WPA auth issue with WDA-1320 adapter and Belkin router.

Greetings all!

This is my first post on these forums, though I've been a UNIX (mostly BSD) user for about 16 years. Please let me know if there is anything wrong with the way I'm presenting my information. I didn't include any dumps of information from the host as of yet, because I'd rather wait and see what is needed before I start dumping massive amounts of information into this thread.

The Problem:
I have a FreeBSD 8.1 host that I am attempting to use as a wireless client. I am able to associate using both open mode, and WPA2-PSK mode. If I associate using open mode, I can get out to the internet, and other networks just fine. If I associate using WPA2-PSK mode, I can ping the IP address assigned to the adapter, but nothing else will respond. This host has other wired NICs installed in it that are working fine. IP forwarding has not been enabled as of yet.

tcpdump shows that ARP requests are leaving the adapter's interface, but they are not getting any replies from the router. This same adapter works without any issues when used in Windows XP or Windows 7.

The Adapter:
The wireless adapter I'm using is a D-Link WDA-1320 802.11g. It uses the Atheros AR2413 chipset, which, as best as I can tell, is supported by the ath driver in FreeBSD 8.1. I've done considerable research on this adapter, and I do not see any references to any additional firmware, or driver components needed to make it work.


The Router:
The router is a Belkin Surf N300 (a relatively cheap router, but it works). It's set to accept only WPA2-PSK authentication. It works with 2 other wireless adapters without issues (both are laptops running Windows XP and Windows 7), as well as a Nintendo Wii, and a Sony PlayStation 3.

I've attempted to automate configuration of the interface with
Code:
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
and
Code:
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
as well as manually with [cmd=]ifconfig wlan0 wlandev create ath0[/cmd] and [cmd=]ifconfig wlan0 inet $IPADDRESS netmask $NETMASK[/cmd] (I've also tried statically setting an IP). In conjunction with this, I have the following in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

Code:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel

network={
        ssid="greendragon"
        psk="XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
}

I've tried adding ssid_scan=1 (when using a cloaked SSID), and I've also tried adding "key-mgmt=WPA-PSK", "proto=RSN", "BSSID=mac_address", "pairwise=CCMP", and "group=CCMP". None of these changes had any effect.

At this point, I'm not sure where else to look for the issue. If anyone can provide any insight as to why this issue is occurring, I'd be happy to name one of my VM hosts after you. :) Please let me know what additional information you may require.
 
This issue sounds pretty much like a bug which Adrian is chasing for some time now. Can you fill a PR and send its number to adrian@f.o?
 
Hi bschmidt,

Thank you for the reply!

Sure, I can do this. I'll have to do it this evening, as I do not have remote access to my FreeBSD host from work at the moment.

Also, I wanted to give you and anyone else who has looked at this thread a quick update.

On a hunch, I decided to try loading R7.3 on the same machine, and the wireless interface works and passes traffic without issue with both open and WPA2 authentication. The only difference that I can see between R7.3 and R8.1 is the 'hardware abstraction' (I'm making a guess as to what 'create wlandev' is actually called :)) step required to reference the wireless adapter. This only seems to affect the WPA2 encrypted associations, and not open associations. I have not had an opportunity to test WEP as of yet.

At this point, I'd prefer to keep R7.3 running on the host, since it's working now, however, if absolutely necessary, I can reload R8.1 if diagnostics data is needed.
 
Sorry, I haven't been able to accmodate your request just yet. Ran into a couple of snags. I'm hoping that I will be able to open a report sometime this weekend.
 
Back
Top