Why does ath(4) suck, and what else to buy?

Wed Oct 16 18:03:04 UTC 2013

On Oct 16, 2013, at 11:29 AM, Ulrich Spörlein <uspoerlein at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey, I'm running this small -CURRENT box as router/AP and it has a
> miniPCI ath(4) card that typically works fine, it only reports the
> occasional
> 
> ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
> 
> not sure if that is problematic, the wifi used to work fine. If that
> message is harmless, maybe it should not be printed. But that's not
> what I'm here for. I've tried setting up a 2nd wlan device and run
> hostapd on it for a guest SSID for house guests, etc.
> 
> So I created wlan2 next to wlan0, ran an exact copy of the
> hostapd.conf (except different SSID and PSK) and that made lots of
> phones/tablets have trouble connecting or staying connected (wlan2 is
> bridged to the same bridge as wlan0 and the wired interfaces, so
> DHCP/DNS/routes are unlikely to be the problem).
> 
> It looks like this:
> 
> ath0: <Atheros 9280> mem 0xe0a00000-0xe0a0ffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci4
> ath0: AR9280 mac 128.2 RF5133 phy 13.0
> ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
> 
> 
> /etc/rc.conf:
> 
> cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
> autobridge_interfaces="bridge0"
> autobridge_bridge0="port* wlan0 wlan2"
> 
> wlans_ath0="wlan0 wlan2"
> create_args_wlan0="wlanmode hostap country DE authmode wpa"
> ifconfig_wlan0="ssid COYOTE mode 11g pureg up"
> create_args_wlan2="wlanmode hostap country DE authmode wpa"
> ifconfig_wlan2="ssid COYOTE_GUEST mode 11g pureg up"
> 
> 
> Haven't rebooted, so I've brought up wlan2 by hand:
> 
> root at coyote:~# ifconfig wlan2 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap
> country DE authmode wpa
> ifconfig: SIOCS80211: Device busy
> Exit 1
> root at coyote:~# ifconfig wlan2
> wlan2: flags=8943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST>
> metric 0 mtu 1500
>        ether 68:a3:c4:51:44:99
>        inet6 fe80::6aa3:c4ff:fe51:4499%wlan2 prefixlen 64 tentative scopeid 0xd
>        nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
>        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g <hostap>
>        status: running
>        ssid COYOTE_GUEST channel 8 (2447 MHz 11g) bssid 68:a3:c4:51:44:99
>        regdomain ETSI country DE indoor ecm authmode 802.1x privacy MIXED
>        deftxkey UNDEF txpower 30 scanvalid 60 pureg protmode CTS wme burst
>        dtimperiod 1 -dfs
> 
> and it also magically got added to bridge0.
> 
> root at coyote:~# /etc/rc.d/hostapd start wlan2
> Starting hostapd.
> Configuration file: /etc/hostapd-wlan2.conf
> Using interface wlan2 with hwaddr 68:a3:c4:51:44:99 and ssid "COYOTE_GUEST"
> 
> root at coyote:~# egrep -v '^#|^$|passphrase' /etc/hostapd-wlan2.conf
> interface=wlan2
> driver=bsd
> logger_syslog=-1
> logger_syslog_level=3
> logger_stdout=-1
> logger_stdout_level=2
> debug=1
> dump_file=/tmp/hostapd-wlan2.dump
> ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd-wlan2
> ctrl_interface_group=wheel
> ssid=COYOTE_GUEST
> country_code=DE
> hw_mode=g
> macaddr_acl=0
> auth_algs=1
> wme_enabled=1
> wpa=2
> wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
> wpa_pairwise=CCMP
> 
> and that's when the trouble starts to appear, dmesg now get's funny
> messages like:
> 
> wlan2: Ethernet address: 68:a3:c4:51:44:99
> wlan2: promiscuous mode enabled
> ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
> ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 0)
> ath0: ath_transmit: sc_inreset_cnt > 0; bailing
> ath0: ath_tx_should_swq_frame: 50:46:5d:21:16:df: Node is asleep;
> sending mgmt (type=0, subtype=176)
> ath0: ath_tx_should_swq_frame: 38:e7:d8:69:c0:6e: Node is asleep;
> sending mgmt (type=0, subtype=176)
> ath0: ath_tx_should_swq_frame: b4:07:f9:e8:8f:8e: Node is asleep;
> sending mgmt (type=0, subtype=176)
> ath0: ath_node_recv_pspoll: 38:e7:d8:69:c0:6e: not in powersave?
> ath0: ath_tx_node_wakeup: an=0xfffffe0126489000: node was already awake
> ath0: ath_node_recv_pspoll: b4:07:f9:e8:8f:8e: not in powersave?
> ath0: ath_tx_node_wakeup: an=0xfffffe001e413000: node was already awake
> ath0: ath_node_recv_pspoll: b4:07:f9:e8:8f:8e: not in powersave?
> ath0: ath_node_recv_pspoll: b4:07:f9:e8:8f:8e: not in powersave?
> ath0: ath_node_recv_pspoll: b4:07:f9:e8:8f:8e: not in powersave?
> ath0: ath_tx_node_wakeup: an=0xfffffe0088add000: node was already awake
> 
> 
> Looking at some Android devices, they see that SSID as "Secured with
> WEP", so no WPA2 :/ An oldish HTC Desire won't even see that SSID.
> Neither will a Ubuntu laptop. Can someone unstupid me? Do I need a
> wlanbssid override for wlan2?
> 
> Now that it is in this state, the first devices fail to
> re-authenticate (on wlan0) with this AP. Guess I'll tear down wlan2
> again.

Do wlan0 and wlan2 have different MAC addresses? They need to. You could try adding the "bssid" flag to create_args_wlan2; that's supposed to make a unique MAC for you based on the hardware's real MAC. However last time I tried it (it's been a while) with my hardware it didn't work. So alternatively, you can add "wlanaddr aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff" to create_args_wlan2 (substituting a better MAC, of course).

> The second part of my question is related to buying recommendations
> for 5GHz USB wlan fobs that work solid as an AP (and virtual AP) under
> FreeBSD. Not all of my equipment can to 5GHz, so I need a dual-band
> solution (with VAPs for the 2.4GHz band). What do people use around
> here, what works solidly?
> 
> Cheers,
> Uli
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