[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#718651: wpasupplicant: new upstream release

[Mert Dirik]

Thanks for your detailed reply.

I'm glad if issues got fixed in later releases, though I would like to 
point out that Ubuntu currently has 2.1 in their repo so 2.0 is not the 
only broken one, which led me to believe 2.2 may also be broken.

I would actually like to help confirming or debugging the mentioned 
issues but my problems with hostapd is probably more random and 
different than them. I only managed to get it working for a short time 
last night (after endless hours of trying last year with old versions), 
using version 2.2 from svn you mentioned, but unfortunately shortly 
after that I encountered some other problems like authentication errors 
and never got it up and working again, using both 1.1 and 2.2.

Thank you very much again for your consideration.

On 07/19/2014 11:47 PM, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann wrote:
> Hi
>
> On Saturday 19 July 2014, Mert Dirik wrote:
>> Hi,
>> First of all I would like to thank you all for the huge effort that went
>> into packaging the new upstream version,
>> but hostapd 2.0+ causes some nasty problems that prevent creating access
>> points. [1] [2]
> I am aware that hostapd 2.0 ('hostap_2_0') was broken, however I'm not
> aware of any issues with 2.1 or 2.2 (and we're talking about upgrading
> to 2.2, not 2.0, here). Your references to [1], and [2] are pretty much
> useless, while they specify "2.0" as version, there has no actual
> debugging taken place. While [3] and [4] have a bit more meat to it,
> both are also referring to "2.0", not anything newer - and both threads
> seem to have died off about a year ago. Likewise almost no one mentions
> the hardware they're using, which would be an important part of the
> equation as well (there is basically no USB device that fully supports
> AP mode, except for some EOLed Atheros designs; and even among the PCI/
> PCIe chipsets, only Atheros and RaLink can be considered to support
> it).
>
> So if you have noticed any issues with hostapd >= 2.2, please do speak
> up and provide any information you can get (you can build wpa 2.2 from
> our packaging svn, if you have problems with that I could also provide
> packages of that for internal testing), just stale information for 2.0
> is not very helpful as that particular version was known-broken.
>
> Personally I would be very grateful for reports (and/ or help) with the
> hostapd component, as I don't use it production myself (well, I do, but
> only on embedded devices which are not Debian compatible and use
> OpenWrt instead - but I'm also using hostapd v2.2 there, without any
> issues) and can only test it in a temporary setup before uploading any
> new version.
>
>> Sure it does not affect every hostapd user but it downright renders the
>> package unusable for the ones who are affected. I'm not in a position to
>> give an advice, I just wanted to inform you about a point which may be
>> useful while evaluating the pros and cons of shipping Jessie with the
>> new upstream version.
> The wpa 1.x branch has been discontinued, there is upstream support for
> it anymore (not that Intel, who had adopted it, actually did an active
> job with it in the first place). Accordingly sticking to 1.1 is not an
> option for jessie, which will need to be supported for the next ~3-4
> years - even if that meant breaking (or removing) hostapd (from
> jessie).
>
> I have done some rigorous testing on wpa 2.2 for the last few weeks and
> am shortly before pushing for it to be uploaded. While I would like to
> get a few things settled before uploading, those equally affect 1.1 and
> 2.2, so don't necessarily block 2.2 from being uploaded. The wpa
> package in jessie will be, needs to be, 2.2, eventually 2.3 (but I
> don't believe 2.3 will be released in time before the freeze).
>
> Regards
> 	Stefan Lippers-Hollmann