wireless ethernet

Jon Hamilton hamilton at pobox.com
Wed Aug 31 19:00:15 PDT 2005


Sepherosa Ziehau <sepherosa at xxxxxxxxx>, said on Thu Sep 01, 2005 [08:26:21 AM]:
} The info intr seems lost.  Try using wicontrol to squeeze more
} information out of wi.  If you have time, please compile kernel with
} DEVICE_POLLING support, setup wi to use polling and see whether this
} works for you.

Thanks for sticking with me :)  I recompiled the kernel and enabled polling, then did as
you suggested.  The results are below.  One thing that stands out is that in the first
``wicontrol'', the "Current BSSID" does match the MAC addr of my base station.  In the
subsequent wicontrol (after I did some ifconfig stuff to tell it to go find any station)
that value reverted to 44:44:44....

The debug output and pattern is identical with polling on as when using interrupts. 
When I ifconfig the interface up, I get no messages.  When I ifconfig it down, I get the 

wi_newstate INIT -> INIT
ieee80211_newstate: INIT -> INIT

lines.  I can repeat that as often as desired; ifconfig up => no messages ifconfig up then 
later down => the INIT -> INIT pair above.


Here's a transcript, edited to better space the lines out.  The AP is operating at this point
with WEP turned off, access control turned off, and is broadcasting its SSID.

laptop# sysctl debug.ieee80211=2
debug.ieee80211: 0 -> 2

laptop# sysctl hw.wi.debug=2
hw.wi.debug: 0 -> 2

laptop# sysctl kern.polling.enable=2
kern.polling.enable: 0 -> 2

laptop# ifconfig wi0 ssid linksys up

[ I waited about a minute here to give it time to do its thing ]

laptop# ifconfig wi0
wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	options=40<POLLING>
	ether 00:05:5d:f2:c1:50
	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/2Mbps)
	status: no carrier
	ssid linksys 1:linksys
	stationname "DragonFly WaveLAN/IEEE node"
	channel -1 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
	rtsthreshold 2312 protmode CTS
	wepmode OFF weptxkey 1

laptop# wicontrol
NIC serial number:			[ 001214004756 ]
Station name:				[ DragonFly WaveLAN/IEEE node ]
SSID for IBSS creation:			[ linksys ]
Current netname (SSID):			[ linksys ]
Desired netname (SSID):			[ linksys ]
Current BSSID:				[ 00:0f:66:18:d5:90 ]
Channel list:				[ 7ff ]
IBSS channel:				[ 6 ]
Current channel:			[ 6 ]
Comms quality/signal/noise:		[ 91 138 0 ]
dBm Coms Quality:			[ ]
Promiscuous mode:			[ Off ]
Process 802.11b Frame:			[ Off ]
Intersil-Prism2 based card:		[ 1 ]
Port type (1=BSS, 3=ad-hoc):		[ 1 ]
MAC address:				[ 00:05:5d:f2:c1:50 ]
TX rate (selection):			[ 0 ]
TX rate (actual speed):			[ 2 ]
RTS/CTS handshake threshold:		[ 2312 ]
Create IBSS:				[ Off ]
Access point density:			[ 1 ]
Power Mgmt (1=on, 0=off):		[ 0 ]
Max sleep time:				[ 100 ]
PRI Identity:				[ 21 0 0 3 ]
STA Identity:				[ 31 2 0 8 ]
Card ID register:			[ 8008 1 1 0 ]
Temperature Range:			[ 1 ]
WEP encryption:				[ Off ]
TX encryption key:			[ 1 ]
Encryption keys:			[  ][  ][  ][  ]

laptop# wicontrol -o
Transmitted unicast frames:		0
Transmitted multicast frames:		0
Transmitted fragments:			0
Transmitted unicast octets:		0
Transmitted multicast octets:		0
Single transmit retries:		0
Multiple transmit retries:		0
Transmit retry limit exceeded:		0
Transmit discards:			0
Transmit discards due to wrong SA:	0
Received unicast frames:		0
Received multicast frames:		0
Received fragments:			0
Received unicast octets:		0
Received multicast octets:		0
Receive FCS errors:			0
Receive discards due to no buffer:	0
Can't decrypt WEP frame:		0
Received message fragments:		0
Received message bad fragments:		0

laptop# wicontrol -n ANY -p 1
wicontrol: warning: flag n deprecated, migrate to ifconfig ssid

laptop# ifconfig wi0 ssid ANY

[ waited a minute or so ]

laptop# wicontrol
NIC serial number:			[ 001214004756 ]
Station name:				[ DragonFly WaveLAN/IEEE node ]
SSID for IBSS creation:			[ ANY ]
Current netname (SSID):			[ ANY ]
Desired netname (SSID):			[ ANY ]
Current BSSID:				[ 44:44:44:44:44:44 ]
Channel list:				[ 7ff ]
IBSS channel:				[ 6 ]
Current channel:			[ 6 ]
Comms quality/signal/noise:		[ 0 27 27 ]
dBm Coms Quality:			[ ]
Promiscuous mode:			[ Off ]
Process 802.11b Frame:			[ Off ]
Intersil-Prism2 based card:		[ 1 ]
Port type (1=BSS, 3=ad-hoc):		[ 1 ]
MAC address:				[ 00:05:5d:f2:c1:50 ]
TX rate (selection):			[ 0 ]
TX rate (actual speed):			[ 2 ]
RTS/CTS handshake threshold:		[ 2312 ]
Create IBSS:				[ Off ]
Access point density:			[ 1 ]
Power Mgmt (1=on, 0=off):		[ 0 ]
Max sleep time:				[ 100 ]
PRI Identity:				[ 21 0 0 3 ]
STA Identity:				[ 31 2 0 8 ]
Card ID register:			[ 8008 1 1 0 ]
Temperature Range:			[ 1 ]
WEP encryption:				[ Off ]
TX encryption key:			[ 1 ]
Encryption keys:			[  ][  ][  ][  ]

laptop# ifconfig wi0
wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	options=40<POLLING>
	ether 00:05:5d:f2:c1:50
	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/2Mbps)
	status: no carrier
	ssid ANY 1:ANY
	stationname "DragonFly WaveLAN/IEEE node"
	channel -1 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
	rtsthreshold 2312 protmode CTS
	wepmode OFF weptxkey 1
laptop# exit

-- 

   Jon Hamilton 
   hamilton at xxxxxxxxx





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