Bug 214586

Summary:	Handbook: discovery of wireless devices for 11.0-RELEASE
Product:	Documentation	Reporter:	Ben Woods <woodsb02>
Component:	Books & Articles	Assignee:	freebsd-doc (Nobody) <doc>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me	CC:	bcr
Priority:	---	Keywords:	needs-patch
Version:	Latest
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any
URL:	https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-wireless.html

Description Ben Woods freebsd_committer

2016-11-16 22:43:19 UTC

The FreeBSD Handbook chapter for wireless devices needs to be updated for changes in the behaviour of wireless interfaces on 11.0-RELEASE, which no longer shows the parent wireless device as an interface in the output of ifconfig

This makes the following statement in the 30.3.2. Quick Start sub-section outdated (incorrect):
"2. Identify the wireless adapter. The FreeBSD GENERIC kernel includes drivers for many common wireless adapters. If the wireless adapter is one of those models, it will be shown in the output from ifconfig(8):

% ifconfig | grep -B3 -i wireless
If a wireless adapter is not listed, an additional kernel module might be required, or it might be a model not supported by FreeBSD.

This example shows the Atheros ath0 wireless adapter."


The new method to identify available wireless adapters is to use the command:
$ sysctl net.wlan.devices

Comment 1 Ben Woods freebsd_committer

2016-11-16 22:54:29 UTC

Similarly, the 30.3.8. Troubleshooting sub-section may also need updating.

In the example given to utilise the wlandebug(8) tool, the command is given an argument of the parent ath0 interface, which no longer exists. The "ath0" should be replaced with "wlan0" in this example:

# wlandebug -i ath0 +scan+auth+debug+assoc
  net.wlan.0.debug: 0 => 0xc80000<assoc,auth,scan>

Comment 2 commit-hook freebsd_committer

2017-03-10 12:33:12 UTC

A commit references this bug:

Author: bcr
Date: Fri Mar 10 12:32:33 UTC 2017
New revision: 50044
URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/50044

Log:
  Add a section for FreeBSD 11 and higher as this one
  uses a different method of detecting the wireless
  devices in the system (using sysctl).

  Additionally, change the wlandebug example to wlan0.

  PR:		214586
  Submitted by:	woodsb02@freebsd.org

Changes:
  head/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/advanced-networking/chapter.xml

Comment 3 Benedict Reuschling freebsd_committer

2017-03-10 12:34:00 UTC

I committed a patch based on your suggested changes. Thanks for filing the PR!
Closed.