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List:       freebsd-wireless
Subject:    FreeBSD wireless support is lacking; needs better documentation
From:       Dirk E <cipher_nl () hotmail ! com>
Date:       2014-08-30 16:37:59
Message-ID: DUB131-W19C89883781A2A9168565997D80 () phx ! gbl
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Hello guys,

I wrote to the freebsd-wireless@ list on 12 August, looking for a working USB \
wireless adapter that can work on HOSTAP mode. There was no reply on my message and \
so far i have been unsuccessful in finding any device that works without some kind of \
limitation.

The problems are:

1) FreeBSD supports only a limited range of wireless adapters, mostly older products \
that are not sold anymore or are hard to come by

2) FreeBSD has limitations on supported products, such as no working HOSTAP or no \
working 11n (only 11a/b/g) or no proper power-save features

3) FreeBSD lacks up-to-date information about actual supported products; many \
products have newer revisions which use different chipsets

4) Documentation is not complete; for example the urtwn manpage does not specify that \
HOSTAP is not supported under the CAVEATS section

5) Products are sold with different chipsets under the same name, products sold in \
the USA may work while the same product sold in the EU does not work

6) It is generally very hard to find out what chipset a product uses


I've been trying for weeks to find a working solution. I have given up on 11n \
support, i just want things to work. I got fed up after trying two devices which \
should be supported but didn't work in the end, so i bought a bunch of devices and \
hoped that one would work:

Asus WL-167 (supported by rum driver; because of missing power-save in HOSTAP mode it \
only works with some clients; andriod phones for example don't seem to work; they can \
connect but not perform any IP traffic) TP-LINK TL-WN822N (supported by urtwn, but \
despite manpage not mentioning this, HOSTAP mode is not supported; 11n not supported \
but documented) TP-LINK TL-WN821N
TP-LINK TL-WN722N 
TP-LINK TL-WN725N (should be supported by urtwn, but only the USA versions; the EU \
version appears not to be supported by this driver at all; not documented) EnGenius \
EUB9707 (only device that actually works in HOSTAP mode; but without 11n support) \
Dlink GO-USB-N150  Eminent EM4579 (no info about this device)


It appears the lack of HOSTAP-mode in the urtwn-driver was known by OpenBSD, from \
which the driver was imported. So then, why is this information not shared with us by \
including it in the urtwn manpage? There is a patch for the OpenBSD driver to add \
HOSTAP mode for this driver; i am not sure whether it can be applied to FreeBSD.

Long story short; FreeBSD's wireless support is lacking. It's almost a complete mess. \
It takes many time and frustration for a user to get a working product that works \
decently with FreeBSD. And even then, it often works without features like 11n and \
proper power save features. It's one of the areas that FreeBSD is much behind in \
terms of hardware support compared to virtually every other operating system out \
there. That's a shame; FreeBSD would be an excellent wireless access point when \
paired with pf-firewall.

I propose the following: create a wiki with a list of known working wireless \
products. Each product should note which chipset it uses, what driver it connects to, \
what features are suported (i.e. HOSTAP), what FreeBSD versions are supported, \
whether it is open source / binary blob, any license requirements (like Realtek) and \
a dmesg snippet where the driver is detected. It can be managed by a maintainer that \
accepts email reports from users who provide the required information. That way, we \
get a list of hardware that is known to work with FreeBSD that people can actually \
buy. Even a NewEgg-link or something to that effect can be provided.

This website was a lot of help to me in figuring out what chipset a wireless product \
uses: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Main_Page I propose something simpler for FreeBSD; \
just a single wiki page that lists products that either work or do not work.

With very limited hardware support for wireless devices, such a list is needed very \
badly, to prevent other people from going through the same hellhound that i've gone \
through. If even just a handful of wireless devices that are still being sold are \
known to be working with FreeBSD, this list would be very helpful i would presume.

Anyone who likes this idea?
 		 	   		  
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