Tiny Undervalued Hardware Companions

After playing/working with computers for more then 25 years I started to appreciate small but handy valuable stuff – like adapters or handlers or … yeah – all kind of stuff. With many of them I did not even knew they existed until I find out about them – mostly accidentally or after long searching for some problem solution. Today I will share them with You – so maybe they will end up handy also for You.

… and while they make my life easier – they are mostly very cheap too.

The Table of Contents is below.

• RJ45 Angle Adapters
• RJ45 Angle Cable Adapters
• RJ45 Join Adapters
• SATA to USB-C or USB-A Adapters
• Angle USB-C and USB-A Adapters
• USB-A <=> USB-C Adapters
• Tiny USB WiFi or Bluetooth Dongle
• USB-C <=> Micro USB Adapter
• USB-C <=> Laptops/Routers/5.5mmx2.5mm Adapters
• Creative BT-W2 USB-A Bluetooth Adapter
• External Microphone for SONY Headphones
• Headphones Handle
• Dual USB-C and USB-A Pendrive (SanDisk)
• Tiny USB-A Hub
• Quad USB-C / USB-A / Lightning / Micro USB Adapter with MicroSD Card Slot
• Angle Power Adapters
• C13/C14 Power Adapters with Additional C1/C2 or C5/C6 Sockets
• HDMI 3in1 Switch with Remote Control
• Cable Organizers
• Mouse Jigger
• FM Transmitter
• Summary

The whole article can ‘feel’ like a sponsored entry for the https://aliexpress.com portal – but it is not – its just the most cheap place I was able to find these gems. Feel free to share even cheaper one if You have one.

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RJ45 Angle Adapters

I mostly use laptops to do various tasks and cables sticking out on the sides perpendicularly does not help. Not many laptops today have the RJ45 LAN socket – but if they do – they are mostly on the side of the laptop.

Thanks to such angle RJ45 adapters it is no longer a problem.

You can find them for about $2 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com page – with the RJ45 ANGLE ADAPTER keywords in their search.

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RJ45 Angle Cable Adapters

The mentioned earlier RJ45 Angle Adapters are quite bulky – but as an alternative its possible to get a short 40cm cable with smaller plug.

Not sure if its noticeable on the picture below – but I also cut the top ‘cover’ with knife of the plug – so its easier to detach.

There are of course all four angles to choose from.

One may also use the end of that 40cm cable-adapter as a ‘stopper’ to not fall inside the desk hole as shown on the image below.

You can find them for about $2 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the RJ45 ANGLE ADAPTER CABLE keywords in their search.

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RJ45 Join Adapters

Often I found myself in a situation that the currently available LAN cable was too short to reach and it needed a lot of work to plot another – longer one.

With these simple ‘join’ adapters it is no longer a problem. You would not use them in a serious Data Center with 10+ GE speeds – but for home 1.0-2.5 GE speeds its more then enough.

You can find them for about $1-$2 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the RJ45 JOIN ADAPTER keywords in their search.

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SATA to USB-C or USB-A Adapters

Multiple times I needed to clone some old disk to new SSD – just to make an old system faster.

I usually boot from some USB drive with FreeBSD and while new SSD is attached with these adapters – I then execute dd(8) command to clone the old HDD disk to new SSD drive … and then just swap them out.

You can find them for about $1-$5 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the SATA USB ADAPTER keywords in their search.

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Angle USB-C and USB-A Adapters

As we already talked about RJ45 angle adapters … there are also USB-C and USB-A angle adapters.

The do the same good job with cables to not stick out on a side of a laptop.

You can find them for about $1-$3 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the ANGLE USB ADAPTER keywords in their search.

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USB-A <=> USB-C Adapters

In the progressing and always changing world yesterday the USB-A was king and tomorrow the USB-C will be.

There are multiple cases in which you will need these – from simple USB headphones to USB pendrives and other stuff.

You can find them for about $1-$3 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the USB-C USB-A ADAPTER keywords in their search.

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Tiny USB WiFi or Bluetooth Dongle

Multiple times I have found myself in a situation where it was very convenient to just add some WiFi or Bluetooth chip over USB port and do the job instead of trying to achieve the same without such chips.

While I usually omit Bluetooth I can not say the same about WiFi … and as FreeBSD lacks a little in that department – using a very tiny chip such as Realtek RTL8188CUS often does the job done.

You can find them for about $1-$3 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the WIFI USB or BLUETOOTH USB keywords in their search.

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USB-C <=> Micro USB Adapter

In the past – in the USB Micro times – I remember using an adapter to be able to charge – then new and uncommon – USB-C devices.

Fast forward several years and now the situation is the other way around (as expected). The USB-C is the standard and USB Micro devices are less and less common … but there are still here. To not have to keep separate dedicated USB Micro cables I use a small USB-C to USB Micro adapters.

Such adapter takes USB-C as input power and is able to charge USB Micro devices.

You can find them for about $1-$2 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the USB-C USB MICRO ADAPTER keywords in their search.

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USB-C <=> Laptops/Routers/5.5mmx2.5mm Adapters

When it comes to delivering power to my (and not only) laptops – the new standard seems to be the USB-C connector with ‘requirement’ of 45W or more (it depends).

Not that long ago I discovered that even laptops as old as 13 years – ThinkPad X220/T420s/W520 – can be powered the same – but with simple and very cheap adapter cables – such as these below. From the left there is 5.5mm/2.5mm typical router socket – then more modern ThinkPad X270/T470s (and many more) – then oldschool models from 2011 year – ThinkPads such as X220/T420s/W520 models.

All they need is a USB-C power input.

You need to only meet two requirements – the USB charger that will make enough power for example 20V at 3.25A for 65W that would power ThinkPad X220/T420s or 20V at 6.75A for 135W that would power ThinkPad W520. While the official power supply for ThinkPad W520 is 170W – its perfectly fine to use the 135W power adapter from ThinkPad W510 to power ThinkPad W520 laptop.

This makes organizing cables (and chargers) a lot easier – for example – I would not be able to fit 3 ‘dedicated’ ThinkPad chargers in that white cable organizer behind laptops – but I will fir there two powerful 65W and 85W USB-C chargers perfectly fine.

You can find these power adapters for about $1-$3 – for example – on https://aliexpress.com – with the USB-C ADAPTER LAPTOP ROUTER keywords in their search.

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Creative BT-W2 USB-A Bluetooth Adapter

When I have to cope with Bluetooth technology – its ‘tolerable’ on Android devices such as phones/tablets and mostly nowhere else. After bad audio (just not working) Bluetooth possibilities on FreeBSD I decided to try the hardware solution instead. The audio related Bluetooth on FreeBSD have failed me too many times – to the point called enough is enough – that also means I do not want to waste any more time trying to figure the way using FreeBSD Bluetooth stack devices anymore – at least for audio related devices.

Not so long ago I got the Sony WH1000XM4 headphones. I am/was a big fan of the Technics RP-F290 cable headphones (Jack or Mini Jack based). They have so much BASS and ‘power’ that I could not ask for more … and their cost is very low – like $24 or less. The only ‘downside’ of the Technics RP-F290 headphones is that they are audio only – they do not have any microphone at all – they are dedicated for music only – and that is OK – they do GREAT in that role.

I have tried some Bluetooth based headphones in the past – and they were SHIT to say the least. Not enough ‘power’ – not enough BASS etc. After reading multiple reviews I decided to give Sony WH1000XM4 headphones a chance … and I was not disappointed. Its the first time after Technics RP-F290 cable headphones that ANY Bluetooth based headphone delivered. I was (and I still am) really satisfied with them.

This is where the USB powered Creative BT-W2 comes handy. Its also relatively cheap as the cost of used unit is less then $20 – at least that is the price I payed for mine in Poland. The Creative BT-W2 allows to connect Bluetooth audio devices everywhere – even on OpenBSD – on the system that cut off Bluetooth stack entirely – and it works well on FreeBSD too. The ‘downside’ of the Sony WH1000XM4 headphones is that they do have microphone – but only in Bluetooth node – they have Mini Jack connector – but for audio only …

This is also only downside of the Creative BT-W2 solution – it transmits only audio – but w/o microphone. Its more then OK for listening music – but if You have to do live conferencing/meetings on FreeBSD as I do – its a dead end.

I have tried to find a solution to this problem – to the point that I wanted to abandon Sony WH1000XM4 headphones entirely and find some Mini Jack (or Jack) based BASS oriented headphones that will also have a working microphone.

On my journey I have found a solution that I did not expected at all – and that was the solution that solved all my problems – and allowed me to enjoy the Sony WH1000XM4 headphones – but more about that in the next ‘subsection’.

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External Microphone for SONY Headphones

You already know the downsides of the Sony WH1000XM4 headphones that were giving me headaches. Now its time to address them.

After many hours of searching the Internet I have found a very ‘usable’ Mini Jack cable. A cable that came with microphone and a one that perfectly integrated with Sony WH1000XM4 headphones … and FreeBSD as well.

Its available to buy for $22 on amazon.de (and possible other locations) and its called Boom Microphone Cable. Thanks to the knowledge that Sony WH1000XM4 headphones have Mini Jack port with microphone part – the Boom Microphone Cable cable even comes with volume controls and even come with physical kill switch for microphone.

After You attach this Boom Microphone Cable to the Sony WH1000XM4 headphones it looks (and works) like a natural solution.

The only ‘downside’ is generally the downside of the Sony WH1000XM4 headphones – that You CAN NOT disable their silencing while you speak – so using them in ‘passive’ mode with Boom Microphone Cable is preferred to meet all needs.

EDIT: After reading comments to this article I learned that this ‘silencing’ is called Speak to Chat and it can be disabled in the SONY Android app or by holding two fingers on the right earcup until the headphones say “Speak to Chat disabled.” Thank You for that.

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Headphones Handle

I got used to the fact that I just put my headphones on the desk … but I wanted something more useful – after some searching it was obvious to me that I needed just some headphones handle that I could attach somewhere.

After another several hours of browsing I have found a ‘part’ that would fit perfectly – a $4-5 part from https://aliexpress.com that I could find with the HEADPHONES HOLDER keywords in their search.

Here is how it works on my desk.

… and its 360 degrees adjustable as well.

Above the headphones handle You can see the ‘hero’ of the AMD Based FreeBSD Desktop article.

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Dual USB-C and USB-A Pendrive (SanDisk)

With all my ‘bad’ experiences with PTP connections for Android based devices (and other places) I really liked the SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive.

Its really handy for many transfers … and its more fast then slow as well.

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Tiny USB-A Hub

When You need to connect several USB-A devices the USB ports count often come short fast – this is where this tiny USB-A hub comes handy.

With its dirt cheap $1-2 price (at https://aliexpress.com with USB HUB keywords) its a ‘steal’ … and it is a 3 port hub – there is another USB-A port at the end of it – the one that is not visible.

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Quad USB-C / USB-A / Lightning / Micro USB Adapter with MicroSD Card Slot

… as we are talking various USB-A or USB-C solutions I could not mention this quad port adapter with MicroSD card slot.

I do not even remember how many times I have used it to copy/backup contents of my phone(s) and/or tablet(s).

Nowadays I believe I use the Dual USB-C / USB-A Pendrive more … but not always.

For $8-9 on its not a bad solution to have.

Batteries … I mean SD card – not included 🙂

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Angle Power Adapters

I have often found that the angle with which the power cord sticks out of a PC is definitely not ideal – this is where angle power adapters come handy.

Here is how it looks (being used) on my PC.

They are available for about $1-2 on https://aliexpress.com with ANGLE C13 CABLE keywords on the search box.

C13/C14 Power Adapters with Additional C1/C2 or C5/C6 Sockets

After You have spent some time to lay down the C13/C14 power cables just to power your PC its really annoying to do the same for another set of C1/C2 or C5/C6 cables/sockets … but not anymore.

Now with single cable adapter You are able to power more then one computer – depending on the needs with additional connectors.

They are available for $1-2 on https://aliexpress.com with DUAL C13 CABLE keywords on the search box.

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HDMI 3in1 Switch with Remote Control

I happen to have a 2010 FullHD 50 Inch TV that has ONLY ONE port of HDMI kind … and it was pretty annoying to say the least … up to the time I added a HDMI switch/hub to it.

The HDMI switch along with its remote below.

For the record – I have used the UGreen 3in1 HDMI Switch with 4K @ 30Hz Capability and Remote and I was able to get one for $16.

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Cable Organizers

To not have a mess in the cables its useful to have them organized in some way.

I use multiple solutions for that.

Lets start with simple organizers.

… and a larger/taller one for more capacity/possibilities.

They are available for $3-9 on https://aliexpress.com with CABLE ORGANIZER keywords on the search box.

I also use some IKEA containers …

… and smaller boxes in which I keep the tiny things.

I do not even remember after what product these boxes are … and that does not even matter I think.

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Mouse Jigger

While there are many software settings or solutions to prevent screen from locking up – there is one bulletproof solution what just always works – a hardware USB mouse jigger.

I use a very simple one with 3 modes – but its more then enough for me needs.

Feel free to check other offers with USB MOUSE JIGGER at https://aliexpress.com search box.

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FM Transmitter

Last but not least – the car FM transmitter.

My daily ‘real’ driver (I mean on the real road outside) is the 2006 Dodge Magnum car. I really love it for the simplicity and calm that it provides during the ride – but on the audio side it only has an old FM/AM radio and a CD slot … and not MP3 support in that one.

This is where the FM transmitter such as mine Blow comes really handy.

It supports two modes. One is being a Bluetooth slave of your phone – it just plays on the car speakers anything you are currently playing on your phone – it also has microphone builtin – so You can also use it as a ‘loud’ phone talking device.

I use it in a more simple mode – I just attach a tiny Lexar S47 32GB pendrive to it – and play a random song of it.

Besides these features it also has additional USB-A port available to attach a cable to it and charge some device.

I was able to get one a new one for about $19.

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Summary

The mentioned devices above are probably not the only ones that make my life easier – but definitely the most crucial ones.

Feel free to share your ‘helper’ hardware in the comments.

Regards.

EOF

FreeBSD Cope with WiFi Fuckup

I really wanted the name of this article does not sound dramatically but I was not able to invent any other title … none the less the wireless/WiFi topic can be problematic on the FreeBSD land. Its a known feat of FreeBSD that is does its job best at the server room and that laptop/desktop based configurations tend to need some ‘love’ to be usable. The worst thing of that part is lack of WiFi kernel drivers at all or slower then possible speed like 802.11g on 802.11n capable chips – often as old as 11 years old Intel Ultimate-N 6300 450Mbps card that runs only at 802.11g speed on FreeBSD. The aim of this article is to show you the alternatives and possibilities when it comes to wireless and/or WiFi problems that you may encounter on FreeBSD UNIX system.

Replace Unsupported Hardware

Assuming your laptop came with WiFi card that is not supported at all by FreeBSD drivers – one of the options can be to replace the mSATA or M.2 card with the supported one. It may be difficult because of BIOS blacklisting/whitelisting so there is possibility that it may be needed to flash your laptop/system with a hacked BIOS that does not have this blacklisting/whitelisting and allows ALL possible chips to be installed into it. This may be sometimes not possible of course and it really PITA that some/many manufacturers create such blacklisting/whitelisting bullshit without any reasonable reason then money heist.

Tiny USB WiFi Dongle

If your WiFi card is not supported at all and its not possible to replace it with mSATA and/or M.2 WiFi chip then you may use some tiny USB WiFi dongle with – for example – Realtek RTL8188CUS chip – which is supported on FreeBSD. While the chip itself is 802.11n 150Mbps capable the FreeBSD drivers only support 802.11g mode on it – but its still better then none connectivity at all.

Such tiny USB dongle can be shown below.

The more in depth article about that Realtek RTL8188CUS chip is available here – Realtek RTL8188CUS – USB 802.11n WiFi Review – in one of my earlier articles.

Smartphone USB Tethering

One of the alternative possibilities is to use your smartphone with USB cable to provide the Internet connection. The main benefit of this approach is that you probably always have your smartphone with you anyway. The only additional needed/missing part is the USB cable (which is not that a problem anyway once you order it). This comes handy in more then one way. The first and obvious way is to just use that smartphone with USB cable attached to your FreeBSD to provide Internet connection no matter if that smartphone provides that connection using LTE/4G connection or WiFi connection to some WiFi hotspot. Another reason why this setup comes handy is when you have your WiFi chipset supported … and still are not able to connect to some WiFi hotspot. Recently I was at my buddy’s home where he had open WiFi network available. My phone connected to it without a problem but FreeBSD with 11 years old Intel 6300 card … was not able to connect to it no matter what. To be precise the wpa_supplicant(8) showed the CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED status but the dhclient was not able to get the IP for some reason. This is where my smartphone came handy as it was able to connect to that open unencrypted network and FreeBSD used it by the USB tethering method. Below I will show you how to use the USB tethering on FreeBSD.

The first thing is to attach your smartphone by USB cable to your FreeBSD system. After you have done that you will need to configure your smartphone to enable USB tethering. Below you will find such configuration for Android smartphone.

After you have chosen these settings you wull see the ue0 device in your ifconfig(8) interfaces listing.

% ifconfig
em0: flags=8c22<broadcast,oactive,simplex,multicast> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=481249b<rxcsum,txcsum,vlan_mtu,vlan_hwtagging,vlan_hwcsum,lro,wol_magic,vlan_hwfilter,nomap>
        ether f0:de:f1:68:bc:ab
        media: Ethernet autoselect
        status: no carrier
        nd6 options=29<performnud,ifdisabled,auto_linklocal>
lo0: flags=8049<up,loopback,running,multicast> metric 0 mtu 16384
        options=680003<rxcsum,txcsum,linkstate,rxcsum_ipv6,txcsum_ipv6>
        inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
        inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet 127.0.0.1/8
        groups: lo
        nd6 options=21<performnud,auto_linklocal>
vboxnet0: flags=8802<broadcast,simplex,multicast> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 0a:00:27:00:00:00
        media: Ethernet autoselect
        status: active
        nd6 options=29<performnud,ifdisabled,auto_linklocal>
ue0: flags=8802<broadcast,simplex,multicast> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 02:2a:71:6a:08:01
        nd6 options=29<performnud,ifdisabled,auto_linklocal>

The next (and last) step is to use dhclient(8) daemon to acquire the IP address using DHCP. Here is the command I used.

# dhclient ue0
DHCPDISCOVER on ue0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 4
DHCPOFFER from 192.168.73.209
DHCPREQUEST on ue0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 192.168.73.209
bound to 192.168.73.16 -- renewal in 1799 seconds.

You can now test your connection with ping(8) command for example.

% ping -c 1 e.pl
PING e.pl (195.46.43.240): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 195.46.43.240: icmp_seq=0 ttl=53 time=65.638 ms

--- e.pl ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 65.638/65.638/65.638/0.000 ms

You can now see that you got the needed IP address on your ue0 interface.

% ifconfig ue0
ue0: flags=8843<up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 02:2a:71:6a:08:01
        inet 192.168.73.16/24 broadcast 192.168.73.255
        nd6 options=29<performnud,ifdisabled,auto_linklocal>
</performnud,ifdisabled,auto_linklocal></up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast>

This means that your Internet connection over USB tethering is functional.

One of the additional benefits of this approach is that USB connection also provides the power to your smartphone – which means that you only need one cable for both Internet connection and power for the smartphone device.

Mobile Router with RJ45 Cable

There is also additional option available and it provides similar possibilities to USB tethering – its using some mobile wireless router what would connect to LTE/4G network or some WiFi access point and will also have RJ45 socket so you will be able to connect to it with the RJ45 port on your laptop/desktop FreeBSD system.

You can find many such devices in real cheap price such as Overmax 3G or RAVPower RP-WD03-BK to name some. They come in $15 to $30 price range which should be marked as affordable for most people. Additional bonus from these devices is that they also serve as powerbank function. Also being powered its not needed to also power them up all the time – as the often allow for whole day function on the battery itself.

The Overmax 3G device is shown below.

The RAVPower RP-WD03-BK is shown below.

Bhyve wifibox VM

There is also one additional way to get your WiFi connection – use bhyve(8) virtualization. With wifibox you will deploy Linux VM – and use Linux wireless drivers for the card that may be unsupported on FreeBSD system. It works because of bhyve(8) PCI passthrough feature. You just pass the WiFi card directly to Linux VM.

The biggest advantage of wifibox is that everything is shipped in single FreeBSD package that can be easily installed and removed. You will just have to add wifibox package with pkg(8) – the FreeBSD package manager.

It also comes with rc(8) service script that automatically starts that Linux VM upon FreeBSD boot – and stops gracefully on shutdown.

Summary

What works best? To be honest its still more convenient to use builtin WiFi chip even at slower 802.11g speeds then using any other methods described in this article. Next one is using the mobile router with RJ45 cable. The next one (and somewhat slower one) is the USB tethering method – but while slower I was able to successfully post that article using it – so its not a major drawback. At the least one is using the wifibox way. Its generally up to You – what makes less PITA for you.

I of course hope that WiFi will get some more love in the FreeBSD land and that such ‘strange’ methods would not be needed to ‘just’ connect to the Internet.

Regards.

Realtek RTL8188CUS – USB 802.11n WiFi Review

When using FreeBSD on a new laptop you sometimes find out that the WiFi chip that it came with is not supported … or not yet supported in RELEASE version and support exists in CURRENT development version that you do not want to use.

This is where Realtek RTL8188CUS chip comes hand.

Its used in many appliances and products but we are interested in its small USB WiFi version that is really small.

The Realtek company even got Taiwan Green Classics Award 2011 for their 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz 1T1R WLAN Single Chip Controller (RTL8188CE/RTL8188CUS) on 2011 year when it was introduced.

Its not very powerful as it comes with 1×1 antennas and 802.11n support – yes only single antenna. 150Mbps at most.

Its also very small and almost does not stick out of the laptop.

When connected it also gives subtle little dim light.

FreeBSD

I will now show you how it works on FreeBSD. This is for 12.2-RELEASE version but it worked the same for 11.1-RELEASE 3 years ago.

My ThinkPad W520 laptop already has Intel 6300 with 3×3 antennas and 802.11n standard WiFi card supported by iwn(4) driver.

# sysctl net.wlan.devices
net.wlan.devices: iwn0

We will now attach Realtek RTL8188CUS chip and will check whats coming in dmesg(8) command.

# dmesg
(...)
ugen2.3:  at usbus2
rtwn0 on uhub4
rtwn0:  on usbus2
rtwn0: MAC/BB RTL8188CUS, RF 6052 1T1R

… and some more information from usbconfig(8) command.

# usbconfig
(...)
ugen2.3:  at usbus2, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (500mA)

# usbconfig -d 2.3 show_ifdrv
ugen2.3:  at usbus2, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=ON (500mA)
ugen2.3.0: rtwn0: 

Its now listed as rtwn0 as its supported by the rtwn(4) driver on FreeBSD.

# sysctl net.wlan.devices
net.wlan.devices: rtwn0 iwn0

Lets connect to some wireless network with this Realtek chip. I will create wlan1 device as wlan0 is already taken by the other Intel 6300 card.

# ifconfig wlan1 create wlandev rtwn0

# ifconfig wlan1
wlan1: flags=8802<broadcast,simplex,multicast> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 00:1d:43:21:2d:1c
        groups: wlan
        ssid "" channel 1 (2412 MHz 11b)
        regdomain FCC country US authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 30 bmiss 7
        scanvalid 60 wme bintval 0
        parent interface: rtwn0
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (autoselect)
        status: no carrier
        nd6 options=21<performnud,auto_linklocal>

# wpa_passphrase WIFINETWORK PASSWORD >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

# wpa_supplicant -i wlan1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
wlan1: Trying to associate with d8:07:b8:b8:f4:81 (SSID='wireless' freq=2442 MHz)
wlan1: Associated with d8:07:b6:b8:f4:81
wlan1: WPA: Key negotiation completed with d8:07:b6:b8:f4:81 [PTK=CCMP GTK=CCMP]
wlan1: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to d8:07:b6:b8:f4:81 completed [id=40 id_str=]
^Z // HIT THE [CTRL]+[Z] KEYS HERE
zsh: suspended  wpa_supplicant -i wlan1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

# bg
[1]  + continued  wpa_supplicant -i wlan1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

#

We should now have network LAYER 2 connected and wpa_supplicant(8) should be running in a background and wlan1 interface should have associated status.

# ps ax | grep wpa_supplicant
48693  4  S        0:00.43 wpa_supplicant -i wlan1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
50687  4  S+       0:00.00 grep --color wpa_supplicant

# ifconfig wlan1
wlan1: flags=8843<up,broadcast,running,simplex,multicast> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 00:1d:43:21:2d:1c
        groups: wlan
        ssid wireless channel 7 (2442 MHz 11g ht/20) bssid d8:07:b6:b8:f4:81
        regdomain FCC country US authmode WPA2/802.11i privacy ON
        deftxkey UNDEF AES-CCM 2:128-bit txpower 30 bmiss 7 scanvalid 60
        protmode CTS ht20 ampdulimit 64k ampdudensity 4 shortgi -stbc -ldpc
        -uapsd wme roaming MANUAL
        parent interface: rtwn0
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet MCS mode 11ng
        status: associated
        nd6 options=29<performnud,ifdisabled,auto_linklocal>

Lets add LAYER 3 with IP address using dhclient(8) command.

# dhclient wlan1
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 3
DHCPOFFER from 10.0.0.1
DHCPREQUEST on wlan1 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 10.0.0.1
bound to 10.0.0.9 -- renewal in 3600 seconds.

We just got the 10.0.0.9 IP address.

One last step with DNS and we will test the connection with ping(8) command.

# echo nameserver 1.1.1.1 > /etc/resolv.conf

# ping -c 3 freebsd.org
PING freebsd.org (96.47.72.84): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 96.47.72.84: icmp_seq=0 ttl=50 time=119.870 ms
64 bytes from 96.47.72.84: icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=119.371 ms
64 bytes from 96.47.72.84: icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=119.128 ms

--- freebsd.org ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 119.128/119.456/119.870/0.309 ms

Works.

FreeBSD Benchmark

I next tested the performance of this simple single antenna Realtek chip using NFS large file transfer in thunar(1) file manager.

The results are not that bad but not great either.

The file copy from LAN server attached directly to WiFi router to my laptop was about 2.9 MB/s fast. I was 5 meters away from the router.

server  ==LAN==>  router  ==WiFi==>  laptop  @  2.9 MB/s

The file copy from laptop using WiFi to LAN server attached directly to WiFi router was about 2.6 MB/s fast. Still about 5 meters away from the router.

laptop  ==WiFi==>  router  ==LAN==>  server  @  2.6 MB/s

That is 23.2 Mbps and 20.8 Mbps respectively. Really far from theoretical single antenna 802.11n 150 Mbps transfer … its probably fault of the FreeBSD wireless stack.

I would say that its sufficient for Internet browsing but using local LAN resources over NFS can be painful.

On the contrary my Intel 6300 WiFi card does 5.5 MB/s on the laptop-to-router-to-server copy and 10.5 MB/s on the server-to-router-to-laptop road. That is 44 Mbps and 84 Mbps respectively instead of 450 Mbps theoretical maximum. Both the Intel 6300 and my router have 3×3 antennas.

Would love to see these number closer to 30 MB/s …

Raspberry Pi

One of the other benefit of the Realtek RTL8188CUS chip is that it works very well on small Raspberry Pi boxes. Personally I have tested it on the Raspberry Pi 2B and it worked like a charm.

Price

This chip is also great when it comes to price. Products based on this chip are available everywhere. They are on EBAY. They are on ALIEXPRESS. And it costs as low as $2.50 in many cases.

Sometimes the delivery costs more then the product itself 🙂

Enjoy.

UPDATE 1 – Middle Ages

Reddit user Yaazkal user from Reddit just reminded me that  rtwn(4) driver on FreeBSD still does not support 802.11n protocol.

It’s still in the middle ages of 802.11g transfers.

FreeBSD Desktop – Part 13 – Configuration – Dzen2

Time for real configuration of the status bar. In today’s article of the FreeBSD Desktop series I will describe how to configure the Dzen2.

You may want to check other articles in the FreeBSD Desktop series on the FreeBSD Desktop – Global Page where you will find links to all episodes of the series along with table of contents for each episode’s contents.

Features

The provided status bar backed by Dzen2 will be providing the following information.

• date: Date in ISO 8601 format along with current time.
• sys: CPU frequency, CPU temperature, system load and free RAM.
• ip: List of current IP addresses and its interfaces.
• gw: System default network gateway.
• dns: System default DNS.
• ping: Current Internet access state.
• vol/pcm: Volume level for vol and pcm backends.
• fs: ZFS pools free space.
• bat: Battery and AC status.
• top: Top 3 processes with highest CPU usage along with their RAM usage.

Here is how such Dzen2 looks like in action.

Dzen2

The Dzen2 offers feature that Conky or other status bar applications does not offer. I would call it refresh on demand. If you would like to implement refresh interval of 60 seconds for example (not so often) and also refresh that information everytime you ‘click’ on the status bar (or by other action) its possible to implement in Dzen2 using mkfifo(1) command.

Why anyone would want to implement such ‘strange’ refresh policy? To get more battery life mostly as You do not need this information to be refreshed every second and if You need up to date information then you will refresh it manually with a click on the status bar and have the needed information. The other reason is ‘focus’. If this status bar refreshes every second, then it ‘caches’ your attention, this may prevent you from focusing deep enough on the task you are currently doing. If you do something important that requires focus then You do not want status bar (or anything else) to distract you with useless at the moment information.

To achieve such configuration we would need three things. The dzen2-fifo.sh script that will start initial fifo on the ~/.dzen2-fifo file. The dzen2-update.sh to update the fifo and would be run from the crontab(1) every 60 seconds. A dzen2(1) action configured with left mouse button click to invoke dzen2-update.sh to update the fifo. All these scripts and scripts used directly by Dzen2 to gather needed information are available in the scripts-status-bar.tar.gz file.

To start Dzen2 at the X11 startup we will use script from the earlier ‘bulk’ already available – __openbox_restart_dzen2.sh – which kills all instances of Dzen2 and then starts the fifo backed Dzen2 with dzen2-fifo.sh script available in the scripts.tar.gz file.

Here is how its configured in the ~/.xinitrc (or ~/.xsession) file.

% grep dzen ~/.xinitrc                      
  ~/scripts/__openbox_restart_dzen2.sh &

Remember to put ‘&‘ at the end of the line.

Lets have a look how the ‘update’ is configured in the crontab(1) as shown below.

% crontab -l
# DZEN2
  0 * * * * ~/scripts/dzen2-update.sh 1> ~/.dzen2-fifo                                        2> /dev/null

The scripts that Dzen2 uses to gather information are:

~/scripts/__conky_if_ip.sh
~/scripts/__conky_if_gw.sh
~/scripts/__conky_if_dns.sh
~/scripts/__conky_if_ping.sh
~/scripts/__conky_battery.sh

… and this one to ’emulate’ clicks to implement Openbox virtual desktops switching with [Scroll Up] and [Scroll Down] mouse events.

~/scripts/xdotool.sh

The dzen2-update.sh is kinda like Conky on terminal, it just puts all that information in text format with Dzen2 colors syntax as shown below.

% dzen2-update.sh
 ^fg(#aaaaaa)date: ^fg(#eeeeee)2018/07/05/Thu/10:11 ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)sys: ^fg(#eeeeee)800MHz/46.1C/0.83/4.5GB ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)ip: ^fg(#eeeeee)wlan0/wirelesssid/192.168.0.3 ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)gw: ^fg(#eeeeee)192.168.0.1 ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)dns: ^fg(#eeeeee)192.168.0.1 ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)ping: ^fg(#eeeeee)^fg(#dd2200)NOPE ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)vol/pcm: ^fg(#eeeeee)100/100 ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)fs: ^fg(#eeeeee)local/69.2G sys/3.27G ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)bat: ^fg(#eeeeee)AC/^fg(#ffffff)90% ^fg(#dd0000)| ^fg(#aaaaaa)top: ^fg(#eeeeee)firefox/15%/0.6GB firefox/13%/0.3GB firefox/11%/0.4GB 

Doas

To make most scripts work Your user (vuk in the series) needs to be in the wheel, operator and network groups and doas(1) (sudo(8) equivalent) needs to be installed and configured in the following way.

# pkg install doas

# pw groupmod wheel    -m vuk
# pw groupmod operator -m vuk
# pw groupmod network  -m vuk

# cat /usr/local/etc/doas.conf
permit nopass :wheel as root

permit nopass :network as root cmd ifconfig
permit nopass :network as root cmd dhclient
permit nopass :network as root cmd umount
permit nopass :network as root cmd wpa_supplicant
permit nopass :network as root cmd ppp
permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 dhclient
permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 wpa_supplicant
permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 ppp
permit nopass :network as root cmd cat args /etc/ppp/ppp.conf
permit nopass :network as root cmd /etc/rc.d/netif args onerestart
permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args /etc/resolv.conf
permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args -a /etc/resolv.conf

Scripts

In this post I attach scripts related to Dzen2. Download them all in the scripts-status-bar.tar.gz file and unpack them into the ~/scripts directory.

Here are these scripts.

% tar -tf scripts-status-bar.tar.gz
~/scripts/dzen2-fifo.sh
~/scripts/dzen2-update.sh
~/scripts/xdotool.sh
~/scripts/__conky_if_ip.sh
~/scripts/__conky_if_gw.sh
~/scripts/__conky_if_dns.sh
~/scripts/__conky_if_ping.sh
~/scripts/__conky_battery.sh

Make sure they remain executable.

% chmod +x ~/scripts/*

To make them work properly add ~/scripts into the ${PATH} variable at the beginning of the ~/.xinitrc file.

# PATH TO SCRIPTS
  export PATH=${PATH}:~/scripts

All of my scripts have this ‘mysterious’ line at the end. Its for statistics to check which scripts are run when (or it at all to which ones to delete).

echo '1' >> ~/scripts/stats/$( basename ${0} )

Thus it is needed to create the ‘stats’ directory.

% mkdir -p ~/scripts/stats

I have implemented that about two months ago and here are the results.

% wc -l ~/scripts/stats/* | sort -n
       1 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_show_screenshot.sh
       2 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_cpufreq.sh
       2 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_current_wallpaper.sh
       2 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_fullscreen.sh
       4 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_restart_dzen2.sh
       4 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/dzen2-fifo.sh
       5 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_dmenu.sh
       5 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_restart_conky.sh
       5 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_restart_tint2.sh
       6 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_delete_wallpaper.sh
       7 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_freebsd_sound.sh
       8 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/aero-snap.sh
      12 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_edit_screenshot.sh
      16 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_lock_zzz.sh
      16 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/__openbox_lock.sh
      22 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/shot.sh
      24 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/network.sh
     214 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/xterm.sh
     960 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/random_wallpaper.sh
    2767 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/desktop-battery-warning.sh
   13834 /home/vermaden/scripts/stats/desktop-kill-shit.sh
   17916 total

Of course I limited the output only to scripts that are available in this article, but be patient, more to come later 🙂

Dependencies

To make these scripts work and generally to make all this setup work we will need these dependencies.

• dzen2
• xdotool
• wmctrl

To install them all with pkg(8) just type this line below.

# pkg install dzen2 xdotool wmctrl
   

Crontab

After adding Dzen2 to crontab(1) and keeping the earlier entries the complete crontab(1) would look like that.

% crontab -l
# DESKTOP
  *     *     * * * ~/scripts/desktop-kill-shit.sh                                       1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
  */5   *     * * * ~/scripts/desktop-battery-warning.sh
  */20  *     * * * ~/scripts/random_wallpaper.sh ~/gfx/wallpapers                       1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
  12,0  *     * * * /usr/bin/find ~/.cache -mtime +10 -delete                            1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
  0     */3   * * * /usr/bin/find ~/.local/share/Trash/files -mtime +1 -delete           1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null

# DZEN2
  0     *     * * * ~/scripts/dzen2-update.sh 1> ~/.dzen2-fifo                                        2> /dev/null

Shortcuts

This Dzen2 configuration implements five ‘mouse actions’ or shortcuts available on the status bar.

• [Scroll Up] – switch next virtual desktop.
• [Scroll Down] – switch previous virtual desktop.
• [Right Click] – show Openbox root menu.
• [Middle Click] – show Openbox window menu.
• [Left Click] – update Dzen2 Status Bar with dzen2-update.sh invoke.

Hope I haven’t forgot anything, feel free to ask or remind me 😉

EOF

FreeBSD Desktop – Part 2 – Install

This is the second post in the FreeBSD Desktop series.

You may want to check other articles in the FreeBSD Desktop series on the FreeBSD Desktop – Global Page where you will find links to all episodes of the series along with table of contents for each episode’s contents.

How about actually installing FreeBSD? On a real hardware? You may first want to mess with the FreeBSD installer in a virtualized hardware (Bhyve/KVM/XEN/Virtualbox/…) so You will gain some confidence. In these posts series we will create a complete step by step FreeBSD desktop installation on USB 2.0 pendrive. 8 GB size or more is required. This way You will not have to ‘touch’ you installed system and as You gain confidence in FreeBSD You may want to switch to it if it suits your needs better then the currently installed system on your hardware. This way You can also try it on various computers without the need of (re)install or You may use it as You ‘go/mobile’ system on a stick.

For the series I will use one of the best laptops ever made – Lenovo ThinkPad X220 – shown below.

Its a 2011 12.5″ screen laptop with best keyboard layout on the world. As the series will progress I will also show the differences to other laptop – Lenovo ThinkPad T420s – another great machine. Besides being one of the best laptops ever made they also today have another advantage – they are dirt cheap. You can get any of them in a really good condition for about $150-180.

BIOS

First we need to setup our machine, I mean the BIOS settings in the laptop. We will disable unused (Express Card/Bluetooth/Camera/Fingerprint Reader/…) and unwanted options (Intel AMT/Security Chip/UEFI/…). Below are screens with these settings.

Install

The install is very similar to the HardenedBSD install made in earlier post – Introduction to HardenedBSD World.

You will need:
* 8GB or larger USB pendrive for the installation (or install directly to hard disk)
* 1GB or larger USB pendrive or 700MB CD-R(W) disk for the FreeBSD installer to boot/install from

Besides all Lenovo ThinkPad XY20 (X220/T420/T420s/T520/W520) laptops being one of the best ever made they have one amusing problem – the broken GPT boot 🙂 The installer – on these Lenovo laptops – will ask You if You want to apply that fix – answer ‘yes’ there. Later in the setup process this option is called GPT + Lenovo Fix (BIOS) as a Partition Scheme option. You can read more about GPT issue on this FreeBSD Mailing Lists post – using GPT / EFI booting on Lenovo BIOSes – https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-i386/2013-March/010437.html.

One more thing to mention, this GPT BUG is present only when You want to boot FreeBSD from GPT partition in BIOS/Legacy mode. If You make UEFI install (which we will do in one of the next articles in the series) this problem is not present and FreeBSD boots properly on Lenovo ThinkPad X220 (and other from XY20 series) from GPT partition in UEFI mode.

Now the install process. First You need the FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE install image, download it from here – FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img – http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img.

To put the image on the pendrive we will use the dd(1) tool available on almost any Mac OS X (macOS) and Linux system – You can read more about that command on following Wikipedia article on dd command.

For Windows You will have to download it from here – dd for windows – http://www.chrysocome.net/dd.

On FreeBSD such command will look like that:

# dd if=FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/da1

… but for performance reasons its better to add bs=1m (bs=1M on Linux/Windows) to the command.

# dd if=FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/da1 bs=1m

Alternatively You may want to burn the ISO image to the CD-R(W) disc and boot from it instead of USB pendrive, in such case here is the ISO image link – FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso – http://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/11.1/FreeBSD-11.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso

Now to install. Attach the USB pendrive or CD disc with FreeBSD installer and boot from it, on most laptops You may show the temporary boot list selection with [F11] or [F12] key.

After You have booted to the screen below with Welcome message, leave the ‘focus’ on the Install button and attach the 8GB or larger USB pendrive for installation.

You will see kernel buffer messages messing the screen and showing that new drive has been attached, but as the ‘focus’ is still on the Install button so just hit [ENTER] key and proceed with the installation process as shown on the images below.

You can select your desired keyboard layout, it can also be changed later, your choice.

When we have a new machine there is always a problem with new name for it. The RFC 1178 Choosing a Name for Your Computer from 1990 year tries to address that issue – https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1178. For machine hostname we will use Slavic word for the wind which would be vetru – in normalized form – as original as You can imagine is not in ASCII compatible – вѣтръ (větrŭ) 🙂

We do not need any additional components, with all deselected as shown below only the (not shown) base and kernel will be installed.

We will use ZFS because we want to use Boot Environments with sysutils/beadm port.

Hit [ENTER] on the Pool Type/Disks to select target disk to install FreeBSD on.

As we will be using only single disk without redundancy select stripe here.

This may vary, select the pendrive (or disk) that You want to install FreeBSD on.

We will set SWAP size to ‘0‘ (no SWAP) as it will not be needed. If we will need SWAP in the future, then we will create ZVOL on ZFS and use it as a SWAP device.

As we are installing it on a Lenovo ThnikPad X220 with GPT BUG then we need to select GPT + Lenovo FIX (BIOS) here.

Now move ‘focus’ to Install and hit [ENTER] to proceed with installation.

This is the last chance to not overwrite your precious data.

Then You will see the install progress.

Fill in your root user password.

Select any interface here as we will not be making any configuration here.

Leave the interface unconfigured for now, we will take care about that later.

Now we will configure the time zone, I have configured Europe/Poland as shown below.

Now you may correct the date and time.

Select services as shown below.

Enable all security hardening features as shown below.

We want to create new ‘regular’ user so answer Yes here.

For the username we will use Slavic word for wolf which is Vuk.

Our job is done here, hit [ENTER] key with ‘focus’ on Exit name,

Installer will ask You if You want to modify the installed system before rebooting into it. We do not have any needs now so hit [ENTER] key on No option.

As we finished hit [ENTER] on Reboot button.

Boot

After the boot process of the newly installed FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE USB pendrive You will see an image similar to below one.

What to do next? Lets make some basic network connectivity. Later in the FreeBSD Desktop series we will switch to network.sh for networking – FreeBSD Network Management with network.sh Script but now lets see how its done the raw way. If You will have attached LAN cable and your interface is em0 (check ifconfig(8) command output) then dhclient em0 command should grant You the working connection to the Internet – assuming that You have DHCP server on that network. Here are the commands.

# ifconfig em0 up

# dhclient em0
DHCPREQUEST on em0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 10.254.17.1
bound to 10.254.17.3 -- renewal in 2147483647 seconds.

To test the network connectivity use the ping(8) command.

# ping -c 3 freebsd.org
PING freebsd.org (8.8.178.110): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 8.8.178.110: icmp_seq=0 ttl=52 time=242.421 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.178.110: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=234.535 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.178.110: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=245.120 ms

--- freebsd.org ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 234.535/240.692/245.120/4.491 ms

Also check LAN network chapter in the FreeBSD Handbook – https://freebsd.org/handbook/config-network-setup.html

If You would like to connect to the World with wireless connection then here are the needed commands.

First lets check what wireless card You have.

# sysctl net.wlan.devices
net.wlan.devices: iwn0

We will now create wlan(4) virtual device on top of our iwn0 device and bring it up.

# ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev iwn0

# ifconfig wlan0 up

We can scan for existing nearby WiFi access points if needed.

# ifconfig wlan0 scan
SSID/MESH ID    BSSID              CHAN RATE    S:N     INT CAPS
xxxxxxx         xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx    7   54M  -85:-95   100 EPS  HTCAP RSN WME BSSLOAD WPS
WIFI-NETWOR...  xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx    8   54M  -71:-95   100 EPS  HTCAP APCHANREP WME ATH RSN WPA
xxxxxxx         xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx    1   54M  -90:-95   100 EPS  RSN HTCAP WME ATH WPS
xxxxxxx         xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx    1   54M  -90:-95   100 EP   RSN WME WPS

In case the name of the network does not fit into the first column, then use -v flag for verbose (and wider) output.

# ifconfig -v wlan0 scan

Now we need to add the desired WiFi network to the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file as shown below.

# cat > /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf << __EOF
network={
  ssid="WIFI-NETWORK-NAME"
  psk="PASSWORD"
}
__EOF

The You may connect to it using the wpa_supplicant(8) daemon. We will connect to the WiFi hot spot, and as the message ‘CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED‘ will be displayed we hit the [CTRL]+[Z] key combination to put the process into suspended state (SIGTSTP signal). Then we type the bg(1) command to put it back into running state, but in the background (SIGCONT signal) so we can continue to type next commands.

# wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
wlan0: Trying to associate with xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx (SSID='WIFI-NETWORK-NAME' freq=2447 MHz)
wlan0: Associated with xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
wlan0: WPA: Key negotiation completed with xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx [PTK=CCMP GTK=TKIP]
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx completed [id=17 id_str=]
^Z
[1]  + Suspended  sudo wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
# bg
[1]    sudo wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf &

Now we will request for the IP address from the access point DHCP server.

# dhclient wlan0
DHCPREQUEST on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK from 10.254.17.1
bound to 10.254.17.8 -- renewal in 2147483647 seconds.

To test the network connectivity use the ping(8) command.

# ping -c 3 freebsd.org
PING freebsd.org (8.8.178.110): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 8.8.178.110: icmp_seq=0 ttl=52 time=242.421 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.178.110: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=234.535 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.178.110: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=245.120 ms

--- freebsd.org ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 234.535/240.692/245.120/4.491 ms

Also check WLAN chapter in the FreeBSD Handbook – https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/network-wireless.html

Knowledge

In case You want to learn more about FreeBSD the FreeBSD Handbook and FreeBSD FAQ are good place to start.

• https://freebsd.org/handbook
• https://freebsd.org/faq

GPT Fix

In case the installer would not made its job properly You can make the fix by yourself, you just need a FreeBSD system for it (You already have it on the USB pendrive or CD disk). Boot into the first question and move the ‘focus’ to the Live CD button on the right but do not hit the [ENTER] yet. Now, attach the USB pendrive with FreeBSD installed. Screen will be flooded with kernel buffer about attaching new da device, note the da device number (for example da1) and now hit [ENTER] key.

You will be welcomed with login: prompt, type root and hit [ENTER] (no password is required).

Remember the kernel buffer messages screen earlier? They started with the device name (like da0 or da1), we will use that device name to apply the fix. I will assume its da0. First, lets dump partition table to FDISK file.

# fdisk -p /dev/da0 > FDISK

# cat FDISK
# /dev/da0
g c1886 h255 s63
p 1 0xee 63 30298527

Now we need to make the fix, after the 'p 1 (...)' line add 'a 1' an below that line copy the line that starts with 'p 1 (...)' and name it 'p 2 (...)'. Now in the ‘first’ line with 'p 1 (...)' change the 0xee into 0x00. Final result is shown below.

# vi FDISK
# /dev/da0
g c1886 h255 s63
p 1 0x00 63 30298527
a 1
p 2 0xee 63 30298527
:wq

After writing the file, apply this new partition table into the da0 device with fdisk(8) command.

# fdisk -f FDISK /dev/da0

Verify that fix is applied.

# fdisk -p /dev/da0
# /dev/da0
g c1886 h255 s63
p 2 0xee 63 30298527

Indeed it is. Now You have Lenovo GPT fix applied. Important to mention that this ‘fix’ does not break the USB pendrive for computers that do not have GPT problem, so with GPT FIX applied you may use it on computers other then Lenovo.

Image

In case You may want to start after the installation I have uploaded the installed image here – http://www.mediafire.com/file/ywcnw99ghqezd6u/usb-freebsd-11.1-lenovo.raw.xz – keep in mind that its compressed by xz(1) so in order to apply it to USB pendrive You must first unpack it. You may do that on the fly with following command assuming that we will be writing that image to da1 device:

# xz -c -d usb-freebsd-11.1-lenovo.raw.xz | dd > /dev/da1 bs=1m

For the record, this image contains the Lenovo GPT FIX. The passwords are set to ‘asd‘ for convenience.

Enough for one post 😉

UPDATE 1 – Lenovo GPT Fix with gpart(8)

Initially I described how to apply a fix for broken Lenovo GPT bug with fdisk(8) tool. This is very tricky and error prone but there is a lot easier way to make the same fix. Its made with other FreeBSD tool called gpart(8) and its one line only.

# gpart set -a lenovofix /dev/ada0
lenovofix set on ada0

Done. No longer the need to dance with fdisk(8) tool.

EOF

FreeBSD Network Management with network.sh Script

When You use only one connection on FreeBSD, then the best practice is to just put its whole configuration into the /etc/rc.conf file, for example typical server redundant connection would look like that one below.

cloned_interfaces="lagg0"
ifconfig_igb0="-lro -tso -vlanhwtag mtu 9000 up"
ifconfig_igb1="-lro -tso -vlanhwtag mtu 9000 up"
ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto lacp laggport igb0 laggport igb1 up"
ifconfig_lagg0_alias0="inet 10.254.17.2/24"

If You must use more then one connection and You often switch between them, sometimes several times a day, then using the main FreeBSD’s config file is not the most convenient way for such operations.

For laptops where You often switch between WWAN (usually 3G connection) and WLAN (typical WiFi connection) and even LAN cable.

You can of course use graphical NetworkMgr from GhostBSD project which is described as “Python GTK3 network manager for FreeBSD, GhostBSD, TrueOS and DragonFlyBSD. NetworkMgr support both netif and OpenRC network” citing the project site – https://github.com/GhostBSD/networkmgr – it is also available in FreeBSD Ports and as package – net-mgmt/networkmgr.

What I miss in NetworkMgr is the WWAN connection management, DNS management, optional random MAC generation and network shares unmount at disconnect from network. With my solution – network.sh – you still need to edit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and /etc/ppp/ppp.conf files by hand so it’s also not a perfect solution for typical desktop usage, but you do not edit these files every day.

As I use WWAN, WLAN and LAN connections on my laptop depends on the location I wrote a script to automate this connection management in a deterministic and convenient way, at least for me.

It can also set DNS to some safe/nologging providers or even a random safe DNS and generate legitimate MAC address for both LAN and WLAN if needed, even with real OUI first three octets if You also have additional network.sh.oui.txt file with them inside.

Here is the network.sh script help message.

% network.sh help 
USAGE:
  network.sh TYPE [OPTIONS]

TYPES:
  lan
  wlan
  wwan
  dns

OPTIONS:
  start
  start SSID|PROFILE
  stop
  example

EXAMPLES:
  network.sh lan start
  network.sh lan start IP.IP.IP.IP/MASK
  network.sh lan start IP.IP.IP.IP/MASK GW.GW.GW.GW
  network.sh lan restart
  network.sh wlan start
  network.sh wlan start HOME-NETWORK-SSID
  network.sh wwan example
  network.sh dns onic
  network.sh dns udns
  network.sh dns nextdns
  network.sh dns cloudflare
  network.sh dns ibm
  network.sh dns random
  network.sh dns IP.IP.IP.IP
  network.sh doas
  network.sh sudo
  network.sh status

If You run network.sh with appreciate arguments to start network connection it will display on the screen what commands it would run to achieve that. It also makes use of sudo(8) or doas(1) assuming that You are in the network group. To add yourself into the network group type this command below.

# pw groupmod network -m yourself

The network.sh doas command will print what rights it needs to work without root privileges, same for network.sh sudo command, an example below.

% network.sh doas
  # pw groupmod network -m YOURUSERNAME
  # cat /usr/local/etc/doas.conf
  permit nopass :network as root cmd /etc/rc.d/netif args onerestart
  permit nopass :network as root cmd /usr/sbin/service args squid onerestart
  permit nopass :network as root cmd dhclient
  permit nopass :network as root cmd ifconfig
  permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 dhclient
  permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 ppp
  permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 wpa_supplicant
  permit nopass :network as root cmd ppp
  permit nopass :network as root cmd route
  permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args -a /etc/resolv.conf
  permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args /etc/resolv.conf
  permit nopass :network as root cmd umount
  permit nopass :network as root cmd wpa_supplicant

The network.sh script does not edit /usr/local/etc/doas.conf or /usr/local/etc/sudoers files, You have to put these lines there by yourself. An example doas setup for network.sh script is below.

# pkg install -y doas

# cat >> /usr/local/etc/doas.conf << __EOF
permit nopass :network as root cmd /etc/rc.d/netif args onerestart
permit nopass :network as root cmd /usr/sbin/service args squid onerestart
permit nopass :network as root cmd dhclient
permit nopass :network as root cmd ifconfig
permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 dhclient
permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 ppp
permit nopass :network as root cmd killall args -9 wpa_supplicant
permit nopass :network as root cmd ppp
permit nopass :network as root cmd route
permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args -a /etc/resolv.conf
permit nopass :network as root cmd tee args /etc/resolv.conf
permit nopass :network as root cmd umount
permit nopass :network as root cmd wpa_supplicant
__EOF
# 

# pw groupmod network -m yourself

The network.sh script upon disconnect would also forcefully unmount all network shares.

The idea is that it does only one connection type at a time, When You type network.sh lan start and then type network.sh wlan start, then it will reset entire FreeBSD network stack to defaults (to settings that are in /etc/rc.conf file) and then connect to WiFi in a ‘clean network environment’ as I could say. As I use 3 different methods of connecting to various networks I do not have any network settings in the /etc/rc.conf file, but You may prefer for example to have DHCP for local LAN enabled if that is more convenient for You.

The settings are on the beginning of the network.sh script, You should modify them to your needs and hardware that You own.

# SETTINGS
LAN_IF=em0
LAN_RANDOM_MAC=0
WLAN_IF=wlan0
WLAN_PH=iwn0
WLAN_RANDOM_MAC=0
WLAN_COUNTRY=PL
WLAN_REGDOMAIN=NONE
WWAN_IF=tun0
WWAN_PROFILE=WWAN
NAME=${0##*/}
NETFS="nfs,smbfs,fusefs.sshfs"
TIMEOUT=16
DELAY=0.5
SUDO_WHICH=0
SUDO=0
DOAS_WHICH=0
DOAS=1
ROOT=0

You can specify other NETFS filesystems that You want to forcefully unmount during network stop or set different physical WLAN adapter (WLAN_PH option), like ath0 for Atheros chips. similar for LAN interface which also defaults to Intel based network card with em0 driver (LAN_IF option).

If you want to disable random MAC address for LAN with LAN_RANDOM_MAC=0 and enable generation of random MAC address for WiFi networks with WLAN_RANDOM_MAC=1 option.

You should also decide if You want to use sudo (SUDO option) or doas (DOAS option).

Here is network.sh script.

• network.sh

Here is example of all network connections stop.

% network.sh stop
doas killall -9 wpa_supplicant
doas killall -9 ppp
doas killall -9 dhclient
doas ifconfig wlan0 destroy
doas ifconfig em0 down
echo | doas tee /etc/resolv.conf
doas /etc/rc.d/netif onerestart
%

Here is example of WLAN (or should I say WiFi) network connection start.

% network.sh wlan start
__network_reset()
__net_shares_umount()
doas killall -9 wpa_supplicant
doas killall -9 ppp
doas killall -9 dhclient
doas ifconfig em0 down
doas ifconfig wlan0 down
echo | doas tee /etc/resolv.conf
doas /etc/rc.d/netif restart
doas ifconfig wlan0 up
doas ifconfig wlan0 scan
doas ifconfig wlan0 ssid -
doas wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -s -B
__wlan_wait_associated()
doas dhclient -q wlan0
__dns_check_gateway()
echo | doas tee /etc/resolv.conf
echo 'nameserver 10.0.0.1' | doas tee -a /etc/resolv.conf
__dns_check()
__squid_restart()
doas ifconfig wlan0 powersave

Here is example od DNS change.

% network.sh dns ibm
echo | doas tee /etc/resolv.conf
echo 'nameserver 9.9.9.9' | doas tee -a /etc/resolv.conf

If You have any problems with the network.sh script then let me know, I will try to fix them ASAP.

If You are more into OpenBSD then FreeBSD then Vincent Delft wrote nmctl – Network Manager Control tool for OpenBSD – available here – http://vincentdelft.be/post/post_20171023.

Ther is also another OpenBSD project by Aaron Poffenberger for network management – netctl – cli network-location manager for OpenBSD – available here – https://github.com/akpoff/netctl.

UPDATE 1 – Connect to Open/Unsecured WiFi Network

Recently when I was attending the Salt workshop during NLUUG Autumn Conference 2018 at Utrecht, Nederlands I wanted to connect to open unsecured WiFi network called 'Utrecht Hotel'. My phone of course attached to it instantly but on the other hand FreeBSD was not able to connect to it. As it turns out if you want to enable wpa_supplicant(8) to connect to open unsecured network a separate /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf option is needed (on option for all open unsecured
networks – no need to create such rule for each open/unsecured network).

Its these lines in the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file:

% grep -C 2 key_mgmt=NONE /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

network={
        key_mgmt=NONE
        priority=0
}

I also modified the network.sh to contain that information in the examples section and also made little fix to always reset the previously set/forced SSID during earlier usage.

# ifconfig wlan0 ssid -

Now the network.sh should be even more pleasant to use.

UPDATE 2 – Openbox Integration

In on of the FreeBSD Desktop series articles I described how to setup Openbox window manager – FreeBSD Desktop – Part 12 – Configuration – Openbox – available here.

Below is an example of integration of that network.sh script with Openbox window manager.

… and here is the code used in the ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml file.

UPDATE 3 – Updated Status Page

I have jest added reworked status page to the network.sh script.

Its already updated in the GitHub ‘network’ repository:
https://github.com/vermaden/scripts/blob/master/network.sh

Here is how it looks.

UPDATE 4 – Major Rework

After using network.sh script for a while I saw some needed changes. Time has come and I finally made them. I also find a problem when already about creating wlan0 virtual device from physical device (like iwn0).

When you start network.sh script for the first time and wlan0 is not yet created then the problem does not exists but when wlan0 already exists then network.sh waited for whopping 22 seconds on this single command. Now network.sh checks if the wlan0 device already exists which allows now WiFi connection in less then 3 seconds.

Before.

#DOAS# permit nopass :network as root cmd ifconfig
#SUDO# %network ALL = NOPASSWD: /sbin/ifconfig *
${CMD} ifconfig ${WLAN_IF} create wlandev ${WLAN_PH} 2> /dev/null
echo ${CMD} ifconfig ${WLAN_IF} create wlandev ${WLAN_PH}

After.

if ! ifconfig ${WLAN_IF} 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
then
  #DOAS# permit nopass :network as root cmd ifconfig
  #SUDO# %network ALL = NOPASSWD: /sbin/ifconfig *
  ${CMD} ifconfig ${WLAN_IF} create wlandev ${WLAN_PH} 2> /dev/null
  echo ${CMD} ifconfig ${WLAN_IF} create wlandev ${WLAN_PH}
fi

I used gnomon to benchmark the script execution.

Here is its simple installation process.

# pkg install -y npm
# npm install -g gnomon

Here is how it performed before the optiomization. About 25 seconds.

And here is how it performs now. About 3 seconds.

At first I suspected the /etc/rc.d/netif FreeBSD startup script but the real enemy was the tart ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev iwn0 command.

I also made it more verbose to better know where the time is wasted.

Its now possible to set static IP and gateway in LAN mode and static IP in DNS mode.

The complete summary of changes and improvements is here:

• Static IP address and gateway on LAN now possible.
• Specify DNS by IP address.
• Simplified __random_mac() function.
• Fixed __wlan_wait_associated() function.
• Removed unneded call for “create wlandev” in WLAN mode.
• Other minor fixes.
• WiFi (re)connection now possible under 3 seconds instead of 25+ seconds.

I also created a dedicated GitHub repository for network.sh script.

EOF