ATH driver doesn't associate with turbo.

[Sam Leffler]

On Monday 29 September 2003 06:59 pm, David Gilbert wrote:
> If I put my access point in turbo mode, the ath driver won't associate
> with it.  Additionally, the documentation for my card says that it
> should support upto 108Mbps in turbo mode, but the ath driver doesn't
> detect this.
>

What do you base this on?  The turbo rates happen to be printed as 1/2 the 
actual speed.because the actual rate is done by overclocking and not by 
negotiating a different xmit rate.  I've thought about artificially printing 
them as 2x values so people stop complaining. :)

As to not being able to associate in turbo mode; you don't show how you 
configured the interface.  Atheros-based AP's that support "SuperG" use a 
proprietary protocol handshake to negotiate use of turbo mode.  The current 
driver doesn't support this though I recently got the info I need to add it.  
For "old turbo" mode you have to manually enable it with ifconfig before the 
802.11 layer will assoociate with a turbo AP.  I've considered changing this 
but adding turbo mode channels to the scan list would more often than not 
just lengthen the scanning process and rarely be used.

> This is somewhat of a datapoint, since I don't know if this is
> supposed to work.  My card probes as:
>
> Preloaded elf module "/boot/kernel/if_ath.ko" at 0xc084836c.
> Preloaded elf module "/boot/kernel/ath_hal.ko" at 0xc0848418.
> ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xfafd0000-0xfafdffff irq 11 at device 3.0 on pci2
> ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 5ghz radio 1.7 2ghz radio 2.3
> ath0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
> ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
> ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps
> 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
> ath0: turbo rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps
> 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps ath0: 802.11 address: 00:02:6f:20:5a:23
>
> I've also noticed that the driver will stop receiving packets every
> once in awhile (one or two dropped pings) ... but I nailed down what
> causes that yet.
>

I just committed some new stuff to sourceforge (the Linux version of the 
driver) and will get the equivalent updates into FreeBSD soon.  These changes 
should improve reliability and performance for 5212-based cards.

> The access point is a Netgear HE 102 (a-only) that I got for $26.96
> Cdn.  I also have a FreeBSD 802.11b access point in the area.  When I
> put the Netgear into turbo "enabled" mode, the ath card associates
> only with my 802.11b point.  If I force the ssid to the a-only ssid,
> the ath card doesn't associate.

Yes, because setting turbo mode effectively removes the 11a channel set.  If 
you set both AP and station into turbo mode you should be able to associate.

	Sam