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Wireless Network Driver for the Atheros Chipset (ath)

Version 0.7.1

This driver is based on the MADWiFi Multiband Atheros Driver project and is provided under the same LICENSE as the original driver.

The ath driver version 0.1 has been integrated into OpenSolaris Build 29. It has not yet been backported to Solaris 10. For Solaris 10 users, please use version 0.5.

Links

Requirements

Before downloading the source or installing the binaries, please make sure that your system meets the following requirements:

  • Solaris 10 or OpenSolaris
  • PCI, Mini-PCI, PCIE, Mini-PCIE or CardBus WLAN interface based on Atheros AR52xx chipsets

Supported Devices

Please refer to WiFi compatible device list

MADWiFi compatibility list covers a lot more hardware supported by this driver. We can't guarantee that this driver will work with all of these devices.

How to use

1. Hardware requirement

Run prtconf -vp or /usr/X11/bin/scanpci to make sure that your wireless card reports itself with one of the following PCI Device IDs:

pci168c,0013 (AR5212)
pci168c,1014 (AR5212)
pci168c,1a (AR2413)
pci168c,1b (AR5413)
PCI168c,1c (AR5424)
pci168c,23 (AR5416)
pci168c,24 (AR5418)

If your wireless card has a different PCI Device ID, you can try to manually attach the driver to it by running the following command:

# update_drv -a -i '"pci168c,XXXX"' ath
(no reboot required)

2. Install ath driver

The easiest way to install the driver is from pre-compiled binary package:

# wget http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/laptop/downloads/ath-0.7.1-pkg.tar.gz
# gunzip -c ath-0.7.1-pkg.tar.gz | tar xvf -
# pkgadd -d ./SUNWatheros SUNWatheros

3. Connect to a WLAN

You should be able to plumb the interface right after installing this package without having to reboot first:

# ifconfig ath0 plumb

If plumbing failed, your card may be not supported or just not getting properly identified by the Solaris kernel. Send us a note and we'll try to help.

If you don't use WEP, connect to your WLAN:

# wificonfig -i ath0 connect ssid

Here -i specifies the WLAN interface. If ath0 is the only WLAN interface on you machine, you can omit this option and simply run wificonfig connect ssid

Then all that's left to do is starting dhcp:

# ifconfig ath0 dhcp

If your WLAN requires WEP authorization, then you need to download and install the wificonfig utility. After that, you'll need to create new profile for your WLAN with the following commands:

# wificonfig -i ath0 createprofile office essid=ssid encryption=wep wepkey1=wepkey
# wificonfig -i ath0 connect office
# ifconfig ath0 dhcp

Go to wificonfig web page for more details.

After being connected, you may check link status with:

# wificonfig -i ath0 showstatus

ChangeLogs

Version 0.7.2 (2007-03-17)

  • Added adhoc(IBSS) mode support
  • Fixed that ath can plumb but scan gives no results when memory >= 4GB
  • Fixed multicast failure

Version 0.6 (2007-08-28)

  • Updated HAL to v0.9.30.13, support AR5416/AR5418 chipsets
  • Use GLDv3. As a result, 0.6 runs only on OpenSolaris, supports only WPA/WPA2-PSK and binary MUST be installed on b68 or later

Version 0.5

  • Updated HAL to v0.9.17.2, support AR2413/AR5413 chipsets

Version 0.4

  • Added WPA support

Version 0.3

  • Fixed bugs

Version 0.2

  • Updated HAL, support AR5214 chipsets
  • Requires wificonfig v0.2

Version 0.1

  • Initial release, support AR5211, AR5212, AR5213 chipsets
  • Uses wificonfig v0.1 to do configuration
  • Integrated into OpenSolaris build 29

Notes

This is work in progress. Please send your questions and comments laptop-discuss@opensolaris.org discussion forum.