivers/devices will be more conducive to write once, and be able to run with many universal drivers... the equivalent of .ppd files for printers is what I envision (or something similar).


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## tingo (Sep 26, 2010)

FWIW, my new laptop (Asus U35JC) have this card:

```
tingo@kg-u35jc$ pciconf -lv | grep -A 3 ath
ath0@pci0:3:0:0:	class=0x028000 card=0x10891a3b chip=0x002b168c rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Atheros Communications Inc.'
    device     = 'Atheros AR9285 Wireless LAN 802.11 a/b/g/n Controller (AR928x)'
    class      = network
```
and it works in 8.1-stable:

```
tingo@kg-u35jc$ uname -a
FreeBSD kg-u35jc.kg4.no 8.1-STABLE FreeBSD 8.1-STABLE #0: Sun Sep 26 20:15:25 CEST 2010
     root@kg-u35jc.kg4.no:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64
```
ifconfig output:

```
tingo@kg-u35jc$ ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
	ether 1c:4b:d6:fd:87:61
	inet 10.1.161.18 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 10.1.255.255
	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet DS/11Mbps mode 11g
	status: associated
	ssid kg4 channel 3 (2422 MHz 11g) bssid 00:0f:66:51:aa:41
	regdomain 96 indoor ecm authmode WPA privacy ON deftxkey UNDEF
	TKIP 2:128-bit TKIP 3:128-bit txpower 20 bmiss 7 scanvalid 450 bgscan
	bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250 roam:rssi 7 roam:rate 5 protmode CTS
	wme burst roaming MANUAL
```
There are some messages in /var/log/messages, but it doesn't seem to affect anything:

```
Sep 26 23:38:00 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Sep 26 23:42:23 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:0f:66:51:aa:41 [GTK=TKIP]
Sep 26 23:43:02 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Sep 26 23:48:08 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Sep 26 23:53:10 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Sep 26 23:58:15 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Sep 27 00:03:28 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Sep 27 00:08:29 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS 
Sep 27 00:13:31 kg-u35jc wpa_supplicant[330]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
```
Thats all.


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## lockfile (Sep 28, 2010)

Sweet. I was on the i386 architecture. I will try out the 8.1 release soon... well I might start downloading tonite.


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