ath9k open/free firmware for Debian GNU/kFreeBSD?

[Nureo]

Hello.

I have Debian GNU/kFreeBSD 7.11.0 (Wheezy), for amd64. The last "stable" version of GNU/kFreeBSD.

Is the open/free firmware "ath9k" for a TP-LINK TL-WN722N device available?

I mean, Is it loaded by default in the FreeBSD kernel for Debian? Or should I do something in particular?

I tried:

Code: Select all

# ifconfig ath9k0 scan

And it didn't work.

Thanks for your time.

[pylkko]

Hello.

I have Debian GNU/kFreeBSD 7.11.0 (Wheezy), for amd64. The last "stable" version of GNU/kFreeBSD.

Is the open/free firmware "ath9k" for a TP-LINK TL-WN722N device available?

I mean, Is it loaded by default in the FreeBSD kernel for Debian? Or should I do something in particular?

I tried:

Code: Select all

# ifconfig ath9k0 scan

And it didn't work.

Thanks for your time.

You are using the ifconfig command in a way that is wrong. I don't understand what you are trying to do but see the manual with:

Code: Select all

man ifconfig

You need to give the interface name as the first parameter for the command. So for example "wlan0". Also, there is no "scan" parameter.

The firmware are in a firmware package, but it might not be that "open" version. (https://wiki.debian.org/ath9k_htc/open_firmware). You can also compile them with gmake and place them in /lib/firmware (See the instruction in the github page that you linked). But maybe you don't mean the firmware, but whether the BSD kernel on Debian also can recognize that hardware? See https://wiki.freebsd.org/dev/ath%284%29

[v&n]

I know nothing about kFreeBSD, but the firmware is just a binary blob that is same across all platforms as far as I know. So if you have the driver available, you can download the firmware from anywhere you can find it at, and simply copy it to the location where the driver expects it.

In case of Debian, it (the firmware) is part of 'firmware-atheros' package. (Atheros AR9271 firmware, version 1.3 (htc_9271.fw)).

And 'scan' command is available for 'iwlist' command, I think that is what the OP intended to use.

[pylkko]

In case of Debian, it (the firmware) is part of 'firmware-atheros' package. (Atheros AR9271 firmware, version 1.3 (htc_9271.fw)).

I doubt that the same version (for wheezy) of the"open" firmware mentioned in the wiki I posted (https://wiki.debian.org/ath9k_htc/open_firmware) and which the OP wants, is in firmware-atheros though..?

[v&n]

In case of Debian, it (the firmware) is part of 'firmware-atheros' package. (Atheros AR9271 firmware, version 1.3 (htc_9271.fw)).

I doubt that the same version (for wheezy) of the"open" firmware mentioned in the wiki I posted (https://wiki.debian.org/ath9k_htc/open_firmware) and which the OP wants, is in firmware-atheros though..?

Yes the versions of a firmware may differ, so may their performance. I don't really know if the versions in the firmware-atheros package and the github one are same or not, but seeing that all but one file on the github page were modified two or more years ago, I *guess* it should be the same.
(the single file that was modified a year ago seems to be modified just for fixing some licence info)

But since building it from github doesn't seem difficult, I think it is easy enough to just build it and compare the version with the one in firmware-atheros package (which is currently version 1.3).

[pylkko]

Currently it is 1.3 but since the kfreeBSD port was ended with Wheezy, i though that the repo package might be older, but I just looked and it is 1.3 in Wheezy aso. so go figure

[stevepusser]

In Linux, ath9k doesn't need outside firmware. Possibly it is the same for your kernel.

Edit: I can see you're getting ath9k and ath9k_htc confused. They are two different drivers, ath9k is for PCI devices and needs no firmware, ath9k_htc is for Atheros USB devices such as yours, and requires firmware-atheros.

As stated by others, the firmware is a binary blob that is loaded into the Atheros device regardless of the kernel--the FreeBSD kernel just needs to have that driver built into it--something any web search should answer.

According to this: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/56080/
I wouldn't bet on the differently named FreeBSD kernel driver supporting it; probably in the future it will.

[oswaldkelso]

http://oswaldkelso.blogspot.co.uk/2015/ ... -with.html

I used this guide to build the open/free/firmware on both Debian and Dragora. I've never run DebiankBSD so no Idea if it works OK there.

https://wiki.debian.org/ath9k_htc/open_firmware

It is not the same as

Firmware-atheros is none-free
https://packages.debian.org/jessie/firmware-atheros

[stevepusser]

Dragora uses a Linux kernel, so there's no problem with the driver there. It seems that the FreeBSD kernel driver does not yet support Atheros USB devices.

[oswaldkelso]

Yes it seem your right

https://wiki.freebsd.org/dev/ath_hal%28 ... areSupport

The AR7010 and AR9271 NICs are not yet supported - the USB glue needs writing for ath(4).

Chipsets I won't be working on
USB chipsets, in particular the AR7010+AR9280, AR9271 or the AR9170 chipset
although if someone would like to work on these, I'll be happy to help them with it

[sunrat]

On a side note, TP-LINK TL-WN722N comes in 4 versions. V2 has the Atheros chip and needs ath9k_htc driver and firmware-atheros. V4 has a Realtek chip which needs firmware-realtek and the only working driver I found is on Github. I have both. V2 is great and the V4 is a royal pita but works ok once set up.

[oswaldkelso]

A little more info:

https://tehnoetic.com/adapters/tet-n150hga

Tehnoetic TET-N150HGA is our own branding for the TP-Link TL-WN722N, with a guarantee that the TET-N150HGA version ships with the Atheros AR9271 chipset that uses free software drivers and firmware; we can make no guarantees that other versions of the TL-WN722N will ship with the same chipset.

[Nureo]

Hi there!

Well, I was trying to install the open/free firmware, not the privative firmware. I don't need privative drivers.

The command try I showed to you was because in OpenBSD (and I suspect also in FreeBSD) you use this model to scan Wi-Fi connections:

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# ifconfig athn0 scan 

athn is the BSD name for the open/free firmware that I am trying to install, configure and use in Debian Wheezy GNU/kFreeBSD. I don't know if GNU with kFreeBSD uses the same name for the command line Wi-Fi connection. I just supposed that it could be the same functional command for GNU with the FreeBSD kernel.

I didn't find the ath9k_htc open firmware in the Wheezy repositories. But I wonder if is that because Debian Wheezy use different free (main) repositories for Linux and kFreeBSD. If anyone here can give me some orientation about this, I will be grateful.

Here, in the "Open firmware for ath9k_htc" section, it shows how to configure the firmware, and how to make it work. But, I don't know if this should work for kFreeBSD, and if this instructions are valid only for Linux.

The instructions for the open firmware says that the firmware will be automatically loaded. But I don't see any signal about that in the starting messages of the system, the notification zone of the desktop, the USB Atheros card light, and so on.

Also the "8 point" derivate us to a configuration section, which is not clear at all (to me). When I install Wi-Fi drivers (free or privative), in Debian GNU/Linux, you can access without any problems to the Wi-Fi connections from the desktop (if I am not wrong).

I will be glad if anybody can help me with this.

[pylkko]

Are the instructions the same on freebsd? Answer:it depends

See this

https://trisquel.info/en/forum/how-inst ... inc-ar9271



Does that help you? I just installed freeBSD 11, so I can try and see if this can be done later