[pkg-wpa-devel] [RFH] Debian 2.6.32 CONFIG_WIRELESS_OLD_REGULATORY, wireless-regdb and crda

Sat Feb 27 21:43:46 UTC 2010

Adding debian-devel and debian-mentors.

As per Paul Wise' advice I'd like to request for help with the
crda/wireless-regdb package for Debian for the next release of Debian.
I am the upstream crda maintainer and John Linville is the upstream
wireless-regdb maintainer. Kel Modderman has already done most work
required for the Debian package, if not all. What we now need is some
Debian Developer to be willing to either upload the package as-is, or
some help from some experienced package maintainers to address a few
items. I should note Paul Wise has offered sponsorship for this
package so I think we are on the last track to getting this package
finalized and/or uploaded but he just noted a few changes required.

Summary of review with Paul Wise:

  * Package could likely be uploaded into Debian as-is, just requires
someone comfortable with it

  * We need more help with thepkg-wpa-devel group

  * Sponsorship available by Paul Wise given a few change below are made:
      o Modify the Makefile to add a 'make dist' to generate a
ChangeLog using git2cl [1]
         and NEWS based on crda and wireless-regdb upstream git

Paul I'm not familiar with the sponsorship process on Debian, does
this mean if the above is address you would be wiling to upload the
final package yourself? Or does this have other implications?

I address some of Paul's own comments below. If you would like to read
the original thread you can refer to the pkg-wpa-devel package list.

[1] http://josefsson.org/git2cl/git2cl
[2] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-wpa-devel/2010-January/002415.html

If anyone has any questions please let me know.

On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 10:11 PM, Paul Wise <pabs at debian.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 09:19 -0800, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
>
>> Upstream does not do the same. Ubuntu packages these two together
>> right now but it was because it made life easier for packaging.
>>
>> John, do you guys package wireless-regdb and crda together on Fedora
>> land? Was this because of the dynamic key building per package? If so
>> what is the restriction on using two packages?
>
>> Thanks John. So -- not sure if Kel will have time to split these, I
>> gather he is still pretty busy with his move. Paul, is this a
>> requirement for inclusion? If so we'll need to request for some help.
>
> I wouldn't upload it to Debian like that, you might find other people in
> Debian who would be willing to do so though.

OK.

>> > nl80211.h looks like it comes from Linux, can't you just build-depend on
>> > the linux-libc-dev package and do #include <linux/nl80211.h> ? Comparing
>> > the crda one and the one from Linux 2.6.32 reveals quite a few changes
>> > since you copied nl80211.h into crda.
>>
>> nl80211 is designed to allow userspace applications to either ship
>> their own nl80211.h based on the most recent kernel or to ship it and
>> ifdef around a feature instead of the kernel version.
> ...
>> For CRDA then we ship our own nl80211.h and it doesn't matter much as
>> we only use only one command, and the API that can't change anyway.
>> When CRDA wants to make use of something new we can just re-synch,
>> just as we do with iw.
>
> Hmm, OK. I guess that makes sense.

Yeah hope

>> > Even after manually ensuring that sha1sum.txt reflects the sha1sum of
>> > db.txt with "sha1sum db.txt > sha1sum.txt", the wireless-regdb Makefile
>> > still seems to generate a new Debian RSA key pair. If the db.txt hasn't
>> > changed, there is no reason to auto-generate and install a key pair.
>>
>> wireless-regdb is designed so that you do not have to run make at all
>> if you just intend on using John's key. So running make even if db.txt
>> has not changed will generate the keys for you and sign the
>> regulatory.bin with the new key.
>
> Hmm, OK. So the Debian packaging should check that db.txt is unchanged,
> instead of the upstream Makefile doing that check?

No, I meant that some distributions won't run make at all. Those who
do will always have something done if you don't yet have a key built
for you. By default the regulatory.bin is signed with this key. You
will re-sign the file if db.txt changes.

> I guess that means
> Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu etc all need to do the same thing.

Fedora does build stuff so they just go with the defaults. Ubuntu just
ships the provided regulatory.bin, they do not build anything, the
package is very simple for the binary regulatory database as you
really only need to build if you have policies which require this (the
content would be the same except the signature), or you want to change
the database yourself.

>> > dpkg-shlibdeps complains that neither crda and regdbdump use symbols
>> > from libssl, it looks like this might be a false positive though:
>> >
>> > dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: dependency on libssl.so.0.9.8 could be avoided if "debian/crda/sbin/regdbdump debian/crda/sbin/crda" were not uselessly linked against it (they use none of its symbols).
>>
>> They are not uselessly linking against libssl if indeed signature
>> checking is done.
>
> It looked like a false positive to me, I didn't investigate too closely
> though.

Think it is a false positive.

>> > I'd suggest that 'make dist' should include a ChangeLog file in the
>> > tarball, generated with git2cl or git log or whatever. A NEWS file
>> > summarising the user-visible changes in each version would also be a
>> > good idea for both crda and wireless-regdb.
>>
>> I see little point to maintaining a ChangeLog on these two upstream
>> git projects, is this something that has to be done on the package
>> debian/* stuff itself then? Is this required for inclusion into
>> Debian?
>
> The point is that upstream are already maintaining a ChangeLog with git
> and it'd be nice if they included that in the release tarballs (which
> don't include the git history) by doing git2cl or git log or whatever in
> 'make dist' when they create the tarball.
>
> The NEWS file is a separate, hand-maintained file summarising
> user-visible changes between different releases.

Thanks, I understand now. I just downloaded git2cl:

http://josefsson.org/git2cl/git2cl

I'll include some ChangeLog for the next release. Its up to John if he
wants to use that as well, he maintains wireless-regdb while I
maintain crda. The current Debian package puts these two together
though so something custom is required anyway for now.

>> > I assume that the Debian installer should definitely install
>> > crda/wireless-regdb on systems that have a wireless card.
>>
>> Yes, all new wireless devices would use this.
>>
>> > Should it also
>> > be installed on other systems by default, in case a wireless card gets
>> > installed?
>>
>> Yes, I would just always install it, sort of like firmware_request udev stuff.
>>
>> > There is also existing systems to consider, how would you
>> > recommend crda/wireless-regdb be pulled in? Currently I'm thinking the
>> > Linux kernel images should Recommend crda; this would pull it in by
>> > default for those using Debian kernel images but allow those who do not
>> > need it to remove it. People compiling their own kernel will need to
>> > install it manually.
>>
>> That seems fine logic.
>
> Once it is uploaded, I'll be sure to file a bug asking for it to be
> added as a recommends of the Linux image packages, thanks for the
> advice.

OK great thanks.

>> From what I gather Kel is busy, although he has done all the work for
>> this package. How can we request help for this package? I was offering
>> to do it but all the new debian/* magic makes me think its best for
>> someone else familiar with modern debian packages.
>
>> Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help upstream wise
>> to help get this packaged up into Debian.
>
> Hmm, not really sure. We have processes to request help for stuff
> already in Debian, but not really anything for new packages that
> no-one . You could try emailing the debian-devel list asking for
> additional people to join the pkg-wpa-devel team for the purposes of
> maintaining crda/wireless-regdb/etc. CCing the debian-mentors list might
> also be a good idea since you might get someone willing to jump in and
> learn who doesn't already have a lot on their plate. Perhaps Tim Gardner
> (who maintains the Ubuntu package, CCed) might be also interested to
> help. Please do mention that I've offered sponsorship, point at this
> thread in the debian-kernel archives and to mail debian-mentors when the
> package is ready. Michael Biebl recently sponsored Kel's wpasupplicant
> upload so he might also be interested in doing so for
> crda/wireless-regdb. If you don't get anyone to step up and maintain
> crda/wireless-regdb in Debian, I guess they will have to stay out of
> Debian for now.
>
> BTW, due to the number of RC bugs, the freeze for Debian squeeze is now
> delayed for a bit:
>
> http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2010/02/msg00002.html

Great hope this means this will give us time to get this ironed out
for inclusion.

  Luis