NodeJTX

20/07/2008

Well, 1 day 4 hours up time, with no error/fault on any of the NIC's. Seems the firmware update to the WRAP solved all my problems. .

Planning on mounting the mast outside this week!

19/07/2008

Last night after I patched the WRAP firmware to 1.11 (from the vendors website), I decided to leave the SR2 and CM9 in place over night. Strangely enough, no problems at all, and thats without the the "iwpriv ath0 bgscan 0". So I closed up the WRAP unit completely, and running it sealed, 2 hours and still going with no error's. I will let it run for a full 24 hours and see what happens.

If this firmware update fixes things, it will be mounted outside and running wild some time next week.

18/07/2008
my new CM9 arrived today from Yawarra! the follow list the test on my WRAP (works is defined as 6 hours with out any PCI error)

original CM9 alone Works
original SR2 alone Works
original CM9 and new CM9 Works
oringal CM9 and SR2 fails ( < 30 minutes)
New CM9 and SR2 fails ( < 30 minutes)

So there seems to be something wrong with the WRAP (missing a capacitor I think. I will contact the makers soon).

In the mean time I will go head with my plans and use both CM9's.

Running all 3 interfaces (ath0/ath1/eth0) as a bridge (with DHCP turned off) appears to be the way I will be going, unless some one else has some concrete (ie with scripts/files I can just install directly and it will work).

Also just updated the tinyBIOS to the latest from the vendor. 1.11. However my board actually looks like the screen shot from the vendors site (ie only 7 cap's).

http://www.pcengines.ch/wrap2e1.htm

17/07/2008

Well did some more testing, and took out the CM9 and let it run. 21 hours so far with just the SR2 in it and no errors/faults yet (checking the /var/log/ files for the errors that occur when both are present). Will try it with just the CM9 in it and run it as well, see if there are any problems there. If none then its a problem with the WRAP board and its 7 electro Caps.

If CM9 run's fine, then it think its the total wattage of the combined board's doing it. Have ordered another CM9 to use, or for later experiments.

14/07/2008

After reading the new node howto, I have realised I have to turn DHCP server off, to insure any other bridging/routing servers I eventually connect to dont route my DHCP requests to me from all over.

As for the 2nd NIC problem, I found a reference on the MADWifi drivers page, about doing a "pre-up iwpriv ath0 bgscan 0" command that was supposedly a workaround to this known fault. Well. it extended the duration of the time the NIC was up, to between 6 and 8 hours. So no good.

Looks like I have to buy another card that is known to work, instead of the SR2. I will post on the mailing list for any advice on known/tested cards with a voyage 0.5.0 config.

12/07/2008 part 2 (see below for part 1).

Well now that I got it all working I am having a fault with one of the wireless NIC's.

symptoms: after a short while of the WRAP being up (less then 20 minutes, some times as short as 5 minutes), I get the message IRQ #(number) disabling. and one of the wireless NIC's goes down.

This was also happening when I first tried it with Voyage 0.4.0 last year, before it all got mothballed, and I thought updating to 0.5.0 might fix it.

This happens if that NIC is in stand alone mode, (ie step 1 from below) or in Bridged mode with the other NIC's.

Diagnose: Its always the same NIC. To check if its the port, I swapped the NIC's around so they were on the oposite of the WRAP. Started it up. same error, but with the different IRQ number, so I new it was following the NIC, and not the slot.

NIC that is the problem is the "Ubiquiti Networks SR2". This is the 400w card, which is known to have some problems with older WRAP boards. But I checked it was made in 2006. (However according to some web sites, the WRAP should have 6 electroCAP's for pre 2005, and post 2005 should have 8 electroCAP's, my board has 7.)

If I reboot the board (warm reboot), the NIC may or may not come up, if I reboot again, it may or may not come up again. If it does come up again after a reboot, within again less than 20 minutes that NIC fails again. (Note, if the nic wasnt available upon reboot while it wa configured for to act as part of the Bridge, the entire Bridge would fail, glad I was that I was doing diagnositic via the serial port to find this out!)

I check the /var/log/messages and I find the following information:
########start of log file########
Jul 12 10:07:05 NodeJTX kernel: eth0: PCI error 0x800000
Jul 12 10:07:05 NodeJTX kernel: wifi0: hardware error; resetting
Jul 12 10:11:23 NodeJTX kernel: eth0: PCI error 0x800000
Jul 12 10:11:23 NodeJTX last message repeated 6 times
Jul 12 10:11:23 NodeJTX kernel: wifi0: hardware error; resetting
Jul 12 10:11:23 NodeJTX kernel: wifi0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware: 'Hardware didn't respond as expected' (HAL status 3)
Jul 12 10:11:23 NodeJTX kernel: eth0: PCI error 0x800000
Jul 12 10:11:23 NodeJTX kernel: eth0: PCI error 0x800000
########end of log file########

Solution: unknown. If anybody could advise/help? or if anybody has a SR2 known to be good that is willing to try mine instead its place that would be great!

In the mean time the SR2 is not really important (well it is, since its meant to be my Omni NIC), but I can use the CM9 for the time being.

12/07/2008 part 1

Thanks for all the help of the mailing with regards to the setup. I finally found some good on line references explaining what I need to do so now my network diagram is all changed. (again, if I have setup it up incorrectly or if it needs more changes to bring it into line with MWN, please let me know).

anyway. New design image.



I spent last night for about 4 hours reading various pages and links about linux bridging which was way more informative, than the previous search's I had done for linux wireless routing or wireless bridging.

Anyway. for any others that might follow in this setup, here are the steps I performed to get it all working. (I didnt do it last night. I got a good night sleep before trying this out, nothing screw's up tech work than a lack of sleep).

1. Insured that (each) NIC (wireless and wired) all worked perfectly.
2. Insured that (each) NIC could issue IP's from the DHCP server.
2.5 repeat step 1 and 2 for subsequent NIC's.
3. Created a Bridged device combining all 2 wireless interfaces.
4. Created/updated the Bridge device combining all 2 wireless interfaces and the wired ethernet interface.
5. Post success updates.

To expand on these steps. (making sure you replace your own network allocation/IP's with the one I was given 10.10.32.112/28)

Step 1.
I edited the file on my WRAP (voyage 0.5.0. note: to edit file need to change to "remountrw" mode) /etc/network/interface and entered the following text
########start of file########
##Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
##/usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp


##The below entries are for testing purposes only. do not use them
##at the same time as Bridging mode is active.
auto ath0
iface ath0 inet static
address 10.10.32.114
netmask 255.255.255.240
broadcast 10.10.32.127
pre-up wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
pre-up iwpriv ath0 mode 3
pre-up iwconfig ath0 essid "JTX0.melbournewireless.org.au" mode master channel 1
########end of file########

I then rebooted, and insured that the NIC came up (used the ifconfig command to confirm it was up), then I used my wireless lap top, set its ip to 10.10.32.115/28 and insured I could ping it. insure ping working and failing when I booted/rebooted the WRAP. (ie to make sure I wasnt getting a false positive from some other network point around the place).

Step 2.

Checking the file /etc/dnsmasq.conf, I found that it used the extra file /etc/dnsmasq.more.conf, so I just added to that file the following line.
########start of file append########
dhcp-range=ath0,10.10.32.115,10.10.32.120,24h
########end of file append########

I then rebooted the WRAP. I changed my wireless laptop to DHCP instead of static IP and did a scan and found my new access point and got an IP issued to it successfully! yeah.

Step 2.5

Repeated step 1 with the following file
########start of file########
#Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
#/usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp


##The below 2 entries are for testing purposes only. do not use them
##at the same time as Bridging mode is active.
#auto ath0
#iface ath0 inet static
#
#address 10.10.32.114
#netmask 255.255.255.240
#broadcast 10.10.32.127
#pre-up wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
#pre-up iwpriv ath0 mode 3
#pre-up iwconfig ath0 essid "JTX0.melbournewireless.org.au" mode master channel 1
#
auto ath1
iface ath1 inet static

address 10.10.32.113
netmask 255.255.255.240
broadcast 10.10.32.127
pre-up wlanconfig ath1 create wlandev wifi1 wlanmode ap
pre-up iwpriv ath1 mode 3
pre-up iwconfig ath1 essid "JTX1.melbournewireless.org.au" mode master channel 4
#
#
########end of file########

Repeat step 2 with the following file change.
########start of file append########
dhcp-range=ath0,10.10.32.115,10.10.32.120,24h
dhcp-range=ath1,10.10.32.121,10.10.32.126,24h
########end of file append########

Step 3.

from step 2.5 I appended the /etc/network/interfaces file commenting out all the parts in step 1 2.5 that dealt with ath0 and ath1. I then appended this file. (note: to save time, I have included the step 4 items here as well, just commented out.)
########start of file append########
##The following is the bridgeing function for the 2 AP's.
##do not use the above at the same time as the Bridging is active.

auto BR0
iface BR0 inet static
address 10.10.32.113
netmask 255.255.255.240
broadcast 10.10.32.127
#may need to add a gateway param later for routing?
bridge_ports ath0 ath1
#bridge_ports eth0 ath0 ath1
pre-up wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
pre-up wlanconfig ath1 create wlandev wifi1 wlanmode ap
pre-up iwpriv ath0 mode 3
pre-up iwpriv ath1 mode 3
pre-up iwconfig ath0 essid "JTX0.melbwireless.org.au" mode master channel 2
pre-up iwconfig ath1 essid "JTX1.melbwireless.org.au" mode master channel 5
#pre-up ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 up
pre-up ifconfig ath0 0.0.0.0 up
pre-up ifconfig ath1 0.0.0.0 up
pre-up brctl addbr BR0
#pre-up brctl addif BR0 eth0
pre-up brctl addif BR0 ath0
pre-up brctl addif BR0 ath1
#post-down brctl delif BR0 eth0
post-down brctl delif BR0 ath0
post-down brctl delif BR0 ath1
post-down brctl delbr BR0
#post-down ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 down
post-down ifconfig ath0 0.0.0.0 down
post-down ifconfig ath1 0.0.0.0 down
post-down wlanconfig ath0 destroy
post-down wlanconfig ath1 destroy
########end of file append########

Reboot and low and behold, it worked. first time out of the box! My ministumbler on my IPAQ/OrinocoGold card found both of the wireless nics fine!
Started up my wireless PC, did discover and selected either of the 2 AP, either JTX0 or JTX1. and to confirm it wasnt left over from the standalone settings from step 1/2/2.5, I had different essid's for them (stand alone had "Melbourne", while the BR0 instance was just "Melb")

Step 4.

Okay. With that file in place in step 3, I just uncommented all the lines in step 3 that deal with using "eth0", and I rebooted. And disaster. Nothing came out, Darn. Had to crack open the Wrap case (glad I had it in the lounge instead of on the pole out doors) and connected to its serial port and logged in.
Found the problem, while I had uncommented the line "bridge_ports eth0 ath0 ath1" I had to comment the line "bridge_ports ath0 ath1" out. This was causing the problem. Made the change and rebooted.

Great!. this time it worked. all 3 interfaces were part of the Bridge. Plugged a wired laptop into the the WRAP ethernet port, and behold it was assigned one of the DHCP IP's sucessfully.

It should be noted that while the IP allocation worked for the seperate range when the stand alone wireless NIC's were up, as the bridge is acting as a route/switch, the dhcp is being served to any of the ports, so I had to make changes to that file to just one of the nic's for the full range of mine.

Step 5. Now its working, I installed Quagga (apt-get install Quagga), dumped the default files (with different passwords) from the MW pages about Quagga and OSPFD into their respective .conf files and rebooted. All appears to be still working.

And technically its all working. but...... (see my second update above this one).

9/06/2008

Well, worked out my network diagram... pity I dont have any one to connect to yet.



I am still trying to figure out the BR requirements for MAD wifi drivers and a Voyage 0.5.0 WRAP. And still havnt got it mounted outside yet, but hopefully within the next 2 weeks. (any help of the correct Voyage setup for a WRAP for bridging/routing/etc would be great!)

I figure breaking the DHCP scope between both interface devices to insure I get some local and remote (as much as posible) coverage.

26/05/2008

Requested a DHCP scope today. Ran a Kismet scan of about 270 degrees sweep with my directional in both vertical and horizontal middle of last week. Couldn't find any other wireless members (although I did find a number of nodes).

I hope to have the mast mounted on the house this coming weekend.

18/05/2008

Well didnt get a chance to go up on the roof and do a sweep, but did get a mast and assemble the who kit together

Will insert a photo shortly.



The above image has my Directional (you can see that attached near the top), with the omni (the white tube) attached at the top (you can make it out through the grill of the omni.

The WRAP (outdoor weather proof) is mounted at the bottom.

14/05/2008

While after a year of gathering dust (cough's) I finally got around to doing some more work & update.

. Reinstall Voyage , this time Version 0.5 onto my 512 CF card.
. Installed THTTPD and setup a basic web page
. used apt-get to install Kismet on the WRAP.
. Performed a Kismet scan from my lounge room and it found 5 devices just with the omni connected.
. Installed Kismet (windows) and connected to Kismet drone running on WRAP and got the same data.

Plans - Well if all goes well with my time for te weekend I shall go get a mast from bunnings for attaching to the chimney on sunday, and then do a 360 scan with my Dish in Vertical to a Kismet drone/log and then same scan with it in vertical.

I hope to publish the results here.

19/5/2007

Well got both network cards connected, one to a 9db Omni and one to a 6db panel, and configured one card to 10.10.200.1(essid NodeJTX1) and other to 10.10.210.1(essid NodeJTX0) with each having a .10-.20 DHCP scope. (yes I know I havent been allocated IPs yet, this was just for quick testing as they are easy to type.)

Testing with my trusty ipaq 3660, PCMCIA expansion pack, an Orinoco gold card and running ministumbler I successfully found both nodes. Having the Omni Jammed between 2 cushions on my couch to hold it upright and the panel balancing on top of the couch, I have just now gone for a wander NSEW (as I am on a intersection corner) to see what signal strenght and distance I got.

Even from the mount point in the lounge, I have to say the distance was I got before all signal dropped off was

I am still having one problem though. After I do a soft reboot (SSH into the WRAP and do a reboot command) while the device list shows the SR2 card, I cant find it at all with my Ipaq. If anybody has any ideas why this occurs please let me know, mainly cause the SR2 card is meant to be my Omni and my CM9 for the directional 24db dish eventually.


18/5/2007
Well This is me here and I am setting up a new node (obviously).
I had recently purchased in the last month a WRAP2 board, outdoors box and 2 minipci cards to go with it from Yawarra and using the CF image "voyage031_512_Eber.img.gz" from their site I had no end of problems getting the damn wireless things to work! (The OS did boot up, and using Putty I was able to SSH into the ethernet port)

I finally stumbled over this reference page and everything started to click into place.

What I will do is document what I did to get it working, including the testing steps I did on the way, and hopefully post it.

But with all the recent rain I still gotta get up to the roof yet and find what A/B/G nodes I can see and posible connect to.

-Randy At JTX.

Version 22 (current) modified Mon, 26 Jul 2021 12:49:29 +0000 by RandyL