Subject: ath driver and wep
To: None <current-users@netbsd.org>
From: Greg Troxel <gdt@ir.bbn.com>
List: current-users
Date: 09/30/2005 14:01:49
I'm trying to get a system which is current from 20050926 plus local
changes to work and am having some trouble.  I'm just pointing out my
thoughts here in case they are helpful or if any of you have already
solved these problems.

I'm using ath(4) with 40-bit WEP and a fixed SSID and channel in IBSS
mode.  My exisiting systems are 2.99.15 (plus local changes).

Problem 1: 3.99.9 system won't join/merge to the ibss.  I believe this
is because I am running 'media DS1' on the old systems (and trying to
on the new as well) due to problems in the old rate adaptation code.
But, the old system seems to run at 2 Mb/s, not 1, and thus the
systems won't merge (debugging printfs in the merge code are very
nice, thanks Sam).  I can get a merge by setting the local system to 2
Mb/s.  I'm deciding the old code is buggy and am planning to just move
beyond it.

Problem 2: Incoming frames are gibberish.  The system thinks the card
is doing hw wep.  On doing 'ifconfig ath0 nwkey 0x[redacted]', packets
can be exchanged with other systems.  On doing 'ifconfig ath0 down'
and then up, gibberish returns.  (I set ssid/chan/nwkey in
ifconfig.ath0 before the interface comes up.)

I think that programming the card with wep keys is somehow not right
on down->up, but does happen correctly when the key is set.  I haven't
dug into this yet, but plan to shortly.

The 'ifconfig -v ath0' stats are very nice.