DNMA92, ath9k and hostapd with Voyage Linux

After the release of Voyage Linux 0.6.5, I finally have time to explore AP mode with ath9k driver.

DNMA-92 wireless card is donated by PCEngines for ath9k driver and Voyage Linux integration.

First, you will need to install iw package from http://www.voyage.hk/dists/0.6/iw/. Voyage Linux 0.6.5 didn't package it, so you need to install it manually.

Although you won't need iw tool in the instructions further below, you can use it for getting information on your nl80211 based wireless interface instead of iwconfig (See this page for more info). To start with, install iw tool:

# remountrw
# wget http://www.voyage.hk/dists/0.6/iw/iw_0.9.14-1_i386.deb
# dpkg -i iw_0.9.14-1_i386.deb

According to this link, ath9k will need to use nl80211 driver for hostap functions. So, in /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf, append the following at the end of the file.

driver=nl80211
interface=wlan0
logger_syslog=-1
logger_syslog_level=2
logger_stdout=-1
logger_stdout_level=2
debug=4
dump_file=/tmp/hostapd.dump
ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd
ctrl_interface_group=0
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=3
eapol_key_index_workaround=0
eap_server=0
wpa=3
ssid=voyage-wpa
wpa_passphrase=voyage-wpa
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
channel=11
hw_mode=g
eapol_version=1

Please note that Voyage Linux use wlan0 for ath9k interface. From the above configure, I have configured WPA/WPA2, using voyage-wpa as both SSID and pre-shared key, running 802.11g mode on channel 11. eapol_version=1 is set for backward compatibility to my damn old 2001 iBook. Later, I may further explore on setting up 802.11n mode, I won't do it now since I have no client device with 11n.

At last, don't forget to enable wlan0 in /etc/network/interfaces:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
        address 10.1.10.1
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        broadcast 10.1.10.255
        up nat.sh wlan0 eth0 "10.1.10.0/24"

You don't need to set anything with iw tools since hostapd will do it for you. Now, make sure hostapd is enabled in /etc/default/hostapd and restart wlan0 interface and hostapd by:

# ifdown wlan0
# ifup wlan0
# /etc/init.d/hostapd restart

That's it. I can now connecting my iBook and iPhone to Voyage Linux with running ath9k in AP mode!