wireless: ath0 error, v7 vs v8?

cbrace · #1 March 5th, 2010, 08:06

I recently upgraded my FreeBSD server from FreeBSD v7 to v8. Everything seems to be working OK, except the Atheros-based wireless network card, which I had configured as an access point and which worked fine under v7 for several years.

The command:

Code:

# ifconfig ath0 up

works fine, but anything else returns an error message. For example

Code:

# ifconfig ath0 192.168.3.1
ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): Invalid argument

or this:

Code:

# ifconfig ath0 ssid freebsdap mode 11g mediaopt hostap inet 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
ifconfig: SIOCS80211: Invalid argument

I asked about this on the freebsd-questions list, and all I got was the terse reply: wireless has changed from v7 to v8; see the handbook.

Well, I copied & pasted the ifconfig line above directly from the handbook! Further, it is not indicated, AFAICT, exactly what things have changed from v7 with regard to wireless.

Any ideas on what is going on here?

**lme@** · #2 March 5th, 2010, 12:07

Wireless has changed from 7 to 8.
In 8 you need to create a virtual device first:
# ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 up
Then you configure wlan0 just like you configured ath0 in 7.x.
The entries for /etc/rc.conf are:

Code:

wlans_ath0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"

That would setup wlan0 for use with DHCP and wpa_supplicant(8).

It would be very nice if you'd write a PR with send-pr(1) that the handbook needs to be updated.

**DutchDaemon** · #3 March 5th, 2010, 12:37

a.k.a. Sticky: Important wireless networking change in FreeBSD 8

cbrace · #4 March 5th, 2010, 19:03

Thanks Imea@

Via the sticky that DD refers to above, I came to the ath manpage which sorted me out.

This works for me:

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev ath0 wlanmode hostap
ifconfig wlan0 inet 192.168.3.1 mode 11g channel 2 ssid venus

The tricky bit is you can't set everything in one command, as I was doing under 7

I was already using a start file to initialise the interface, /etc/start_if.ath0, so I will just add those two lines to it. I assume it will also work under 8; will reboot shortly and find out.

I've never used send-pr, but I will give it a try.

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cbrace (March 5th, 2010)