hostapd wi0 configuration + errors

E

eyebone

Hello folks,

I am trying to set up a wlan router for my flat with freebsd FreeBSD, but fail in firing up hostapd with wi.

hostapd is started, but the status in ifconfig shows no carrier and I cannot find the network.

cat /tmp/hostap.conf
Code: 
interface=wlan0
driver=bsd
logger_syslog=-1
logger_syslog_level=0
logger_stdout=-1
logger_stdout_level=0
debug=3
dump_file=/tmp/hostapd.dump
ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
#### IEEE 802.11 related config ####
ssid=HARALD
macaddr_acl=0
#auth_algs=1
#### IEEE 802.1X related config ####
ieee8021x=0
#### WPA/IEEE 802.11i config #####
wpa=1
wpa_passphrase=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
#wpa_pairwise=TKIP
wpa_pairwise=CCMP TKIP

Then I do a start through the rc scripts with the following result:

Code: 
wlan0: IEEE 802.11 Fetching hardware channel/rate support not supported.
Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx and ssid 'HARALD'

Checking ifconfig:

Code: 
wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect <hostap> (autoselect <hostap>)
        status: no carrier
        ssid HARALD channel 1 (2412 MHz 11b)
        country US authmode WPA privacy MIXED deftxkey 2 TKIP 2:128-bit
        txpower 0 scanvalid 60 dtimperiod 1 -dfs bintval 0

Checking logfiles:

Code: 
Aug 22 22:00:15 g hostapd: wlan0: IEEE 802.11 Fetching hardware channel/rate support not supported.
Aug 22 22:00:15 g kernel: wi0: reset failed
Aug 22 22:00:15 g kernel: wi0: wi_alloc_fid: failed to allocate 2372 bytes on NIC
Aug 22 22:00:15 g kernel: wi0: tx buffer allocation failed (error 12)
Aug 22 22:00:15 g kernel: wi0: interface not running

So "something" is wrong here. Before, I tried to create a working wlan0 by:

Code: 
ifconfig wlan0 destroy
ifconfig wlan create wlandev wi0 wlanmode hostap

The card hardware is a NL-2511MP Plus. Any suggestions to get the baby flying?

Many thanks,
eyebone
 
More info needed please...

Hi eyebone,

You have indeed got a problem there. Having a quick look at the chipset it is an Intersil Prism 2.5, so should be supported by wi(4).

Have you tried using the wireless card to act as a default station in FreeBSD, and if so was it successful? (E.g. without the wlanmode setting to an existing wireless network...)

Can you boot in debug (from the 10 second count down screen at boot with FreeBSD logo on) and post the relevant lines from:
Code: 
/var/run/dmesg.boot
(If needed post the entire thing minus MAC, identifiable information on pastebin and link back here).

The relevant lines would be prefixed with wi0: and will include the pccard / pci lines above that the wireless card is connected to. Booting in debug (with the GENERIC kernel), the wi(4) driver may post it's firmware versions to check against those stated at the end of:
Code: 
man wi

Also can you post the following output of the following commands so we can all understand the system state please:
Code: 
uname -a
kldstat
pciconf -lv

This may give us all an idea if this is a hardware fault / driver issue, or something at a higher level, e.g. service conf files wrong, etc.

Regards,

James.
 
Hi,

Unfortunately the wi(4) driver is very much unmaintained and it's very possible that it's very broken.

I (as the defacto maintainer for net80211 and ath(4) these days) would like some help looking after the other wireless drivers, including wi(4).

You haven't mentioned which FreeBSD version you're using. I've heard reports that wi(4) worked way back in the FreeBSD-6.x and FreeBSD-7.x days, so if you could give FreeBSD-7.x a whirl and see if that works, we can at least attempt to establish a point in time where things were not broken. Hopefully then we can work forward and find where it was broken and repair the damage.

It's not just the wireless side of FreeBSD that the wi(4) driver needs attention for; it's also quite likely that the firmware and bus code is also buggy and requires updating. This is why it's important to establish a point in time where it did work.

I wish I could be more helpful with the non-ath(4) NICs but I do have my hands full with 11n, sorry. :)

Good luck!
 
I should also point out that if you are willing to help out diagnose this problem by going through old FreeBSD versions and testing them out, the best place to find me (and the other wireless lurkers) is the freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org mailing list.

I only occasionally check the forums for wireless related posts.

Thanks again!


Adrian
 
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