ath driver on thinkpad R50p

[Sam Leffler]

Matthew Luckie wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I'm running BETA7 on a new ThinkPad R50p and have the issue (which i've 
> seen others having on -mobile).
> 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-mobile/2004-September/004833.html 
> 
> 
> Here's what is dumped by the ath driver:
> 
> ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xc0210000-0xc021ffff irq 11 at device 2.0 on pci2
> ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 5ghz radio 1.7 2ghz radio 2.3
> ath0: Ethernet address: 00:05:4e:4a:bd:34
> ath0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
> ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 
> 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
> 
> I'm also having trouble compiling the BETA7 code with the patch in
> http://people.freebsd.org/~sam/net80211+ath-20040818.tgz
> 
> the patch applies cleanly but it doesn't compile, like
> 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-mobile/2004-September/004785.html 
> 
> 
> But I thought I'd try and get the 11b modes detected.  I did not 
> succeed, but here's what I saw:
> 
> For the ath_rate_setup call with MODE_11A, the dot11Rate returned in 
> rs_rates are 130, 132, 139, and 150.  I presume they are supposed to be 
> 2, 4, 10, 22
> 
> I tried hacking the rs_rates to those values (by subtracting 128 from 
> dot11Rate), but that did not apparently help detect the 11b modes either.

128 is the bit that indicates the rate is a basic rate.  However the 
issue is in the hal and no amount of hacking rates will help you.

> 
> So I looked at merging some of the extra code in ath_attach before the 
> calls to ath_rate_setup, but I got stuck at the call to 
> ath_hal_init_channels.  It appears that the prototype is missing the 
> last parameter - xchanmode, and that appears to depend on what the hal.o 
> provides.

Just set xchanmod to "true" (1); it controls whether to enable channels 
13+14 when possible.

> 
> I notice that the HAL has changed and that NetBSD has a more recent HAL, 
> one with that xchanmode parameter.  FreeBSD has 0.9.6.3 while NetBSD has 
> 0.9.9.13 and perhaps my bug will be fixed with a more recent hal.o

Your problem is indeed in the hal and what you need to do is get a more 
up to date hal.

> 
> I'm happy to test any patches to the ath driver, and I'm also happy to 
> have a spare clue on where I might focus my efforts in getting the ath 
> driver going for my particular system.  Is there demand for some grunt 
> work in merging netbsd's changes back to FreeBSD, or has that mostly 
> been handled for now and will be committed once 5.3 is out the door?

I'm trying to update the patch to a more current -current but don't have 
an updated patch available yet.  You can try bringing over code from 
netbsd or wait for me.

> 
> I know that I could use project evil, but I thought I'd try and get the 
> source driver going if I could.

If you're hungup the ndis driver is an excellent alternative.

	Sam