Add USB glue to ath(4) for AR9271

[Ben Woods]

Hi there,

I just wanted to ask if anyone has intentions to add the USB glue to
ath(4) to support AR9271 chipsets.


I have a Think Penguin TPE-N150USBL which is a USB 802.11n wifi dongle
that uses the AR9271 chipset, and has been "certified by the Free
Software Foundation".
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-w-external-antenna-gnu-linux-tpe-n150usbl
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ThinkPenguin_TPE-N150USBL


There is currently no support for it in FreeBSD, as highlighted here:
https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-wireless/2013-November/004121.html
https://wiki.freebsd.org/dev/ath_hal%284%29/HardwareSupport


Given how well Atheros chipsets are supported for PCI devices, I think
once the USB glue was added they could be great performers (perhaps
the only USB wifi dongles with 802.11n capability on FreeBSD)?!


The output from usbconfig(8) is below:

# usbconfig -u 1 -a 2 dump_device_desc
ugen1.5: <UB93 ATHEROS> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps)
pwr=ON (500mA)

  bLength = 0x0012
  bDescriptorType = 0x0001
  bcdUSB = 0x0200
  bDeviceClass = 0x00ff  <Vendor specific>
  bDeviceSubClass = 0x00ff
  bDeviceProtocol = 0x00ff
  bMaxPacketSize0 = 0x0040
  idVendor = 0x0cf3
  idProduct = 0x9271
  bcdDevice = 0x0108
  iManufacturer = 0x0010  <ATHEROS>
  iProduct = 0x0020  <UB93>
  iSerialNumber = 0x0030  <12345>
  bNumConfigurations = 0x0001


--
From: Benjamin Woods
woodsb02 at gmail.com