Bug#364458: madwifi-source: Error on 'ifdown' and 'iwconfig mode auto'

[Matt Brown]

Kel Modderman wrote:

> Ok, thanks for reporting this issue (and sorry for a late reply!).
> 
> Could you please suggest some text for inclusion in the docs? (if not I
> guess I could think of something :-) )

I did look into this the other day just to verify that it wasn't
anything critical. I haven't responded yet because I'm not sure whose
fault the problem is and hence how to fix it.

The message is caused by /etc/network/if-post-down.d/wireless-tools
attempting to run iwconfig "$IFACE" mode auto which of course fails on
madwifi as it does not allow interface mode changes.

The best solution imo would be to fix madwifi so that it did allow mode
changes, but I can't see that happening anytime soon as I understand it
would involve rewriting half the driver.

I think the best compromise would be for wireless-tools to silently hide
(or redirect to syslog) any errors that occur when "deconfiguring" an
interface. I've copied the wireless-tools maintainers on this mail to
see if they have any thoughts on this approach.

Cheers

-- 
Matt Brown
matt at mattb.net.nz
Mob +64 21 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz

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