[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#636321: Bug#636321: wpasupplicant-udeb: TP-LINK WN722N (AR9271) not detected as usable wlan interface

[Stefan Lippers-Hollmann]

retitle 636321 kernel-wedge: nic-wireless-modules missing ath9k_htc
reassign 636321 kernel-wedge 2.78
tags 636321 + patch
thanks

On Tuesday 02 August 2011, mathieu millot wrote:
> Package: wpasupplicant-udeb
> Version: 0.7.3-3.1
> Severity: normal
> Tags: d-i
> 
> I don't know if this bug report is to be associated with
> wpasupplicant(-udeb)
> (or netcfg ?). Feel free to correct me.

After a second look, no it's not - it's again a bug in kernel-wedge. 
The kernel module needed by your AR9271 device, namely ath9k_htc, is
not copied to the nic-wireless-modules udeb.

wpasupplicant has only two modes of operation (well, tree - if you also
count encrypted wired ethernet, but this is not present in the udeb and
pretty rare), wext (legacy and strongly discourages, like your ipw2200)
and nl80211 (all mac80211 based drivers, like your rt2500usb, ath5k, 
ath9k_htc) - if it works for one of each group, it usually works for
all. Hardware dependent bugs are then usually courtesy of kernel bugs,
missing firmwares or - as in this case - kernel-wedge forgetting 
important kernel modules, because wpasupplicant only knows 2 kinds of
'hardware' (abstractions) wext or nl80211. wpasupplicant only 'gets a 
chance' to mess up again, if it has to deal with different encryption
methods (WEP vs. WPA1/ TKIP vs. WPA2/ CCMP vs. IEEE80211X, vs. even 
more complex sceanarios), but keep in mind that in order to keep the
wpasupplicant udeb small, more exotic flavours of encryption have been
omitted from the udeb.

Therefore please check if the required kernel modules and firmware 
blobs are present to d-i/ netcfg, before filing further bugs against
the wpasupplicant package.

> I've burned the i386 unstable netinstall as of 2011-08-01 and tried to
> connect
> to my WPA-PSK network.
> Plugged in my AR9271 usb key, and got this from the logs (end of the
> attached log):
> 
> Aug  2 07:55:11 kernel: [  209.056011] usb 1-6: new high speed USB device
> number 5 using ehci_hcd
> Aug  2 07:55:11 kernel: [  209.204880] usb 1-6: New USB device found,
> idVendor=0cf3, idProduct=9271
> Aug  2 07:55:11 kernel: [  209.204884] usb 1-6: New USB device strings:
> Mfr=16,
> Product=32, SerialNumber=48
> Aug  2 07:55:11 kernel: [  209.204887] usb 1-6: Product: USB2.0 WLAN
> Aug  2 07:55:11 kernel: [  209.204890] usb 1-6: Manufacturer: ATHEROS
> Aug  2 07:55:11 kernel: [  209.204892] usb 1-6: SerialNumber: 12345
> 
> No new interface detected in d-i, can't use this wifi key with d-i.

No wonder, if there is no kernel module to drive it, see attached patch
against kernel-wedge (untested).

Regards
	Stefan Lippers-Hollmann
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