Repost: DHCP failing with WiFi after 6.0 upgrade

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 08:48:44 -0800
> From: Brooks Davis <brooks at one-eyed-alien.net>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> 
> On Fri, Dec 02, 2005 at 07:49:33AM -0500, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> > I sent this yesterday to -questions, but in retrospect perhaps this
> > really is the right place; sorry for the duplication. 
> > 
> > I recently took my IBM ThinkPad X23, which had been running 4.11, and
> > did a fresh install (backup files, wipe disk, install from scratch)
> > to 6.0. Most things have gone smoothly, though there are still a few
> > things to iron out.
> > 
> > My biggest problem is that I can't seem to get DHCP to work with my
> > wireless card. I have an Orinoco Gold 802.11b card that's always worked
> > fine; I'm about to replace it with something else for 802.11g with a
> > new WAP.
> > 
> > There seem to be minor differences in how the card goes in; under 4.11
> > I would get various beeps when I plugged it in and after it associated,
> > but now it's silent. And I had to remember to load WEP in my kernel.
> > But I can seem to get things started by issuing the command
> > 
> >   ifconfig wi0 ssid jesterWAP wepmode on wepkey 0x[DELETED]
> > 
> > which does seem to successfully reach my WAP:
> > 
> >   # ifconfig wi0
> >   wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
> >         inet6 fe80::202:[DELETED] prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3
> >         ether 00:02:[DELETED]
> >         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/2Mbps)
> >         status: associated
> >         ssid jesterWAP channel 6 bssid 00:[DELETED]
> >         stationname "FreeBSD WaveLAN/IEEE node"
> >         authmode OPEN privacy MIXED deftxkey UNDEF wepkey 1:104-bit txpow> max 100 bintval 100
> > 
> > I can't seem to get a DHCP lease, however:
> > 
> >   # dhclient wi0
> >   DHCPDISCOVER on wi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 5
> >   DHCPDISCOVER on wi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
> >   DHCPDISCOVER on wi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
> >   DHCPDISCOVER on wi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
> >   DHCPDISCOVER on wi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 13
> >   DHCPDISCOVER on wi0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 15
> >   No DHCPOFFERS received.
> >   No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.
> > 
> > (Under 4.11, I didn't get any verbose output from dhcpclient.)
> > 
> > I can get a DHCP lease with fxp0, my Ethernet card; also, Macs
> > in the house have no problem getting leases through the
> > WAP. (The DHCP server is in a separate router, not in the
> > WAP.)
> > 
> > Is there something that's changed under 6.0, or is there just
> > something I'm forgetting to do? Am I actually connected, or
> > does it just look that way? I do plan to get a new card, but I
> > want to get this working too.
> 
> dhclient in 6.0 is a new implementation from OpenBSD.  For what ever
> reason, it works poorly with some wi(4) hardware/firmware combinations.
> Some users have reported success with problem devices after upgrading
> the card firmware.  I'd personally suggest upgrading to an ath(4) card.

And, it my ThinkPad would recognize an ath card, I'd try to do just
that. IBM restricts you to the mini-PCI cards that it sells. (Grr!)
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634