[pkg-wpa-devel] Bug#610931: Please build wpasupplicant-udeb

[Matthew Palmer]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 03:54:16PM +0100, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann wrote:
> On Monday 24 January 2011, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> > Package: src:wpasupplicant
> > Version: 0.6.10-2.1
> > Severity: wishlist
> > Tags: patch
> > 
> > It is planned that the next release of Debian Installer will include WPA
> 
> I hope this refers to the wheezy release cycle, as it doesn't appear to
> be possible in a responsible way for squeeze anymore.

Yes, wheezy.

> > support, a long overdue feature.  To make this work, however, we need a udeb
> > of wpasupplicant that can be built-in to the installer to configure/use WPA.
> [...]
> 
> diff -urN wpasupplicant-0.6.10.orig/debian/config/udeb wpasupplicant-0.6.10/debian/config/udeb
> [...]
> +CONFIG_DRIVER_WEXT=y
> 
> Given that wext is deprecated, it would imho make more sense to use
> CONFIG_DRIVER_NL80211=y instead, maybe even to leave wext disabled. 
> With the notable exception of ipw2100/ ipw2200, all other linux wlan
> drivers weren't produced in large volumes or don't support wpa2 to
> begin with; for new ones (this covers all mac80211 based ones) nl80211
> support is mandatory and there are some initial efforts to add nl80211
> to ipw2x00. This also avoids the need for deprecated wireless-tools in
> favour of iw/ crda (which is required for ch11-14 anyways) - or being 
> able to use libnl for all configuration in netcfg.

I know nothing about WPA, I've just used a udeb config file that was in an
existing (out of date) patch to build a wpasupplicant udeb.  In all honesty
you can set this configuration to whatever you think is best.

> diff -urN wpasupplicant-0.6.10.orig/debian/control wpasupplicant-0.6.10/debian/control
> [...]
> +Architecture: linux-any
> 
> wpasupplicant is needed, and compatible with-, kFreeBSD as well, at 
> this moment kFreeBSD doesn't support wlan for unrelated reasons
> (ifconfig not being able to configure wlan interfaces, besides the open
> firmware issues, while firmwares are required for most chipsets). So
> ignoring hurd, it should be "any" or at least "linux-any kfreebsd-any".

Wireless config is disabled in d-i for kfreebsd, so there's no reason to
build wpasupplicant-udeb for those arches.  However, if you're comfortable
that a wpasupplicant-udeb will build correctly for those arches, it'd save
changes down the line if/when kfreebsd gets d-i wireless support.

> diff -urN wpasupplicant-0.6.10.orig/debian/rules wpasupplicant-0.6.10/debian/rules
> [...]
> +UDEB_CFLAGS = -Wall -g -O3
> 
> -O3, not -Os?

D'oh, typo.  Yes, it should be -Os instead of -O3.

> Has there been any solution for the netcfg integration already, see 
> <201011041811.11753.kel at otaku42.de> [1], referring to the originally 
> proposed introduction of embedded source copies of wpasuppliant's 
> wpa_ctrl.[hc] into netcfg. Please also keep in mind that crda/ 
> wireless-regdb is required for accessing channels 11-13/14 on modern
> drivers.

I've applied the existing WPA netcfg support patches developed by Glenn
Saberton, and they do appear to include a (stripped down) wpa_ctrl.c.  I
have no idea what the story is with crda/wireless-regdb, as I said before, I
don't know anything about WPA.  If you'd like to help out, though, your
knowledge would be greatly valued.

- Matt