This is the firmware for the Qualcomm Atheros AR7010 and AR9271 USB
802.11n NICs.

What is this exactly?
---------------------

This is the firmware which resides in RAM on the AR7010/AR9271 NICs.
It is used by ath9k (Linux) and athn (OpenBSD) to provide wireless
services.


Ok, what are those NICs?
------------------------

The AR7010 is a USB/PCIe SoC with onboard RAM, ROM and flash.
It comes with an external wireless chip connected via PCIe - typically
an AR9280 or AR9287.

The AR9271 is a USB/Wifi SoC with onboad RAM, ROM, flash and the
actual wireless chip.  The wireless core is an off-shoot of the AR9285.
It is a single-chip solution.

How do I build it?
------------------

You're in for a treat.

* You first have to build the toolchain.

  * Linux:

  $ make toolchain

  * FreeBSD:

  $ gmake toolchain

  (Yes, I made this work on FreeBSD as well.)

* Next, build the firmware.

  * Linux:

  $ ./build

  * FreeBSD:

  edit the build script, change make to gmake, and then

  $ ./build

You will end up with two .fw files - one for the AR7010 and one for
the AR9271.


Then what?
----------

You need to then copy this into the relevant location for your operating
system.  Yes, this means you need a driver.  No, there's no FreeBSD
driver yet for this particular chipset, sorry.


Where do I file bugs?
---------------------

Please file bugs in github - http://github.com/qca/open-ath9k-htc-firmware/issues .


Mailing lists?
--------------

Here you go:

http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/ath9k_htc_fw

And

ath9k_htc_fw@lists.infradead.org