On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 12:51 PM, Chris Cappuccio <ch...@nmedia.net> wrote: > Aaron Mason [simplersolut...@gmail.com] wrote: >> >> Firstly, the scanning issue. The CM9 is an industrial card designed >> for use in wireless links and in IBSS networks. They don't have the >> ability to search for other access points - they're meant to BE an >> access point. >> > > Bullshit. It's just an atheros chip. Works like any other one. Some of these companies change the RF front end to be more powerful, or whatever. But that doesn't change the features of the chip itself.
My DCMA81 is "just an atheros chip" by your definition, but it does not have the ability to scan. Linux says that it doesn't have that capability and Windows fails almost instantly when you refresh the network list. I didn't try it in OpenBSD due to the first two failures. If it does, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that the ath(4) driver came from a clean-room reverse engineer rather than binary drivers from Atheros. Like the CM9 card, it's a professional card, not designed for end users. > >> Secondly, since you've already used a 12V/2.5A (which is actually >> three times over the top for a board which has a 10W limit), it might >> be worth considering that maybe the 4501 isn't designed for a wireless >> card. Maybe it's time for an upgrade to a Geode-based net5501 - or >> perhaps an ALIX board. A 4511 or 4521 is a possibility. >> > > Actually, the mini-pci slot on the 4501 should work. Should, yes. Why isn't it though? > > It is a low power board, you may be going over the limit, although I don't remember the CM9 having that high of a draw. Check out the soekris-tech list and its archives to see what the power limit on the 4501's mini-pci slot is and check out CM9 documentation to see what it can draw. According to the doco from wirelesslan.gr, the CM9 draws 430mA maximum while transmitting, 310mA while receiving and 250mA in standby. For the 3.3V mPCI bus this equates to 1.41W in full transmit, 1.023W in full receive and 0.825W in standby. As for the 4501 board, I couldn't tell you. The site does mention that the 4501 is ideal for a firewall or VPN router, but not a wireless router - which both the 4511 and 4521 say that they are. > > Finally, give -current a try. IIRC, some changes were made to the ath atheros driver. A new driver (athn) for new atheros 54xx is in there too. > > I've never got a CM9 (or _any_ atheros chip) working properly with openbsd beyond basic 802.11b client mode, but then again, I haven't tried in a few years. Other cards seem to work better, the various intel drivers are what most of my systems end up running. > AFAIK, the ath(4) driver doesn't support past 11b. Whether that has changed in -current I don't know. I also don't have any N-class devices to test for athn(4), though they won't support N-mode until ieee80211(9) is brought up to speed. -- Aaron Mason - Programmer, open source addict I've taken my software vows - for beta or for worse
