[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#610931: Please build wpasupplicant-udeb

[Kel Modderman]

Thanks for working on WPA support in Debian's installer.

On Tuesday 25 January 2011 04:39:44 Matthew Palmer wrote:
> > 
> > diff -urN wpasupplicant-0.6.10.orig/debian/config/udeb wpasupplicant-0.6.10/debian/config/udeb
> > [...]
> > +CONFIG_DRIVER_WEXT=y
> > 
> > Given that wext is deprecated, it would imho make more sense to use
> > CONFIG_DRIVER_NL80211=y instead, maybe even to leave wext disabled. 
> > With the notable exception of ipw2100/ ipw2200, all other linux wlan
> > drivers weren't produced in large volumes or don't support wpa2 to
> > begin with; for new ones (this covers all mac80211 based ones) nl80211
> > support is mandatory and there are some initial efforts to add nl80211
> > to ipw2x00. This also avoids the need for deprecated wireless-tools in
> > favour of iw/ crda (which is required for ch11-14 anyways) - or being 
> > able to use libnl for all configuration in netcfg.
> 
> I know nothing about WPA, I've just used a udeb config file that was in an
> existing (out of date) patch to build a wpasupplicant udeb.  In all honesty
> you can set this configuration to whatever you think is best.

nl80211 is the way forward. It would require libnl to be included in D-I.

> 
> > diff -urN wpasupplicant-0.6.10.orig/debian/control wpasupplicant-0.6.10/debian/control
> > [...]
> > +Architecture: linux-any
> > 
> > wpasupplicant is needed, and compatible with-, kFreeBSD as well, at 
> > this moment kFreeBSD doesn't support wlan for unrelated reasons
> > (ifconfig not being able to configure wlan interfaces, besides the open
> > firmware issues, while firmwares are required for most chipsets). So
> > ignoring hurd, it should be "any" or at least "linux-any kfreebsd-any".
> 
> Wireless config is disabled in d-i for kfreebsd, so there's no reason to
> build wpasupplicant-udeb for those arches.  However, if you're comfortable
> that a wpasupplicant-udeb will build correctly for those arches, it'd save
> changes down the line if/when kfreebsd gets d-i wireless support.

It'd probably be better to prepare early here and build wpasupplicant-udeb for
whatever it can build on.
 
> > Has there been any solution for the netcfg integration already, see 
> > <201011041811.11753.kel at otaku42.de> [1], referring to the originally 
> > proposed introduction of embedded source copies of wpasuppliant's 
> > wpa_ctrl.[hc] into netcfg. Please also keep in mind that crda/ 
> > wireless-regdb is required for accessing channels 11-13/14 on modern
> > drivers.
> 
> I've applied the existing WPA netcfg support patches developed by Glenn
> Saberton, and they do appear to include a (stripped down) wpa_ctrl.c.

That stripped down crap probably was extracted from a sideline project
(python-wpactrl) I was working on, and is not good long term solution.

wpa_ctrl.{c,h} from current wpasupplicant source tree have lots more dependency
on other stuff. Extracting and patching wpa_ctrl.{c,h} to be standalone is
something which should be avoided - I just do not know how currently.

Asked upstream wpa_supplicant if wpa_ctrl could be provided in a way where it
could be a shared library but received no response.

> I
> have no idea what the story is with crda/wireless-regdb, as I said before, I
> don't know anything about WPA.  If you'd like to help out, though, your
> knowledge would be greatly valued.

I wouldn't mind helping out, don't know how though, Have little idea about D-I
environment and took long enough to just reply to this request to feel a little
embarrassed.

Also haven't seen the proposed change to netcfg anytime in recent past to
comment further. Can that be reviewed?

Thanks, Kel.