This README is written based on FreeBSD Version 13.0-RELEASE.
We confirmed support for the following hardware.
For more information on all evaluated hardware, see Wi-Fi Hardware.
| Wi-Fi Dongle | Device ID | HW Vendor | Manpage | AP-Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airlink 101 AWLL3026 | 0ace:1211 | ZyDAS (zyd) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?zyd(4) | No |
| ALFA Network AWUS036NH | 148f:3070 | Ralink (run) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?run(4) | Yes |
| Belkin F5D8053 v3 | 050d:815c | Ralink (run) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?run(4) | Yes |
| Edimax EW-7811Un v2 | 7392:7811 | Realtek (rtwn) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?rtwn(4) | Yes |
| Linksys WUSB600N v1 | 1737:0071 | Ralink (run) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?run(4) | Yes |
| Linksys WUSBF54G v1.1 | 13b1:0024 | ZyDAS (zyd) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?zyd(4) | No |
| Netgear WG111 v2 | 0846:6a00 | Realtek (urtw) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?urtw(4) | No |
| Netgear WG111 v3 | 0846:4260 | Realtek (urtw) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?urtw(4) | No |
| Sitecom WL-172 v1 | 0df6:90ac | Ralink (rum) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?rum(4) | Yes |
| TP-Link TL-WN722N v3 | 2357:010c | Realtek (rtwn) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?rtwn(4) | Yes |
| TP-Link TL-WN725N v3.8 | 0bda:8179 | Realtek (rtwn) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?rtwn(4) | Yes |
| TRENDnet TEW-648UB v1 | 0bda:8171 | Realtek (rsu) | https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?rsu(4) | No |
Load drivers on boot by creating or modifying /boot/loader.conf:
if_run_load="YES"
if_rum_load="YES"
if_rtwn_usb_load="YES"
Alternatively, load them directly when needed, for example:
kldload if_rum
Now we can create a wireless interface for the respective driver. For example, for rum0 devices:
ifconfig wlan create wlandev rum0
Which will print the name of the created interface (wlan0).
Clients can connect to a network using the well-known wpa_supplicant:
wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c supplicant.conf
In order to create an access point, the corresponding mode has to be set when creating the interface:
ifconfig wlan create wlandev rum0 wlanmode hostap
An access point can now be set up using the well-known hostapd:
hostapd -i wlan0 hostapd.conf
We provide a script to automatically configure and set up an access point, optionally with support for DHCP.
Usage; ./setup.sh interface
For example:
./setup.sh rum0
Install a DHCP server, for example:
pkg install isc-dhcp44-server
Then enable DHCP in /etc/rc.conf:
dhcpd_enable="YES"
dhcpd_ifaces="wlan0"
Write the following configuration file in /usr/local/etc/dhcpd.conf:
### Lease Times
default-lease-time 86400;
max-lease-time 86400;
### Options
authoritative;
get-lease-hostnames true;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option routers 192.168.0.1;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
### DHCP Address Bank of 100 ip addresses
subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0
{
range 192.168.0.100 192.168.0.200;
}
The DHCP server can now be started:
service isc-dhcpd start
Instructions to rebuild the kernel with debug statements.
Resources:
pkg install git
Clone the appropriate kernel source code into /usr/src:
git clone --depth 1 -b release/13.0.0 https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src /usr/src
We can now simply build and install:
cd /usr/src
make buildkernel
make installkernel
Note the option KERNCONF=MYKERNEL can be used to use customized kernel configurations.
By default, the above installation will use the /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC configuration file.
In the GENERIC configuration file, the IEEE80211_DEBUG option should be enabled by default.
Debug messages can be added with simple print statements:
printf("DEBUG-WLAN: Statement.\n");Interesting source files are located in the /usr/src/sys/net80211/ directory.
Building the kernel is a slow procedure. Therefore, for new builds during the debugging procedure, you can disable a clean build:
make -DNO_CLEAN buildkernel
make installkernel
Creating a patch file of any changes can be done as follows:
cd /usr/src
git diff > filename.patch
In addition to the kernel, one can rebuild individual kernel modules which are loaded at run-time using kldload.
Kernel modules are located in /usr/src/sys/modules with notable wireless driver code in /usr/src/sys/dev/usb/wlan/.
For example, the source of Ralink's run driver can be found in /usr/src/sys/dev/usb/wlan/if_run.c.
To rebuild the driver source code, one can make and install its approriate Makefile:
cd /usr/src/sys/modules/usb/run
make
make install
Now the rebuilt module can be found in, and loaded from, /boot/modules/:
kldunload if_run
kldload /boot/modules/if_run.ko
Note kldstat can be used to report statistics on the loaded kernel modules.
FreeBSD allows for one to enable additional wlan debug messages.
Resources:
- https://wiki.freebsd.org/WiFi/Debugging
- https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?wlan
- https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?wlandebug
Using wlandebug, one can change the verbosity of wlan debug messages.
To list the current messages:
wlandebug
A full list of available options is listed on the wlandebug manpage.
As an example, one can enable debug messages for power save operations:
wlandebug -i wlan0 power
These messages are then written to /var/log/messages or can be displayed using dmesg.
The following are example debug messages for power save operations:
wlan0: [aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa] power save mode on, 1 sta's in ps mode
wlan0: [aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa] save frame with age 0, 1 now queued
wlan0: ieee80211_beacon_update: TIM updated, pending 1, off 0, len 1
wlan0: [aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa] power save mode off, 0 sta's in ps mode
wlan0: ieee80211_beacon_update: TIM updated, pending 0, off 0, len 1
wlan0: [aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa] flush ps queue, 1 packets queued