[pkg-wpa-devel] Removal of madwifi driver backend support

[Kel Modderman]

On Tuesday 27 May 2008 23:08:35 Glenn Saberton wrote:
> Kel Modderman wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I would like to propose the removal of madwifi specific backend from
> > wpasupplicant package for the following reasons:
> >
> > 1) The use of -Dmadwifi is actively warned against by upstream Madwifi
> >    developers. wext should be used instead.
> >
> > 2) If there are bugs in wext driver backend in conjunction with madwifi, they
> >    should be reported, and they will be more likely to be fixed since wext is
> >    the preferred standard of operation for both Madwifi and
> >    hostap/wpa_supplicant upstream support and development personell.
> >
> > 3) The use of a snapshot of madwifi include files to enable private interface
> >    introduces ABI incompatibility when upstream Madwifi changes. There is no
> >    facility to ensure a stable wpa_supplicant/madwifi backend interface with
> >    various different versions of madwifi driver. The fact that this has not
> >    changed in a while is pure luck; the Madwfi project's delivery of new binary
> >    HAL + glue has stagnated for a long time now.
> >
> > 4) The madwifi include files constitute a huge part of the debian difference to
> >    upstream, making the package slightly more difficult to maintain.
> >
> > 5) NetworkManager uses "wext" as backend for, as far as I can see after
> >     inspecting source code, all wireless devices.
> >
> > 6) Compatibility code could be put into ifupdown integration to display a
> >    message when "wpa-driver madwifi" line was used in a /e/n/i stanza, and
> >    the operation could continue with wext backend.
<snip>
> Agreed, I have been wondering why its still included considering that
> madwifi has supported wext since before etch was released.

Well, Ubuntu uses the private madwifi backend. While I think this is wrong [0],
they are free to make their own decisions based on what works for their users.

This packaging is currently ported to Ubuntu without changes, as of the
other day when 0.6.3-1 was sync'd to Ubuntu intrepid archive. That is a quality
of this package that is worth valuable and worth keeping, even if it means
going against everything I personally think is right, and keeping that big hunk
of crap in ./debian/madwifi-headers/* intact for the time being...

Thanks, Kel.

[0] https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/235463