Bug#345647: madwifi driver causes kernel oops

[Kel Modderman]

Graham wrote:

>Hi Kel,
>
>Thank you for the links.
>
>  
>
>>Well, in my experience these gui apps for configuring wireless on linux
>>really cause more trouble than they are worth.
>>    
>>
>
>Maybe, but:
>
>1. You and I are fine with console based configuration tools, but many
>people, including the owner of this laptop, will not touch them. The
>majority of users really do want a GUI.
>
>2. Software should never crash. Error messages are fine when something
>goes wrong, but a crash is never acceptable, especially in kernel
>mode.
>
>So "don't use a GUI config tool" is only valid as a temporary
>workaround, not as a permanent solution.
>  
>
Never did I offer that as a solution, it was only a comment. These KDE 
and GNOME apps are quite often causing problems, as they are attempting 
to configure all different wireless cards, each based on very different 
code bases, and can work well with some drivers but expose weaknesses in 
others. For debugging purposes I simply suggest that you use the console 
. . .

>That said, I'm here to help, not to belittle your efforts.
>
>Let me know if there's anything I can do.
>
>I'm thinking about having a look at the code (ath_ioctl_giwscan). I'm
>pretty good with C, though not at all familiar with Linux kernel code.
>But it might be worth a shot.
>  
>
Sure, but there is a madwifi-ng driver now in development, so the 
upstream developers are not really maintaining this code much more, but 
it undoubtedly remains the most stable madwifi "branch". But who knows, 
it could be an easy fix . . .

>-- graham
>  
>
Thank you for reporting this bug and actively seeking the cause of it.

Thanks, Kel.