Qualcomm Atheros NFA222 (AR9462) M.2 NGFF

[SOUK]

Can anyone tell me how to get my Wifi working using this card.

PRIMARY PROBLEM:

I've tried it in Opnsense v16.7 / v17.1 and both detect the card and allow me to effectively configure it the same way I can configure my existing USB WiFi dongle, but the Atheros M.2 card itself is not producing any WiFi signal for any of my devices to see. I'm also receiving the following errors in my log.

I'm also getting the following error in my logs non stop, which I'm assuming is related to the fault.:

also
Sep 14 14:41:14    kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 0)
Sep 14 14:41:14    kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 14 14:41:14    kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 0)
Sep 14 14:41:14    kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 14 14:41:14    kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 0)
Sep 14 14:41:14    kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)

Again, the card is:
- Qualcomm Atheros Wireless NFA222 (Atheros AR9462).
- Qualcomm Atheros QCNFA222 | PPD-QCNFA222 | Foxconn | NGFF| 168c0034 | abgn |   Atheros AR9462

[franco]

Hi SOUK,

These errors are common in FreeBSD 10 for said hardware. Apparently a lot of work went into FreeBSD 11 and it is fixed there, but the fixes never went back to 10.x, so until we migrate to FreeBSD 11, these errors will not go away and the hardware hardly works.

There are some workarounds like only using channel 12 (??), but I don't exactly remember, some people had the same issues before and the old threads can possibly help operate the hardware until the major FreeBSD update is done.


Cheers,
Franco

[SOUK]

Hi SOUK,

These errors are common in FreeBSD 10 for said hardware. Apparently a lot of work went into FreeBSD 11 and it is fixed there, but the fixes never went back to 10.x, so until we migrate to FreeBSD 11, these errors will not go away and the hardware hardly works.

There are some workarounds like only using channel 12 (??), but I don't exactly remember, some people had the same issues before and the old threads can possibly help operate the hardware until the major FreeBSD update is done.


Cheers,
Franco

Hi Franco, any idea when will we start seeing the newer Opensense based one FREEBSD11 being rolled out?

[franco]

The ALPHA is up, but it may be rough. We have scheduled BETA images for some time November. RC in January and RELEASE end of January.

Requires 16.7.7:

# opnsense-update -t opnsense-devel
# opnsense-update -ur 17.1.a
# /usr/local/etc/rc.reboot


Cheers,
Franco

[franco]

I forgot: FreeBSD 11.0 changes the way the WiFi devices are presented so at the moment the GUI wireless configuration doesn't work, but we're hoping to fix this until BETA.

Any help getting that fixed sooner is very much welcome.