Re: ath(4) driver problems with WEP...

From: Sam Leffler (sam_at_errno.com)
Date: 09/17/03

  • Next message: Bruce Evans: "Re: SMP kernel panic with traceback" 
    Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 12:43:08 -0700
To: "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@kdm.org>, current@FreeBSD.org

    > I've got a Netgear WAG511 (Atheros 5212-based card) and a Netgear FWAG114
    > wireless router.
    >
    > I've been trying to get the card and the router talking under FreeBSD.
    > (Both 802.11a and 802.11g work fine under Windows on the same machine.)
    >
    > I'm using -current from September 15th.
    >
    > Anyway, whenever I try to get the card talking to the router, which is
    > running WEP (128 bit keys) on both the a and b/g sides, I get:
    >
    > ath0: authentication failed (reason 13) for [ base station MAC address ]
    > ath0: authentication failed (reason 13) for [ base station MAC address ]
    > ath0: authentication failed (reason 13) for [ base station MAC address ]
    > ath0: authentication failed (reason 13) for [ base station MAC address ]
    > ath0: authentication failed (reason 13) for [ base station MAC address ]
    >
    > Here's what the ifconfig looks like:
    >
    > ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    > ether [ card mac address ]
    > media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11a
    > (OFDM/6Mbps) status: no carrier
    > ssid [my ssid] 1:[my ssid]
    > channel -1 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
    > wepmode MIXED weptxkey 1
    > wepkey 1:128-bit wepkey 2:128-bit wepkey 3:128-bit wepkey
    > 4:128-bit
    >
    > I've verified and re-verified, via cut-and-paste from the router setup
    > screen, that the WEP key is correct.
    >

    Good news+bad news. I just committed a fix to ifconfig to correctly handle
    128-bit WEP keys. I'm not sure how you thought you were setting your key
    up but ifconfig was barfing on anything more than 104 bits. FWIW ifconfig
    wrongly indicated keys >5 bytes (40 bits) were 128-bit keys; I also fixed
    that so ifconfig now indicates keys are 40-, 104-, or 128-bit according to
    their length. Beware also that wicontrol displays WEP keys longer than 104
    bits zero-padded; I believe this is because of limitations in the RID API
    for fetching keys. Someone else may want to investigate that issue.

    The bad news is that with 128-bit keys installed I'm getting decryption
    errors at the AP. Actually, I'm seeing errors for any length key so it's
    likely a botch in the WEP frame construction in the driver. I've run out
    of time to look at this right now and will have to investigate later.

    > Anyway, I can't get the ath(4) driver to talk to the router when it is
    > running WEP. I have been able to get it to talk 802.11g to the router
    > without WEP enabled, though.
    >
    > I tried setting the authmode to shared via ifconfig, but from looking at
    > ieee80211_ioctl.c:
    >
    ># if 0
    > case IEEE80211_IOC_AUTHMODE:
    > sc->wi_authmode = ireq->i_val;
    > break;
    ># endif
    >
    > i.e. I get EINVAL back.
    >
    > Is WEP supposed to work in -current?
    >

    authmode is not relevant. WEP worked at one time; I seem to have broken
    it. As I said above I will have to look at it later.

    > In a separate issue, the ath(4) driver can't see the 802.11a side of the
    > wireless router at all when it is running in 108Mbps "turbo" mode. If I
    > drop it down to 54Mbps, it sees it. (Works fine in Windows.)
    >
    > Is the ath(4) driver supposed to support the 108Mbps turbo mode?

    I was able to associate with an Atheros AP with turbo mode enabled but
    didn't get any higher throughput. I'm investigating this.

    FWIW I enabled turbo mode with:

    ifconfig ath0 mediaopt turbo

    I verified turbo mode was in use by disabling it on either station or AP
    side and with things mismatched the station/AP couldn't see each other.
    With turbo mode enabled on each side I was able to associate and
    communicate as normal; but netperf throughput was identical to the
    non-turbo setup. I'm asking Atheros folks for clarification on this--I may
    need to do some additional setup work to enable turbo operation. This is
    actually the first time I've tried turbo mode...

            Sam

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  • Next message: Bruce Evans: "Re: SMP kernel panic with traceback"

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