WLAN/AP with rt73usb and ath_pci

[Fabiano Sidler]

Hi folks!

I'm trying to set up an access point under Linux, which will be provided
by an AR5418 Atheros PCI card. For testing, I also have the device
plugged in which will be in the client eventually. It is a D-Link USB WLAN
stick which uses the rt73usb driver.

Unfortunately, the devices can't even ping each other, although used, by
now, still without any encryption:

=== snip ===
root at host:~# wlanconfig ath0 destroy
root at host:~# wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode master
root at host:~# iwconfig wlan0 essid loewenpard ap 06:1E:52:74:74:42
root at host:~# iwconfig ath0 essid host
root at host:~# ifconfig wlan0 192.168.168.2 up
root at host:~# ifconfig ath0 192.168.168.1 up
root at host:~# iwconfig wlan0; iwconfig ath0; ifconfig wlan0; ifconfig ath0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"loewenpard"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 06:1E:52:74:74:42   
          Tx-Power=27 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2346 B   
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
 
ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"loewenpard"  Nickname:""
          Mode:Master  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 06:1E:52:74:74:42   
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:14 dBm   Sensitivity=1/1  
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/70  Signal level=-96 dBm  Noise level=-96 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:8  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
 
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1e:58:9e:4d:73  
          inet addr:192.168.168.2  Bcast:192.168.168.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
 
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 06:1e:52:74:74:42  
          inet addr:192.168.168.1  Bcast:192.168.168.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::41e:52ff:fe74:7442/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:11 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:2791 (2.7 KB)
 
root at host:~# ping -c4 -Iwlan0 192.168.168.1
PING 192.168.168.1 (192.168.168.1) from 192.168.168.2 wlan0: 56(84) bytes of data.