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Regression #14703

open

2100 pcie wireless issues

Added by Jonathan Lee over 1 year ago. Updated over 1 year ago.

Status:
New
Priority:
Low
Assignee:
-
Category:
Wireless
Target version:
-
Start date:
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:
Release Notes:
Default
Affected Plus Version:
23.05.1
Affected Architecture:
SG-2100

Description

Hello fellow pfSense Packages Redmine community members can you please help.

1. The SG-2100MAX the Compex WLE200NX Wireless A/B/G/N Network Mini PCIe Adapter is the only card that will work with the 2100. Other appliances have support for other cards that is missing inside the 2100.

2. The pfSense GUI has removed all antenna port options that are in the prior versions of pfSense.

3. The pfSense software will not allow any dev.ath.0.tpack, or dev.ath.0.tpcts adjustments. When changed they default back to the original settings when adjustments are made. However per Netgate docs users should be able to change them.

4. The antenna diversity does not enable within the 2100 when multiple antena are in use.

As listed in Netgate docs we should have options for antenna adjustments and transmit power adjustments as seen here:

"If the signal is weak even when nearby the access point antenna, check the antenna again. For mini-PCI or mini-PCIe cards, if only one pigtail in use and there are two internal connectors, try hooking the pigtail up to the other internal connector on the card. Also try changing the Channel or adjusting the Transmit Power, or the Antenna Settings on the wireless interface configuration. For mini-PCI and mini-PCIe cards, check for broken ends on the fragile pigtail connectors where they plug into the card. If the Regulatory Domain settings have not been configured, set them before testing again."

Users can not adjust antenna settings or transmit power as the gui options are no longer listed.

I have also purchased and tested the Apple AR5BXB112 607-7211-A 661-5946 Network Mini PCIe card as it is known to work with other member's appliances. However, the 2100 does not detect any other pcie hardware. Per other forum members the AR5BXB112 card does work within other Netgate appliances. I have recently learned from member stephenw10 that the Compex card is the only card that he has seen work inside the 2100.

If other hardware such as the AR5BXB112 work inside other official Netgate appliances does the arm architecture that is inside the 2100 cause some lack of software support?

Secondly:
I was hoping to test the following options as the AR5BXB112 card contains 3 antenna ports, 0, 1, and 2.

per stephenw10
"I have always used the defaults there:

dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1
dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0"

I have also confirmed this is also the case for my system default values.

As PfSense uses freeBSD I researched this and found.

"Options 0,1,2 (antenna port 1 or 2, both=0) dev.ath.0.diversity: options 0,1(0=disable 1=enable)"

Leading to the third software issue I found I can not enable diversity within the 2100 manually when the two antenna are populated.

Finally, If there is cards that are supported within other systems that have 3 antenna ports there is no options for aux antenna to get configured for dev.at.0.rx

The pfSense GUI has sense removed the antenna port options that are in the prior pfSense versions.

See my short research inside of netgate docs ran to find the issues:
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/181597/pfsense-as-wireless-ap-transmit-power-adjustments

While researching this I found some information that 0: is for both, 1: is for main, 2: is for aux. Again my card lists port 0, and 1. Furthermore another mini pcie card had three ports that can be used with PfSense I am told the mini pcie AR5BXB112 comes with 0, 1, 2 antenna ports.

Ref:
https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-wireless/2011-September/000682.html

Per Netgate Docs:
"Interesting sysctls from shell that cannot be controlled from GUI" section it lists items you can control manually however when they are changed inside the 2100 they do not stay or take the config changes particularly, the transmit power adjustments and diversity settings will never stay set.

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/wireless/configuration-ap.html


Files

1689649005070-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.55.40-pm.png (101 KB) 1689649005070-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.55.40-pm.png defaulted to both for some reason. "Options 0,1,2 (antenna port 1 or 2, both=0) dev.ath.0.diversity: options 0,1(0=disable 1=enable)" Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 06:37 PM
1689649065121-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.57.25-pm.png (87.9 KB) 1689649065121-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.57.25-pm.png defaulted to both for some reason. "Options 0,1,2 (antenna port 1 or 2, both=0) dev.ath.0.diversity: options 0,1(0=disable 1=enable)" Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 06:37 PM
1689649040616-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.57.08-pm.png (87.9 KB) 1689649040616-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.57.08-pm.png defaulted to both for some reason. "Options 0,1,2 (antenna port 1 or 2, both=0) dev.ath.0.diversity: options 0,1(0=disable 1=enable)" Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 06:38 PM
1689649152979-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.58.53-pm.png (85.2 KB) 1689649152979-screenshot-2023-07-17-at-7.58.53-pm.png Diversity does not work with the 2100 it disables it setting does not take. Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 06:39 PM
Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 11.33.41 AM.png (1.23 MB) Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 11.33.41 AM.png Antenna mix up issues Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 06:50 PM
Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 11.32.07 AM.png (211 KB) Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 11.32.07 AM.png sysctls options for tpack tpcts do not take Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 06:51 PM
s-l500.jpg (23.7 KB) s-l500.jpg working card 2 ports Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 06:53 PM
Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.11.19 PM.png (184 KB) Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.11.19 PM.png settings will not take Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 10:12 PM
Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.33.21 PM.png (490 KB) Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.33.21 PM.png Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 10:35 PM
Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.33.32 PM.png (429 KB) Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.33.32 PM.png Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 10:35 PM
Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.38.14 PM.png (413 KB) Screenshot 2023-08-21 at 3.38.14 PM.png Jonathan Lee, 08/21/2023 10:38 PM
Actions #1

Updated by Jonathan Lee over 1 year ago

Compex WLE200NX Wireless A/B/G/N Network Mini PCIe Adapter (A4343) is the only card that works inside the 2100

Actions #2

Updated by Jonathan Lee over 1 year ago

When I would add a system tunable for tpcts and tpack and reboot or manually adjust they would never change and always would stay in the following.

dev.ath.0.tpcts: 63
dev.ath.0.tpack: 63

Actions #3

Updated by Jonathan Lee over 1 year ago

even when removing dev.ath.0.tpc and dev.ath.0.tpcscale and setting tpack and tpcts to 99 it does not take the config changes results in tpack and tpcts showing 0 when running sysctl dev.ath
output:

dev.ath.0.hal.serialise_reg_war: 0
dev.ath.0.hal.force_full_reset: 0
dev.ath.0.hal.swba_backoff: 0
dev.ath.0.hal.sw_brt: 10
dev.ath.0.hal.dma_brt: 2
dev.ath.0.hal.ar5416_biasadj: 0
dev.ath.0.hal.debug: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.31: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.30: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.29: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.28: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.27: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.26: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.25: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.24: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.23: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.22: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.21: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.20: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.19: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.18: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.17: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.16: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.15: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.14: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.13: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.12: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.11: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.10: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.9: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.8: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.7: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.6: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.5: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.4: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.3: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.2: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.1: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.sync_intr.0: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.63: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.62: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.61: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.60: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.59: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.58: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.57: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.56: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.55: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.54: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.53: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.52: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.51: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.50: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.49: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.48: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.47: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.46: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.45: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.44: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.43: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.42: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.41: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.40: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.39: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.38: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.37: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.36: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.35: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.34: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.33: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.32: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.31: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.30: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.29: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.28: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.27: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.26: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.25: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.24: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.23: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.22: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.21: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.20: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.19: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.18: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.17: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.16: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.15: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.14: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.13: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.12: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.11: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.10: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.9: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.8: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.7: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.6: 1
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.5: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.4: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.3: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.2: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.1: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.rx_phy_err.0: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tsfoor: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_ldpc: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_stbc: 607
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_stbc: 446
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_nodeq_overflow: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_swfiltered: 6
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_keymiss: 2
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_mcastq_overflow: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_intr: 5976
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_intr: 7697
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_aggr_fail: 16
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_aggr_ok: 391
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_aggr_failall: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_delim_underrun: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_data_underrun: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_swretrymax: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_swretries: 19
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_desccfgerr: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_timerexpired: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_xtxop: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_cst: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_timeout: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_hitqueueend: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_htprotect: 4568
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_hi_rx_chain: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_decrypt_busy_err: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_post_crc_err: 24
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_pre_crc_err: 50
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_2040: 839
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_halfgi: 288
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_agg: 2440
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_ani_cal: 3307
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_be_missed: 404
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_nofrag: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_raw_fail: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tdma_ack: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tdma_tsf: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tdma_timers: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tdma_update: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_nobuf: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_qfull: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_ff_flush: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_ff_rx: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_ff_txerr: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_ff_txok: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_raw: 103
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_cabq_busy: 11
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_cabq_xmit: 234
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_ant_txswitch: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_ant_defswitch: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rate_drop: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rate_raise: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rate_calls: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_per_rfgain: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_per_calfail: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_per_cal: 11
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_be_nombuf: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_be_xmit: 3178
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_ctl: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_mgt: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_packets: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_toobig: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_tooshort: 85
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_phyerr: 1
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_badmic: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_badcrypt: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_fifoerr: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_crcerr: 1082
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_orn: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_busdma: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rx_nombuf: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_ctsext: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_ctsburst: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_protect: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_altrate: 224
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_shortpre: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_cts: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_rts: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_noack: 251
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_badrate: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_longretry: 3260
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_shortretry: 2855
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_filtered: 6
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_fifoerr: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_xretries: 75
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_busdma: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_nodata: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_linear: 1
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_nomcl: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_nombuf: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_nonode: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_encap: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_qstop: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_discard: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_mgmt: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_tx_packets: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_intrcoal: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_mib: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_txurn: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rxeol: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_rxorn: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_bstuck: 4
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_bmiss_phantom: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_bmiss: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_hardware: 0
dev.ath.0.stats.ast_watchdog: 0
dev.ath.0.clear_stats: 0
dev.ath.0.txq_node_maxdepth: 128
dev.ath.0.txq_mcastq_maxdepth: 64
dev.ath.0.txq_data_minfree: 10
dev.ath.0.delim_min_pad: 0
dev.ath.0.rts_aggr_limit: 65536
dev.ath.0.aggr_limit: 65530
dev.ath.0.tid_hwq_hi: 4
dev.ath.0.tid_hwq_lo: 2
dev.ath.0.hwq_limit_aggr: 2
dev.ath.0.hwq_limit_nonaggr: 32
dev.ath.0.monpass: 24
dev.ath.0.intmit: 1
dev.ath.0.hangcheck: 0
dev.ath.0.forcebstuck: 0
dev.ath.0.txagg: 0
dev.ath.0.tpcts: 0
dev.ath.0.tpack: 0
dev.ath.0.tpc: 0
dev.ath.0.tpscale: 0
dev.ath.0.diag: 0
dev.ath.0.txintrperiod: 5
dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1
dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0
dev.ath.0.led_pwr_pin: -1
dev.ath.0.led_net_pin: -1
dev.ath.0.hardled: 0
dev.ath.0.ledidle: 2700
dev.ath.0.ledon: 0
dev.ath.0.ledpin: 0
dev.ath.0.softled: 0
dev.ath.0.ctstimeout: 23
dev.ath.0.acktimeout: 23
dev.ath.0.slottime: 9
dev.ath.0.regdomain: 0
dev.ath.0.countrycode: 0
dev.ath.0.sample_stats: 0
dev.ath.0.sample_rate: 10
dev.ath.0.smoothing_rate: 75
dev.ath.0.%parent: pci0
dev.ath.0.%pnpinfo: vendor=0x168c device=0x002a subvendor=0x168c subdevice=0x3099 class=0x028000
dev.ath.0.%location: slot=0 function=0 dbsf=pci0:0:0:0
dev.ath.0.%driver: ath
dev.ath.0.%desc: Atheros 9280
dev.ath.%parent:

Actions #4

Updated by Jonathan Lee over 1 year ago

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/13
was the options removed for antenna adjustments? It use to display them in the older software versions in the gui.

Actions #5

Updated by Jonathan Lee over 1 year ago

Antenna tx and rx adjustments missing on 23.05.1

See attached is the new GUI settings showing changes

Actions #6

Updated by Jonathan Lee over 1 year ago

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/5121

Also talks about the now degraded Wireless Antenna Selection GUI setting

Actions

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