hi all
I create this topics because I'm engaged about having ath9k driver working onto OpenWRT.
I lived a big part of my time in the last 2 months trying setting up a router with 11n capabilities and after some time needed for choising and then for buying the card I believed I would became a lucky owner of a hight speed wireless router... I believed it!!!
Ok, it is in developement but I had hard time looking for the right options for setting it up, Hard time understanding where I could set it and so on.
In particular I setted up a BCM6358 AGPF-S0 (Alice Gate) router with a Atheros Ar5416 miniPCI card and OpenWRT_luci.
Finally I can connect to it at 300Mbps, 130Mbs, 54Mbps BUT the max transfert rate speed is limited up to 200Kbps. It is a very poor result and My only hopeness is that there are some options to pass to the kernel or to set in any configuration file to have it working faster.
Is there anyone having some skills about ath9k driver that can write down here or link here any interesting information?
I can start passing my little skills about it that I wasn't able to find anywhere.
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UPDATED
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1) To pass 11n mode to the router you need to add this line to "/etc/config/wireless" file
"option 'hwmode_11n' 'g' "
or
"option 'hwmode_11n' 'a' "
you haven't to pass: option 'hwmode' 'n' that you will find everywhere searching information on the web and forums because it doesn't work.
Option 'hwmode_11n" simpli means to tells to apply 11n mode onto a "g" card or onto an "a" card. I really don't know if it works using value "ag" or "ga" too for 11bgan cards. If you know it, please add here you knowledge.
ieee80211n=1 will be setted automatically by the firmware if you will use the option 'hwmode_11n', so there isn't the need of setting it as you read surfing the net and forums.
2) After that You need only to chose ed add the capabilities of your card and you'll have the card setted up in 11n mode.
So always into the "/etc/config/wireless" file you should add something like this but refered about the capabilities supported by your hardware:
option 'ht_capab' '[SHORT-GI-40][DSSS_CCK-40][HT40-][HT40+][HT20]'
#other options to try alone or mixed togheter
#option 'ht_capab' '[HT40+][HT40-][HT20][HT-GI-40][HT-GI-20]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[TX-STBC]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[RX-STBC12]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[DELAYED-BA]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[RX-STBC123]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[SHORT-GI-40]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[DSSS_CCK-40]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[HT40-]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[HT40+]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[SHORT-GI-20]'
#option 'ht_capab' '[HT20]'
You can find the capabilities of you card using the command: "iw list" at the command line prompt (via Terminal) but I'm not able to know exactly which are the right options. For example I get: HT40 cabable and others but who tells me how to pass HT40 option to the firmware? does it should be [HT40+] and [HT40-]? Where can I find a full list of working OPTIONS?
for example I get this iw list OUTPUT:
/$ iw list
Wiphy phy0
Band 1:
HT capabilities: 0x104e
* 20/40 MHz operation
* SM PS disabled
* 40 MHz short GI
* max A-MSDU len 3839
* DSSS/CCK 40 MHz
HT A-MPDU factor: 0x0003 (65535 bytes)
HT A-MPDU density: 0x0006 (8 usec)
HT MCS set: ff ff 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00
HT TX/RX MCS rate indexes supported:
MCS index 0
MCS index 1
MCS index 2
MCS index 3
MCS index 4
MCS index 5
MCS index 6
MCS index 7
MCS index 8
MCS index 9
MCS index 10
MCS index 11
MCS index 12
MCS index 13
MCS index 14
MCS index 15
Frequencies:
* 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
* 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
* 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
* 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
* 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
* 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
* 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
* 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
* 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
* 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
* 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
* 2467 MHz [12] (disabled)
* 2472 MHz [13] (disabled)
* 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)
Bitrates:
* 1.0 Mbps
* 2.0 Mbps (short preamble supported)
* 5.5 Mbps (short preamble supported)
* 11.0 Mbps (short preamble supported)
* 6.0 Mbps
* 9.0 Mbps
* 12.0 Mbps
* 18.0 Mbps
* 24.0 Mbps
* 36.0 Mbps
* 48.0 Mbps
* 54.0 Mbps
max # scan SSIDs: 4
Supported interface modes:
* IBSS
* managed
* AP
* AP/VLAN
* monitor
* mesh point
WHO KNOWS WHICH OPTIONS CORRISPOND TO THESE CAPABILITIES?
COULD the "HT TX/RX MCS rate indexes supported" influences the tranfert rate speed? (remember that I can get up to 200kbps only), and if yes then which is the [???????] option to use for setting it?
so you need the:
3) iw package
installed into your system and:
4) hostapd_full package
you will read options succesfully setted reading /var/run/hostapd-wlan0.conf file (about wlan0)
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28-05-2009:
Thanks to thalience and linuxb, we know that there are some issues onto ath9k driver. Those issues are known as it is known the solution:
If you use the last sources from ath9k trunk, then you'll have the driver working. If you are using the openwrt trunk, then you'll NOT have the driver working well until the ath9k of openwrt trunk will be updated.
FOR openwrt users using TRUNK thanks to "linuxb":
the ath9k 404 patch:
http://www.4shared.com/file/108392866/6 … 4-wmm.html
The patch goes in: trunk/package/mac80211/patches/
the hostapd.sh modification:
Then edit the trunk/package/hostapd/files/hostapd.sh
include this into that file, you can put these lines in between debug=0 and wpa=$wpa
tx_queue_data3_aifs=7
tx_queue_data3_cwmin=15
tx_queue_data3_cwmax=1023
tx_queue_data3_burst=0
tx_queue_data2_aifs=3
tx_queue_data2_cwmin=15
tx_queue_data2_cwmax=63
tx_queue_data2_burst=0
tx_queue_data1_aifs=1
tx_queue_data1_cwmin=7
tx_queue_data1_cwmax=15
tx_queue_data1_burst=3.0
tx_queue_data0_aifs=1
tx_queue_data0_cwmin=3
tx_queue_data0_cwmax=7
tx_queue_data0_burst=1.5
wme_enabled=1
wme_ac_bk_cwmin=4
wme_ac_bk_cwmax=10
wme_ac_bk_aifs=7
wme_ac_bk_txop_limit=0
wme_ac_bk_acm=0
wme_ac_be_aifs=3
wme_ac_be_cwmin=4
wme_ac_be_cwmax=10
wme_ac_be_txop_limit=0
wme_ac_be_acm=0
wme_ac_vi_aifs=2
wme_ac_vi_cwmin=3
wme_ac_vi_cwmax=4
wme_ac_vi_txop_limit=94
wme_ac_vi_acm=0
wme_ac_vo_aifs=2
wme_ac_vo_cwmin=2
wme_ac_vo_cwmax=3
wme_ac_vo_txop_limit=47
wme_ac_vo_acm=0
Now compile and try it.
FOR openwrt users thanks to "thalience":
(it doesn't work for me olso if it seems to be the same patch reported by linuxb because the patch is made for GIT and I'm using SVN; and then he wrote about editing the hostapd.conf file that I can't find anywhere in my openwrt installation so I can't do the modification).
I don't report the thalience suggestions again, because you'll find them at the next post so you can read it easily.
03-06-2009
starting from 16301 trunk version there should be no problems working with ath9k driver;
1) there is no need of editing mac80211.sh (in the sources files for automatically setting up the options:
option 'hwmode_11n' 'g'
option 'ht_capab' '[SHORT-GI-40][DSSS_CCK-40][HT40-][HT40+][HT20]'
(or anyother different value option) into the wireless config file.
2) there is no need to apply the 404 patch because it has already been patched into the new driver;
3) the hostapd.sh modification (trunk/package/hostapd/files/hostapd.sh) may not to be necesarly. You should test with or without and anyway it sholud be important to know what these options do and what we can change about them
6-06-2009
I found these two links with explanations about use of hostapd.conf options in order to modify the mac80211.sh source file for first working wireless config after the flash.
http://hostap.epitest.fi/gitweb/gitweb. … nf;hb=HEAD
http://hostap.epitest.fi/gitweb/gitweb. … stapd.conf
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PLEASE IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING MORE OR SOMETHING BETTER PLEASE HELP ME/US WRITING ABOUT IT HERE (I will try to keep updated the main POST).
(Last edited by desigabri on 6 Jun 2009, 16:45)
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