[pkg-wpa-devel] What's wrong with the new configuration scheme, IMO

[Felix Homann]

On Friday 21 April 2006 14:50, Reinhard Tartler wrote:
> Well, we don't prevent using the package as it has been used before, we
> now even provide the init script in the examples/ directory again.
>
> But we don't want to have it installed by default, because we really
> don't think that this belongs in the wpasupplicant package.

It's been the package maintainers who once put the script into /etc/init.d and  
thus suggested using it. So it should be the package maintainers obligation 
to only remove it if there's a clean way not to break working systems.

> I have made some thoughts about a package which works like this:
>
>  * Start wpasupplicant as system service (daemon).

Good idea ;-)


>  * Make the daemon use an action script.
>  * the action script checks what location we connected to (look at the
>    essid), and does this:
>    * determine which network alias in /e/n/i this location is associated

I guess that this isn't necessary in a lot of cases, since DHCP is very common 
in the wireless world.

>    * call ifupdown like this: 'ifup $IFACE=$LOCATION'
>  * On disconnection, the action script ifdowns $IFACE

Why not integrate nicely with existing packages: let ifplugd do this task.

>
> This package makes the following assumptions:
>
>  * Only one interface is to be managed

Why this restriction? Would it make the action script too complex? (Then you'd 
better use ifplugd+guessnet; you can easily run 1 wpa_supplicant for 2 
interfaces or 2 wpa_supplicants for 2 interfaces.)

>  * by default, it assumes that the alias in /e/n/i matches the essid
>  * otherwise check a mapping file [optional]

Then I would have to edit wpa_supplicant.conf and /e/n/i for every single AP I 
want to connect to even if they are all using DHCP? 

> Problems which I still have to think about:
>
>  * What happens if we connect to a yet unconfigured location?

It should not happen without user interaction.

>  * What if there have been no locations configured yet? (shall
>    wpasupplicant run anyway, allowing managing of wpa_supplicant.conf
>    via wpa_cli/wpa_gui, or should it doesn't start the daemon at all?)

Ask the user on install. 

>  * ifdown will bring the link down. Does this confuse wpasupplicant too
>    much?

No problem on my machine.

> I think this follows the guessnet/ifplugd configuration scheme, but I
> haven't looked too much into guessnet yet.

It's actually so very close to a wpa_supplicant+ifplugd+guessnet (I'll call it 
WIG) setup that I'd rather suggest to put the init script back into 
wpasupplicant (don't activate it by default) and add some documentation on 
how to configure a WIG system.

I don't really stick to WIG - I know a lot of things a WIG system cannot 
(easily) do - but the system you propose seems inferior, sorry. 
 

Kind regards,


Felix