Building a wireless hub
In the course of meandering around the web looking at computer hardware, I stumbled across this board from PC Engines. It looked like it could form the basis of a wireless hub, but with sufficient grunt to handle the web server (and other services such as DNS, DHCPD, mail etc). Why was this interesting? In the home environment, I have three boxes consuming electricity; the VDSL router (Draytek Vigor 2860), the web server (IBM T42 laptop running FreeBSD) and a wireless hub in the sitting room, which is connected to the router by a CAT5 cable dropped through two ceilings. If I could build a wireless router based on the APU.1D4 board, I could eliminate one humming box, i.e. the T42 laptop.
From a local supplier, I bought:
- PC Engines APU.1D4 4GB System Board
- Indoor Enclosure for ALIX 2D3/2D13 & APU1C - Black
- MikroTik RouterBOARD R11e-2HPnD - 2.4GHz HP mPCIe Wireless Card
- Pigtail Cable MMCX - SMA RP Bulkhead - 16cm x 2
- 12v 1000mA DC PSU for PC Engines APU Boards
- Crucial CT250MX200SSD3 MX200 mSATA Internal Solid State Drive - 250 GB
The only difficult bit about the assembly was making sure the thermal pads were applied as instructed. I could have sworn I had a 9pin serial console cable lying around, but I couldn't find it. Installation of the OS would have to wait a couple of days until the one I ordered arrived.
I had initially thought about installing OpenBSD on the device, but it didn't support the Atheros (AR9580) wireless card I'd purchased. I did start to look at what would be required to add support in OpenBSD, but quickly realised it would take more time and skill than I had, so I went with FreeBSD.
It was the first time I'd had a chance to play with multiple
ethernet ports (and the wireless card of course), but it turned out
to be remarkably easy to create a bridge device for the hub.
Here's the /etc/rc.conf setup:
wlans_ath0="wlan0"
create_args_wlan0="wlanmode hostap"
cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
ifconfig_bridge0="inet 192.168.0.4 netmask 255.255.255.0 addm re0 \
addm re1 addm re2 addm wlan0 up"
ifconfig_re0="up"
ifconfig_re1="up"
ifconfig_re2="up"
# -bgscan and -powersave may help prevent timeouts
# channel 2 seems to help prevent beacon issues
ifconfig_wlan0="ssid hydrus mode 11g up channel 2 -bgscan -powersave"
You'll note from the comments in the /etc/rc.conf file,
that the wireless access point was experiencing beacon misses and
timeouts (resulting in messages regarding stubbed routines in
the Atheros driver). The settings specified above minimise the problems,
but they are not eliminated.
I'm also running hostapd, which provide WPA security. The
configuration file (/etc/hostapd.conf) is likewise fairly
simple:
interface=wlan0 dump_file=/tmp/hostapd.dump ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd ctrl_interface_group=wheel wpa=2 wpa_passphrase=[REDACTED] wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK wpa_pairwise=CCMP TKIP
The device is warm to the touch, due to the (non-fan) heat dissipation mechanism. The CPU temperature runs at about 59 degrees Celsius. When under load (e.g. compiling FreeBSD), it rises to around 76 degrees. Suggested maximum temperature for the AMD T40E CPU is 90 degrees, so should be OK.
Dmesg below:
Copyright (c) 1992-2016 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE-p1 #0 r298770: Fri Apr 29 16:22:54 BST 2016
root@opal:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
FreeBSD clang version 3.4.1 (tags/RELEASE_34/dot1-final 208032) 20140512
CPU: AMD G-T40E Processor (1000.02-MHz K8-class CPU)
Origin="AuthenticAMD" Id=0x500f20 Family=0x14 Model=0x2 Stepping=0
Features=0x178bfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,HTT>
Features2=0x802209<SSE3,MON,SSSE3,CX16,POPCNT>
AMD Features=0x2e500800<SYSCALL,NX,MMX+,FFXSR,Page1GB,RDTSCP,LM>
AMD Features2=0x35ff<LAHF,CMP,SVM,ExtAPIC,CR8,ABM,SSE4A,MAS,Prefetch,IBS,SKINIT,WDT>
SVM: NP,NRIP,NAsids=8
TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics
real memory = 4815060992 (4592 MB)
avail memory = 4085374976 (3896 MB)
Event timer "LAPIC" quality 400
ACPI APIC Table: <CORE COREBOOT>
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs
FreeBSD/SMP: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s)
cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0
cpu1 (AP): APIC ID: 1
random: <Software, Yarrow> initialized
ioapic0 <Version 2.1> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (vesa, 0xffffffff80dc6500, 0) error 19
kbd0 at kbdmux0
acpi0: <CORE COREBOOT> on motherboard
acpi0: Power Button (fixed)
cpu0: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
cpu1: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
atrtc0: <AT realtime clock> port 0x70-0x71 irq 8 on acpi0
Event timer "RTC" frequency 32768 Hz quality 0
attimer0: <AT timer> port 0x40-0x43 irq 0 on acpi0
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
Event timer "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 100
Timecounter "ACPI-fast" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 900
acpi_timer0: <32-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0x808-0x80b on acpi0
hpet0: <High Precision Event Timer> iomem 0xfed00000-0xfed003ff on acpi0
Timecounter "HPET" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 950
Event timer "HPET" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 550
Event timer "HPET1" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 450
pcib0: <ACPI Host-PCI bridge> port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
pci0: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib0
pcib1: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 16 at device 4.0 on pci0
pci1: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib1
re0: <RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F/G PCIe Gigabit Ethernet> port 0x1000-0x10ff mem 0xf7900000-0xf7900fff,0xf7800000-0xf7803fff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
re0: Using 1 MSI-X message
re0: ASPM disabled
re0: Chip rev. 0x2c000000
re0: MAC rev. 0x00200000
miibus0: <MII bus> on re0
rgephy0: <RTL8169S/8110S/8211 1000BASE-T media interface> PHY 1 on miibus0
rgephy0: none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 10baseT-FDX-flow, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 100baseTX-FDX-flow, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, 1000baseT-FDX-flow, 1000baseT-FDX-flow-master, auto, auto-flow
re0: Using defaults for TSO: 65518/35/2048
re0: Ethernet address: 00:0d:b9:40:3e:68
pcib2: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 17 at device 5.0 on pci0
pci2: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib2
re1: <RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F/G PCIe Gigabit Ethernet> port 0x2000-0x20ff mem 0xf7b00000-0xf7b00fff,0xf7a00000-0xf7a03fff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci2
re1: Using 1 MSI-X message
re1: ASPM disabled
re1: Chip rev. 0x2c000000
re1: MAC rev. 0x00200000
miibus1: <MII bus> on re1
rgephy1: <RTL8169S/8110S/8211 1000BASE-T media interface> PHY 1 on miibus1
rgephy1: none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 10baseT-FDX-flow, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 100baseTX-FDX-flow, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, 1000baseT-FDX-flow, 1000baseT-FDX-flow-master, auto, auto-flow
re1: Using defaults for TSO: 65518/35/2048
re1: Ethernet address: 00:0d:b9:40:3e:69
pcib3: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 18 at device 6.0 on pci0
pci3: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib3
re2: <RealTek 8168/8111 B/C/CP/D/DP/E/F/G PCIe Gigabit Ethernet> port 0x3000-0x30ff mem 0xf7d00000-0xf7d00fff,0xf7c00000-0xf7c03fff irq 18 at device 0.0 on pci3
re2: Using 1 MSI-X message
re2: ASPM disabled
re2: Chip rev. 0x2c000000
re2: MAC rev. 0x00200000
miibus2: <MII bus> on re2
rgephy2: <RTL8169S/8110S/8211 1000BASE-T media interface> PHY 1 on miibus2
rgephy2: none, 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 10baseT-FDX-flow, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 100baseTX-FDX-flow, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-master, 1000baseT-FDX, 1000baseT-FDX-master, 1000baseT-FDX-flow, 1000baseT-FDX-flow-master, auto, auto-flow
re2: Using defaults for TSO: 65518/35/2048
re2: Ethernet address: 00:0d:b9:40:3e:6a
ahci0: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 AHCI SATA controller> port 0x4010-0x4017,0x4020-0x4023,0x4018-0x401f,0x4024-0x4027,0x4000-0x400f mem 0xf7f04000-0xf7f043ff irq 19 at device 17.0 on pci0
ahci0: AHCI v1.20 with 6 6Gbps ports, Port Multiplier supported
ahci0: quirks=0x22000<ATI_PMP_BUG,1MSI>
ahcich0: <AHCI channel> at channel 0 on ahci0
ahcich1: <AHCI channel> at channel 1 on ahci0
ahcich2: <AHCI channel> at channel 2 on ahci0
ahcich3: <AHCI channel> at channel 3 on ahci0
ahcich4: <AHCI channel> at channel 4 on ahci0
ahcich5: <AHCI channel> at channel 5 on ahci0
ohci0: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB controller> mem 0xf7f00000-0xf7f00fff irq 18 at device 18.0 on pci0
usbus0 on ohci0
ehci0: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xf7f04400-0xf7f044ff irq 17 at device 18.2 on pci0
usbus1: EHCI version 1.0
usbus1 on ehci0
ohci1: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB controller> mem 0xf7f01000-0xf7f01fff irq 18 at device 19.0 on pci0
usbus2 on ohci1
ehci1: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xf7f04500-0xf7f045ff irq 17 at device 19.2 on pci0
usbus3: EHCI version 1.0
usbus3 on ehci1
isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 20.3 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
pcib4: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 20.4 on pci0
pci4: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib4
ohci2: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB controller> mem 0xf7f02000-0xf7f02fff irq 18 at device 20.5 on pci0
usbus4 on ohci2
pcib5: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 21.0 on pci0
pci5: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib5
ath0: <Atheros AR9580> mem 0xf7e00000-0xf7e1ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci5
ar9300_set_stub_functions: setting stub functions
ar9300_set_stub_functions: setting stub functions
ar9300_attach: calling ar9300_hw_attach
ar9300_hw_attach: calling ar9300_eeprom_attach
ar9300_flash_map: unimplemented for now
Restoring Cal data from DRAM
Restoring Cal data from EEPROM
Restoring Cal data from Flash
Restoring Cal data from Flash
Restoring Cal data from OTP
ar9300_hw_attach: ar9300_eeprom_attach returned 0
ath0: RX status length: 48
ath0: RX buffer size: 4096
ath0: TX descriptor length: 128
ath0: TX status length: 36
ath0: TX buffers per descriptor: 4
ar9300_freebsd_setup_x_tx_desc: called, 0x0/0, 0x0/0, 0x0/0
ath0: ath_edma_setup_rxfifo: type=0, FIFO depth = 16 entries
ath0: ath_edma_setup_rxfifo: type=1, FIFO depth = 128 entries
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
ath0: AR9580 mac 448.4 RF5110 phy 0.0
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x0000
ohci3: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB controller> mem 0xf7f03000-0xf7f03fff at device 22.0 on pci0
usbus5 on ohci3
ehci2: <AMD SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xf7f04600-0xf7f046ff at device 22.2 on pci0
usbus6: EHCI version 1.0
usbus6 on ehci2
amdtemp0: <AMD CPU On-Die Thermal Sensors> on hostb4
acpi_button0: <Power Button> on acpi0
orm0: <ISA Option ROM> at iomem 0xee800-0xeffff on isa0
ppc0: cannot reserve I/O port range
uart0: <16550 or compatible> at port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on isa0
uart0: console (115200,n,8,1)
uart1: <16550 or compatible> at port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on isa0
random: unblocking device.
usbus0: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec
usbus1: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
usbus2: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus3: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
ugen0.1: <ATI> at usbus0
uhub0: <ATI OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus0
ugen1.1: <ATI> at usbus1
uhub1: <ATI EHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus1
ugen2.1: <ATI> at usbus2
uhub2: <ATI OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus2
ugen3.1: <ATI> at usbus3
uhub3: <ATI EHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus3
usbus4: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus5: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus6: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
ugen4.1: <ATI> at usbus4
uhub4: <ATI OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus4
ugen5.1: <ATI> at usbus5
uhub5: <ATI OHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus5
ugen6.1: <ATI> at usbus6
uhub6: <ATI EHCI root HUB, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usbus6
ada0 at ahcich0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
ada0: <Crucial CT250MX200SSD3 MU03> ACS-3 ATA SATA 3.x device
ada0: Serial Number 160911EEFB13
ada0: 600.000MB/s transfers (SATA 3.x, UDMA6, PIO 8192bytes)
ada0: Command Queueing enabled
ada0: 238475MB (488397168 512 byte sectors)
ada0: Previously was known as ad4
uhub4: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhub0: 5 ports with 5 removable, self powered
SMP: AP CPU #1 Launched!
Timecounter "TSC" frequency 1000022733 Hz quality 800
Root mount waiting for: usbus6 usbus5 usbus3 usbus2 usbus1
uhub2: 5 ports with 5 removable, self powered
uhub5: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
Root mount waiting for: usbus6 usbus3 usbus1
uhub6: 4 ports with 4 removable, self powered
uhub3: 5 ports with 5 removable, self powered
uhub1: 5 ports with 5 removable, self powered
Root mount waiting for: usbus6
ugen6.2: <Generic> at usbus6
umass0: <Generic Flash Card ReaderWriter, class 0/0, rev 2.01/1.00, addr 2> on usbus6
umass0: SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x4001
umass0:6:0:-1: Attached to scbus6
Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ada0p2 [rw]...
da0 at umass-sim0 bus 0 scbus6 target 0 lun 0
da0: <Multiple Card Reader 1.00> Removable Direct Access SPC-2 SCSI device
da0: Serial Number 058F63666485
da0: 40.000MB/s transfers
da0: Attempt to query device size failed: NOT READY, Medium not present
da0: quirks=0x2<NO_6_BYTE>
