09/09/2010 ath9k_htc - Linux Wireless

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ath9k_htc
ath9k_htc provides hardware support for Atheros AR9001 and AR9002 family hardware.

Contents
1. ath9k_htc
2. Get the driver
3. Chipsets supported
4. Supported Devices
5. Mailing list
6. Configuring your kernel
7. Firmware
8. Supported Features
9. Modeswitching for AR7010
10. Debugging
11. Known limitations

Get the driver

The driver is part of wireless-testing. See this guide to use the wireless-testing tree directly.
Or you can use compat-wireless to get the driver.

Chipsets supported
AR9271
AR7010

Supported Devices
See the ath9k_htc device list.

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Mailing list
https://lists.ath9k.org/mailman/listinfo/ath9k-devel

Configuring your kernel

Enable these options in your kernel config.

CONFIG_ATH_COMMON=m
CONFIG_ATH9K_HW=m
CONFIG_ATH9K_COMMON=m
CONFIG_ATH9K_HTC=m

Firmware
This driver requires firmware, you can get the approriate firmware from the firmware tree.

Firmware map:

AR9271 - ar9271.fw
AR7010 - ar7010.fw or ar7010_1_1.fw

For AR7010 based cards, place both ar7010.fw and ar7010_1_1.fw in /lib/firmware. The
driver would load the required firmware.

The firmware has to be placed in the correct location, usually /lib/firmware. This could vary
among distributions, so check your distro's policies if loading of the firmware fails.

Supported Features
Station Mode
Monitor Mode
IBSS Mode
Legacy (11g) operation
HT support
TX/RX 11n AMPDU aggregation
HW Encryption
LED
Powersave
Suspend/Resume

Modeswitching for AR7010

AR7010 based cards operate by default in USB Mass storage mode and have to be
'switched' to wireless mode on plugging in. If you have an old usb_modeswitch package, you
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can do this to load ath9k_htc automatically.

Add this line to /lib/udev/rules.d/40-usb_modeswitch.rules.

# Atheros Wireless
ATTRS{idVendor}=="0cf3", ATTRS{idProduct}=="20ff",
RUN+="usb_modeswitch '%b/%k'"

Add a file "0cf3:20ff" in /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/ and add these lines to it.

########################################################
# Atheros Wireless

DefaultVendor= 0x0CF3
DefaultProduct=0x20FF

TargetVendor= 0x0CF3
TargetProduct= 0x7010

CheckSuccess=10
NoDriverLoading=1

MessageContent="5553424329000000000000000000061b00000002000000000000
0000000000"

Now, when the device is plugged in, ath9k_htc should load normally. If not, report to
ath9k_devel.

Debugging
See here.

Known limitations
UB94/95 AMPDU aggregation is limited to 20 subframes per aggregate. Fixing this would
require removing lots of cruft and structural changes in the firmware.

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