# Atheros AR9285 Wireless



## brenden1096 (Aug 1, 2011)

Hi. I've tried doing more research on my issue that I've been having with my card but I seem to only have found one thing which is: "Upgrade to FreeBSD 8-STABLE" which I have tried and did not fix the issue. 

I installed FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE onto my laptop the other day and when I try to setup wireless when I reboot to use the card I start to see:


```
ath0: hardware error; resetting
ath0: 0x00000000 0x00002000 0x00000000, 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000
```

Which occurs every few seconds.

My card is an Atheros AR9285 (AR928X)
*pciconf -lv* output:

```
ath0@pci0:2:0:0:	class=0x028000 card=0x3040103c 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
```


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## DutchDaemon (Aug 1, 2011)

'Upgrading to FreeBSD 8-STABLE' and 'installing FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE' are two very different things. I am not _au courant_ with the development of this particular driver, but it may have received a significant update (e.g. improvements merged back from the 9-CURRENT development tree) since FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE was rolled out. So the suggestion to try FreeBSD 8-STABLE is probably still a valid one.


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## brenden1096 (Aug 1, 2011)

I'm currently downloading the FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE iso which I finally found. I was being led on believing that there is no FreeBSD X-STABLE iso available but I FINALLY found it in the snapshots (ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/201105/).


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## fonz (Aug 1, 2011)

brenden1096 said:
			
		

> I was being led on believing that there is no FreeBSD X-STABLE iso available


To be honest, I didn't know that either. But once you have *a* running FreeBSD system (which includes 8.2-RELEASE) you can track -STABLE through csup() (formerly c*v*sup) or ctm(). More information is in this chapter of the handbook. The first part is about -CURRENT, which is most likely not for you, but the second part explains how to track -STABLE. In fact, once you're on -STABLE you'll probably want to keep tracking it until the next -RELEASE rolls out.

Fonz


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## brenden1096 (Aug 1, 2011)

Well I am done installing FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE and I have configured my wireless device and I am now seeing the same error even more..it particularly starts when I run 
	
	



```
ifconfig wlan0 up scan
```
 and it repeats its self maybe every 2-3 seconds I would say. But bringing wlan0 down stops it.


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## brenden1096 (Aug 1, 2011)

I found something interesting...when I just thought I'd press the wireless button (normally turns my wireless device on/off) and I then ran 
	
	



```
ifconfig wlan0 up scan
```
 and now it hasn't displayed any errors! That to me is the weirdest issue I've seen.


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## brenden1096 (Aug 1, 2011)

Well. Forget that..I think that was a bit of a false alarm. Rebooting and running 
	
	



```
ifconfig wlan0 up scan
```
 just sits there until I press the button then it starts the error all over again but it then displays local networks around the laptop.


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## brenden1096 (Aug 1, 2011)

I ran *dmesg | grep "ath0"* and when I ran it I got in return



```
ath0: <Atheros 9285> mem 0x90100000-0x9010ffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci2
ath0: [ITHREAD]
ath0: AR9285 mac 192.2 RF5133 phy 14.0
```

I have no clue what to do some here. I see that one person said get the latest -HEAD (but i really have no clue what/how to get that since I've never encountered that before on FreeBSD.


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## brenden1096 (Aug 1, 2011)

Does anyone have any ideas on how to correct this problem? I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure this out.


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## wblock@ (Aug 2, 2011)

The freebsd-wireless mailing list is where the programmers who work on wireless drivers hang out.


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## brenden1096 (Aug 2, 2011)

I just email them at freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org I'm assuming?


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## DutchDaemon (Aug 2, 2011)

You'll have to be a list member or your email may bounce, or you'll never see the replies.


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